Rating: 
Summary: I don't like anime
Review: I really don't like anime. It's true. Growing up in the '80s and seeing the reruns of '70s imports (like Speed Racer), not to mention the whole Pokémon thing that hit while I was in high school, I know some people out there like those things but I find them repulsive and annoying. Silly caricatures with gigantic eyes and frame rates of about 2 per minute, almost like watching a slide show with really bad narration.Then a friend pressured me to watch Cowboy Bebop on Cartoon Network. He knew my reservations about Japanese cartoons, but pushed me into it anyway (it was a Saturday night, I wasn't doing anything anyway...) and I haven't stopped thanking him. This series is good. Not good, great. This is the program that anyone who says "cartoons are for kids" should watch. The first thing that I noticed was that the episodes were each standalone. Most of the popular animations of today are very series-oriented, if you miss one the next one probably won't make sense, and the whole thing feels soap-opera-ish. But not Bebop. Oh, it's true that there's an ongoing storyline, but you don't have to be familiar with it to enjoy any given episode. In fact, it might be good to watch them out of sequence once and then in order, you'll get everything on two different levels. Then there's the music. It is easily the best music in a cartoon, possibly the best in a television series. Just like I don't like anime, I don't like jazz. Or so I thought, but many thanks to Yoko Kanno for proving me wrong on that count. It's original, it's catchy, and even though I didn't much care for a lot of it initially, it now has so much emotion attached to it that I have added it to my regular listening. I definitely can't say that about any other television series ever. Oh, the characters. Where can I even begin? They have complexity and depth, worthy of some of the best movies to ever come out of Hollywood. They each have their own backgrounds, their own motives, they have personality. After twenty-six episodes, it's hard not to develop an attachment to at least one of them. You don't have to take my word on this; I've seen many others who agree with me on this. Besides, you could watch it and decide for yourself. As far as I'm concerned, this is essential viewing. Not everyone might agree with me, but I have a feeling that there are many out there who would absolutely love this show if they saw just one episode. It turned me on to anime, and I'm pretty hard to sway in opinion. If you're into anime, this is a must. If you can bring yourself to realize cartoons as something other than Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse, this is probably for you, too. It's for adults of all ages, and appeals for so many reasons. By the way, the dubbed version may be better. Nothing against the original cast, and it's not a personal aversion to subtitles (I usually prefer subbed to dubbed), but the English cast are incredible. I've never seen that kind of attention or acting in translation. And, because of the nature of the show, I think it just feels better. A message from the converted.
Rating:
Summary: "The Real Folk Blues"
Review: The Cowboy Bebop series is very nearly as great a success as Evangelion, and far better than the run-of-the-mill anime production. Using the simply idea of a group of picaresque social rejects who support themselves as bounty hunters in 2071 AD. Jet is an ex-cop who could not deal with the corruption, Spike is a Yakuza escapee with a hidden tragedy in his past, Faye is a beautiful and amoral gambler with an identity crisis, and Ed is a 13-year-old computer crazy who is never far from an input device. Oh! Someone will kill me if I fail to mention Ein the mysterious data dog. For the most part this crew careens about space with no visible means of support, always doing the right thing at the wrong time. Managing to not quite get the results they planned. Yet each individual has their own story, their own karma to work out. And they do. Before the long show is over you will find yourself laughing and crying at the same time, desperately hoping that director Shinichiro Watanabe sees his way to create a sequel. Production quality is superb. Illustration and animation capture the details of the future, the minutia of the varieties of human expression, and the grace of comic pratfalls. Yoko Kanno, who has left a trail of brilliant scores, creates all the jazzy theme music. I have reviewed the individual DVDs, so I won't repeat myself here, but this is definitely a "cannot have just one" series. This set offers considerable savings over the cost of the six individual DVDs - and you will want them all. Really, this is one of the best series I have had the pleasure of reviewing, and I'm confident you will agree with me.
Rating:
Summary: Cowboy Bebop
Review: Argueably the BEST anime series ever to grace human eyes, Cowboy Bebop has it all. I was reluctant to watch it at first as the intro looked like it was an old 80's anime...I was so wrong. Cowboy bebop is just an extremely well balanced series of 26 episodes (a standard length for anime series). The animation is just so fluid and realistic and the characters are just so well characterized that you can't help but not consider them real people somewhere out there in the world, hiding from us. Their movements are nothing short than accurate and you can tell that the artists have studied the human movements. The animation is true artwork...a masterpiece that moves before us. The smallest things are detailed and as an artist, I appreticate all these small details nonartists don't bother to look at. The attention to detail is remarkably placed through out the series as well as the movie, "Knockin' On Heaven's Door", which in the begining has incredable detial on the store window with adertisments. No other anime I have seen compares quite to Cowboy Bebop. You DragonBall Z lovers know nothing of true anime, DBZ is barely classified as anime in fact. DBZ artwork vs Cowboy Bebop artwork is laughable at best as if comparing Michelangelo's work to the pop art of today. The shadows are great in Cowboy Bebop, especially in episode 20, Pierrot Le Foul. The music is a soundtrack of beautiful melodies, mostly jazz, bebop, or blues. Much of the best music is seen in episode 5, Ballad of Fallen Angles. But music is through out the series and is very nice. The mood and tone is sharpened by the great music scores by Yoko Kanno and Mia Yamane. Sound effects are also great in the series and nothing small goes unnoticed without realistic sound effects. The translation of Japanese to English is the best translation I have ever seen, and trust me, dubbing and translations can get bad. The story is....the story is really good. Talk about every kid's wish for a great story. It would make those DBZ fans weep. The villian or antagonist is more bad azz than all the villians in DBZ combined (not to gang up on DBZ but DBZ is widely popular and known). Who needs Frieza the feminent loser or Buu the pink blob when you have Vicious, Cowboy Bebop's main villian. Spike is the main character who has unmatched skill in fighting, yet Vicious always appears to be almost equal. Spike is a gun slinging type guy while Vicious is ol' skool and uses a samurai sword. It's a very nice mix of old and new, past and future. The fights with the sword and gun are truely original and eye boogling the way they use their weapons. This is especially seen in episode 5, Ballad of Fallen Angles and episode 26, The Real Folks Blues Part Two. The scene where Spike falls to the floor and has his gun pressed onto Vicious's body while Vicious has his sword arked on Spike's body...in a standstill. I can't say anymore of what happens except that it ends with a big bang and some very emotional scenes with a superb tone. The other characters in this series include Faye: The sexy tomboy who uses guns and brut force to catch her bounties...she's like a downgraded Spike with less skill. Next is jet, the owner of the ship they fly in and also the one who has a lot of knowledge of what they do. Ed is a super intelligent girl often mistaken for a boy and she is a hacker. Ein is the dog who was a test subject which made him intelligent. That's the whole crew. If you were to only watch a couple of episodes to test it I would definately reccomend episode 5, Ballad of Fallen Angles (for the coolness of it all), episode 20, Pierrot Le Fou (for great aninimation and fighting), and episode 11, Toys in the Attic (For great humor). The strangest thing is that lots of the episodes have terrific replay value, I can watch an episode more than twnety times and still love every little detail, and I'm no anime freak, just the average guy who like good things too watch. Amazing considering watching something so many times will cause a decline if attention. Other anime I recommend:
Inuyasha
Samurai X
Rating:
Summary: My favorite anime series! One of the best!
Review: First of all, let me start by saying that Cowboy BeBop is my favorite anime, and loved by many others! I'm sorry, I just felt like I had to say that. ;) On with the review!
Summary
Aboard the old fishing ship, The BeBop, live bounty hunters Spike Spiegal and Jet Black. Money doesn't come very easily to them, and they usually don't get the bounty that they're after. They make a good team, but both are very stubborn which leads to problems sometimes. If that's not bad enough, how about adding an illegal "data dog" named Ein, a woman with massive debts and always seems to attract trouble named Faye Valentine, and a genius teenage hacker named Edward Wong Hau Pepilu Tivursky 4th to the team? Things just got rougher for the crew of the BeBop...
Characters
Spike Spiegal
He was a former member of the Red Dragon syndicate, who's past is clouded. He doesn't share his feelings with anyone. The only thing Jet and the others know is that he he has a strange relationship with a man named Vicious, and a woman named Julia...
Jet Black
Former ISSP (police) officer, Jet Black is the owner of the BeBop. While it is a mystery on how Jet and Spike met, he seems to be the only person that Spike truly trusts. Jet doesn't always like to talk about his past either, but he doesnt' keep it in as much as Spike does. He doesn't like to talk about his mysterious injury regarding his arm, though.
Faye Valentine
Little about her is known, but she claims to be a gypsie when she and Spike meet. There are only 3 things that they are sure of. She loves to gamble, she has a huge debt to pay off, and she's nothing but trouble.
Edward Wong Hau Pepilu Tivurksy 4th
Edward Wo...Let's just call her (yes, HER!) Ed. Ed's a teenage hacker from Earth that the BeBop crew happen to come across. Despite her age (13), she's a very skilled hacker. Everyone on Earth knows her name! This is all that is known about her.
Ein
A Welsh Corgi "data dog" that that Spike and Jet run into while chasing their bounty. So what is a "data dog"? Well, it's a-
Animation
The animation is very high-quality! You can tell that the producers spent a lot of money making it. It's very fluid, and breathe a bit of life into the characters. The first episode is done better than the second and third one. From the fourth one on is done like the first one. In other words, episodes 1, and 4-26 are done better than episodes 2 and 3. This may seem strange that the first episode is done better than the second and third, but the first episode was made AFTER the 13th episode. It wasn't created untill the 13th (I think) was made. Cowboy BeBop was intended as a 13-episode series. When it got a spot on a new network however, they decided to make it longer with a new first episode. Did you get all that?
Music
WOW! Yoko Kanno, Cowboy BeBop's composer, has outdone herself! The music is breathtaking and memorable! When you're watching the series and one of her songs come up, you can't help but realize that it's much more than just mere backround music. This isn't typical anime music. There's a lot of jazz, some ska, a heavy metal song, and, well... You'll know what I'm talking about when you see it! There are currently 8 CD soundtracks to it right now, and I highly recomend getting them if you've seen the series.
All in all, Cowboy BeBop is one of the best anime's around. If you missed out on the box set, this is perfect for you. I'm highly anticipating the release of the movie, which comes out soon! Cowboy BeBop will become, if it already isn't, an instant classic that people will be talking about for a long time! Are you still reading my review? Hurry up and buy this set!
Rating:
Summary: My favorite series of all time!
Review: I think 'Cowboy Bebop' is the best anime series ever. I didn't get bored watching it. It has a perfect balance of action, comedy, drama, and romance. The characters are great. Spike is my favorite. He's just a cool dude. Vicious is a cool villain and is Spike's rival. Jet is the serious and experienced one. Ed is cute and funny. And Faye... bootylicious! Awesome story and awesome characters. A WORD OF CAUTION: Do not buy the 3-DVD set, it's a bootleg and it's poor quality.
Rating: 
Summary: What a strange series!
Review: Cowboy Bebop is one of the most imaginative anime series I have seen in recent years. It is a hybrid of many different styles of animation and the settings themselves are a rich mix of cultures.. Definitely aimed at the adults, this is a series that doesn't insult your intelligence. There are some episodes I wasn't real impressed with towards the start of the series while others are raw and gritty (anything involving the Syndicate) and others are flat out hilarious (the mystery food in the fridge episode).. The thing that really bothered me about this series is that just as it seemed to be hitting its stride, it ends.. Sure, things are wrapped up to some extent; but it had the same '... we're cancelled' compressed-ending feeling that Outlaw Star had. Good series but buy the imports from one of Amazon's used and new stores..
Rating:
Summary: If you have to read this, then youre desperate
Review: Just buy it!!! This is the first 'real' anime that I ever saw, and luckily for me, my first episode was Waltz For Venus, one of the best 3 ever, sure it is a bit pricey when you think about it, but if you have favorite episodes, get the GREATEST sessions, not perfect. It has Mushroom Samba, Waltz For Venus, Wild Horses, Asteroid blues, Ballad of Fallen Angels, and one more i cant seem to remember. so i repeat, JUST BUY IT!!!
Rating:
Summary: Bounty Hunters of the future....
Review: Meet Spike Spiegel. He's a bounty hunter on the spaceship 'Cowboy Bebop', a chain smoking ex-hitman with super-fast fists, who never seems to get a decent meal. He happens to hate kids and dogs. Jet Black an ex-cop who is now the pilot and cook of the ship. He enjoys collecting bonsai trees. Feye Valentine is con artist and bounty hunter who wants nothing more then to find out who she was and pay off her huge debts. She likes to get into trouble. Ed is a young girl who can hack into any computer system, old or new. Most of the time she just sleeps and eats. Ein, the data dog, seems to be smarter than most humans.
Follow them on their adventures, as they hunt down bounties, trying to make as much woolongs as they can, without paying bills or getting into trouble with the law or the crime syndicate. Also watch them as they unfold before you, becoming more and more human right on the screen. Watch as they deal with their own problems, each other and what their future might hold.
Cowboy Bebop is famous for its great music, computer graphics, realistic plots, perfect voice selection for the English version and lots of extras. Also lots of violence, drug use and adult themes.
Rating:
Summary: BEBOP THIS Y4R
Review: This boxed set ownz my body and socks. If you don't buy it then penguins want YOUR socks. It is the best thing since sliced bread. Buy it and be happy!
(or your socks will be gone)
Rating:
Summary: 321, Let's Jam.
Review: Cowboy Bebop is a great anime series. It takes place in a futuristic sci-fi setting and focuses on a group of bounty hunters trying to make ends meat and come to terms with their pasts at the same time. The series can be screamingly funny at times, heartfelt and touching at other and mind-bendingly weird periodically. But this is anime... Right? The plot is at first glance, a mish-mash of adventures thrown together randomly for the sake of some laughs, hand-to-hand/gun-fighting action, and anime weirdness. But at a closer look the real focus is a group of wacky people (Jet-the old guy with a hard past, Spike-the young guy with a past he still has to come to terms with, Faye-the scantily dressed fan-service with a forgotten past, and Ed-the genius kid hacker with an unknown past) who must learn to be a family in a topsy-turvy world. Don't get me wrong, the characters aren't shallow or badly written. It is quite the opposite, the way I describe them is simply a first glance type of thing. I fell in love with all of the characters in this series! The plots are always well thought out and usually hilarious. The ending is especially good. It really makes you think and adds depth where you didn't see it before. It is really what makes the series in my opinion, so if you're going to watch the series, watch it all the way through! The series does contain some unsavory content including drug use (never glorified or participated in by the main chars) violence (lotsa blood in some eps) one breif nudity scene etc. This stuff, other than the violence does not happen often or else I would not have watched the series, whose themes are quite redeeming and whose goodies are definitely "good" in almost every sense of the word. Don't mind me here, most of the people reading this won't care in the least but I like to mention these things in case they are an issue. The music is exquisite in my opinion. Great jazz and the like. The art is well-done, characters well-developed and so forth. There is many a reference to pick up and tons of humor. You will roll on the floor. I recommend this series to anyone who thinks they might give it a look.
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