The Vision of Escaflowne
"Cowboy Bebop" was developed by animation studio Sunrise and created by Hajime Yatate, the well-known pseudonym for the collective contributions of Sunrise's animation staff. The leader of the series' creative team was director Shinichirō Watanabe, most notable at the time for directing "Macross Plus" and "". Other leading members of Sunrise's creative team were screenwriter Keiko Nobumoto, character designer Toshihiro Kawamoto, mechanical art designer Kimitoshi Yamane, composer Yoko Kanno, and producers Masahiko Minami and Yoshiyuki Takei. Most of them had previously worked together, in addition to having credits on other popular anime titles. Nobumoto had scripted "Macross Plus", Kawamoto had designed the characters for "Gundam", and Kanno had composed the music for "Macross Plus" and "The Vision of Escaflowne". Yamane had not worked with Watanabe yet, but his credits in anime included "Bubblegum Crisis" and "The Vision of Escaflowne". Minami joined the project as he wanted to do something different from his previous work on mecha anime.