Legacy

In March 2009, the print and web editions of The Onion's The A.V. Club called Cowboy Bebop "rightly a huge hit", and listed it as a gateway series to understanding the medium of anime as a whole. Suskind said: "It was unlike anything the genre had seen before. It even approached its music differently. The show kicked off with a wormhole of a theme song, and the soundtrack moves so seamlessly through genres, from rock to country to pop to jazz to funk, it's shocking to learn that one set of musicians is behind it all". In an interview, producer Sean Akins also states that the series "created a whole new world". "It's hard for me to quantify the impact that I think it has had. It changed anime. I think people began to think about what shows would be cool. I think it redefined cool within animation, not only in Japan but in the States". One of the series' main animators, Tensai Okamura, went on to create his own anime in 2007: Darker than Black. Okamura used his experience from Cowboy Bebop to write the screenplay of Darker than Black, leading to narratives composed of two episodes similar to Japanese dramas.

American film director, screenwriter, and producer Rian Johnson has cited Cowboy Bebop as a visual influence on his films, most notably Brick. Ender's Game writer Orson Scott Card also praised the series. He states that the series is "better than most sci-fi films out there". He goes on to say that he "found this series brilliant, but what held me was a combination of strong relationship-based storytelling, a moody visual style that never got old and really smart dialogue".

After the creation of the series, an interviewer asked Watanabe if he had any plans to create more Cowboy Bebop material. Watanabe responded by saying that he does not believe that he "should just keep on making Cowboy Bebop sequels for the sake of it". Watanabe added that ending production and "to quit while we're ahead when people still want more" is more "in keeping with the Bebop spirit". In a more recent interview from 2006 with The Daily Texan, Watanabe was asked if there would ever be more Cowboy Bebop. Watanabe's answer was "someday...maybe, someday".

In May 2020, composer Mason Lieberman, who has never actually seen Cowboy Bebop, partnered with Sunrise and Funimation to produce an official Cowboy Bebop charity track for COVID-19 relief. This track was released on vinyl and featured the return of original series composer Yōko Kanno, original recording band The Seatbelts, and a collection of forty other special musical guests.