Copyright © Sunrise, Inc.

With all the style and pacing of a five-and-dime pulp fiction novel, Bandai's COWBOY BEBOP hit the TV Tokyo airwaves in 1998 like a breath of fresh air. Following the exploits of intergalactic bounty hunters, lackadasical Spike Spiegel and authoritative Jet Black, COWBOY BEBOP was able to distinguish itself from the rest of the nightly anime broadcasts littered with magic girls, soulless sequels and just plain bad shows. Now, AnimeVillage brings the fun and mayhem of COWBOY BEBOP to America.
Available on VHS, with a future DVD release, the domestic version of COWBOY BEBOP is a very nice addition to AnimeVillage's already vastly-expanding lineup of anime. Having already been reviewed twice by EX (first for its original Japanese broadcast, and second as a follow-up to the original Japanese video release), this show brings many tasty elements to the dining table. Action, suspense and comedy, when mixed together well, make for a very fine main course indeed.
Lupinesque Spike's and his partner Jet's frequently hilarious exploits as money-hungry bounty hunters, surfing the seas of space in search of the next big score, carry the main tone for the series. The first volume, entitled "1st Session," contains the first two episodes of the series: "Asteroid Blues," and "Stray Dog Strut." While BEBOP is called a series, it's more of an anthology of almost entirely separate, disjointed episodes. On the surface, Spike and Jet (later to be joined by Faye Valentine and Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky 4th) are just bouncing from episode to episode of "Big Shot," a show for bounty hunters showcasing the latest wanted ads and the scads of money to be had. But underneath is an invisible string connecting all the episodes together, building up to something the viewer does not yet know, or perhaps even suspect, except on a subconscious level.
Perhaps the only detracting point to this otherwise five-star meal is AnimeVillage's choice of font for the subtitles and the almost glaring missteps in placement. The actual subtitle font takes a painstaking amount of effort to read. If you wear glasses, new prescription lenses may be in order after viewing this tape. One enjoyable facet of BEBOP is the blending of different cultures in space as waves of different races take to the stars in search of a better life; resulting in a mish-mosh space culture reminiscent of Filipino Tagalog, or even Ridley Scott's BLADE RUNNER Los Angeles society. Perhaps to reflect this, eyecatch and title screens in Bebop are both in English and Japanese. In the show, while passing through the many gates of intergalatic travel, Spike and Jet are greeted with standardized welcoming vocals in Japanese, English and Cantonese. Why AnimeVillage chooses to "translate" and subtitle the English vocals is beyond me.
Aside from those points, the hit-producing team of SF setting consultant Kawamori Shouji (MACROSS PLUS, ESCAFLOWNE), director Watanabe Shinichiro (MACROSS PLUS) and music composer Kanno Yoko (MACROSS PLUS, ESCAFLOWNE) shows what a little originality from left field can do for a show. So kick back, relax with a plate of Ching Jao Lou Si, and enjoy the show.

Released in North America by AnimeVillage
50 minutes
0801 $24.95
English subtitled
Available now the USA
Where to buy