Explore Western Subgenres with these Six Anime

Here are six anime that show off the best in Western subgenres.

BY NATALIE CHERIE CAMPBELL

With around 30 named subgenres, the Western has expanded past its original American frontier into settings around the world and beyond Earth entirely. Westerns are now largely hybrids, and amazing mashups like Space Westerns, Martial Arts Westerns, and Contemporary/Neo-Westerns can be found everywhere, especially in anime. Let’s look at some anime that show off Western subgenres at their best, whether they embrace Stetsons, spurs and guns, or mechs, ships and swords.

Cowboy Bebop: A Neo-Noir, Sci-fi Space Western

If you want to watch one of the greatest animated series of all time, that just so happens to be a Western, then look no further than Shinichirō Watanabe’s cult classic Cowboy Bebop. Cowboy Bebop is a nuanced take on the 1980s and 90s Western. It has morally-complex characters that navigate the violence and depravity of the final frontier.

The anime follows the mishaps of a crew of bounty-hunters, or “Cowboys,” who work from their spaceship, the Bebop. The protagonist is Spike Spiegel, an exiled former hitman for a crime syndicate. He flies with Jet Black, a former Inter Solar System Police officer who likes bonsai. Eventually, they are joined by Faye Valentine, an amnesiatic con artist; Edward, an eccentric, child-genius hacker; and Ein, a genetically-engineered Pembroke Welsh Corgi.

The show plays with more than one genre, including neo-noir, sci-fi, and of course, the space Western. This complex mashup is most obviously shown by the characters and their various vibes as well as the fact that each episode is musically-themed with bounties and planets that fit their respective aesthetics.

By nature of being in space, the show already fits the themes of a Western: wandering through the vast, isolating, harsh frontier; living on the fringes of civilization; enforcing or exploiting a looser system of justice that tends toward lawlessness and is personally carried out. Additionally, some of the show’s locations fit the classic Western aesthetic with amazing folk music to match.

As for the protagonist, Spike is a lazy gunslinger with perfect eyesight, excellent martial arts skills, uncanny good luck, and a mysterious past. For a fee, he brings a ragtag form of law and order to a chaotic world, while also living free, though exiled, in space. He’s a morally-ambiguous lone-wolf, who’s slow to anger but fast to end things when provoked. He doesn’t really need anyone, so he can move on from his compatriots when his troubled past catches up with him. He’s the walk-into-the-sunset type, but with no horse.

Perhaps most impressive about the series is that even though it’s futuristic, it maintains the gritty realism and quintessential stress of the Western: whomever is best comes out alive, no deus ex machinas only skill. Cowboy Bebop is a fantastic gateway series, so watch or rewatch it with an uninitiated friend to spread the joy of anime and see the Western Hybrid at its most complex and most brilliant. Get ready to carry that weight.

Trigun: A Post-Apocalyptic Space Western with a Weird-Western, Sci-fi Twist

If you want to see an amazing comparison of the golden age of Westerns and the later revisionist Western, then you need to see Trigun.

Trigun’s two main gunslingers, Vash the Stampede with his signature red coat and blonde needle noggin, and Nicholas D. Wolfwood with his cigarette and large, cross-shaped gun, are foils of each other. As such, provide a commentary on the evolution of the Western genre.

Directed by Satoshi Nishimura and based on Yasuhiro Nightow’s manga, Trigun is an absolute romp with awesome gunslinging, intriguing mysteries, and tragic undertones. Trigun is another must-see Space-Western classic. It departs from the spaceships of Cowboy Bebop, choosing instead to keep us on the ground of the planet Gunsmoke or No Man’s Land. This desert planet is settled by a future society of humans after the demise of Earth. It’s not unlike the post apocalyptic Mad Max series.

The planet has all the trappings of the 19th-century Wild West: arid, unchartered territory, slowly expanding civilization, and dusty towns comprising a saloon, lone church, school, bank, and a railway station if you’re lucky. The story has the essential pattern of frontier justice, too—crime, pursuit, and retribution. Desperadoes and train robberies. Bounty hunters and shootouts. Cowboys and High Noon showdowns. And, of course, the occasional sheriff just doing their best.

Like early Westerns, women in Trigun serve as romantic interests and comic relief. Meryl Stryfe and Milly Thompson, two insurance employees, track the infamous gunslinger Vash the Stampede to minimize the blood and gunsmoke, death and debris inevitably left in his wake. Most of the damage attributed to Vash is actually caused by bounty hunters, though. They’re all violently vying for the sixty billion double-dollar bounty on his head for the destruction of the city of July, an event he can’t even remember. As Meryl and Milly travel with Vash, they come to realize that this walking human catastrophe is actually a walking contradiction—a goofy man with a tragic history, a womanizer who is actually quite a gentleman, a loner who values friendship and family, and an extraordinary gunman who won’t kill.

Vash tries to save lives using non-lethal force according to his pacifist values. His personal clarion call, “Love and Peace!” is reminiscent of the cowboy heroes with their own exemplary morals in the golden-age Western. Vash is joined on occasion by a mysterious priest, Nicholas D. Wolfwood. Wolfwood is actually a superb gunfighter with no issue taking lives to do good. He fits the morally-complex cowboy of the revisionist Western, with its subversive look at the violent Wild West. Both men are pursuers of justice with their own set of moral codes and philosophical conundrums. They are both used to isolated wandering and are fiercely independent, making them begrudging but protective companions to each other and Meryl and Milly. They’re always ready to ride into the sunset and do so more than once—but with jeeps and motorcycles.

As the series progresses, fragments of Vash’s memories slowly come together to unravel the mythos and the mystery surrounding him and the planet’s history. Trigun becomes more of a Weird-Western every episode as it sprinkles no-longer-understood, advanced technology throughout more developed cities. The show makes its own genre a part of the puzzle. Pretty cool.

Trigun’s music, animation, and amazing characters are already draw enough, but if you haven’t seen it and need another reason, then do so because it’s a brilliant display of the evolution of the Western genre. You’ll be blown away.

Outlaw Star: A Space Opera–Space Western Blend of Grand-Scale Melodrama and Wild Frontier

If you want to watch a Space Western that plays out on the grand scale—galactic empires, interstellar wars, aliens, faster-than-light travel, and melodramatic adventures and chivalric romance—then you should watch Outlaw Star.

Outlaw Star, directed by Mitsuru Honga and based on Takehiko Itō’s manga, is set in the “Toward Stars Era” universe where there are three forces—the Space Forces, the pirates, and the outlaws. The story follows Gene Starwind and his motley crew: Jim Hawking, his 11-year-old business partner, mechanic, and best friend; Melfina, a mysterious bio-android; “Twilight” Suzuka, a kimono-wearing, katana-wielding contract killer; and Aisha Clanclan, a Ctarl-Ctarl aristocratic ambassador, military officer nekomimi.

Opening on the backwater planet Sentinel III, Gene and Jim take a bodyguard job for an infamous outlaw. Gene, who dreamed of being an outlaw, gets a little more than he bargained for when things go wrong, and he escapes as the new “owner” of the fastest, most technologically-advanced spaceship in the galaxy, the Outlaw Star. He and Jim become caretakers of Melfina, a girl who is mysteriously connected with the ship and the location of the “Galactic Leyline.” They begin a treasure hunt for the immense treasure, knowledge, and power of the legendary Leyline, all while fending off pirates, assassins, aliens, and taking jobs to cover the Outlaw Star’s maintenance. Discovering the secrets of the Outlaw Star and Melfina is a meandering, action-packed adventure, during which they prove that outlaws never go down easy no matter what happens to them.

The show’s protagonist is Gene Starwind, a sharp-shooting gunman with a tragic backstory. His character is reminiscent of Han Solo, with the sensibilities of a sly saloon cowboy with a playboy attitude, fugitive status, tendency toward run-ins with bounty hunters, willingness to take any job that pays, devotion to his money-pit spaceship that can’t seem to stay out of a fight, and sudden involvement in a greater conflict because a job tugged at his secretly tender heart. He fits both the cowboy and the outlaw, whose troubled past and great aspirations lead him away from civilization and into the unknown.

Outlaw Star’s approach to the Western genre and Space Opera mix, is also a lot like Joss Whedon’s cult-classic TV show Firefly. They have similarities between crew members—the gunslinging leader with a tragic past, the youthful mechanic, a mysterious fugitive woman found in a box in suspended animation, a badass military woman, an assassin. They both depict life on a spaceship where living free means taking odd jobs and outrunning trouble. Both, by nature of being Space Opera Space Westerns, also show that the Western can exist wherever there is an edge to move beyond. Beyond the edge of ordered civilization into the lawless life of the outskirts. Beyond the edge of the outskirts into the uncharted territory of deep space.

Like later Westerns, Outlaw Star leans into serious, dramatic realism and doesn’t shy away from themes of violence for personal gain, depravity, complex morality, and conflict between the law and the lawless. One of its greatest features, though, is its balance between heavy themes and great comedy. So, if you want to take a trip through the familiar clichés of soap opera, “horse opera,” and 1990’s sci-fi anime, all while enjoying awesome action sequences, likable characters, and sharp animation and music, then take some time for Outlaw Star.

Gun X Sword: A Sci-Fi Spaghetti Western with Guns, Swords, Mechs, and Vendettas

If you’ve already seen the classics—Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, and Outlaw Star—and you’re looking for another Sci-fi Western anime, then give Gun X Sword a try.

Gun X Sword, directed by Gorō Taniguchi and written by Hideyuki Kurata, is set on the Planet of Endless Illusion, which is a gathering place for rogues, outlaws, and desperadoes of all sorts. The protagonist, Van, is a lanky, apathetic swordsman who travels the world hunting a man with a claw for right hand. The Claw killed his bride on his wedding day three years prior. Van has extraordinary martial arts skills and a versatile weapon—a shape-memory cloth that he holds at his side like a pistol, and when electrified becomes a sword, a grappling tool, or, when spinning, a shield. He also has an Armour, a huge war-machine mech, named Dann of Thursday that he can call down from space to ride. Riding Dann of Thursday helps him both fight and maintain his life force, which is connected to the Armour.

As Van wanders, he confronts bandits in classic Western style and is joined by several others who have all suffered personal loss at the hands of The Claw: Wendy Garret, a timid young girl who is searching for her kidnapped older brother, Michael; Carmen99, a mercenary and an information broker; Priscilla, a spunky girl with an Armour named Brownie; and Joshua Lundgren, a mechanical prodigy who is determined to stop his older brother, Ray, from exacting revenge on the Claw. As the story unfolds, we learn about The Claw’s power and his greater plans, which have to do with the history and purpose of Endless Illusion itself.

As a wanderer in Western clothes with a sword Van fits the cowboy/ronin image. He is a strong, silent type, who tries to remain aloof from those he meets since he wants to avoid the hassle. He does have a strong desire to do right, though, and helps from behind the scenes. He also makes an effort to treat women properly, hearkening back to the chivalrous, gentleman cowboys of early Western novels. However, like a Spaghetti Western, which tend to have more violent, vengeful, greed-based stories, his most defining motivation is his vendetta.

If you want to watch a Sci-fi Spaghetti Western that offers plenty of opportunities to engage with themes of love and loss, devotion and betrayal, hope and despair, then watch this lesser-known anime Gun X Sword.

Golden Kamuy: An Epic Western Drenched in Spaghetti Western Violence, Money, and Revenge

If you're interested in expanding past the 19th-century frontier setting and aesthetic, but still want the qualities of an Epic Western and Spaghetti Western, then watch Golden Kamuy.

Golden Kamuy is set in Northern Japan at the turn of the 20th Century, post-Russo-Japanese War. The story follows Saichi Sugimoto, a veteran of the war; Asirpa, a young girl of the Ainu tribe; and Shiraishi Yoshitake, a tattooed escaped convict. The story is essentially a gold rush, as cutthroats, corrupt officials, the main characters, and more race to find a treasure trove of gold stolen from the Ainu. Imagine The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly as an anime.

The gold-rush premise isn’t Golden Kamuy’s only tie-in to the Western genre. The time period has the same technological advances from the industrial revolution that were occurring in America when Westerns were first taking off. Next to trains are wooden Japanese buildings. Additionally, a common quality of the Epic Western are stories set during a turbulent time, especially during or following a war.

One of the largest tie-ins is the Ainu, a real people native to eastern Russia and Hokkaido, whose treasure has been stolen. In the Wild West of both the real world and fiction stories, Native Americans were often seen as either savage fighters trying to push out invaders or as neutral third-parties and guides with a connection to nature. In Golden Kamuy, the Ainu fill these roles with multiple characters being Native companions and guides and others joining the fight for the Ainu gold.

Two Western themes in Golden Kamuy are the harshness of the wilderness and frontier justice. Rugged survival is all over in Golden Kamuy, from shootouts and bows and arrows to hypothermia and collapsed mines. The gritty reality of survival is the cost for the freedom of the wild. Likewise, Golden Kamuy is drenched in frontier justice in all its gory glory. Aside from the Russo-Japanese War scenes, gun violence is front and center, as well as bows and arrows and poison. The ruthless hunt and brutal vengeance of personal justice plays out multiple times, making Golden Kamuy very much like a Spaghetti Western, with that subgenre’s narratives of action, violence, money, revenge, betrayal, and morally ambiguous systems of power.

So, if you want the intense adventure of an Epic Western with Spaghetti Western sensibilities, then go for Golden Kamuy. It’s a race to the finish line with all the nail-biting conflict one could hope for on the way.

Samurai 7: A Weird Western that Adapts Seven Samurai into a Cyber, SteamPunk World

No list of anime Westerns would be complete without Samurai 7. As the only anime adaptation of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai that has been fully approved by the Kurosawa Estate, this anime draws on the film’s Western themes and structure while being different enough to enjoy without the chains of comparison.

Since Seven Samurai’s release, the film has ranked highly in critics' lists of greatest films and is one of the most remade and referenced films in cinema. Kurosawa, who grew up loving American Westerns, made explicit connections in the film between the gunslinging cowboy drifter and the katana-wielding ronin. He also used Western tropes to create his story: outlaws threaten the safety of innocents and reluctant, troubled heroes come to save them. The film helped evolve the Western with his “seven-man band” character types, which became a staple in the genre, while also creating something new by setting the story in the Sengoku period. A period of political chaos and a lack of centralized law enforcement, the Sengoku period was not unlike the American Western frontier.

Enter Samurai 7. The anime follows the film’s basic story structure and maintains the samurai characters. However, it deviates by adding a Weird, Sci-fi twist to recreate the lawless chaos in a new way. The village in the anime adaptation is named Kanna and is set in an alternate feudal Japan with mechs and airships. A massive war has just ended, and Nobuseri bandits terrorize the outer villages, raiding their farms every harvest. The Nobuseri are samurai who integrated their living cells with machines to become mechanized weapons during the war. To protect their village, Kanna finds and hires seven samurai to fight against the bandits with only rice as payment. The samurai train the villagers in the use of bows, building walls and a giant ballista for defense. After that, the showdown begins.

Samurai 7 follows the tradition of remaking Kurosawa’s films in new settings, just like the American Westerns The Magnificent Seven (based on Seven Samurai) and A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (based on Yojimbo). So add this adaptation to your list. It has its ups and downs, but it’s a vastly underrated series that delivers cool battle sequences, meaningful moments, and excellent music.