8.9 | / 10 |
Users | 3.7 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.1 |
The year 2071 A.D. That future is now. Driven out of their terrestrial eden, humanity chose the stars as the final frontier. With the section-by-section collapse of the former nations a mixed jumble of races and peoples came. They spread to the stars, taking with them the now confused concepts of freedom, violence, illegality and love, where new rules and a new generation of outlaws came into being. People referred to them as Cowboys. Meet Spike and Jet, a drifter and a retired cyborg cop who have started a bounty hunting operation. In the converted ship The Bebop, Spike and Jet search the galaxy for criminals with bounties on their heads. They meet a lot of unusual characters, including the unusually intelligent dog, Ein, and the voluptuous and vexing femme fatale, Faye Valentine.
Starring: Kôichi Yamadera, Unshô Ishizuka, Megumi Hayashibara, Aoi Tada, Isshin ChibaForeign | 100% |
Anime | 90% |
Sci-Fi | 34% |
Action | 26% |
Adventure | 17% |
Comedy | 9% |
Western | 6% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.34:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.33:1
English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
Japanese: Dolby TrueHD 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Four-disc set (4 BDs)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
Should Steve Miller have sued for copyright infringement? After all, on Miller’s iconic 1969 album Brave New World, the guitarist and vocalist introduced the world to the idea of a “Space Cowboy,” at least with that particular verbiage, even if the general concept of a rootin’ tootin’ good guy astronaut had been around from the glory days of Flash Gordon. Of course, Miller himself purloined a certain well known Beatles riff for “Space Cowboy,” so maybe he didn’t want to tempt fate by putting the creative staff behind the legendary anime Cowboy Bebop on notice. Spike Spiegel may not be a joker and/or a midnight toker, but otherwise falls squarely into space cowboy territory, in the anime’s future semi-dystopian world where bounty hunters corral the vast reaches of the universe to bring various criminals to justice. The basic setup of Cowboy Bebop is as fundamentally simple as the rest of this intriguing series is satisfyingly complex, from both a character standpoint and (perhaps especially) a design aesthetic perspective. Cowboy Bebop is regularly cited as one of “those” anime—the kind of rare show that cuts through the pop culture clutter to not just take hold of the public’s imagination, but to help define its art form for that public. The show is a riot of influences and ideas, but remains uniquely organic, offering both bristling action and actual character development in about equal doses. Perhaps surprisingly given its overall integrated nature, Cowboy Bebop was the result of creation by committee, in this case the vaunted Sunrise production house creative staff who banded together under the collective pseudonym Hajime Yatate. The fact that so many chefs were involved may help to explain the vast array of influences and concepts that waft through the series virtually from the first moment, but how these anime cooks managed to make such a coherent recipe out of such disparate ingredients might be more the stuff of magic, or at least Art, than something that sprang from some intentionally rational impetus. A lot has been said and written about Cowboy Bebop in the years since it first started airing, but in essence the entire commentary stream about this series can be boiled down to a simple “Cowboy Bebop is cool.”
Cowboy Bebop: The Complete Series is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of FUNimation Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.34:1. There's both good news and perhaps a little bad news with regard to this new high definition presentation, with the good news category starting with the fact of that very aspect ratio. FUNimation has rightly decided not to "Dragon Ball Z - ize" this release by cropping it to 1.78:1. (On an admitted tangent, for all the furor and fan ire that the "revised" DBZ engendered, it's important to remember that FUNimation did start to release the series in its original version, and I simply can't imagine that if the market had been there for the show in that form, the label wouldn't have continued with it.) Interestingly, because of what were apparently SD video compositing issues from those aforementioned effects (dealing with NTSC standards), the British Blu-ray of Cowboy Bebop was presented in an interlaced format, but this is progressive. That said, there are occasional line stability anomalies in evidence, including very minor shimmer at times. The palette is really lustrous, beautifully saturated and one of the high definition presentation's best elements. There is one similarity to FUNimation's Dragon Ball Z fiasco, and that's what appears to be some high frequency filtering. It's nowhere near as severe as seen in Dragon Ball Z, but grain is not quite at the levels some might expect (or hope for). It's especially notable that grain never really spikes in opticals when it should, perhaps an indication that some sort of algorithm has been applied. That said, there is a visible layer of fine grain in evidence, but it's very fine. It's also worth mentioning that there is still considerable depth to the image, and no issues with smearing line detail and the like. There are some minor banding issues on display from time to time. Some reports surrounding the British release mentioned pixellation issues on that release, but I noticed none in preparing for this review.
Cowboy Bebop: The Complete Series is one of those rare anime where both language versions offer considerable allure, and the good news is that both the original Japanese language version and the excellent English dub are presented in Dolby TrueHD 5.1. The mixes are virtually identical other than the voicework, with some awesome LFE and very nice separation and surround embedding of Yoko Kanno's absolutely incredible score. The show can get very noisy and/or sonically busy at times, but prioritization is first rate, with dialogue presented very cleanly and clearly. Dynamic range is extremely wide, fidelity is excellent, and there are no issues to report.
Disc One:
Anime fans are getting an early Christmas present this year with one of the most eagerly sought after anime releases in recent memory. My descriptive powers are probably woefully inadequate in being able to detail how manically enjoyable this series typically is, with a whiplash style that never feels like an assault, but more like a just slightly out of control roller coaster ride. While this release isn't absolutely perfect, it's generally excellent from both a technical standpoint as well as its supplementary package, which is exceptional. Highly recommended.
Premium Edition
1998-1999
Premium Edition
1998-1999
San Diego Comic-Con 2015 Exclusive With Special Art Wrap / カウボーイビバップ
1998-1999
1998-1999
Special Edition | カウボーイビバップ
1998-1999
Limited Edition | カウボーイビバップ
1998-1999
1998-1999
Classics
2014
星方武侠アウトロースター
1998
10th Anniversary Edition
2007-2009
1995-1996
Evangerion shin gekijôban: Ha
2009
Classics / サムライチャンプルー
2004-2005
2010
Evangerion shin gekijôban: Kyu
2012
Suzumiya Haruhi no shôshitsu / 涼宮ハルヒの消失
2010
キルラキル
2013-2014
コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュ / コードギアス 反逆のルルーシュR2
2006-2008
Classics / フリクリ
2000-2001
Tengen toppa guren ragan: Guren hen
2008
Essentials / 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱
2006-2009
カウボーイビバップ 天国の扉
2001
2005
Shin Seiki Evangelion Gekijō-ban The End of Evangelion: Air/Magokoro o, Kimi ni
1997
鋼の錬金術師 FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST
2009
Evangerion shin gekijôban: Jo
2007
ワンパンマン
2015