Spike Spiegel (Japanese: スパイク・スピーゲル, Hepburn: Supaiku Supīgeru) is a fictional character introduced as the protagonist of the 1998 anime series Cowboy Bebop.

Spike is a former member of the criminal Red Dragon Syndicate, which he left by faking his death after falling in love with a woman named Julia.

He is first introduced as the partner of Jet Black, captain of the spaceship Bebop: the two are legalized bounty hunters pursuing criminals across the populated planets and moons of the Solar System.

Spike was created by series director Shinichirō Watanabe and was designed by Toshihiro Kawamoto as part of the production entity Hajime Yatate.

Created as a mirror image of Watanabe and based on Japanese actor Yūsaku Matsuda's portrayal of Shunsaku Kudō in Tantei Monogatari (Detective Story),[1][2] he was designed as someone who would expect others to follow his lead.

[7] In the third volume of the manga, Cowboy Bebop illustrated by Yutaka Nanten and story by Hajime Yatate, Spike is described as "oriental,"[11] a term for Asian.

At Otakon 1999, Watanabe stated at the anime panel that the name Spike Spiegel was chosen because he liked the sound only, not because of Jewish origins.

During their confrontation, a three-way battle ensues: Vicious escapes, and Gren is fatally injured, but he succeeds in telling Spike that Julia is alive and in hiding.

[19][20] During the final story of the series, "The Real Folk Blues", Julia comes out of hiding and sends a message to Spike through Faye: the two meet and resolve to flee as originally planned.

[23] The crew of the Bebop take on a massive bounty for Vincent Volaju, who releases a cloud of deadly protein-based nanomachines in Mars' capital city.

[3] Spike's appearance was primarily based on the main protagonist of Tantei Monogatari, portrayed by famous Japanese actor Yūsaku Matsuda.

[38] Blum found his performance in the movie one of his most difficult from an emotional standpoint, as there were scenes where Spike was portrayed quite differently from the version he had been playing in the series.

He won first place in the Best Male Character category at Animage's annual Anime Grand Prix awards two consecutive times in 1998 and 1999.

[40][41] In the August 2001 issue of Newtype, Spike was ranked first on the magazine's list of "Top 10 Most Popular Male Anime Characters in Japan".

"[48] DVDTalk's Kyle Mills called Spike the epitome of a good lead protagonist, referring to him as "composed, always cool, and is essentially the ultimate badass", although his true nature is gradually shown throughout the series.

[14] In an article in The Atlantic, writer Alex Suskind was positive about Spike's portrayal and development, saying that the word "cool" was the most apt way of describing him and referring to him as "a space-age samurai-cum-Marlboro Man".

[52] Carlos Ross of THEM Anime Review said that Spike's portrayal was one of the things that worked in the film,[53] and DVD Talk's Neil Lumbard, alongside general praise of the characters, positively noted the further exploration of his personality.

[54] Anime News Network's Mike Crandol was less enthusiastic, saying that while Spike was the only one who got much attention during the film, some sequences felt like they could work without him.

While praising the Japanese cast as "perfectly complementing the characters", Kenneth Lee of EX.org argued that "there could be no one else to fill the role of Spike Spiegel except Yamadera".

[56] Meanwhile, IGN's Ramsey Isler stated that "Steve Blum launched his career into new heights when he gave the performance of a lifetime in the English dub of the series, giving Spike a sense of smooth, effortless cool that many argue surpassed the original Japanese version.

"[57] Commending the principal American cast's work as one of the best English dubs, Serdar Yegulalp of About.com highlighted Blum as Spike as the standout performance of the series, stating that "Cynicism never sounded this suave or self-assured".

[58] However, AnimeNation's John Oppliger felt Spike's character was mishandled in the English dub, where he was depicted as a "carefree playboy" whose ambivalent taunts "come across as casual off-the-cuff bluffs, unlike his weighty, solemn statements in the Japanese version".

In 2009, Chris Mackenzie ranked Spike as the fourth greatest anime character behind Goku, Astro Boy, and Speed Racer.

[10] In 2013, Complex ranked Spike the fourth most stylish anime character ever, with writer Jian DeLeon commenting that "The Mars-born bounty hunter knows the benefit of a good uniform".

[63] According to the director of Yakuza 4, the playable character Shun Akiyama was inspired by Spike in order to bring an aloof personality to contrast lead Kazuma Kiryu.