Product Description

Meet Spike and Jet, a drifter and a retired cyborg cop. They've formed a partnership in a bounty hunting enterprise that specializes in adventure and cash. Using an old converted fishing ship called the Bebop, with the help of the intelligent data dog, Ein, the mysterious and vexing femme fatale, Faye Valentine, and Ed, the genius hacker -- Spike and Jet scour the galaxy to clean up space, one bounty at a time.

* Considered one of the best anime of all time in both Japan AND the United States. * Cowboy Bebop is now available as a special DVD collection box set that contains all six DVD's from Cowboy Bebop packaged with the Cowboy Bebop Original Soundtrack CD in a collectors box.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13864 in DVD
• Released on: 2001-11-20
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, NTSC, Subtitled
• Original language: English, Japanese
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 6
• Running time: 650 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Each of the snazzy 25-minute installments from the most popular Japanese animated TV series of 1998 is a satisfying adventure tale about a futuristic hipster bounty hunter. This is an elegant action-comedy anime, with smoothly integrated CGI space-flight elements, gorgeous graphics, blues harmonica and sax riffs on the soundtrack, and a no-sweat post-Tarantino attitude. Despite occasional eruptions of gun-fu Asian-action violence, and some intimations of heavy-duty drug use (in the first of 26 episodes, one especially noxious narcotic is administered as an aerosol spray straight onto the user's eyeballs), the tone is surprisingly convivial. None of the generic tough elements are grim or mean-spirited. Lanky antihero Spike Spiegel is a planet-hopping freelance hunter with an ex-cop sidekick named Jet, a loopy fellow hunter named Faye, a teenage computer hack, and a genetically enhanced Welsh corgi assistant in tow. The emphasis is on clever twists of plot in an episodic short-story format with as many wisecracks as punches being thrown. --David Chute

Additional Features
Both a popular and critical favorite, Cowboy Bebop offers a gritty, stylish vision of a dystopian future seen through the eyes of bounty hunter Spike Spiegel. The boxed set includes brief interviews with several production artists, including director Shinichirô Watanabe, screenwriter Keiko Nobumoto, and composer Yôko Kanno. They all say they were trying to make something different, but Watanabe talks in greater detail about the difficulties of creating a world that no one has seen before but that must look as if people live there. An added bonus is the audio CD with 17 of Kanno's jazz pieces from the soundtrack (the composer also plays keyboards). The music sometimes takes on a 1950s brassiness, but more often subsides into a melancholic evocation of the series's alienated hero. An excellent gift choice for anime fans. Unrated (suitable for ages 13 and older): violence, nudity, profanity, alcohol and tobacco use, occasional ethnic stereotypes. --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews

Good, but a little wonky
The item info says it's region 1, the case itself said region 2, but it played pretty well on the Playstation. We've only watched the first episode, and some of the scenes flickered, like not all the frames were there. One instance being the first time you see the ships in space. I don't remember that last time I watched it. At most other times, it was perfectly fine. The audio was great, the packaging slick and minimalistic. Haven't looked at the special features yet.
The show, as always, was amazing. Great storyline and characterization, enough silliness to make you roll your eyes, but not enough to detract from the enjoyment.

Great Anime, Horrible "Box Set"
The item description claims 6 disks and the sound track. That is not what I received. I should have read the reviews before finalizing the purchase. The episodes are no better than the files I downloaded online. Definitely not the quality I was expecting for a product that claims is original. This is a BOOTLEG. Buyers be warned!

Fantastic!
This anime is hands down one of the top ever made. If you like Samurai Chaploo, then you'll likely enjoy this series. Excellent humor, great art and action, deep characters. Couldn't ask for more.