Last week, Bleacher Report, a mainstream sports and culture/media website, uploaded a mashup video to announce the start of the NBA 2019-2020 Playoffs. This video was created to look like the opening theme of Cowboy Bebop and even used the opening song “TANK!!.” performed by Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts.

The video featured the greatest basketball player of this generation, LeBron James, the “Greek Freak” Giannis Antetokounmpo, two-time NBA champion, Kawhi Leonard, and many other NBA All-Star players, CBR reported.

Getting referenced by Bleacher Report in its NBA video, which has previously done so with Game of Thrones (referenced in its miniseries), shows that Cowboy Bebop has become mainstream enough for the western audiences. For anime fans, Cowboy Bebop is a series that is a must watch and has left behind a legacy that can only be matched by the likes of Neongenesis Evangelion and Akira.

A unique genre that mixed the Japanese and western culture and its heavy reference to jazz and the slick style used throughtout the series has helped Cowboy Bebop leave and everlasting impact on audiences, almost 20 years after its release. A Netflix live action for the anime, with John Cho starring as Spike Spiegel is currently on its way to the fans.

This also confirms the trend of cult anime shows receiving newfound attention in recent times in the western media, expecially the likes of Akira, Ghost in the Shell, Neon Genesis Evangelion and Satoshi Kon movies.