There's no way to watch Cowboy Bebop without first acknowledging the immeasurable hype it's received over the 26 years since it concluded. Hailed as one of the greatest anime series of all time, everything from the animation style to the dialogue to the music to the character design and development will inevitably be consumed with some form of externally-imposed bias.

Perhaps that's why I watched Episode 1 three separate times before I finally committed to watching the entire series.

Every time I hit play, I felt an overwhelming sense of pressure to understand where others were coming from. To be honest: I'd never experienced anything like this with any other piece of literature or entertainment, no matter the platform. Yet here I was, worried that the hype was too massive for me to properly enjoy Cowboy Bebop.

Oh, how terribly mistaken I was.

The first episode left me in awe. The characters, the story, the music... Yes. It all lived up to the hype. But my first takeaway fueled my thought process throughout this series: What an incredibly delicate attention to detail. Simple moments like Spike putting the key in the ignition, and every millisecond of that process being displayed with perfect alignment. Or when Spike walked through the beaded doorway and the beads moved both with and against his body.

Perhaps that's not as big of a deal as I'm making it out to be, but it was a truly special experience for me as someone who draws and couldn't imagine reaching that level of perfect emulation of a real-world occurrence.

Then Katerina's pregnant stomach was contextualized. Then her life-altering decision was made. Then I was hooked. And I couldn't do anything but sit in awe of what I'd witnessed. Still too fearful to start Episode 2, but hooked nevertheless.

And then, after watching who knows how many series in between all of these viewings, I committed. And I didn't look back.

The best way I can summarize my experience is by saying this: Cowboy Bebop now has a special place in my heart. I laughed. I hated and then tolerated and then missed characters I never thought I'd enjoy. I respected and then lost respect for and then understood these people as though I knew them personally. Never once was I told to like someone. I was simply provided with information to contextualize who they are and what they'd been though, all the while permitted to make my own decisions.

And across 26 episodes, I felt myself grow as a person. Gain new perspective on grief while having my own experiences shown to me in a mirror I wasn't ready to look into. It looked nothing like my own reflection, yet reminded me of my own bouts of trauma and loss.

It wasn't an anime about the definitive stories that made the Bebop crew who they are, but the feelings that followed those events and how they've come to define the post-trauma trajectories of these characters. And it wasn't about chasing death, but figuring out if there's still a reason to live. All too damaged to tell those who make them feel alive what they mean to them. Heartbreaking and uplifting in equal measure.

This isn't just a show you watch and walk away from. It's a life experience. An enduring piece of art that has undeniably shaped what's followed it. 26 years later, it's still impacting people on a deep and personal level.

I found myself with my eyes closed every time the horn section comes in on the outro, feeling my pain and somehow getting closer to processing it.

There were sequences from beginning to end that left me breathless, including the now iconic conclusion to this masterpiece of a production. The cathedral showdown between Spike and Vicious being chief among the early entries.

I write all of this in perhaps the best way to reflect what this show is: Seemingly uncoordinated at times, yet ideally melodic in its nature and destined to bring you to the conclusion you've either been wanting or fearing all along. It's jazz in its finest form.

I try not to partake in, "Greatest of all time," discussions because they're too subjective to determine. Plus, none of us have seen EVERYTHING, I would imagine.

That said, I understand the hype. Cowboy Bebop deserves its acclaim.