Customer Reviews

Cowboy Bebop Remix: The Complete Collection (Anime Legends)

5 star:		(123)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Look up the word `cool' in any dictionary and it says "see Cowboy Bebop"...well, not really...but it should, because Cowboy Bebop is the quintessence of coolness. If you don't already know, Bebop is a stylish 26-session masterpiece chronicling the thrilling triumphs and tribulations of those space-sailing, chain-smoking, bounty-hunting buddies, Jet Black and Spike Spiegel. Jet is a bald and burly bonsai tree collector with an artificial left arm and a comma-shaped piece of metal under his scarred right eye. A former ISSP officer--known on his home satellite, Ganymede, as the tenacious "Black Dog"--Jet is now the owner/pilot/mechanic of the spaceship Bebop. The wiry gunfighter and martial arts master, Spike, has fuzzy green hair, mismatched eyes and a checkered past. These two intrepid space "cowboys" hop from one astral gate to another to hunt down wanted criminals all across the galaxy, hoping to earn enough woolongs to enable Jet to finally add some actual beef to his famous "Bell Peppers and Beef" stir-fry. In Session 2, Spike and Jet rescue a Welsh Corgi "data-dog" named Ein from the notorious pet thief, Abdul Hakim. In Session 3, they meet up with an unscrupulous Blackjack dealer who turns out to be the infamous yellow-clad femme fatale, Faye Valentine. And in Session 9, they meet an androgynous red-headed net-diver with an occasionally invisible nose who calls herself Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky, IV. Only by working together can this motley little crew of hungry hunters overcome the ruthless gangsters, senile chess players, broken showers, biting mutants and bad mushrooms that stand in their way as they attempt to nab the endless lineup of bad guys profiled daily on Punch and Judy's Big Shot television show.

Cowboy Bebop showcases phenomenal jazz music and exquisitely detailed animation that perfectly captures the mean streets and spaceways of a future world that's simultaneously strange and familiar, with technology that's grungy and realistic (like the hardware of the original Star Wars trilogy) and a uniquely multi-cultural cornucopia of characters. Unlike most animes, Bebop is primarily episodic, so the shows can be enjoyed individually, without requiring the viewer to watch the entire series in one sitting. My personal favorite is the suspense-filled horror spoof, "Toys In the Attic," which opens with red-tinged video footage of a dingy tunnel, reminiscent of the long-forgotten Sega CD game, Sewer Shark.

The "Remix" of Cowboy Bebop allows you to hear the unforgettably exhilarating opening theme, Tank! (as well as the rest of the exquisitely-scored soundtrack), in speaker-rattling Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. This affordably-priced Anime Legends set collects the entire Bebop series (not the movie) on six colorfully silk-screened DVDs. A plethora of special features are included, among them: three English-language trailers for Cowboy Bebop on DVD; four Cartoon Network promos; interviews with Wendee Lee, the voice of Faye Valentine and Cartoon Network producer, Sean Akins; subtitled commentary on Session 1 with the Japanese voices of Spike and Jet, Koichi Yamadera and Unshou Ishizuka; commentary on Session 5 and 10 with Wendee Lee and ADR producer, Yutaka Maseba; a laughter-filled commentary on Session 17 with director, Shinichiro Watanabe, and legendary composer, Yoko Kanno; Session 24 commentary with the Japanese Faye, Megumi Hayashibara, and the Japanese Ed, Aoi Tada; a behind-the-scenes look at the making of Cowboy Bebop, called Session 0; plus a music video featuring the full-length version of Tank! Audio options consist of the aforementioned Dolby Digital 5.1 mix in both English and Japanese, as well as the original English and Japanese Stereo tracks. The ONLY downside to this release is that all six discs are awkwardly crowded into one plastic keepcase, each held in place with tiny tabs that are easily broken. Shucks howdy, this is an anime collection that would even satisfy those crotchety old geezers, Antonio, Carlos, and Jobim. So come out of your cryogenic sleep and order yours today! Highly recommended to all animation fans, cop show fans, jazz enthusiasts and corgi owners. "Once the channel is set, you will no longer be able to escape!"

Instead of giving some hack review of the story, I'll skip it and assume you either know the story already or know how to google for it.

This box set of a solid anime is finally released in its newest form (improved and cleaned-up picture and 5.1 surround mix) at a very affordable price. Honestly, $40 is a steal considering what you had to pay for all of the discs individually. All 6 discs are in a clamshell case, similar to that of the Back to the Future. No insert inside, just the DVDs.

What I think of the improved picture:
It's not bad. Not perfect but not bad. You'll notice the picture is cleaned up a lot if you compare it with pre-improved releases. Scenes that are brighter or more colorful really come through. But I did notice something that kinda bothered me some. Scenes where there is a lot of black (which are many; the story is mostly in space. who knew?) seem off. What I mean by that is, the black areas aren't a consistent black. This could be a result of the clean-up process but I'm not sure. Either way, it's slightly distracting but by no means a deal breaker. (EDIT: This was an issue I experienced on the first disc and not later ones; not sure if it was with the disc or my TV's brightness setting. Either way, not a big problem.) You're getting a better copy of the show visually.

What I think of the sound:
Ok, if you know anything about Bebop, it's that there is a great soundtrack. Snappy jazz with the opening credits and sad blues penetrate this series. Needless to say, with a diverse score like this one, the surround mix really pays off. Surround effects and bass response are dead on and not overwhelming. Scenes take advantage of the surrounds to create a balanced ambiance and you might even glance behind your shoulder at times. Don't feel dumb if you do; I did it too. Gunfights and action scenes take good advantage of the subwoofer. But nothing overwhelming, it's well balanced and just gives that extra punch you'd expect.

So what should you do?
If you don't have this series, this is probably the best offer you're going to get. If you laid down the money for each remastered disc, nothing is added for you content wise, other than your anger for Bandai not releasing this sooner.

A quality series with an upped picture quality and surround mix, offered at a reasonable price. Til next time Cowboy.

While I may have gotten this box set elsewhere, I can tell you more about it. First, the commonly known stuff: it's 6 DVDs for a total of 26 sessions (episodes), it's got English and Japanese audio in 5.0 and 2.1 but only English subtitles, and it's total run time is 650 minutes.

Now for the juicyness: some episodes have commentary from the staff. What does this mean? It means that the voice actors themselves commented on the episode. Some episodes have more than one commentary. For example, the first episode has two commentaries, one from the Japanese voice actors of Spike and Jet and another from the English voice actress of Faye. If that weren't enough juicyness, it also contains a bonus Episode: Session 0, which I am not allowed to spoil about.

So, aye, if you liked Cowboy Bebop and were waiting forever for the box set to come out, then why don't you have this yet?

Cowboy Bebop is one of those special animes that come around very rarely, its one anime that can attract a vast variety of people, there are so many things to like about the series, my main reason is the action and humor but some people may like other things. There are 26 episodes in all and each one is like a mini-movie of some sorts, and also has there own musical theme thanks to the critically acclaimed japanese composer Yoko Kanno. Cowboy Bebop is very dependent upon its music, and the music is ingeniously organized, whether it be an action packed fight scene or just a mellow cool jazzy hang-out scene, the music sets the standard for the series. The series is beautifully drawn, the graphics are just a sight to see and the charcters move seemlessly natural as if they're real people.

Another thing special about this particular anime series is the english dub. There are some decent dubbed animes but some are just terrible in every sense, but Cowboy Bebop succeeds extraordinary, the voice actors are picked perfectly, this is a series that you would actually prefer the english dub over the original japenese voice actors (well at least in my opinion). I highly recommend this series not just for anime lovers but to anyone who is looking for something to watch something thats fun and exciting. Like I said before this anime can attract anybody plus the price of this box set just makes the deal all the more sweeter, how can you go wrong with that.

It's the future. Mankind has developed hyperspatial gates that allow easy travel in the solar system, but Earth is devastated when a hyperspace gate near the moon explodes. Survivors move underground or out into the solar system as Venus, Mars and the moons of Jupiter and Saturn are terraformed. Society has broken down, the police are unable to keep order, and roving bounty hunters (I guess this is where the "cowboy" comes in) capture criminals to earn bounties. Enter our heroes, Jet (retired cop) and Spike (retired thug), bounty hunters who roam the solar system in their battered ship, the "Bebop". Later in the series they are joined by Faye, a mysterious woman with no past, and Ed, an androgynous genius computer hacker pre-teen orphan, an Ein, a "Data Dog" who only uses his mysterious and unexplained data dog skills in one episode.

We follow these characters though 26 episodes which range from serious to slapstick, from sci-fi to western. None of the episodes are throwaways or filler, all the episodes reveal just a little bit more of the personalities of the crew of the Bebop, or serves up a sampling of one or more character's back story. We even see the crew of the Bebop break up and begin to go their own ways at the end.

This series has been over-rated as the best ever. I will say it was probably the best ever in 1998 when it was made. Certainly there have been better animated shows made since, or better stories, but everything came together just right for this show. Good graphics, an excellent sound track, superior voice acting. There is very little CG in the series, most of it was cell animation drawn by hand. The writing, however, is among the best. Finally, at last, we get a sci-fi show where the hero doesn't pull out a ray gun and spend ten minutes explaining what the ray gun is and how it works. The characters use guns and ships the way we use cars and forks, grab it and go, without any exposition about it, and it works. It's nice that the director and writers gave us viewers credit for having enough brains that they don't have to explain every little thing.

But therein lays the only drawback to this series: You pretty much have to watch every episode in order to get the story. I had seen several episodes out of sequence on Adult Swim and it made no sense when seen out of order. There is very little objectionable material in this series. We get a few gratuitous shower scenes with Faye and one scene where one of the bounty hunters interrupts a couple of men in bed together. Aside from this, the violence is the only thing that might give a viewer pause. If you have a problem with gun or knife violence, you might want to give this series a pass, though I'd much rather watch something like this where when somebody who gets shot is hurt or killed than an idiot show like the "A Team" where thousands of rounds are fired each episode and nobody gets hurt. Which one will teach kids a better respect for firearms, do you suppose?
The ending of the series is rather poignant. Unlike many other anime shows, Cowboy Bebop does come to a definite end. The show left me wanting more, to know what finally happens to the survivors. And that's not a bad thing.
Is Cowboy Bebop the best thing ever? No, but it is one of the finest crafted anime stories I've seen, and definitely belongs in any anime fan's collection. The Remix set is an affordable and excellent way of collecting the series, though it is becoming hard to find.

Before it was a household word for anime and animation fans, "Bebop" referred to a style of fast-paced Jazz marked by virtuoso performances. If you've ever heard of Charlie Parker or Thelonius Monk, they were Bebop gods in their own time. Bebop had a cool, smooth and devil-may-care attitude which still permeates Jazz culture to this day.
Cowboy Bebop takes that atmosphere and runs with it. The story of a ragtag crew of free agents who shuttle around from planet to planet in their ship bounty-hunting is the antithesis of the stodgy Star Trek type of prime directives and military chains of command. There are no captains and no aliens, only a human society in shambles with people living in a frontier of solar-system width here and there in small pockets of humanity.
The series is all about grand gestures and the character archetypes are not deconstructed too much but rather played straight. Other than in the final run of episodes, when they are confronted with the unpleasant feelings the lifestyle they are driven to pursue gives rise to (a lack of attachment to life leading to loneliness seems to be a common theme), the anime is all about cool encounters. Secondary characters are mostly stereotypes, which makes the story suffer in a few points (Gren comes to mind) and don't get much development.
Unlike pretty much any other anime, one of the main calling cards of "Bebop" is its music. Composed and played by a Yoko Kanno outfit called "The Seatbelts" (a band both in real life and in-universe) it is a blend of many styles. From the urgent and syncopated opening song "Tank!", the jazzy-sax-meets-Deep-Forest "Space Lion", the Morricone-inspired mock-cowboy themes to the adult rock anthems "The real folk blues", "Blue" and "Call me, call me". The music is cool, atmospheric and played with gusto, full of grand gestures like the anime itself. Small wonder fans of this series cannot divorce the music from the animation or the plot as it's a vibrant, coherent whole.

To sum it up, this is something that no anime fan should skip as it will probably stay with you for a while. For those unacquainted with anime, Cowboy Bebop will be a great start.

First off, yes this has every episode. That was what I was asking myself when I looked at this product. I just finished watching it and it looked great and for that price it's well worth spending the money to get it.

This is a great show. A perfect blend of sci-fi and western themes mixes with brilliant animation, loveable characters, fantastic action, riotous humor, and appropiately heavy drama.

This release is the absolute best deal for anyone interested in this series. The show has arguably never looked better and has indisputibly never sounded better than in these six REMIX discs.

If you're reading this review, I advise you to buy this set--Now!

The only anime of its kind I promise. Filled with great action scenes, comedy, and romance, it needs to be on your top anime list. From the opening theme song you know this anime is diffrent and for some reason it just catches your attention. Also the extras are great with interviews of the cast. Also dont forget the movie if you enjoy the series.

I find most anime boring. I had friends recommend this to me for years and I never got on board because I have seen a lot of bad anime and so I was very skeptical. Finally, I wanted something new to watch and they talked me into buying it because it was cheep.

I love it. I think it is clever, witty, and exciting. The acting is convincing and the episodic stories also help to build character, not just kill time.

I would recommend this to anyone who likes in depth stories with fun characters, action, and an amazing sound track packed into each 30 minute episodes.