For generations, the works of Shakespeare have served as a benchmark in literary analysis, particularly when examining beloved creative pieces—a truth that holds strongly in the realm of anime. As our world evolves, the timeless themes of triumph and struggle remain constant, and Studio Sunrise’s Cowboy Bebop explores these elements in ways that perhaps even Shakespeare could not have envisioned.

Shakespeare, the iconic 16th-century poet and playwright, has influenced a myriad of stories, films, and anime with his profound examination of complex themes. His willingness to delve into life’s darker aspects makes his work a fitting muse for the anime genre, which similarly brings these issues to the forefront. This is particularly evident in Cowboy Bebop. While Spike Spiegel might not be an exact replica of Hamlet as traditionally conceived, he embodies a version of Hamlet that might have been.

Following the dissolution of the partnership between Crunchyroll and Funimation, Cowboy Bebop was among the series removed from the streaming platform. This left fans seeking alternative services or revisiting their DVD/Blu-ray collections to join Spike Spiegel and the Bebop crew on their interstellar bounty-hunting adventures.

Crunchyroll Brought Cowboy Bebop Back to Anime Fans

Image via Sunrise

When Crunchyroll and Funimation dissolved their partnership, Cowboy Bebop was among the many anime that disappeared from the streaming service. Fans had to look to other streaming sites, or dust off their DVD/Blu-ray collections if they wanted to soar through the stars with Spike Spiegel and the crew of the Bebop hunting bounties.

With both the sub and dub versions of Cowboy Bebop returning to Crunchyroll, fans old and new could finally relax and enjoy one of the greatest anime of the ’90s. A whole new generation of anime fans finally have the chance to get caught up in an anime focusing on themes of trauma, memory, atonement and betrayal. Anyone who’s ever read Shakespeare, whether in a classroom or just for fun, knows these are all themes the author explored regularly in both his poems and plays.

Themes as old as time itself remain the same, even as humanity changes the way they approach them. This makes comparing modern works to Shakespeare difficult. In analyzing how these themes compare from one writer to another, even across centuries, a deep and well-written anime like Cowboy Bebop takes the same timeworn themes and goes one step further with them to surpass one of the greatest literary minds in history.

Cowboy Bebop’s Spike Spiegel Shares Many Similarities with Shakespeare’s Hamlet

Much like Hamlet, Spike Spiegel is a man so haunted by his past that even he doesn’t know sometimes if he’s alive or dead, dreaming or awake, which is something Hamlet also struggled with after his exile. Though Spike chose to exile himself by faking his own death in order to leave the Red Dragon Syndicate, it still meant trying to shed the past he left behind in doing so, including Julia, the woman he loved.

Julia knew that Spike would never truly be able to walk away from the Syndicate, and he’d never escape Vicious. In Cowboy Bebop, Spike is both the hero and the traitor, making him a complicated character with very noticeable flaws, not unlike Hamlet. He’s human, through and through, and the fact that his act of betrayal came through in a matter of the heart gives it an even more Shakespearean twist. Spike fell in love with his friend and partner’s girl, and then he tried to get away with her from their life and her former lover.

When he asked her to come with him, she refused, insisting the Red Dragon would kill him. While Julia stayed behind, Spike tried to shed his past like an old skin and move on. While in the Syndicate, Spike became a man he couldn’t live with anymore, but a man can’t “die” and still live. Faking his death did nothing to rid him of his memories, which catch him in a loop he can’t escape.

The ghosts of his past always catch up to him, especially in his new line of work as a bounty hunter. On the other side of the criminal underworld to some degree, it isn’t long before Vicious catches wind of him and begins the hunt to exact his vengeance.

To Be, Or Not to Be, That is Spike Spiegel’s Question

Image via Sunrise

Spike meanders through his life aimlessly. As a bounty hunter, he’s doing his part, but he’s trapped between the events of his past and the choices he once made. Try as he might, he can’t move on, which leads him to constantly question whether or not he’s trapped in a nightmare he can’t wake up from. Is he alive, or is he really dead? Even he doesn’t know. And by the end of the anime, neither do fans.

Keeping in line with the tragedy, Spike’s reunion with Julia is cut short when Vicious puts a bullet in her. The two then fire on each other, with Spike shooting Vicious in the heart, while also taking a fatal wound that brings him to the ground. Vicious taking a fatal heart wound ramps up the tragedy because Spike already broke his heart when he betrayed him and stole Julia from him.

Julia’s final words to Spike leave questions, which was something Shakespeare didn’t always openly do. Reading between Shakespearean lines is where most of his secrets can be found. When a character died, the way Hamlet did, it was an obvious death. Julia whispering, “It’s all a dream,” to Spike is the tragedy of his suffering looming over him as he lays there bleeding out. Even Spike agreeing, “Yeah… just a dream,” is him still trying to get away from the truths he’s been hiding from since he ran away.

Whether Spike Spiegel died there on the ground with his past is left to interpretation. Not even the anime’s director, Shinichirō Watanabe, has ever officially confirmed Spike’s death, which leaves it all suspended. It’s like a dream the viewer can’t shake off. That is what makes Cowboy Bebop‘s writing better than Shakespeare, the ambiguity of fate dangling in its final moments, leaving anime fans to forever wonder if it was all just a dream.

Cowboy Bebop

Release Date

1998 – 1999

Network

TV Tokyo, WOWOW Prime

• Koichi Yamadera

  Spike Spiegel / Ein (voice)

• 

  Unsho Ishizuka

  Jet Black (voice)