My Review : Cowboy Bebop Knockin'on Heaven's Door

[Giyomu]

Imported from Japan -
* 1Disc - BD 50go
* Audio :
- Japanese : DDTrue HD
- Japanese : Linear PCM Dolby Surround
* no subtitles


Cowboy Bebop is one of my favorite anime TV series if not THE one.
It was that time when I knew anything anime, now I don't know anything... the most recent serie I've may watched is GitS...
there are so much new series that I don't even know the title... for me, it stopped with Cowboy bebop, Evangelion, Escaflowne (which movie has been released on blu-ray too), Mongolian chop Squad and oldies of course.

Anyway, this was just to introduce myself as an "old"anime fan.

I was excited when I received my copy of KoHD (aka Knockin's on Heaven's Door) and get a lot more when I input the disc in my Play3
Are you leaving in the real world?



First of all :

* Movie : 4/5
well, I love Cowboy bebop. This movie is really close to the serie TV by its scenario, image and animation. You can't go wrong with it.
The serie TV gets Vicious like the movie gets Vincent, 2 charismatic bad guys. Spike (he is so hot right now), Jet, Fay, Ed, the Bebop, gunfights, plastic bombs, secrets, all elements are reunified in that 114min intensed movie.

* PQ : 3/5
Bandai Visual delivered an AVC encode 16:9 1080p hi-def

but

KoHD is mostly very soft, maybe too much. I was expecting better from a blu-ray. no misunderstanding, picture is nice but it simply does not make THE difference with standard dvd edition.
to defend my client, I would say that it respects the background of the anime. I mean that Cowboy bebop has never been a sparkling flashy duddy luttie anime boosted by CG or else. So you stay in the tune with low colored picture and let Spike do the job.



* AQ : 4/5
2 japanese tracks only: DDtrue hd and linear pcm
I don't have the proper material (YET) to enjoy hd and uncompressed audio so I could only get a DD5.1 which was already a total satisfaction.
Bass are louds, gunfights run everywhere from the 5 speakers and you are quickly surrounding by the bullet sounds. it rocks
I'll pass the original soundtrack which is just phenomenon. I think that Cowboy bebop may have the greatest OST of all anime.



* Extra : 2/5
just 13 minutes of I don't know what includes because I've not seen it yet but it still seems short...

* Overall : 4.5/5
I would not only recommend the disc for the 1st serie tv fans but to anybody who like anime and/or thrill puzzled action. It is so well directed from the beginning to the end and so well designed... it can let you with a lot of unanswered questions that will make you want to watch it again or even more, make you want to watch the complete serie TV.
KoHD gets my recommendation not for its technical specs but for its "james bond"kindda class in the anime world. There is really something mature from it that stuck you until the credits end.



Nevertheless, I don't know why even in Japan anime on bmu-ray cost so much... around 50EUR for one film is hurting my wallet so much...

See you space cowboy...

[Morphine]

One of my favorites anime of all time by far. Shame no english subtitles . Cant wait for a stateside release of this baby
Nice review by the way

[Giyomu]

thanks,
but i should apologize for the pics... took with my crappy phone

[cathexist]

Would purchase immediately as an import if it has english subtitles...

Can't wait for another release of it...which the series would come out on blu as well...

[Sky_Captain]

I'll wait until Sony releases it elsewhere with Eng subs. My dvd upscaled will have to do for now. To the OP, thanks for the review and the screenshots.

[Marine Mike]

Thanks for the review as well as warning with the no subtitles as this is one of my favorite anime series of all time next to Neon Genesis. Though more recently Full Metal Alchemist was very good, but I could only watch in Japanese as the English dub was very annoying.

Though what made Cowboy Bebop so good was that the English dub was so flawless that it had it hard to distinguish that it was originally in Japanese.

[DeathByAsh'aman]

Im watching the series right now and itive got to say its pushing its way up on my list.

[Sky_Captain]

Cowboy Bebop is one of the few animes, along with GITS:SAC that I actually prefer the English dubs.

[TheAnimeLegend]

I bought this a several months ago and was blown away at how beautiful the PQ and AQ was. This destroys the DVD by far. The only gripe I have about blu-ray is they didn't port over all the special features from the DVD onto it which disappoints me.