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Last year, I had the pleasure of attending a screening of Cowboy Bebop: The Movie at a local anime festival. The film is due to be released in America next month, and I will definitely be there to support it.
I managed to be first in line for the third showing, earning the teasing of a man who felt I must be a die-hard Cowboy Bebop fan. I didn't have the heart to tell him I hadn't even seen a complete episode of the series. There was at least one person in the line had seen the movie while in Hong Kong.
It's been awhile since I've seen it, so I may get some of the details wrong, but...here goes...
The film starts with a brief scene that gives us the theme of the movie and piques our curiosity as nicely as a good opening line in novel. We then are treated to a scene introducing two of the main characters. Jet and Spike are working on breaking up a robbery. We are introduced to a gritty urban area not all that far in the future. Jet's carefree style comes through nicely in this scene. The argument they have while one slime ball holds a gun to a hostage's head shows their chemistry nicely. The opening concludes with a completeness and satisfaction like the first handful of a bucket of popcorn.
The opening credits had been completely translated to English (the end credits had not). While they are rolling, some excellent animation shows us the feel of the world we have landed ourselves in. The music in the opening credits and the rest of film is consistent in style both with the film and in song selection. A driving beat keeps our heart rate up, but at times seems a little over the top giving sections of the movie the feel of a music video.
After the credits we meet our second team, a girl named Edward who speaks in kiddy hacker slang and a busty young lady named Faye who is at least as tough as the boys. She is tracking a hacker and a stolen truck for a bounty. A man emerges who is not the subject. As he calmly walks away, the truck explodes. People in the vicinity start reacting as though poisoned. Faye gets a good look at the guy, but the man disappears into thin air.
Pretty soon, the four are using their channels to get information. We are also treated to some expository scenes from the police and corporate point-of-view. One of the corporate people is Electra who catches Spike inside company property. In between the fighting, he asks her out and plants a tracker on her.
The perpetrator of the attack is an ex-soldier, Vincent, who is listed as being dead. He was subjected to experiments in nano-weaponry on Titan which rendered him nearly invulnerable, and pushed his mind over the edge. His view of life is now that of living in Purgatory and his quest to purge himself and the world will mean the end of most of life on earth. His henchmen victims die as testimony to the void he feels inside.
Spike follows up a lead in a Moroccan neighborhood and meets a new contact, Rasheed. Spike finds himself stuck with a vase which he brings back to the ship. Edward crawls into the vase and finds one of the marbles containing what appear to be lymphocytes. Further analysis reveals that they break down into nano robots that get into the bloodstream and eventually to the brain.
Spike's first encounter with Vincent ends with Spike getting shot and thrown off a commuter train with Electra unable to help. Vincent shoots another nano-weapon going off on a commuter train and Electra realizes she is also immune.
Edward goes out on her own to follow her own lead with Ein. They track down the hacker and call in to Faye. Faye confronts Vincent who shoots her, but passes his immunity on to her before she can die. He then ties her up
After Spike is brought back from the brink of death, Jet tells Spike maybe they should let this one go. This lasts all of five minutes while Spike comes to a decision to follow up with Rasheed. He hears the story of a scientist who was working on nano-weapons, but repented and went into exile. Spike gives him penance and Rasheed goes on his way. Spike is surrounded and taken into custody by the company.
Meanwhile, Electra's boss wants to know why she is immune. She had blood samples taken from her and is escorted to a holding area, where Spike gives her a nod from his cell. After a heart-to-heart from adjoining cells, a daring jailbreak provides an emotional connection. Electra takes them by the lab to take batches of immunity serum they've made from her blood.
From there it's just a question of finding out where he's planning on delivering the nano-weapon and assigning jobs to get the vaccine delivered to the masses. And, of course the showdown between Spike and Vincent, and closure between Vincent and Electra.
The elements are pretty standard sci-fi fare. We've seen it before on Star Trek and other shows and movies. However, the characters, style, animation, and music combine to breathe fresh life into them.
The animation itself is excellent with one of the best anime martial arts fights I've seen in my admittedly little experience. There were only two glaring examples of anime physics with a cut shirt that refused to fall open and some vehicles that refused to jostle or even tip while cutting down a short slope.
This movie can easily stand on its own as a sci-fi action movie. Those who have wanted to see an anime movie but have been waiting for a plot with a harder, less-preachy feel than Studio Ghibli offerings such as Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away should definitely catch this movie.
I managed to be first in line for the third showing, earning the teasing of a man who felt I must be a die-hard Cowboy Bebop fan. I didn't have the heart to tell him I hadn't even seen a complete episode of the series. There was at least one person in the line had seen the movie while in Hong Kong.
It's been awhile since I've seen it, so I may get some of the details wrong, but...here goes...
The film starts with a brief scene that gives us the theme of the movie and piques our curiosity as nicely as a good opening line in novel. We then are treated to a scene introducing two of the main characters. Jet and Spike are working on breaking up a robbery. We are introduced to a gritty urban area not all that far in the future. Jet's carefree style comes through nicely in this scene. The argument they have while one slime ball holds a gun to a hostage's head shows their chemistry nicely. The opening concludes with a completeness and satisfaction like the first handful of a bucket of popcorn.
The opening credits had been completely translated to English (the end credits had not). While they are rolling, some excellent animation shows us the feel of the world we have landed ourselves in. The music in the opening credits and the rest of film is consistent in style both with the film and in song selection. A driving beat keeps our heart rate up, but at times seems a little over the top giving sections of the movie the feel of a music video.
After the credits we meet our second team, a girl named Edward who speaks in kiddy hacker slang and a busty young lady named Faye who is at least as tough as the boys. She is tracking a hacker and a stolen truck for a bounty. A man emerges who is not the subject. As he calmly walks away, the truck explodes. People in the vicinity start reacting as though poisoned. Faye gets a good look at the guy, but the man disappears into thin air.
Pretty soon, the four are using their channels to get information. We are also treated to some expository scenes from the police and corporate point-of-view. One of the corporate people is Electra who catches Spike inside company property. In between the fighting, he asks her out and plants a tracker on her.
The perpetrator of the attack is an ex-soldier, Vincent, who is listed as being dead. He was subjected to experiments in nano-weaponry on Titan which rendered him nearly invulnerable, and pushed his mind over the edge. His view of life is now that of living in Purgatory and his quest to purge himself and the world will mean the end of most of life on earth. His henchmen victims die as testimony to the void he feels inside.
Spike follows up a lead in a Moroccan neighborhood and meets a new contact, Rasheed. Spike finds himself stuck with a vase which he brings back to the ship. Edward crawls into the vase and finds one of the marbles containing what appear to be lymphocytes. Further analysis reveals that they break down into nano robots that get into the bloodstream and eventually to the brain.
Spike's first encounter with Vincent ends with Spike getting shot and thrown off a commuter train with Electra unable to help. Vincent shoots another nano-weapon going off on a commuter train and Electra realizes she is also immune.
Edward goes out on her own to follow her own lead with Ein. They track down the hacker and call in to Faye. Faye confronts Vincent who shoots her, but passes his immunity on to her before she can die. He then ties her up
After Spike is brought back from the brink of death, Jet tells Spike maybe they should let this one go. This lasts all of five minutes while Spike comes to a decision to follow up with Rasheed. He hears the story of a scientist who was working on nano-weapons, but repented and went into exile. Spike gives him penance and Rasheed goes on his way. Spike is surrounded and taken into custody by the company.
Meanwhile, Electra's boss wants to know why she is immune. She had blood samples taken from her and is escorted to a holding area, where Spike gives her a nod from his cell. After a heart-to-heart from adjoining cells, a daring jailbreak provides an emotional connection. Electra takes them by the lab to take batches of immunity serum they've made from her blood.
From there it's just a question of finding out where he's planning on delivering the nano-weapon and assigning jobs to get the vaccine delivered to the masses. And, of course the showdown between Spike and Vincent, and closure between Vincent and Electra.
The elements are pretty standard sci-fi fare. We've seen it before on Star Trek and other shows and movies. However, the characters, style, animation, and music combine to breathe fresh life into them.
The animation itself is excellent with one of the best anime martial arts fights I've seen in my admittedly little experience. There were only two glaring examples of anime physics with a cut shirt that refused to fall open and some vehicles that refused to jostle or even tip while cutting down a short slope.
This movie can easily stand on its own as a sci-fi action movie. Those who have wanted to see an anime movie but have been waiting for a plot with a harder, less-preachy feel than Studio Ghibli offerings such as Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away should definitely catch this movie.
