Picture: Sunrise
The timeless and influential anime series Cowboy Bebop will soon be departing Netflix in select regions.
The original anime series first aired from April 3 to June 26, 1998 in Japan and comes from creator Shinichirō Watanabe and produced by Sunrise Inc.
Netflix in the US picked up the series in full (all 26 episodes with both the original Japanese audio and English dubs) on October 21st, 2021.
The show follows a ragtag crew who sweep space for bounties but they’re not necessarily the best at it leaving them living from paycheck to paycheck.
A removal notice can now be found on the show page stating your last day to watch is October 21st, with the actual removal scheduled for October 22nd.
Removal date for Cowboy Bebop showing on Netflix
The good news is that those in the States wanting to rewatch the series will still have several options to do so. The series continues to reside on Crunchyroll and is even streaming on Hulu at the time of publishing.
Is Cowboy Bebop leaving Netflix internationally?
Yes, but not everywhere.
If you live in Canada, you too will see the original series leave on October 21st, 2023, alongside the US removal.
Everywhere else we checked, however, will be keeping the original Cowboy Bebop series for a while longer. In fact, regions like Australia and the United Kingdom have licensed the series through to 2029, according to our intel.
Should that change, we’ll no doubt include the title’s departure in our numerous “leaving soon” lists.
Will the live-action Cowboy Bebop ever leave Netflix?
Of course, Netflix picked up the license to the anime because it was going to be soon releasing its own live-action adaptation of it. That short-lived adaptation was released in late 2022 and was canceled in a seemingly record-breaking time with the news surfacing that a season 2 wouldn’t be made within the first few weeks.
Although the anime will eventually leave Netflix everywhere (unless its renewed), that’s not the case for the live-action.
Our understanding is that because Cowboy Bebop was produced internally at Netflix, it holds the rights to the series indefinitely. That means unless they deliberately choose to take it off, it’ll be on there so long as Netflix itself exists.
For more on what’s leaving Netflix, check out the full list of US departures for the month of October here.
Will you miss the original Cowboy Bebop series? Let us know in the comments.