Rating: Summary: bebop Review: A must have for bebop fans. Officaly numbered episode 22.5.
Rating: Summary: Off Topic Bebop Review: I have been watching the rerun over and over so many times that I believe that the whole TV series is built on one main theme that we are all living in our past. No matter how hard we try to hide from it, our past will catch up with us eventually. The present is just another dream. The movie however talks mainly about how four low lifes, or outcasts if I may say, trying to save the world instead. I find this movie kinda boring. I don't care how the world ends too much. I'd rather like to see how these people talk more about their stories instead. At least this is not a truck commerial like T3. On the other hand, the interviews are awesome. They talk about how they feel about the characters. The interviews are very touching. 2 stars for the movie. 4 stars for the interviews. 5 stars if they put the whole sound track from the TV series to the DVD.
Rating: Summary: Grand style Review: What is it about Cowboy Bebop that everyone loves? It's not often the same thing, but the series has so much to offer that nearly everyone will find something. For me, it's the style. I knew little about anime and nothing about Cowboy Bebop until I caught, at random, the first episode of its early run on the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim. That was all it took. Cowboy Bebop is so good that you will forget it is a cartoon. I've never had that happen before or since. Part of it is that the animation itself is so refined and precise, but another part is that the storylines are compelling and downright artful. Everything, including the laconic main character Spike, moves along at its own pace in a sort of dreamlike, sunny afternoon lull, even during moments of intense, teeth-rattling violence. This is not anime for children..people die, often and graphically, there is sex, love, betrayal, and brutality. There is also humor, and, above all, an abiding sense of grace.The film loses none of these aspects. It plays like an extended episode set somewhere around the middle of the episode series, where all the main characters have been established and have already partially come to grips with one another. That, I think, was my greatest disappointment (although obviously a relative one); I would have loved nothing more than a post-series movie following up on our favorites rather than an insert. Nonetheless, the film captures the grace and style of the shorter episodes while giving each character their due. There's a lull in the film that makes you wonder whether it was going to be a 2-3 parter and was recast into a film format, but otherwise it stands alone. The focus of the film is a presumed-dead Martian special forces soldier incubating an experimental cellular-level of nanobots that make him immune to other violent nanobots. Those, naturally, become his weapons of choice. After a tanker truck explodes on a downtown Martian overpass, sickening and killing thousands with what turn out to be malignant nanobots, a massive bounty is offered for his head. Enter our intrepid heroes, the cast and crew of the starship Cowboy Bebop, and their great noses for a profit. Also hence arises the greatest overarching question, at least to me, of all the series.. what is Spike's morality? You have bounty hunters seeking only the highest rewards, yet inevitably they pursue the case once the hint of a reward has long since vanished..or once it proves dangerous in extreme proportion to its petty payoff. Indeed it often becomes the challenge of the thing that is its own reward, and such is the case here. Spike meets his match, Jet Black's den mothering skills are tested in the extreme, Ed and Ein...well, they keep up the good work. If you loved the series, you will get the movie. If you've never seen the series, the film is a great introduction. In either instance, you should get it.
Rating: Summary: a must fo cb fans Review: The first time I saw this movie (about 2 years ago), I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy of a non-bootleg version. This is such an awesome movie. If you are a Cowboy Bebop fan, this is a must-have!!!
Rating: Summary: A real treat for anmie fans Review: It was very nice to see the CB gang again, and like a previous reviewer has stated, the Director Watanabe-san also made two episodes on The Animatrix DVD. The fight scenes on the train really reminded me of that fact. The city on Mars just reinded me so much of New York, with so many diverse inhabitants and cultures--okay, until we meet the Native American wiseman once more. So for the 420 here, you can't go wrong with this DVD. Now, if Watanabe-san could have been allowed to make The Matrix Reloaded HIS way...
Rating: Summary: just a random buy turned out to be a perfect buy! Review: see before i even watched this movie, i knew very little about the show, I read the first book of the manga and thought it was pretty cool, so i decided to pay 20 for this movie and sat down, turned up the DVD player's sound up to 30 and kicked back for 1 huour 45 minutes of action, suspense, madness, intrigue, humor and sensuality. what really pumped this movie up was the way the fight sequences and the movie were filmed. If you are in the know on anime, you will notice that scenes in cowboy bebop the movie and the animatrix look very similar in actuality. the reason why that is, is because Shinichiro Watanabe, the director of CB:TM also directed the shorts "Kids Story" and "Detective Story" from the animatrix. the animation styles are very similar they use more in depth animating for these scenes to make the pacing very fast and thrilling. another cool thing was the music of the movie. i grew up (i'm still a teenager) listening to all styles of music and i was surprised to find such a well developed soundtrack for this movie in particular. in most animes (not all, just some) the soundtrack is mostly j-pop (japanese pop music) and doesn't fit in with the action of the movie, but the music placed in Cowboy Bebop is very funky, jazzy and rock and roll-ish. i'm mostly into jazz and hard rock, and i can tell you both styles are used to their abilities in this movie. i'm glad there is finally another cool anime to have a good soundtrack, the other being Akira. The DVD of Cowboy bebop the movie, is a mixed bag. The features are mostly directed to fans of the TV series who didn't get any special features on the other DVDs. You get a whole lot of still images, about 30-60 minutes of behind-the-scenes featurettes, music videos (these are textless opening and ending credits), character biographies and so on. this isn't really a feature packed dvd as one might expect from a disc billed as a Special Edition. i was expecting a commentary from Watanabe, an isolated audio track in 5.1, a bonus disc so the film could have one disc and the features another, leaving enough room to make a SuperBit image and sound reproduction. The movie looks average. it isn't a flawless image. it has its scratches and stuff but it is a good picture that is best seen on a widescreen tv. The sound is awesome when heard in either the english (the dub was good i just wish the script would have been exact to the original japanese translation) or the original japanese versions which are both in Dolby 5.1 audio. The bass is well used during the monorail and ending fight scenes and the surrounds are mostly used for panning dialogue, falling rain, cross sound effects like bullets and stuff like that. I would recommend this DVD to anyone who likes anime because it is a very good dvd that should be seen by everyone who is a fan of animation!!
Rating: Summary: Lives up to the series. Review: I've been a fan of Bebop for a few years, and it was gratifying to see this film show up in movie theatres. I finally got to see it on DVD, and I'd recommend it to any Bebop or anime fan. The animation is consistently excellent, and the dogfight and hand-to-hand combat scenes are wonderfully rendered. You've never seen Spike fight like this, and truthfully, I can't think of any moments in anime that I've seen where martial arts is so well executed The score, as in the series, is great, and as for the characters, what can I say? It's Spike, Jet, Faye, Ed, and Ein. Who's not to love? The dubbing is as high-quality as that of the series, except there's one instance where Spike's in a jail cell, and his mouth moves for a while, but he speaks no words. Um, oops? 'Knockin' is a little overlong, and I think it could have been more tightly executed, but at least this movie wasn't an overblown, monstrous distortion of the series and its characters like so many other features based on syndicated shows. It was markedly darker than the original series, and Jet, Faye, Ed, and Ein fans may feel a little cheated since these characters don't get nearly as much screentime as Spike. However, the conclusion of Bebop the series left so many questions unanswered about the unflappable, enigmatic Spike that I can understand why the movie revolved around him the most. A little note--I'm quite sure I saw Spike's "clone" in the Halloween parade. You know, the wealthy, brat cowboy with blonde hair. He's on his horse and is wearing a Japanese robe. If you're an anime fan, I'm sure I don't need to encourage you to watch 'Cowboy Bebop: The Movie,' so allow me encourage everybody else to watch it--watch it. It's good and certainly worth a rental, at least.
Rating: Summary: For Die Hard Cowboy Bebop Fans Review: This movie is good for the Cowboy Bebop fans, but for the regular guy, no one would really know how the cowboy bebop crew got together, or their specialties. I think that the movie itself is a masterpeice though. The detail and work put into it is astounding. I loved the movie. For other people though, it can be boring after watching it one time. This isn't the kind of movie that is based purely on action. This movie has a lot of talking parts in it, but it is equaled out with the action so that is a good thing.
Rating: Summary: I Really Hope it provides an excuse. Review: Cowboy Bebop which plays frequently on American Cable networks is one of the best crafted anime ever made. Most people agree with that statement. Animation, sound, music, character, humor, story you get everything you want from a series. Unfortunately for fans, we want more episodes too. This movie gives us what we want, and respectfully does it while sticking with the original formula well. It does not do anything revisionist, or make the mistake of trying to summarize the plot of the original story. I'm not going to go into detail and spoil the story for anyone. It's overlong, and they may have overstretched their characters a bit to match the plot, but its still great viewing for fans. The thing I will say, is that there are some plot elements in this, whether intentional or not, that give the original series a possiblility of doing a second (or more seasons). What they are I leave it up to you to discover, suffice it to say its easier to bring back a character in a science fiction series. You don't have to dream the whole season (ala Bobby Ewings shower scene). The potential for revival is good, and will not bother SciFi fans or Bebop ones that much. If the intention here is for future revival, make sure you show your support by getting the movie. I can only hope they can bring together the original team of creators, who made CB such a good series in the first place.
Rating: Summary: Fun and Unique for Anyone Review: Now I have seen why people enjoy the series and this movie. Cowboy Bebop: The Movie is a colorful and well-animated mix of jazzy tunes, fun yet complex characters, and a fantastic hodgepodge of Western, Japanese, and even Middle-East influences. I have only seen small bits and parts of the series and frankly will just enjoy sticking with the movie. You can come in and enjoy this movie by itself without owning the series, especially if you have familiarity with other anime (it is unique in audio/visual style, but not character types). That plus character backgrounds and interesting voice-actor interviews on the DVD allow any general anime fan to enjoy Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. Despite a somewhat abortive ending and some action scenes that are weak and too obviously inspired by Star Wars and Independence Day, you'll likely be viewing this many times, in both competent English dub and the original Japanese.
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