Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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59 of 61 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Satellite from days of old, lead me to your access code!", April 11, 2008
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!"
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39 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quality and affordability in one Set, February 18, 2008
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.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
We never do find out what the title means..., January 10, 2009
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.
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