COWBOY BEBOP: SESSION 1

There may be a dearth of actual cowboys in this Japanese sci-fi series (which also airs weekly on the Cartoon Network deep in the p.m.), but there’s plenty of bebop. From the funky, jazz-album-cover-inspired credit sequence on each of the five episodes collected here to the easy, off-tempo attitude of bounty hunter Spike Spiegel, Bebop lays down a stone-cold violent, futuristic groove. Sure, some of Spike’s adventures may be a little strange — hunting down cyberdogs, pregnant interplanetary drug dealers, and really important casino chips, to name just a few — but they’re definitely worth sampling. (And if you like, hunt down sessions 2-6.)