Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

When I was in highschool I was a big fan of manga and anime. I remembered when I was a kid, and I would see weird bible anime on Sundays and obscure kiddie anime on HBO that involved chipmunks. I don't remember where I first heard about Akira, but I sought it out in the small town of Alexandria, MN and it blew...me...away.

Then I was on the search for all Japanese animation. I went to France during my junior year in highschool, and I stayed with a family in Versailles–the son was my age, into rock music and manga. He introduced me to Kiki's Delivery Service and Dragon Ball. We went to comic shops in Paris and sought out XMen comics and manga. He gave me Video Girl A1 and Dragon Ball as parting gifts. When I got back home, I sent him Akira #1.

When the anime boom hit America shortly after that, I thought I was in heaven. Big eyes, talking cats, speed lines... that shit was everywhere. But then I also realized, that a majority of it was crap. I quickly stopped watching (right around the time Ninja Scroll & Ghost in the Shell came out). I've been pretty selective about the anime I'll even attempt to watch since then.

A common theme in anime, I've found, is to have a long and hard-to follow story, with parts I'll fall asleep during.



So, I've really liked Princess Mononoke & Spirited Away, and repeat watchings of Akira (I'm currently speed-reading through the collected comics). But I've pretty much ignored most other anime films. However, people keep talking about Cowboy Bebop (from one of my old co-workers to my sister in-law), I figured I'd give this film a chance.

While it didn't blow me away, It didn't put me to sleep either. Watching it, I cant' imagine why it has such a huge following. Top knotch animation, cool characters and a traditional world-domination plot makes this nothing special really. So, it's not a bad movie, but I can't really recommend it. There ya go.

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