A nice solid review of a series which I regard very highly. Nice to see a positive review without being fanboyish ^^ .
Cowboy Bebop tv Review
In the semi-distant future, bounty hunters have become a major reality. Cowboy Bebop follows the crazy antics of two bounty hunters named Spike Spiegel and Jet Black. Throughout the anime they come across many odd faces of bounties and even some friends.
By the middle of the series, the Bebop - the ship Jet owns as an HQ for his team - is filled not only with Jet and Spike, but Faye Valentine, a beautifully dangerous bounty hunter, and Ed, a crazy 9-year-old tomboy master hacker. Throughout the 26 episodes and one movie (that takes place between episodes 24 and 25) the Bebop crew go through many bounties and crazy adventures just to scrounge around for some type of income to keep them alive.
Bebop is an anime for the people who love comedy mixed with great action and drama.
Story & Characters
The story of Cowboy Bebop begins sooo simply. Just a couple of bounty hunters with a checkered past and a need for money and food. Then another bounty hunter with commen interest is found. We now know the crew as: The Mysterious Spike, The old one or Jet and of course that seductrees we all know, Faye. After finding Faye the crew goes after a bounty and all they get is what they are told is just another Welshi Corgi dog. Little does the crew know that the dog is actually a super smart 'Data-Dog'. Then the crew starts getting VERY angry with one another because of all their failures and that every bounty they find either is worth nothing, gets away or the entire crew goes after one bounty! Then the come across a very a very big yet young problem. A genius hacker named Ed begins to mess with the crew. But eventually joins them. At first Ed (who is actually a girl) is very quiet. Soon she does begin to talk more. Ed is also the only one who knows, besides the government, that the crew's 'Data-Dog', Ein, is a 'Data-Dog'. Soon we learn that Jet was once a somewhat sucessful, stable detective. The crew also learns that Spike was part of the Red-Dragon Syndicate and lost an eye to a more elusive character in the story, Vicious. We also learn Faye was victim to a major accident and was frozen until a cure could be administered. But when she awakes she lost ALL her memory from before she was frozen and is in SERIOUS debt (meaning about MILLIONS of Woolongs, Woolongs being their currency). Then we learn about Spike's one and only love, Julia. Julia's part in the story is breif but very effective. Julia dies when Spike begins to go after Vicious and the Red-Dragon Syndicate itself in the 2-part finale. Spike is sucessful in killing Vicious, but dies soon after. The last scene in Cowboy Bebop is Spike, almost dead, holding his hand out, like a gun, and then he says "Bang." Then collapses due to blodd loss and pain. And so ends the story of Cowboy Bebop.
Rating:
Art
The art in Cowboy Bebop is definately average. Something you'd expect from an anime made in 96', I believe it was. The art is similar to that of the fan-fav: Fooly Cooly. The art improved greatly for special scenes such as: close-ups, space scenes and chase scenes. Well that's in my opinion. I beleive the artists for this show wanted to make certain things special so they took longer on certain detail, such as things I just mentioned. There are many websites you can find the art on. Even here! Some folk here actually made some art that has an uncanny look to that of the original! I personally like the art quite a lot. I give it a six because I was looking at it like many people would compared to some anime today.
Rating:
Sound
Unfortunately for me, I have'nt heard the entire soundtrack but, I've seen every episode and I know the music they play well. The opening and ending songs were done by a band called Rayzd. The opening, Tank, is my favorite song on the soundtrack. Tank is that jazzy opening done by the band I mentioned earlier. The Real Folk Blue's, the ending song, is slightly more lethargic so it goes well with the end of the series. Other music they played was either: 'Action music', meaning it was faster and at some points louder, and just 'Normal music', meaning it went at a slower pace and was usually not many instruments.
Rating:
Presentation
Cowboy Bebop is very original. I have not found another show of it's kind that came before it. Well a space-based show did come out before Cowboy Bebop. But it's not about bounty hunting in space. It's really old too. Really old. The humor was very advanced, when there even WAS humor that is, and was meant for a older audience that could handle it properly. I found some scenes funny but only very few. It's very enjoyable to watch. I could'nt turn off the T.V. while it was on because the show's are very involving. I found the shows can take you into these characters. These characters are just average folk. They're not very happy, they haven't much money. They act truely like we do. We being many Americans today. They feel and not to mention deal pain as well! They have emotions to an extent which does not amaze me since most anime now have emotions as a basic thing that must be added. But back then anime was relatively new to America and some American animators were easily amazed at how the whole series was presented so nicely. And finally there is no cowboy Bebop video game I am aware of. This ends my review.
Rating:
Final Verdict
7.1667 (above average)
Reviewed by PwnOXz0r, Jun 21, 2005
Comments
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Aa-chan Jun 21, 2005
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Spystreak Retired Moderator Jun 21, 2005
Nice review. Proves you know your stuff but I would have given the art al least a 7. Hey that's just me. Overall great review.
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BGHughes Banned Member Jun 23, 2005
i agree with ya review but not the score ya gave the story it is better then that :)
but thats me -
Firefly Jun 23, 2005
i agree with most points, but under Art; u say it's 'average'. I think that the scenes and background design may of been ordinary, also like u said the special areas r well done... but the character design is probably the most well distinguished out of many anime series.
Even tho it is all just our opinon. :P
However I don't think the art compared to more modern anime is poor or even less interesting, it's style is something unique and a very... a good series to watch if u truly appriciate anime. -
hmoviesfan Jul 08, 2005
The art deserves a better rating. More like 7 or 8, but the rest are rated well in my eyes. I think Cowboy Bebop deserves an extra point in the overall just cause of the amazing ending. One of the best endings I've seen.
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AniDemon Jul 23, 2005
good review but needed a little more
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fuuiin Aug 04, 2005
I liked the characters the best in Cowboy Beebop. I wished some of the character's background stories were developed more but that's just me wanting see a longer series. But then that might also take away from the whole structure, so I don't know, it's a fine balance. Definitely still one of my most favorite series.
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phantazm Aug 09, 2005
I expected the art rating to be a little higher though... but then again, i'm not the one doing the review. Despite its somewhat childish title, Cowboy Bebop has a mature storyline and its characters have depth. An unforgettable series. Too bad the ending has already been concluded. I mean, what would Cowboy Bebop be without Spike?
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Acyx Aug 31, 2005
When it says "realistic fighting physics" for the initial description, it's wrong. Fusion-age ships can only fly like rockets, not banking and turning like such. Otherwise, yes, this is a good anime, although the art rating does deserve a bit higher in comparison to something truly average in artwork, like Dragonball Z or Yu-Yu Hakusho.
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jaimoto81 Sep 01, 2005
Heyyy,....! I Strongly recommend the SOundTrack! Is very good! The Best Thing of Cowboy Bebop! The Music is very important in this series! (The Name BeBop comes from the Jazz! the Rithm of Charlie Parker and other important Jazz Players) ..! And includes many music genres..!
So..! you must listen! and lsiten very well to rate de sound!
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cagalli1543 Oct 12, 2005
The series is very good. I want to become a bounty hunter. ^_-
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Koenken Oct 18, 2005
Nice review. I myself would of rated the story, sound and art higher.
Although, I have not seen all of the show.
It is great to watch and easy to get involed in the story.
A little bit of a spoiler at the end of talking about the story.
I think that will bug some people.
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Kan-tastic Aug 31, 2008
Bad review. Calling the art 'average' proves this point.
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Bonafide23 Jul 15, 2009
great
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Sanisa Feb 24, 2010
Thanks for the review! Nice ^__^
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UberDog Mar 23, 2015
A bit simple, but not bad, good review.
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