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The flavour of film noir permeates Cowboy Bebop.

This is especially prevalent in the character of Jet Black ( the archetypal ‘ good man in a bad world ’), a former cop who rails against the corruption of the police force but is forced into a semi lawless state of bounty hunting.

As in film noir, characters are morally ambiguous – none more so than Faye Valentine who will betray her allies in the pursuit of a big bounty.

The big city rain slicked settings of film noir are continually explored, especially in the episode ‘ Ganymede Elegy ’.

Other visual and aural cues are also taken from film noir, in ‘ Pierrot Le Fou ’ for instance, Spike battles an enraged homicidal clown across a fairground, accompanied by lighting and camera angles any film noir would be proud of.