The Stand "Red Hot Chili Peppers" - it's Red Hot Chili Peppers
Akira (Pearl Jam's stand user) is modeled after Kenji Ohstuki, a Japanese rock musician. Perhaps this helps better explain his appearance and/or personality. Arguably would have made for a better side-villain anyway.
The Boat the Joseph arrives on may also be named after the band "Traffic". This is possibly something only the manga references in a title card or dialogue box.
Toshikazu Hazamada's Stand "Surface" is a reference to R&B trio Surface. (I really like how this stand is really autonomous compared to most other stands in the whole series)
Yukako Yamagishi's Stand "Love Deluxe" is named after the album of the same name by the British R&B group Sade. (If it isn't named this episode during the eye-catcher it might be named next episode)
"Red Hot Chili Pepper" I don't think this needs to be explained? The late 80s-00s rock band.
Koichi's dog is named "Police" after the British Rock band. Don't remember if the anime ever tells his name.
Kobayashi's stand "The Lock" a reference to "The Rock" a song by "The Who". I didn't know this one much like last episode's "The Hand" -> "The Band". Not as much of a stretch as considering Rs/Ls in Japanese are pronounced very similarly.
Koichi's Stand "Echoes" named after the "Pink Floyd" song of the same name.
You already got the reference to "Bad Company". But as for Okoyasu's stand, I never actually thought that "The Hand" was a music reference but wiki implies it may be a reference to Canadian Rock band "The Band"?
Thought I'd share the list of musical references for the first 2 episodes. From what I can gather many of these may be educated guesses and not officially substantiated.
(from the Jojowiki.com list of references page)
- Josuke's appearance is based on the musician Prince. His favorite musician is also Prince.
- The "1999" insignia on Josuke's shirt is also a reference to Prince, specifically the song 1999, which likely inspired the year in which Diamond is Unbreakable takes place.
- Josuke's Stand, Crazy Diamond, is named after the Pink Floyd song Shine on You Crazy Diamond.
- Anjuro Katagiri's nickname "Angelo" is a reference to the American composer Angelo Badalamenti.
- His Stand, Aqua Necklace, might be a reference to progressive rock band Asia's album, Aqua.
I'm definitely with Jeff on the ending. I reject the thesis statement the conclusion the episode puts forward. There's no running from your past/there's no changing who you are isn't a fundamental truth. However, I've always felt that many shows can be exactly what the first 24 episodes of Cowboy Bebop are while going for a hopeful mindset instead and not losing/contradicting any of what those earlier episodes were about. A hopeful or tragic ending would have been equally valid but if you chose a tragic ending (for me) you need to earn it through each and every moment/episode. I want that perspective to be constantly validated through the tone and story. I wanted to understand anything about the syndicate or Vicious or Julia more than what they show here. But so much of it came at the show's 11th hour. Also, instead of the absence of the syndicate (Spike and friends fooling around) of much of the story being indicative/symbolic of him running away from his past it backfired and dissociated me from any of these plot elements being important or essential to understanding Spike as a character.
Even watching it a second time I struggle to make this connection even though I understand it with the perspective of knowing the end. The absence of "syndicate story" still doesn't positively translate to substance.
Also, I think I just want shows to be either episodic or serial. Trying to combine the two creates a fracture in my mind. I tend to enjoy/think about these two types of storytelling in ways that aren't always complimentary. So I just chose the type that Cowboy Bebop seemed to be mostly about: the non-syndicate episodic ones. Maybe if I could more easily digest this type of story structure I'd have a much easier time making the connection when it ended up transitioning hard into the serial storyline.
This is touched on this episode but the thing that's great about discovering that you love an anime by Shinichiro Watanabe is that you can (through your own small research) discover your own system of self-recommendations. And you can totally daisy-chain these recommendations from one creative person that left their mark on one show to another show. Then it's just a self-perpetual machine of finding potentially new things to watch based on your own opinions instead of relying on others.
Like you probably wouldn't normally watch a highschool romance slice of life anime, but what if it took place in the 1960's in an American naval base town where western religious/music/culture aspects collided and heavily influences the backdrop and feel of the story. And it's directed by Shinichiro Watanabe? (the anime is Kids on the Slope btw)
The group suggests many good examples this episode but I too think that Space Dandy is an excellent example if you like the Space Bounty Hunter setting but miss the off-kilter bizarreness of Jojo's.
But I would like to dispel the misconception that creative decisions usually come down to a single person.
Zeeman155's comments