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 Remix DVD V.2

By David Rasmussen
30th Dec 05

Space. That vast darkness just beyond our world which begs to be explored… allegedly.
We have two space related titles to review, now and coming up, both of which should make for most interesting stocking stuffers for Christmas. Cowboy Bebop Remix and Planetes.
Since the last time we’ve checked in with Cowboy Bebop Remix things have happened in the cosmos that are worth noting. A tenth planet, Xena, has been discovered. And this planet has a moon, named Gabriella… whether or not the tenth planet and it’s moon are having a “special” relationship, however, is something known only between the worlds themselves and NASA (and NASA is not saying).
Pluto’s one planetoid moon has been discovered to be, in fact, three (if what I heard recently is true).
A new mission to explore Venus is about to kick off, another millionaire took the trip up to see the sights on the International Space Station (with the Russians threatening to leave him in space for some reason unless the US Government paid for his return), and China’s been up up and away launching themselves headlong into space and (hopefully) triggering a new “space race” that revitalizes the exploration of the great above and beyond! That and then there’s the other wacky millionaire working up the prospects about passenger airliners traveling above the Earth’s atmosphere with civilian passengers. Yeah. I see a big BREAKING NEWS tragedy in the works already, don’t you!?

But this doesn’t look at the problems of space debris (that’s next time with my review of must have Planetes DVD V. 2), this is the return of one of the best Animes I’ve seen to date (Cowboy Bebop Remix).
What was one of the hottest tickets of the past returns as one of the hottest tickets of 2005, now available in 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound! However will it hold up as must have material for not only for new fans but old fans who may have already bought the first round of Cowboy Bebop DVDs? Let’s find out!

Volume 2
Let’s go right into it! My favorite episodes of Volume 2!

Episode 6 - Sympathy for the Devil
How can a simple bounty pick-up turn out so wrong? Spike and the gang were after one guy, only he ends up dead and the one responsible is a wheelchair bound guy and a kid who plays the blues. But as you might have guessed things are not what they seem, especially since it looks like the kid (who is not really a kid) shot the guy in question and he’s… eck… if there is an episode (or two) that fit the pre-requisite of being a Halloween episode this might be one of them. Creepy.
NOTE - If you remember not seeing this the first time Cowboy Bebop showed on Cartoon Network way back in the day it’s not because you were suffering from Big O induced amnesia! This episode, and “Waltz for Venus” (if I remember correctly) were bumped from the Cartoon Network schedule in the aftermath of 9-11 and didn’t show on TV until sometime later, if memory served me correctly.

Episode 7 - Heavy Metal Queen
What does a space truck drivin’, heavy metal lovin’ woman and her cat have to do with the pursuit of a bounty head named Decker (no relation to Jonathan Frake’s Decker, the Decker whose actor ate up scenery in his giant ice cream cone of death death scene, or the Decker who played the ice cream cone of death death Decker’s son but who is now a preacher on the show 7th Heaven)? Not much I think but you’ll see how the connection fits here. As for Decker? Ladies and gentlemen, meet Decker, unstable explosives “expert” and the Woody Allen of space… only without the whole marrying of his adopted daughter from Asia thing mind you. All you need to know is that it’s a good episode. Nuff said.

Episode 8 - Waltz for Venus
The second episode that was cut from the original first run on Cartoon Network post 9-11, again if memory serves me correctly.
The gang has hit Venus and ended up becoming involved in the case of a strangely appealing “courier” who is delivering something but has plans of his own (for all the right reasons). He somehow gets Spike to help him, and becomes a favorite of the fans due to his bright shining personality… you just know he’s not going to make it out of this episode alive from his so appealing upbeat attitude and fan appeal, you just know it.
You should have been more dreary, dude! At least you would have survived to see the credits roll!

Episode 9 - Jamming With Edward
Alright! It’s the long awaited first appearance of Radical Ed! Are you happy? Are you pleased? Are you just cheery with this? I am. The team make landfall on a ruined Earth and end up getting caught up in a bounty hunt for a hacker who took up planetary manga-doodle by redrawing the Nazca Lines in South America via the use of powerful tow-lasers. And the rest, as they say, is history.
(I would have introduced Radical Ed by singing a variant of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer but the Editors thought that was sacrilegious, that and Ed wasn’t forbidden to play any hacker games).

Episode 10 - Ganymede Elegy
I’ll wrap this up here, but in short if you wanted to know abit about the mysterious past of Jet (who is NOT related to that other Jet who is the whiney DinoBreaker rider from D.I.C.E.) then here you go! There are a few episodes that focuses on our man Jet here, and they’re all good (unlike Radical Ed who only has ONE good focus episode to her name besides her first appearance episode, which you’ll see coming up soon).
Otherwise that, as they say, is that. Breakdown time.

Cowboy Bebop Remix Breakdown the 2nd
What’s Hot?
What isn’t hot? Second verse same as the first, Cowboy Bebop Remix is a solid re-release of everyone’s favorite BANDAI sci-fi romp of a few years back. Now out with 5.1 Dolby Digital Audio option you can now enjoy this all the more. If you are a new fan just getting into Bebop (and why wouldn’t you since it’s all good with the Bebop) then this is as good a time as any to get into the series with this brand new re-release. If you are a die hard fan who loved the series, but missed the first round of DVD releases then (again) this is going to be for you…

What’s Not?
HOWEVER it seems BANDAI shoots short this time out and it falls abit shy of my expectations in terms of recommendations towards old school fans who already have the first set of DVDs. Why? Because the Extras this time out are painfully small! In fact there’s only one extra to speak of, a commentary by Wendee Lee (Faye) and ADR Producer Yutaka Maseba for Episode 10 (Ganymede Elegy) and that’s it!
The reason I was so hyped in all ways for the last one was because the last DVD had a lot of extras, this one (however) skimps and risks losing the interest of those who already own the DVDs already since (other than the addition of the 5.1 Dolby Digital thing) there isn’t enough here to justify rebuying the same episodes all over again. Sure, you might have to if you watched the previous DVD to death but without a stronger offering of extras there is just no justification for fans who already own the previous Cowboy Bebop DVD release to buy this one (short of wanting to listen to it on their 5.1 Dolby Digital Sound system which you may or may not own).

Moments to Remember?
(holds up case)… this is becoming old, isn’t it? But if it worked the last few times… OK, so it’s not working but you get the point. This is good, all good, very good, enjoy.

What to Ignore?
What the heck happened in terms of the extras! They were so plentiful with Cowboy Bebop Remix V. 1, now look at it! One extra?!? You can’t expect old fans who already have the first DVD (or the original DVD Collector’s set) to plunk down more money on these Remixes on just the additional audio track and one extra! These days fans have to be more frugal with their budgets, what with everyday expenses like gas and so forth costing more and more, and I can’t really recommend this if you already own the previous DVDs and are satisfied with them as is (cause there’s not enough new content here to warrant the purchase).

Overall?
I think I can wrap this up with a simple rundown.
If you are newbies, or watched the series and need the DVDs then this is the one for you.
If you are old school and need to replace DVDs you’ve watched until they began to disintegrate in your DVD Player or PS2 (depending on which you use to watch DVDs) then you’ll want this set.
If, however, you are old school and already own the Cowboy Bebop collection then this is not for you.
Without the kind of content that got me raving about this on all fronts in regards to Cowboy Bebop Remix DVD V. 1 you can’t justify this release to fans who already have the series, mostly because they’re getting short changed with a lack of real extras to give them that extra omph that they might not have got with the last release. This might be abit late in the game to mention this, sorry, but I guess what this release really needed was the Planetes treatment with 2 disks per release (to stack on the extras that bring back the fans who already have the first set of DVDs, and want the new one for it’s bounty of extras.)

Of course that doesn’t mean fans shouldn’t still check out Cowboy Bebop Remix V. 1. It DOES have the extras content that’ll justify it’s purchase even if you bought that DVD before (on original release). (Nobody’s complained to me yet about it’s content so I’m going to take it that it’s got that something extra.)
But as for upcoming releases? A more vibrant Extras packet is needed to lure back the most die hard fans for a second round of DVD purchases, and I hope that happens next DVD (especially with the upcoming PS2 game coming that needs promoting). By the way, I’m not down on the DVDs, I love them… I just wish there was more extras content, that’s all.

-- David Rasmussen 30th Dec 05

Cowboy Bebop Images