Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

Let me start off by saying this anime is better than Dragon Ball Z, One Piece, Full Metal Alchemist, or any other popular anime. Cowboy Bebop is arguably one of the best animes ever created and is my personal favorite. It may not have the long battle scenes like DBZ does or the fanbase Bleach has, but trust me, this one is worth watching.

Okay, so let me start out by giving you a brief synopsis of the anime itself before we hit the movie review. Cowboy Bebop takes place in the year 2071, where space travel is a common thing, humans live on planets such as Mars and Venus, and Earth is pretty much barren. With all of these planets, criminal activity is common, so bounty hunters are also common. The story revolves around 4 characters: Spike, Jet, Faye, and Edward. Spike, Jet, and Faye are all bounty hunters trying to make it the galaxy, while Ed is a computer hacker prodigy who helps them along their journeys. Each episode they try to obtain a new bounty for a new criminal. The show has the perfect amount of action, humor, and story packed into a 20 minute episode. Plus, the series is only 26 episodes, so one could breeze through it in no time.

Alright so back to Cowboy Bebop: The Movie. This movie is supposed to take place between episodes 23 and 24, just in case you wanted to watch it in chronological order. The story takes place when the gang is looking for an easy bounty when something bad happens. In the truck the criminal was supposed to be in, a strange man comes out and the truck explodes, spreading a toxic virus all over Alma City, located on Mars. Faye sees this all happen, including the perpetrator himself, and they all find out that the bounty on this criminal is worth 300 million wulongs (or currency). Their mission is to find and capture this man alive, and each character tries to get information their own way. It's rather cool to see each character try to put the puzzle together themselves, and all eventually come together at the end. I'm not going to spoil the entire plot for you, but it leaves you hanging on the edge or your seat. And if you really want a twist of events, watch after the credits.

This film focuses on the good vs. evil theme. Although implied in the film bounty hunters are not supposed to be good or evil, they take the good side when Vincent, the criminal, is evil. The gang does whatever they can to stop this mad man and Vincent will do whatever he can to wreck more havoc on humanity. This film also contains a man vs. himself theme through Vincent. Vincent has to determine whether or not he is dead and he is dreaming, or if he is actually alive. This can be interpreted in a metaphorical sense and a physical sense. Either way, a great deal of moral can be taken out of it.

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie. At first, I thought to myself "Wow, this is a 2 hour long episode of Cowboy Bebop". But no. Its way more than that. It's a thrill that I thoroughly enjoyed and got more out of it than any episode. The plot was great, the characters are fantastic (as always. Seriously Spike could be the best character in any anime), and not to mention the music (or at least the jazz) is fantastic. Overall, I give this an 8/10.

I highly encourage any of you to watch this or the anime series. Don't be turned off by the fact that it's an anime. This show is seriously badass.