Cowboy Bebop’s banned episode ended up becoming a heartfelt tribute

“Cowboy Bebop’s Banned Episode Accidentally Became a Touching Tribute” is a fascinating story about how an anime series dealt with a real-life tragedy that hit close to home. While it’s not uncommon for episodes of certain anime to be banned, few would expect Cowboy Bebop, one of the most popular and beloved anime series of all time, to have been a victim. With the series ending after only 26 episodes, Cowboy Bebop doesn’t seem like it would have been long enough to earn a banned episode, but it did.

The episode in question, entitled “Wild Horses,” was pulled from the rotation in 2003 due to its resemblance to the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster that occurred in February of that year. In the episode, Spike returns to Earth with his personal spacecraft, the Swordfish II, to see it fixed up by a mechanic friend of his named Doohan. While trying to obtain a spare part, Spike and the Bebop crew learn of a bounty head in the area, so he takes the Swordfish up into space. The bounty head turns out to be a dangerous hacker who is able to hack into and disable the navigational computers aboard Spike and Faye’s craft. Even though he’s stopped, Spike’s ship is falling out of orbit, and Jet won’t be able to get there in time. That’s when Doohan comes across the radio, having dusted off the old Columbia to attempt to rescue Spike from burning up. Columbia then has some issues with the heat of reentry itself, but the ship and its passengers make it back to Earth safely.

In real life, the Columbia was returning from a mission on February 1, 2003, and had unknowingly experienced damage to the heat protection tiles at launch, which caused the ship to burn up as it reentered the atmosphere, killing all 7 astronauts aboard. Given how close the episode’s plot gets to what happened, it’s understandable that Adult Swim would choose not to air it for a while, and removing it from the series didn’t cause any real issues with continuity.

With four spaceships for Cowboy Bebop to choose from, picking Columbia was likely a coincidence, simply because it was the first and oldest. The shuttle was beloved by many spaceflight enthusiasts, and tragedies like this hit hard, especially since it meant no more shuttle flights for years afterward. Now with the benefit of time, “Wild Horses” gives fans of the shuttle program one last hurrah for one of its most iconic vehicles, and the episode reads as a love letter to NASA and all things space.

While “Wild Horses” wasn’t the only Cowboy Bebop episode to be temporarily banned in this way, it is the only one that came back as a stronger episode because of its controversy, not in spite of it. The episode was eventually aired again, and the way viewers watched it was forever changed by the real-life tragedy. What was once feared to be too close to reality is now a fitting tribute, even if it wasn’t written with that idea in mind.

The story of how “Wild Horses” accidentally became a touching tribute to the Space Shuttle Columbia and its crew is a testament to the power of art and its ability to help us cope with tragedy. Even in the face of loss and heartbreak, we can find solace and meaning in unexpected places, and that’s exactly what Cowboy Bebop’s banned episode taught us.

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Edward,Ein,Faye,Valentine,Jet Black