Editing Cowboy Bebop (section)

===Concept===
''Cowboy Bebop'' was Watanabe's first project as solo director, as he had been co-director in his previous works.<ref name="WatanabePanel" /> His original concept was for a movie, and during production he treated each episode as a miniature movie.<ref name="WatanabeInterview2">{{Cite web|title=Animatrix Director: Kid's Story and A Detective's Story|url=http://www.intothematrix.com/rl_cmp/rl_interview_watanabe.html|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130102061952/http://www.intothematrix.com/rl_cmp/rl_interview_watanabe.html|archive-date=January 2, 2013|access-date=January 19, 2015|publisher=The Animatrix official website}}</ref><ref name="DVDfeatures">"From the Small Screen to the Big Screen". {{Cite AV media|title=Cowboy Bebop: The Movie|date=2003|publisher=[[Sony Pictures Home Entertainment|Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment]]|place=[[Culver City, California]]|medium=DVD}}</ref> His main inspiration for ''Cowboy Bebop'' was [[Lupin the 3rd Part I|the first series]] of the anime ''[[Lupin the Third|Lupin III]]'', a crime drama focusing on the exploits of the [[Lupin III (character)|series' titular character]].<ref name="AWNcowboy" /> When developing the series' story, Watanabe began by creating the characters first. He explained, "the first image that occurred to me was one of Spike, and from there I tried to build a story around him, trying to make him cool."<ref name="WatanabePanel">{{Cite news|last=Sevakis|first=Justin|date=August 15, 2013|title=Shinichiro Watanabe focus panel - Otakon 2013|work=[[Anime News Network]]|url=https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/convention/2013/otakon/7|url-status=live|access-date=April 19, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140426230941/http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/convention/2013/otakon/7|archive-date=April 26, 2014}}</ref> While the original dialogue of the series was kept clean to avoid any profanities, its level of sophistication was made appropriate to adults in a criminal environment.<ref name="AWNcowboy" /> Watanabe described ''Cowboy Bebop'' as "80% serious story and 20% humorous touch".<ref name="WataToon">{{Cite web|last=DuBois|first=Todd|date=August 21, 2013|title=Otakon 2013: Press Conference and Public Q&A With Director Shinichiro Watanabe|url=http://www.toonzone.net/2013/08/otakon-2013-with-shinichiro-watanabe/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140421064325/http://www.toonzone.net/2013/08/otakon-2013-with-shinichiro-watanabe/|archive-date=April 21, 2014|access-date=April 19, 2014|publisher=Toon Zone}}</ref> The comical episodes were harder for the team to write than the serious ones, and though several events in them seemed random, they were carefully planned in advance.<ref name="AODinterview" /> Watanabe conceived the series' ending early on, and each episode involving Spike and Vicious was meant to foreshadow their final confrontation. Some of the staff were unhappy about this approach as a continuation of the series would be difficult. While he considered altering the ending, he eventually settled with his original idea.<!--  ♦♦♦ not used <ref name="WatanabeInterview3"/> ♦♦♦ --> The reason for creating the ending was that Watanabe did not want the series to become like ''[[Star Trek]]'', with him being tied to doing it for years.<ref name="AODinterview" />