Anytime an anime has a movie years after its conclusion there’s always a good chance it could go awry. When that movie revisits one of the most beloved series in the history of the medium there’s even less room for error. Luckily for fans of Cowboy Bebop, director Shinichiro Watanabe managed to bring the entire crew back for one more adventure that lives up to the original’s reputation.Rather then try to make a sequel Watanabe chose instead to set the movie just before the show’s finale, this decision was the right one for several reasons. If Watanabe had chosen to set the movie after the final episode it would have had to either bring characters back and lessen the original sacrifices or move forward without them and risk losing what made the series so successful in the first place. So rather then a tacked-on epilogue to an already perfect package we get an untold tale that fits perfectly in tone with the rest of the show as if it were just an extra long episode.The movie captures the original series’ tone perfectly. Although it tends to skew a bit darker at times, and somehow manages to garner an R rating (seriously, MPAA?) the movie will feel familiar to anyone who has spent time on the Bebop before. One notable difference is the movie’s animation quality. Bebop always had solid animation but the movie really improves upon that with an extra layer of polish. It’s nice to see that the production team didn’t skimp and just match the series’ original animation quality but instead produced something on par with other feature-length anime films.The Bebop crew’s latest bounty is a terrorist detonating biological weapons all over Mars. Many familiar characters make an appearance, a veritable who’s who of secondary cast members, but nothing feels forced. The pacing is excellent as usual and the plot alludes to previous stories we’ve heard about military experiments on Titan, the only difference this time is that the writing staff can paint with broader strokes. The original series had a few two-part story arcs, all of them excellent, but the stories that could be told were still limited to roughly 48 minutes. The movie isn’t long by American film standards but it’s still longer then any story ever told in the original 26 episodes and it allows for more detail with a deliberate pace that doesn’t have to conform to rigid time limits.It’s fortunate too because the movie’s story is more epic then anything the show ever attempted. The original show generally focused on intimate encounters with the occasional space battle or chase scene. The movie has more variety in its settings but it doesn’t overdo it, it’s obvious that the creative team knew they had more leeway with this project and they took that freedom as far as they could without losing the soul that made the show so beloved in the first place. All the main characters are given plenty of screen time and each of them plays an important role in the tale although they rarely act in tandem. All the classic elements are there, Spike’s unorthodox investigation techniques, Jet’s old-school contacts, and Ed’s accidental assistance make the viewer feel as if they’ve never left the universe.Composer Yoko Kanno returns to put together an impressive soundtrack we’ve come to expect from her. The music is once again a mishmash of jazz, funk, folk and every other genre of music you can imagine. The diversity never hurts though, each tune perfectly fit’s the scene it’s in and complements the action well. The excellent English dub cast returns in full, fortunately, and they don’t miss a beat.To conclude, Cowboy Bebop the Movie is a worthy sequel to one of the genre’s defining shows. It recaptures the intangible cool that endeared the series to so many in the first place but also takes advantage of the more epic possibilities that a feature film allows. The only real complaint one could have with it is that anyone who has already seen the show wouldn’t feel too concerned about any of the major characters being in any real danger. This is really a minor complaint, and Bebop has never been about imminent doom anyway, but it’s worth noting nonetheless. The film is definitely worth checking out for anyone who ever enjoyed the original show and the fact that it has a stand alone quality makes it a decent introduction to the universe for newcomers as well. One of the few anime movies that can be enjoyed by nearly anyone, even those with little interest in the medium, and obviously a must-watch for any otaku.Final Score: 9.1Story: GoodAnimation: ExcellentSoundtrack: ExcellentDub: ExcellentAlso Try: Cowboy Bebop (Series), Trigun
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