Ed Wong – THE REVIEW MONSTER

Funnily enough, I actually watched the Cowboy Bebop Movie before I saw the TV show.
It was on a trip with a youth group a few years ago when I first saw it and I remember really enjoying the film.
I did not learn about the show the movie was based on until recently.
So, after reviewing that, I decided that it was only natural to review the movie but I wondered if it would still hold up because it had been a few years since I had seen it.
But I was glad to find that the movie was just as great as I found it be when I first watched it two years ago.
The movie apparently takes place sometime in between episodes 22 and 23 and follows bounty hunters Spike, Jet, Faye and Ed as they hunt down a terrorist with a $300 million bounty on him.

cowboy-bebeop-crew — The Bebop crew’s reaction to the $300 million bounty placed on the terrorist.

The film is very well animated and acted by its English dub cast (I have not watched the Japanese version yet), but it is the music by Yoko Kanno that really steals the show with both jazzy and haunting use of music.
One of the more interesting elements that the movie introduces is its new characters.
There is Elektra, a soldier tasked with hunting the terrorist and has a personal connection to him, Lee, a nerdy hacker who has always wanted to try being a terrorist and the terrorist himself, Vincent.
I really liked Vincent as a villain because he was really threatening, had a compelling backstory and not to mention the fact that his voice just sends chills down your spine.

Vincent is both a compelling and creepy villain, who can also be sympathetic at times.

Another thing I really liked about the movie was its action sequences.
Even though they were animated they were well choreographed and a joy to watch.
The fights in the show sometimes felt like they should have gone on for longer but could not because of the short run time of each episode so these extended fights were really great to see.
As for negatives, I suppose the one problem I had was that the character of Jet does not really do much fighting.
He just stands around and gives a few speeches, but that is not a huge flaw that overshadows anything.
Overall, The Cowboy Bebop Movie is fantastic.
I think I even enjoyed the movie more than I did the actual show, not to say the show was not great or anything.
I loved The Cowboy Bebop movie just as much as I did two years ago and any fan of the show should watch it.

Of all the anime I have heard of, Cowboy Bebop has garnered the most praise.
I have heard people call it one of the best anime of all time so I had to check it out and see if it was worth all the praise.
And I can definitely say, Cowboy Bebop is a fantastic anime.
The series is set in 2071 with four bounty hunters Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine and Ed Wong, (by the way Ed is a girl, I know it is a boy’s name) who chase their bounties across the galaxy, on their ship the Bebop.

The show is more than just about them hunting bounties though because each of the Bebop crew has a complex past that is often explored in great detail.
Spike and Jet’s pasts were both greatly explored throughout the series and I really got a sense of who they were.
Even characters who seemed one note at first were explored in very complex ways in later episodes.
For example, Faye did not seem to be that complex at first, seeming like a damsel in distress type character and just eye candy, however, as the show went on, she was developed just as well as Spike and Jet.
The characters’ backgrounds are explored in some fantastic episodes like Ballad of Fallen Angels, Jupiter Jazz part one and two, Speak Like a Child and the two part finale The Real Folk Blues.
Even episodes that do not focus on the main story or the characters’ pasts, like Sympathy for the Devil and Pierrot le Fou are fantastic.

sympathy for the devil — Sympathy for the Devil is one of the best episodes of the show as it plays out rather unpredictably.

These episodes are complimented by the incredible music composed by Yoko Kanno, which is now one of my favourite scores in any TV series.
You will find yourself humming along to the jazzy intro every time it comes up.
But, even though there are so many great things about Cowboy Bebop, there are a few flaws.
As I mentioned earlier, the character of Faye initially only seemed to be a damsel in distress character, constantly needing to be saved by Spike and Jet, whose only purpose in the story was to be eye candy.
This made Faye’s character hard for me to get into initially but I will admit when they started getting into her backstory she got a lot more interesting.
Yes, she still got captured a lot but at least she was compelling.
Another thing I had an issue with was the final two episodes.
Even though these were fantastic episodes they happened too quickly.
It felt like instead of being two parts the final episodes should have had three or four parts instead.
Finally, there were a few episodes that just did not work for me.
In my opinion, the worst episode of the show was Toys in the Attic.

toys in the attic — Jet keels over in Toy’s in the Attic, a plot point that is never resolved.

This episode was basically one big Alien reference and had almost not resolution to one of the main plot threads.
Still, there were so many fantastic episodes that easily overshadowed the weaker ones.
Overall, I can definitely see why Cowboy Bebop is considered one of the best anime of all time.
For me, it just falls a little short of being completely perfect but that does not change the fact that it is still a great watch.
It has compelling characters, episodes and music, which will make you have a whole new appreciation for jazz.

Tag: Ed Wong

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, Review.

Three, two, one, let’s jam with Cowboy Bebop.