Description: Spike, Faye, Jet, Ed and Ein continue their endless search for cash. However, tragedy and triumph await as they navigate their way through the dangers of space and corridors of memory. The hottest anime show only gets better as it draws toward its end. Longest Series Anime broadcast on Cartoon Network. Genre: Action/Sci-Fi.
This disc actually has a decent special feature This disc features the ninteenth through twenty-second episodes of the series. The special feature on this disc is a Cowboy Bebop Session #0. Session #0 is a roughly half-hour Cowboy Bebop documentary. The documentary includes stats and information on the main characters, interviews with the animation front liners, the director, the series composer, and the voice actors for Ed, Jet, Spike, and Faye. Also included in the documentary is an "unaired TV episode digest" (which includes "Asteroid Blues," "Gateway Shuffle," "Ballad of Fallen Angels," and "Sympathy for the Devil"). A "music" video for the Cowboy Bebop theme song and a textless version of the ending credits are also included. Tacked on to the end of the documentary is a video for a remix of the Cowboy Bebop theme song (the remix was done by DJ FOOD). At the very end of the documentary, an "information" section is included (it lists the various DVDs, CDs, and video games available for Cowboy Bebop).
I have to say that this disc has one of the best special features included on the remix DVDs. The only real criticism I have to make on it is the fact that I really didn't care for DJ FOOD's remix of the Cowboy Bebop theme song. Outside of that, I have little to complain about.
CRAZY KILLERS AND CRAZY COWBOYS I have to say that this is probably the weakest volume of Cowboy Bebop Remix so far, at least as far as the writing goes. The animation and direction by Shinichiro Watanabe is spot on as usual, but the writing seem to be running out of steam. But still, Cowboy Bebop on a bad day is better than 90% of other anime on a good day!
The first episode follows two storylines as Spike tries to get his Swordfish fixed by an oldtimer mechanic after crashlanding on Earth. Jet and Faye meanwhile are trying to track down some bounties who infect spacecraft with a computer virus and then rob them. Episode 20 is by far the best installment here. Spike happens upon the scene of a killing by the assassin "Mad Pierrot", a cackling creepy psychotic superhuman killer, who murders anyone that sees him at his work, which now includes Spike! You can tell that the staff pulled all the strings on the budget that they could to pay for this awe-inspring 22 minutes of kinetic energy. Things are pretty much downhill from there as Jet receives a mysterious message from an old acquaintance in Episode 21, only to learn that he's dead and someone is trying to nab his young daughter. The episode becomes a bit of a lecture on Feng Shui and becomes boring and trite. "Cowboy Funk" concerns a bored playboy named Andy who wants to be a cowboy, or bounty hunter. He doesn't really have all his marbles, so he takes the term literally, even dressing up like a Wild West cowboy, complete with six shooters and horse! He's such an idiot (Faye says she reminds her of Spike) that he just keeps getting in the way of the Bebop crew capturing the loony "Teddy Bomber", a terrorist who plants explosive Teddy Bears as a protest against society. This episode was ok and I appreciated the humor but it was just a bit over the top for me.
While not the strongest volume in this series, anything Cowboy Bebop is considered classic in my eyes. Bebop is to anime what the Beatles are to music. Innovative, mainstream, pioneering, well-done, classic, and a blueprint for everything after it. I just thought the characters suffered because of the dumb plots in most of these episodes. The 5.1 is worth buying this series over....if you have a 5.1 system. The English dub is THE best dub for a Japanese anime ever. I NEVER listen to English dubs on anime, because this is the only show where the English is actually better than the original Japanese vocal track. This dvd does feature a bonus "episode" entitled "Session #0". Don't worry, this isn't some lost episode. Instead, it is 22 minutes of behind the scenes footage Japanese cast and crew production and interviews along with some music videos set to the anime. This is one of, if not THE greatest shows of all time!
I would also recommend the anime Samurai Champloo.
REMIX-VIDEO QUALITY This is (also) a review of the REMIX VERSIONS. I won't go into the awesomeness of Cowboy Bebop other than to say that it is the best anime series ever, I'd even call it one of the best television shows ever!
While it has been universally noted on various postings about the remix versions that the sound is significantly better than the original sessions, there are multiple varying reviews on the PICTURE QUALITY. Some say there is no difference at all, some say it's a bit better, some say it's a lot better, all say they have "checked" both versions. Well, I took it a step further. I watched both versions side by side on an Avid Nitris Professional video editing system with high definition high resolution (HDHR) monitors and here is the DEFINITIVE ANSWER. There is a difference, they lightened it and did a very slight color correction. Basically, the old versions were a bit dark and some of the detail went unnoticed while the remix versions are lighter and there is more visible detail and color. In terms of viewing expeirience this means that a majority of the scenes look noticibly (if marginally) better. There are certain scenes, however, where the lightness works against it. Some of the more noirish scenes look a bit bleedy. Overall I would say that there is a difference in video quality and that the difference is mostly an improvement. But, even to the die hard fan the difference is negligible.
If you don't own the originals, if they're scratched, if you're a huge fan, if you have an awesome theatre system with good surround, or if you have a crappy small tv and can't see the detail in the image, GET THE REMIX. If not, while they are cool, they're not worth the $30 a pop.
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