The ending of Cowboy Bebop is famous for leaving the ultimate fate of Spike Spiegel ambiguous. However, what many fans may not know is that the series' secret sequel suggested a surprisingly surreal answer. Though Space Dandy might not explicitly be a sequel to Cowboy Bebop, the former's connection to the latter suggests the answer to whether Spike lives or dies isn't so simple.
It's no understatement to say that Cowboy Bebop has one of the most iconic endings of any anime ever made. After his lover Julia is killed, Spike decides to confront Vicious and the Red Dragon Syndicate the villain controls. Though Spike succeeds in killing Vicious, the fight leaves Spike wounded, possibly fatally. As a group of Syndicate members rush to confront the dying Spike, he holds up a finger gun and says "Bang," ending the show and leaving Spike's fate up to the viewer's interpretation. This ending has left many fans to ponder whether Spike lives or dies at the end of Cowboy Bebop, and the answer may lie with its far-future sequel, Space Dandy.
Much like Cowboy Bebop's secret prequel series, Samurai Champloo, Space Dandy was created by Shinichiro Watanabe as less of a direct follow-up and more as a spiritual successor. Unlike Bebop's grounded near future, Space Dandy is set in a distant future where humanity regularly interacts with alien species. The series follows the titular Dandy who hunts rare and undiscovered aliens. Not only has Watanabe confirmed in interviews that the two series take place in the same universe (alongside Champloo and Carole and Tuesday), but Dandy also features a handful of callbacks. The infamous alien fridge from the Bebop episode Toys in the Attic also appears in Dandy's The Lonely Pooch Planet, Baby. Spike is never referenced in Dandy, but the series' biggest twist hints at a confusing answer to Spike's final fate.
Spike Spiegel Both Lived and Died at the End of Bebop
Space Dandy starts out mostly episodic, but as the series goes on, contradictions emerge. Notably, the series' fourth episode Sometimes You Can't Live with Dying, Baby, ends with the entire galaxy becoming zombies... only for episode 5 to open with everyone fine. The series eventually answers these contradictions by revealing an entire multiverse of possibilities. This fits the series' absurd nature well... but has interesting implications for Bebop. If Bebop and Dandy take place in the same universe, then that implies the former series shares the latter's multiverse. Following this thread to its logical conclusion, Space Dandy's multiverse implies that Spike both lived and died at the end of Bebop.
What Watanabe Had to Say About Spike's Fate After Cowboy Bebop's Ending
Though this answer to Spike's fate was likely unintentional, it does line up with what Watanabe has said on the subject. In an interview with Red Carpet News in 2013, Watanabe basically said that the ending is intentionally ambiguous and that the audience's interpretation of what happens after Spike says "Bang" is probably more interesting than anything he could suggest. This lines up perfectly with the multiverse theory, as it suggests that what audiences think could happen, what Watanabe thinks could happen, what the series' writers think could happen... all of it is valid. While some Cowboy Bebop fans might not be satisfied with what Space Dandy suggests about Spike's ending, it might just be the best answer they'll get.
Source: Red Carpet News