Shinichiro Watanabe’s Cowboy Bebop is a cult classic. The swashbuckling anime, first released in 1998, follows a gang of bounty hunters (or space cowboys) who jet around the galaxy hunting down notorious criminals. It’s an epic show, but what’s even better is its bombastic jazz score, performed by Japanese ensemble, The Seatbelts.
Now, the band has come together (virtually) to perform the show’s legendary theme tune, “Tank!”. Led by composer and instrumentalist Yoko Kanno, the YouTube session is an extended version of the original two-minute track, clocking in at four minutes.
According to the video description, there’s also a video of track “Lion”, but the band haven’t been able to upload it onto YouTube (apparently it violates the site’s copyright rules, lol?). You can listen to it here. For those wanting to have a go at playing “Tank!” themselves, the band has also provided a link to the score sheet, so in the words of Cowboy Bebop: 3, 2, 1, let’s jam.
A live-action remake of the series will be coming to Netflix next year. John Cho, who appeared in Star Trek and voiced English dub characters in Studio Ghibli’s The Tale of Princess Kaguya and Mamoru Hosoda’s Mirai, will star as the cool, intergalactic bounty hunter Spike Spiegel. Mustafa Shakir will play Spike’s ex-cop partner Jet Black, while Daniella Pineda is con artist Faye Valentine, and Alex Hassell is hitman Vicious.
Watch the virtual performance of “Tank!” below.