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Cowboy Bebop 1st Session DVD

Review by: Adam "OMEGA" Arnold

Bandai Entertainment serves up the best bounty in all the universe with the release of the 26 episode series Cowboy Bebop on six DVDs, featuring the first five episodes of the series that was Japan's #1 Anime show for 1998. It's a pure steal at $29.99 when compared to other series that are released on eight or more volumes with less episodes per volume.

On the first viewing, the opening sequence, featuring the Tank! theme song, seems to share some similarities with the Gunsmith Cats opening due to the jazzy music and color-skewed slides used. But, it fits the show perfectly. The first four episodes, as to be expected, just set up the story and introduce the characters. The fifth episode takes a look at Spike's background and gives some insights into the scenes pictured in the first few minutes of episode one and the closing credits, which appears with the song The Real Folk Blues sung by Mai Yamane. Though some of the episodes are slow at times, which makes you wonder why the show did so well, the overall plot of the episodes and the action keeps the show flowing nicely. This and the bits of humor help redeem any flaws the episodes might have.

The story follows interstellar bounty hunter Spike Spiegel, his ex-cop partner Jet Black, the queen of hearts Faye Valentine, and the test dog Ein (and appearing later, the hacker Ed) as they ‘bebop' around the universe collecting bounties and debts. All they need to do is watch the latest episode of ‘Big Shot for Bounty Hunters' to learn about the latest most wanted list. Spike might have the right stuff to kick the bounties' butts, but the property damage he causes generally leaves the crew with no money left to have beef in their ‘bell peppers with beef'. Poker, anyone?

The Session 1 DVD features the full-length Tank! Music video clip with scattered scenes from throughout the series and character intros taken right from the Japanese Session 0 preview episode. The interactive menus are particularly interesting because they appear inside a cute Winamp-like menu. Aside from that, the other features are the standard fare of scene selection, language selection, subtitles, anime trailers, and DVD credits.

Finally, this is one of those series you will either love or hate depending on the genres you are into. But, give the series a chance and you might just find it's a unique blending of many concepts with something for everyone.

Review Info File
Title:
Cowboy Bebop 1st Session: Volume One of six Digital Versatile Discs
Format:
Bilingual DVD Episodes 1-5
125 minutes
Production:
Sunrise, Inc.
Bandai Visual Co., Ltd
Bandai Entertainment
Zro Limit Productions
Rating:
A-
Comments:
A great value for a great series. Check it out!
Page 6 - Review 1 ANIMEfringe: May 2000 - Page 7 Page 8 - Review 3
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