Cowboy Bebop Highly recommended

Publisher
BEEZ
Director
Shinichiro Watanabe
Production
Bandai, Sunrise
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
26 episodes
Year
1998

Cowboy Bebop Volume 5

By Joseph (Joe) Wood
14th Jun 05

Cowboy Bebop volume five is the penultimate volume of this highly popular and outstanding series. Four more top-notch episodes continue to present Bebop’s unique mix of action, comedy and characterisation.

Episode nineteen entitled Wild Horses sees Spike return to have his Swordfish repaired, whilst the other crew members of the Bebop attempt to track down a group of space pirates. However it seems they may have bitten off more than they can chew as the Bebop is infected with a computer virus. Spike has to step into save them only to wind up in trouble himself. Pierrot Le Fou, episode twenty is probably the most atmospheric and terrifying episode of Bebop yet. Spike accidentally stumbles across Pierrot Le Fou, a psychopathic killer in the midst of his latest hunt. Pierrot attacks Spike, who only barely manages to escape from the deranged madman, on whom bullets seem to have no effect. Badly injured Spike is sent an invitation to a “party” which results in a deadly showdown between himself and the supernatural Le Fou. Boogie-Woogie Feng-Shui sees Jet receive a mysterious message from an old friend, who seems to have died shortly after. At the graveyard Jet encounters his friend’s daughter who requests his help in tracking down the Sun Stone, and protecting her from a group of mysterious attackers. Jet agrees to help, but he seems to be going through an awful lot of trouble for this young girl. Cowboy Funk the last episode on this disc is a laugh out loud riot. Spike and the other members of the Bebop crew are on the hunt for the Teddy Bomber…however another bounty hunter the Cowboy Andy (and his horse) is also after the same target. Spike and Andy take a distinctive dislike to one another; despite the fact the others think they are similar, and this begins a tail of bitter rivalry as one constantly tries to outperform the other.

Volume five contains some particularly weak episodes when compared to the rest of the series. Both “Wild Horses” and “Boogie-Woogie Feng-Shui” suffer from being rather dull, however “Pierrot Le Fou” and “Cowboy Funk” make up for this in being exceptionally good (specifically “Pierrot Le Fou” which could warrant the purchase of this volume on it’s own). Normally having reached this far in a twenty-six episode series with a rather minimal story development, I would probably complain about the fact. However in Bebop I haven’t even noticed, in fact it’s shocking to find that the end of the series is in sight.

The animation for most of the episodes on this disc is just what you’d come to expect from this series so far, with an exception of the “Pierrot Le Fou” episode. This episode uses fair amount of CGI, and it’s also one of the more bloody episodes of Bebop, this (in addition to the music, which is still superb on all the episodes) gives the episode a really menacing feel.

Cowboy Bebop volume five has a real mixed bag of episodes, the worst being some of the worst in the series thus far, yet the best being some of the best. The Bebop series still is an essential title even in this late stage.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: English, Japanese with English subtitles, trailers.

Release information: Publisher: Beez Released: May 30, 2005

Notes: Once again there isn't anything in the extras department, but when a series is as good as this you don't really need them, but they would be nice!

-- Joseph (Joe) Wood 14th Jun 05

Cowboy Bebop Images