One of the classic anime series, Cowboy Bebop, had a character inspired by two major villains in the DC universe. There have been instances of anime being inspired by the DC and Marvel Comics’ most prominent characters. These anime often reflect their ideas by incorporating them into creating a similar costume or tracing further into a hero or villain’s background.
Shinichiro Watanabe is a legendary name among other manga artists like Hayao Miyazaki, Satoshi Kon, and Katsuhiro Otomo. He is primarily famous for Cowboy Bebop, but the artist has other well-known works, such as Samurai Champloo and Space Dandy. He has worked on several other projects for Animatrix and, recently, an anime short set in the Blade Runner universe.
Cowboy Bebop mixed The Joker and The Penguin from Batman: The Animated Series
If someone has watched Cowboy Bebop, they’re aware that each episode of the series was inspired by different aspects of the Western media. The 20th episode of the anime, “Pierot Le Fou,” was significantly influential from Batman: The Animated Series. The entire setting and toning of the episode was screaming Batman’s gothic style. However, the most prominent homage was Mad Pierrot, who appeared to be a mixture of The Joker and The Penguin.
Mad Pierrot shared bits of his personality and appearance from the villains. His attire and weaponized cane were inspired by The Penguin, while his psychotic personality was clearly taken from The Joker.
How was Watanabe’s Cowboy Bebop inspired by Western media?
One of the recognizable traits of Watanabe’s works was that they’re heavily inspired by Western music. The entire bulb that lit inside his head for Cowboy Bebop was because he listened to 1940s blues and created a story around a soundtrack composed by Yoko Kanno.
“When creating Cowboy Bebop,” Watanabe told IGN, “I thought it would be more interesting if I added different types of elements together to create something that was completely new.”
Several plot points, like Faye’s struggle to find her purpose and Jet’s hard-boiled past as a detective, came to the Mangaka after listening to My Funny Valentine and Led Zeppelin’s Black Dog. The character design of the protagonist, Spike, was based on a famous Japanese movie star, Yusaku Matsuda.
Watanabe also opened up about how the series was initially produced in partnership with Namco Bandai to promote their set of space toys and spaceships. This is the reason the artist was told specifically to write about spaceship combat in the story. However, the company lost faith in Watanabe’s work and broke off the partnership. This explains why there is no space combat after the first few episodes of the series.
