Cowboy Bebop Collection Box 1 (Animated) (DVD)

The first dvd boxset of cowboy bebop features the first season of the show which includes a dual language version of the first thirteen episodes named after famous songs of the western world as well as songs featured on the show itself which include "sympathy for the devil" and "bohemian rhapsody".

The story follows the lives of five bounty hunters living on an old space trawler called "the bebop". The ...
...ex cop with a prosthetic arm, he is the father figure of the group and seems to be in a constant state of worry and nagging when the others come home late or wounded. The other members include Spike speigal (mid 20s), an ex syndicate member of the red dragon group with a false eye, Faye Valentine (mid 20s) a pro gambler with amnesia who was caught up in a huge space gate accident and chryogenically frozen until three years before she met Spike and ... more

The first dvd boxset of cowboy bebop features the first season of the show which includes a dual language version of the first thirteen episodes named after famous songs of the western world as well as songs featured on the show itself which include "sympathy for the devil" and "bohemian rhapsody".

The story follows the lives of five bounty hunters living on an old space trawler called "the bebop". The owner of the ship is Jet Black (mid 30s) and ex cop with a prosthetic arm, he is the father figure of the group and seems to be in a constant state of worry and nagging when the others come home late or wounded. The other members include Spike speigal (mid 20s), an ex syndicate member of the red dragon group with a false eye, Faye Valentine (mid 20s) a pro gambler with amnesia who was caught up in a huge space gate accident and chryogenically frozen until three years before she met Spike and Jet and Edward(12/13) the most skilled hacker in the solar system and when accompanied by Ein a rescued data dog can break into even the most secure data files.

The anime was made in the late 90s so the CGI computer graphics are mixed with hand drawn and painted cells. This seems to keep the popularity of tradition anime fans as well as the new viewers who are into their special effects and dolby digital sound. The original concept was by Hajime Yadate and his other work includes manga of this series and another anime called The BIG 0 which despite the name is actually all about mecha (giant robots) and has a James bond theme about it.

The music is entirely directed by Yoko Kano a top female music composer celebrated in Japan for her exquisite work on stage and in anime. She usually works closely with the huge band of over fifty calling themselves collectively as the seatbelts. The music ranges from hard core jazz and blue grass to techno and heavy metal throughout the series. Each episode has been painstaking accessed and then had a specific piece of music constructed for it.

The episodes stand alone, only do the last two episodes correlate directly behind each other, each episode contains and original and unique story and plot focusing on the past or current life of one of the characters. The episodes do vary from syndicate gun fights and outer space battles to more comical plots involving all the adult crew members mistaking magic mushrooms for shitake mushrooms and Spike finding an almost identical rival which irritates him so much he forgets about the bounty head and spends the entire episode chasing his doable ganger instead.

There is some violence, blood and scantily clad women in the series, all the protagonists also smoke (excluding Ein and Edward) and there is some drug use and innuendo featured throughout the series. However there are some episodes with absolutely nothing objectionable which everyone can watch and enjoy as it seems a shame to miss out on a show with such a great musical score. I would give the series a 12+ age rating over all though, but there may be some objectionable and controversial themes.

This anime did get me teared up and that really can't be done easily, so it must be doing something right. ( ; 

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