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Cowboy Bebop - The Perfect Sessions (Limited Edition Complete Series Boxed Set) Customer Reviews (22 - 24 of 53 Reviews)

One of the best anime series of all time
Not only do you get the entire series on DVD, but you also get the original soundtrack! For a series like Cowboy Bebop, it most certainly got what it deserved. Some people may not like this series, but the majority will tell you its a masterpiece. Its about a space bounty hunter named Spike Spiegel and his journey through space to get away from his past only to find himself ending right back into the frey of it. Without giving away too much, this show demonstrates various good genres into one, nearly-perfect series. It has some sci-fi, western, romance, gun-slinger, comedy, violence, horror, conspiracy, cop, fiction...there's so much to this seris that its hard to explain it all in one review. Basically, its one of the better animes.

There are 5 main characters to this show. Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Ed, Faye Valentine, and Ein.

Spike Spiegel - basic bounty hunter with great tactics and resourcefulness. Can get himself out of the stickiest situations with his superb fighting styles (both hand-to-hand and gun)

Jet Black - Aged ex-cop who now runs and owns the ship the Cowboy Bebop. Lost an arm when he was younger and on the job, now is freelance and gets information from a friend still working for the force.

Ed - Little hacker girl that can hack into just about anything with a circuit mind. Very very intelligent when it comes to computers...very whacky and crazy when it comes to real-life. Comic relief.

Faye Valentine - The sexy, female support model that can hold her own in fighting or gun-slinging. She is a con-artist without a past, as she cannot remember anything from her childhood to her teen years. She now searches for her past and tries to make a few bucks on the side.

Ein - the small animal of the group. Not really a bounty hunter, but really a special kind of dog. Although what kind of "special" this is is never revealed, Ein does play some important roles from time to time. Usually hangs out with Ed.

The cast is set, now for the content of the series. As far as blood is concerned, it does show a few violent scenes. From a man having his throat cut, to people being shot in the forehead, Cowboy Bebop really doesn't hold much back. Don't get me wrong, there isn't any spilling of internal organs, its basically all outside wounds and such. Ok, now for the strange part...for an anime such as this, its bizarre that they don't show fan service on every episode. But this is actually a good thing in Cowboy Bebop. Flagrant nudity would basically ruin the feel of the series and give you a different outlook on it all together. For some that may be a downer, but for me it was refreshing to see a popular show that didn't set its entire basis around fan service.

With all of these things contributing to the anime being extremely well done, there is also a fair use of computer animation implemented with the anime itself. For most other shows (Zoids, Pilot Candidate) this wasn't the smartest choice of action. Cowboy Bebop takes computer animation, and puts other shows that use it to shame. This is one of the few animes that can get away with an overuse of computer animation and end up with a series just as great as not having it. I was fairly impressed with that.

On another note, this is also one of the few series that can pull off a good english dub as well as Japanese Sub. Spike Spiegel's voice will have you questioning which is better, while Jet and Faye's english voice actors are scarily similar to the original's.

While discussing audio, it should be known that this show has a unique use of jazz, classic, etc. and can use it without setting the wrong mood. The music is simply amazing as there are mixed themes for each episode....each track beautifully done.

The DVDs contain above-average extras also! With trailers, bios, screen gallery, and interviews, how can you go wrong? Extras just add to a great show's popularity and make the DVD a must-have over the VHS.

Now lets look at all of the good things about Cowboy Bebop that I went through:

-Great characters
-Great computer animation implement
-Great content
-Great music
-Great Dub & Sub
-Great action
-Great extras
-Great SHOW!

So many good things about this series makes it a must have for anyone who likes such other series like "Trigun" or "Outlaw Star". This show is, by far, better than any other gun-slinger type. Don't believe me? Well, chances are you will probably like this unless you are one of the few that usually don't like this kind of show. Try it for yourself before you make a commitment towards the DVD Boxset, this is for hardcore Cowboy Bebop fans only! If only I could put more than 5 stars....*sigh*

Nothing Gets Better Than This
Cowboy Bebop is best known for its characterization, pulsating jazz music, and seamless art style. So, what could be better than a limited boxed set with EVERY SINGLE session complete with an OST? Nothing.

At first glance, you may notice that there doesn't seem to be a plot. All you see for the first episode are two bounty hunters who seem to spend most of their time drifting thru the solar system. At a closer look, the chracters seem more human and have their own conflicts, quirks, and (gasp) personalities. Spike Spiegel is a carefree "cowboy" with a shady past, possibly dealing with the Red Dragon Syndicate, a type of mafia run by a council of old people. If seems Spike has some heck of a past life, but decided to run away. Then there's Jet Black, an ex-ISSP (interstellar solar system police) officer who also had a somewhat mysterious past. As Spike and Jet travel in Jet's junk ship, the Bebop, they encounter a lot of strange people and animals. First is Ein, an intelligent Welsh Corgi capable of surpassing his expectations. Then there's Faye Valentine, who has a huge debt on her head and decides to stick with the Bebop crew. She loves gambling, but always manages to find/lose money. The last member is Edward Hau Wong Pepelu Tivrusky IV, or Ed for short. A genius computer hacker under the alias, "Radical Edward", Ed also tags along.

From reading this review, I bet you can already tell that Bebop is made of a strange cast of characters. However, in each "session," Spike, Faye, Ed, and Jet deal with their internal conflicts and problems with some help from one another. Another brilliant aspect of Cowboy Bebop is how the characters are not perfect, they all have cracks on/below the surface. Spike is lanky but handsome in his own way. Though Faye is sometimes the center of fanservice, she still isn't overtly drawn like *some other* female anime characters.

The music is another portion of CB to rave about. If you don't know who Yoko Kanno is, you better start getting used to hearing that name. She is best known for Macross and Escaflowne, and her expertise is brilliantly lended to Cowboy Bebop. The opening immediately drew me in and I never get tired of listening to "Tank!" Good songs play thruout the show and it helps bring the moody atmosphere if it is dramatic, or light feeling if it is comedic.

So this is my review. To call Cowboy Bebop a classic is like calling Evangelion revolutionary. Watanable Shinichiro did do an excellent job. He helped changed the anime genre not too much, but just a little bit to influence future anime productions to take the usual anime plot, and twist it to make an unforgettable show.

A Truly Perfect Collection
If Neon Genesis Evangelion ranks as the No. 1 anime series ever, Cowboy Bebop would be an easy No. 1.1, wrapped up beautifully in 26 masterful episodes.

Bebop takes place some time in the assumed future: all money is electronically transfered on plastic in the denomination of "woolongs." Space travel to different planets is the norm, VHS players and joystick-video games are antiques, and the internet is navigated by goggles. Bebop focuses on one group of people: bounty hunters or "cowboys" as they are called. There is even a regular television show that updates cowboys on the best and biggest bounties out there. The best, but unluckiest, of the bunch and Jet, an ex-cop with an artificial iron arm, and Spike, an extremely laid-back, confident ex-gangster, proficient in weapons and judo. Along the way, they pick up Faye, a gambling-addicted babe from the past, freed from her cryogenic sleep; Ed, a tomboyish-girl generally accepted as one of the planet's best hackers; and Ein, a super-intelligent Welsh Corgi (he barks and doesn't talk).

The animation is so spectacular and uninhibited that the feeling of watching anime versus live action is blurred. The camera can go shaking erratically during a crash or hand-to-hand fight sequence; it can go red-tinted and distorted when it switches to the view of a rampaging drug addict; it can flip 360 from the ground to the sky, back to the ground as someone gets thrown; or it can merely show birds flying off into the sky as the report of a gunshot fades. The anime is extremely detailed and the CG moments chosen very wisely. The colors are also well-chosen; blacks and blues for the more brutal flashbacks, or a golden hue for more choice memories. Nothing is accidental; you know they paid great attention when they have Spike's fake eye just a shade lighter of brown than his real eye.

The stories are very-well thought out and choreographed, with each bounty having a significant back story, not just a nameless bad guy or girl. It's fun to see the creative ways the cowboys corner and capture their bounties, or just the mad scramble to recover when their plans go awry. But it's not all just bounty hunting. Spike, the closest thing to a main character, his constantly haunted by a past he has long tried to leave behind, most frequently in the form of Julia, a long-lost love whose story isn't explored in-depth until close to the end; and Vicious, once Spike's right hand man in the gang, equally adept at fighting and coming out of impossible situations alive.

The masterpiece of the series comes in the fifth episode, the first confrontation between Spike and Vicious, that epitomizes all that is cool about Cowboy Bebop. Spike takes on Vicious' entire team of thugs, then battles him one-on-one in scenes very reminiscent of a John Woo flick (i.e. a quick battle, ending abruptly with Spike's gun pointed at Vicious' heart, just as Vicious' saber points digs menacingly into Spike). The action goes into slow motion as Spike falls through a stained-glass window, the haunting "Ballad Of Fallen Angels" (choir singing unaccompanied by music) playing, as the camera zooms into his eye and into a flashback.

There are also the lighter, comedic episodes where Ed and Ein watch as Spike, Jet and Faye go through mushroom-induced hallucinations; or when another cowboy, completely oblivious to the fact that he is a horrible bounty hunter, keeps screwing up Spike's captures.

The English dub is passable and the Japanese vocals are superb as usual, so you can't go wrong either way.

Where Neon Genesis may have been too serious, or Rurouni Kenshin wasn't serious enough, Bebop is just the right mix. It truly is like its live action counterparts: major characters, women and children die, people are superstitious, use drugs, have strange mannerisms, and stake their lives on their loyalties.

The series is also great in that...it ends. There are little or no loose ends; in fact the series ends on a moment low on effects, but high in drama and tragedy. Viewers are left to ponder only what they have seen from the past, not to speculate on the future. Those just getting on the Bebop bandwagon are real lucky--you didn't have to wait so many Bebop-less years until the movie came out.

This series is highly, highly recommended, for any viewer, regardless of your enthusiasm or lack thereof for anime. You get attached to characters, marvel at the action and fight scenes, with eye-candy animation to top it off. No anime collection is legitimate without it, and no film collection is complete with Bebop missing.

A very cool anime that is no doubt one of the masterpiece series' of modern anime. Ten stars if I could.

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