Cowboy Bebop: Complete Series [Blu-ray] [US Import]

Description

NOTICE: The disk DOES NOT have English audio and subtitles. Review: Five Stars - Amazing Review: Quite brilliant. - It's 2071 and humankind has colonised the rocky planets and some of their moons. In this new and dangerous wild west three bounty hunters (cowboys), two with pasts they want to forget and one who can't remember hers, search for the largest bounties to make a living. Always hungry and short of money, they eke out a living aboard the Bebop, a beat-up spaceship that's always breaking down. However their pasts soon begin to catch up with them. Can Spike, Jet and the mysterious Faye Valentine come to terms with their pasts and be the last ones standing. No spoilers. Now almost 25 years old, it's amazing to me how fresh and new this show still feels. With 26 sessions (episodes) to enjoy there is about eleven hours of fabulously cool Manga animation to enjoy. Spike, Jet and Faye are extremely likeable characters and you soon become seriously involved with their individual and combined stories. Each with interesting back stories meshed into each individual session, it soon becomes clear that this is not a story you can hop in and out of, you really need to watch the shows in order and take at least some notice of what is going on. It's a noirish Sam Spade/Maltese Falcon type mystery and each session drops subtle hints and clues as to what is actually going on behind the scenes. Filled with secondary characters to die for like the computer hacker Ed and a genius dog called Ein the combined whole is very nearly a masterpiece. When the last session was over I wanted to rewatch the whole thing again to see how many of those subtle clues I missed, probably most of them. In all honesty this extremely cool but violent animated Science Fiction, Western, Blade Runner like, Manga, mystery mash up with a great Jazz soundtrack shouldn't work, but somehow it does, wonderfully. The main reasons for me were the excellent animation and design, the really quite compelling storyline, the fascinating depth of the characters and the utter lack of political correctness or ideological messaging. It is simply a very cool show designed to entertain uncluttered and unburdened with with any agenda I could see. However parents might want to take note of the rating of this show “15” and realise that this is not for younger kids as it is often extremely graphic in it's portrayal of knife and sword violence. Although as I have said, it's almost a masterpiece, it is not without some problems. Some of the episodes (maybe four) were duds that seemed superfluous to the overall arching story. I suspect these were essentially filler episodes to get the session number up to the agreed twenty six with the producers. Not that they're bad because they are not, but do just feel unnecessary. The editing is sometimes eccentric, especially in the space battle scenes, and poor old Jet does get an awful lot of exposition dialogue explaining the plot. Faye's extremely skimpy and often revealing costume might raise a few eyebrows and if made today would probably be dialled down a bit. However it is a product of it's time and I had no issues with it really as scantily clad females and men mountains are all part of the overall Manga aesthetic. However apart from these few small criticisms the show is almost perfect and kept me watching glued to my tablet. The final two episodes were probably my favourites when the whole complicated back story collides with the present and we are presented with that somewhat ambiguous open ended finale. I suspect the show was left at least partially open for series two that never happened. I've never been a huge fan of Manga to be perfectly honest, I can see the artistry and the appeal, but I was never very interested and it wasn't my cup of tea. However Cowboy Bebop has opened my eyes to what good Manga can be and I will be searching out more in the near future. I understand they made a movie, perhaps I will start there and also give the Netflix live action version a look. The little I have seen looks promising. Quite brilliant, cool characters, immersive story but very violent.