I apologize for the lateness of this article. A full month of straight Otakon coverage cut right through the gap between this and the previous article in this series, so that volume 5's entry ended up being postponed over and over again. The next Bebop post should be up relatively soon.

In its penultimate volume, Cowboy Bebop picks up some of the steam that it lost in the previous four episodes. The action is brought back in full swing, as is the great writing that defined the earlier episodes. But most importantly, the stories have more weight to them than the previous volume's episodes.

The first episode, "Wild Horses," is without a doubt the best on the DVD. Its combination of space action, a puzzling enemy, and great side-characters are the things that make people remember Cowboy Bebop long after they watch it. The episode's primary side-character, a young, energetic black mechanic named Miles, is a big fan of the baseball team the Blue Socks, and he religiously listens to their games over the radio. This theme of Miles' love for his radio and his baseball team is strewn throughout the episode, and the way it ties in with the plot that unfolds on the Bebop is pure brilliance. Plus, Bebop surprised me once again with yet another reference to 20th century culture, in the form of a refurbished space shuttle Columbia. It only alluded to until the end, and the revelation is worth quite a gasp.

The two middle episodes, "Pierrot La Fou" and "Boogie Woogie Feng Shui," are fun, but lack in particularly compelling side-characters. The villain of the former is nothing but an insane murderer, though the conclusion of the episode bears Bebop's trademark subtlety – just as Spike kills his enemy, Jet discovers the secret behind him, leading Spike to dismiss Jet's now-meaningless discovery. The latter episode features a weak connection between Jet and a young girl, and does little to progress the characters (though I was very interested in its noir-style narration). Finally, "Cowboy Funk" seems like a simple comedy episode, but in reality it gives us an interesting look at an aggravated Spike who has met someone just a bit too similar to him. As I've come to expect from writer Nobumoto, the hilarious ending ties in a bunch of off-hand comments from earlier in the episode.

I feel the quality ramping up, but where's the story? I haven't seen any sort of central narrative forming yet, so I wonder how the plot will come to a satisfying conclusion in one disc. I've definitely seen it done before, but will Bebop be able to pull it off with such a disjointed story? We'll find out next time!

---

Stop by soon for my continuing analysis and opinions of Cowboy Bebop. I will publish one article for each DVD that I watch, followed by a review of the series as a whole, and possibly even a review of the movie. See you next time!

I'm not sure what to think at this point. I mean, it's certainly good. Great even. But Cowboy Bebop seems to have lost some of its kick by the fourth volume. It's hard to pin down, but it feels almost like the episodes have less significance than they did before. The earlier episodes might have seemed like stand-alone vignettes, but they all had an ending that was important. I felt as if the crew of the Bebop had left their mark on the universe, for better or for worse.

In volume 4, Watanabe and Nobumoto seem to lapse into what I can only describe as a filler arc. While most Naruto fans consider "filler" to be tantamount to "Believe It!" on the Kakashi-sensei Evil Words Scale, I'm not trying to say that these are completely inconsequential episodes that are hastily put together without regard for the main story. I just mean that they predominantly serve as meaningless fun. Two of the episodes are backstory-related, but neither provides any very compelling information, as "Ganymede Elegy" did for Jet or "Ballad of Falling Angels" did for Spike. Another has a twist that ties it into one of the characters' backstories, but it mostly serves as a prolonged joke about twentieth century video formats.

Of course, it bears mentioning that this volume also contains the famous "mushroom episode," titled "Mushroom Samba," which is without a doubt the highlight of the DVD. Unfortunately, this eccentric, frenetic Ed-centered story is, despite its high-energy fun, utterly lacking in any sort of meaningful or satisfying conclusion.

My complaints here may seem harsh, but in reality this DVD is still leaps and bounds above most other anime series. Sure, it might be the weakest volume of Cowboy Bebop so far, but that's sort of like being the dumbest person at MIT.

---

Stop by soon for my continuing analysis and opinions of Cowboy Bebop. I will publish one article for each DVD that I watch, followed by a review of the series as a whole, and possibly even a review of the movie. See you next time!

The fun continues as I delve further into the classic nineties anime series Cowboy Bebop. In volume 3, I began to notice something very fascinating about Bebop. Of course, it is clear to any first-time viewer that Yoko Kanno's distinctive music pays tribute to a wide variety of musical styles. One episode, titled "Asteroid Blues," will feature the bouncing beats of the blues, while another, titled "Heavy Metal Queen," will showcase rocking metal music. But what really makes Cowboy Bebop fascinating is that is extends this allegiance to a variety of styles, incorporating it into film-making genres as well.

The first episode on the disc, "Toys in the Attic," is pure horror-movie, with its sparse depictions of a mysterious creature that poisons the ship's crew members one by one, until Spike must face it alone. The next two episodes form a distinct arc revolving around the backstory of Spike and his longtime rival Vicious. In this story, titled "Jupiter Jazz," Kanno focuses her attention on the slow, contemplative sounds of jazz, while director Shinichiro Watanabe and writer Keiko Nobumoto create a film-noir narrative full of sin and suffering. Finally, episode fourteen, "Bohemian Rhapsody," imitates the over-the-top pastiche that is Queen's famous song. The kinetic music serves as a strange – but not altogether inappropriate – backdrop to the light-hearted crime drama that unfolds in the plot.

Cowboy Bebop is never formulaic because, despite its name, it is only occasionally about either cowboys or bebop music. Instead, the show blends different styles of music and film to create an entirely new experience in every episode. Such an approach remains groundbreaking to this very day – not just in anime, but in television production in general.

Stop by soon for my continuing analysis and opinions of Cowboy Bebop. I will publish one article for each DVD that I watch, followed by a review of the series as a whole, and possibly even a review of the movie. See you next time!

I'm finally watching Cowboy Bebop. I know, I know, it's been a long time coming, but I hadn't picked up the DVDs until a recent 50% off sale in the Best Buy anime department spurred me to grab the classic late-90's anime series. And so far, I love it.

The first two volumes serve primarily to introduce viewers to the characters and standard situations that will presumably define much of the rest of the series, which revolves around a crew of misfits and bounty hunters on the spaceship "Bebop." By the end of the second volume, there has been at least one episode devoted to each member of the Bebop's crew – laid-back bounty hunter Spike, his calm, collected partner Jet, beautiful thief Faye, crazy super-hacker girl Ed, and cyber-dog Ein.

What has astounded me so far about Bebop is that Keiko Nobumoto and Shinichiro Watanabe's screenplay does something that I so rarely see in anime: episodic storywriting. The medium is often defined by its linear storylines, but it can be truly refreshing when a show works fully-formed stand-alone episodes into that framework. That's not to say that Bebop is nonlinear – it is certainly building toward something, but each little half-hour vignette also has its own set of characters whose (extremely well-crafted) interactions lead to a satisfying conclusion that stands independent from the central story.

The animation (part cel, part digital) looks incredible for its time, except for a couple moments on the second disc when it looks like some people in both the art and animation departments took a nap for the day. These few scenes are missing shading or lighting, show specks in the cels (characteristic of earlier eras of anime), or have choppy cel transitions, but then again, these are the exceptions to the rule.

Stop by Ani-Gamers again soon for my next four articles, in which I will briefly chronicle my disc-by-disc journey through this classic anime series.

We've all heard the rumors since spring/summer 2008, so it shouldn't come as too much of a surprise that Fox is making a live-action film adaptation of anime classic Cowboy Bebop. However, the part that has caught a lot of people by surprise is the official casting of Keanu Reeves in the lead part of Spike Spiegel.

What's really interesting is that, despite the casting of Reeves (who doesn't have the most sparkling acting resume), most of the upper-level staff who worked on the original anime will be producers and consultants for the Hollywood film. Cowboy Bebop director Shinichiro Watanabe, Sunrise President Kenji Uchida, and original script supervisor Keiko Nobumoto are associate producers on the film, while animation studio Sunrise and their former producer Masahiko Minami will be production consultants.

While we all know the potential of Hollywood studios to ruin beloved franchises, the team selected to help with production seems like they can really steer the film in the right direction. Reeves is of course the most pressing problem for most anime fans, but his casting isn't a kiss of death on the film – after all, The Matrix was great, and Keanu was front and center for that one. If he is directed well, and the film is made with a love for the original anime intact, this can truly be a step in the right direction for Hollywood anime adaptations. That said, I remain cautiously optimistic about it. What do you guys think?

[via Anime News Network]

According to iFMagazine.com, Twentieth Century Fox has signed the rights for a live-action film adaptation of the 90's sci-fi anime classic Cowboy Bebop. Producer Erwin Stoff discussed his approach to the film, making sure to stress his "enormous admiration for [Bebop's] creators" and note that "our first and foremost concern is going to be a real degree of faithfulness to the tone of the movie."

In case you haven't been paying attention, that brings the tally of anime-turned-Hollywood-movies to six: Akira, Astro Boy, Cowboy Bebop, Dragonball, Ghost in the Shell, and Speed Racer. Think you can deal with Hollywood's take on all of these classic franchises? In my opinion, any new attention for our favorite anime is good attention, and for that reason, I'm glad to see a fantastic title like Bebop brought to the big screen. If the American moviegoing public is lucky, this one might even be good.

What do you think about another anime being brought to American movie screens? Sound off in the comments for this post.

[via Anime News Network]