Oh yes, I easily understand why Cowboy Bebop is so highly regarded because it(and Trigun) tends to be one of the first few animes most fans are exposed to. If it had been one of my earlier animes(instead of my only finally watching it a few months ago) I'd likely be nuts about it, as opposed to being able to respect it, but mostly be neutral about it. My earliest animes were Samurai Deeper Kyo, Spiral, Ghost in the Shell(though I didn't get to watch the second half until recently) Twelve Kingdoms, Wolf's Rain and then(actually, before) Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away, with Escaflowne. Ninja Scrool, Fruits Basket, InuYasha(which I desperately need to catch up on) and Witchhunter Robin closely followed. I'm fine with standalones(Kino's Journey, one of my favorites, has virtually NO overall plot, just standalones)...what I mean is that Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo both get so caught up in their style and cool(which I happily concede both have their fair share of) that they start forgetting things like the episode's plot and the characters.