My Favorite Anime: Logic’s journey from Cowboy Bebop to Lupin the Third

polygon.com:

Sir Robert Bryson Hall II, better known as Logic, is a man as nerdy as he is talented. The rapper-songwriter and occasional streamer has never been shy about his love for anime, name dropping references to such classics as Akira, Samurai Champloo, and Trigun throughout his albums and songs, and even partnering with Crunchyroll to release a line of Cowboy Bebop-inspired streetwear.

Polygon recently had a chance to connect with Logic, so we had to ask: What was your first favorite anime, and what’s your favorite anime now?

My Favorite Anime is Polygon’s column dedicated to collecting the stories of the biggest celebrity anime fans in the world, charting a path from their earliest introductions to Japanese animation, to the series and films they love today. Here’s what Logic had to say.

If you’re even remotely familiar with anime at all, you’ve no doubt heard of (or already seen) Cowboy Bebop. The 1998 classic is commonly hailed as one of the best animated series of all time and was a crucial milestone in introducing an entire generation of international audiences to Japanese animation around the turn of the century.

Produced by animation studio Sunrise (Mobile Suit Gundam, The Vision of Escaflowne) and created by a production team lead by legendary director Shinichirō Watanabe, the sci-fi action series follows the adventures of a dysfunctional crew of bounty hunters in the year 2071. Known for its gripping action sequences, orchestral jazz soundtrack, and music-inspired motifs,Cowboy Bebop is an eclectic, neo-noir space western that tackles a slew of intersecting themes, from existential regret and loneliness to environmentalism and the dark side of capitalism.

Like the series itself, lead character Spike Spiegel is a combination of several points of inspiration. Conceptualized by Watanabe alongside screenwriter Keiko Nobumoto before the production of Cowboy Bebop and designed by animation director Toshihiro Kawamoto, Spike’s appearance and personality were directly