Cowboy Bebop Lucas Museum: 2 beloved episodes in epic return
“Cowboy Bebop” is playing on a big screen in Los Angeles. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art, which opened Sept. 22 in Exposition Park, is showing the first two episodes of Shinichiro Watanabe’s anime in its Slavko Vorkapich Theater as part of its daily film program, CBR reported Sept. 30, citing Forbes.
The Cowboy Bebop Lucas Museum screenings come weeks after the series sat out Adult Swim’s 25th-anniversary lineup.
Why ‘Cowboy Bebop’ missed Adult Swim’s anniversary
“Cowboy Bebop” was the first anime ever to air on Adult Swim, but it was not part of the block’s 25th-anniversary schedule on Sept. 2. Licensing problems kept it off the air, and “Robot Chicken” took its slot, according to CBR.
How to see the Cowboy Bebop Lucas Museum screenings
The Vorkapich Theater plays short films on a loop, so visitors can walk in and out. The film program runs from 10:15 a.m. to 5 p.m., CBR reported. The museum itself is closed on Tuesdays and stays open until 9 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, according to the Lucas Museum, which lists “anime from Cowboy Bebop” in the theater’s lineup.
Spike Spiegel shares the screen with other milestones of animation and experimental film, including:
- Episodes of “Star Wars: Visions”
- Walt Disney’s “Steamboat Willie”
- Mary Ellen Bute’s “Rhythm in Light”
- Georges Méliès’ 1902 silent classic “A Trip to the Moon”
- Student films George Lucas made from 1965 to 1969, according to the museum
The theater is named for Slavko Vorkapich, the filmmaker who brought avant-garde editing to Hollywood, and it highlights directors “who have pushed the boundaries of the art form,” Watanabe among them, CBR reported. The museum’s second venue, the Robert Flaherty Theater, focuses on documentaries.
“We wanted to offer an alternative to the traditional museum film program and create a dynamic, open-door experience designed for discovery,” Ryan Linkof, the museum’s senior curator and head of film programs, said when the lineup was announced at San Diego Comic-Con in July.
Fans outside Los Angeles can stream the full series on Crunchyroll in the U.S., while Netflix’s short-lived live-action version remains on that service. Live-action anime remakes keep coming, with Watanabe’s “Samurai Champloo” next in line.
Manga and anime in the museum’s galleries
The Cowboy Bebop Lucas Museum screenings are part of a bigger bet on Japanese comics and animation. The galleries include work by manga artists Shotaro Ishinomori, Osamu Tezuka and Masamune Shirow, with titles ranging from “Kamen Rider” to “Astro Boy,” according to CBR.
The museum also shows works never licensed outside Japan, including Hiroshi Kaizuka’s “Spirit of My Father” and all 39 pages of Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s “The Invisible Corpse,” presented without English translations, CBR reported. The outlet tied the approach to falling attendance at U.S. museums, which it said has dropped by more than 50%.
George Lucas first previewed the museum at Comic-Con in 2025. No end date has been announced for the Cowboy Bebop Lucas Museum screenings. For more, see our anime and manga news.