Do we like Spike Spiegel?
A character from Cowboy Bebop (1998)
Our score: 8 out of 10. Yes, we'd back him. He's lazy, sarcastic and bad with money, but he's loyal, brave and kind when it counts. You'd want him next to you in a fight.
Spike is a former member of a criminal syndicate who now works as a "cowboy", the show's word for a bounty hunter. He flies the fighter ship Swordfish II and lives aboard the Bebop with his partner Jet Black. The story follows their hunts for criminals across the solar system. They're nearly always broke, and the crew slowly grows to include a con artist, a child hacker and a very smart corgi.
Spike is the kind of hero you can't help liking. He's slouchy, sarcastic and says he hates dogs, kids and women with attitude, yet he ends up looking out for all of them. He fights with a fluid, almost lazy style and treats danger as a joke. Under the cool act is a man who is still haunted by the life he left behind, which is why he has real depth. That mix of charm, loyalty and sadness earns him a high score.
He loses points for being reckless and stubborn, and for never really opening up to the people who care about him. His past also keeps catching up with him, and he often drags his friends into it. He wants to be free of that past, but he can't walk away from it for good. The finale shows how far he'll go to settle it, and the ending is deliberately ambiguous about what happens to him.