Cowboy Bebop: Tengoku no Tobira

Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door is a great addition to the Cowboy Bebop series, but no more. It is by no means a sequel, and after watching it, I found that it's best watched in the middle of the series, and not neccesarily at the end. If it's got a specific place or not, that I don't know, but that's not very important at any rate, and if you've watched the entire series, it shouldn't be hard to mentally place it inside the series anyway.

This time, a terrorist possesses a weapon capable of killing countless people, and there's a bounty of 300 million ... woolongs on him; the largest bounty ever given. Of course, this means that our heroes will chase him. And so starts the process of gathering information, meeting and getting to know people related to the bounty in some way, and eventually, squaring off against him in a final fight. Oh, and throw in a save-the-world thing this time, and there you have the movie. Nothing really new, a formula that's been used several times. There's also details here and there left unexplained, and things may just happen for no reason at the rare occasion. Its 120 minutes might be a little too long to some, but it never came off as boring at any point to me; they certainly did a good job of fleshing out those 120 minutes.

Though, that may be credited more to the characters than the plot itself, as the movie threw some really interesting characters at us. The orignal cast is, well, pretty much the same as they always are, the same characters which you (probably) got to love while watching the original series. As for the movie characters, we have for example Vincent, the main bad guy. He's quite the interesting fellow, though the more I think about it, the more I can't help but feel that I've experienced his type somewhat before - he's got a mysterious past; a forgotten love included, he's going to kill loads of people for no good reason, and he blathers out sentences about religion and whatnot. Nevertheless, he comes off as an interesting character, mostly because of him being similar to Spike - both in physical prowess and their considering themselves 'dead' men due to past events. Then we have Electra, Vincent's past love once forgotten. She remembers him though, and well, she wants him to remember her as well. We can see where that's heading...

The animation quality is superb; its detail and overall quality is unmistakably a work done by people who knows what they are doing. Be it backgrounds or landscapes, they're all top-notch. Lighting effects are good, and more than I'd exect from something out of 2001, and the overall quality of special effects are great; much, much better than the original series. The character designs are the same old, with some improvements, and they work very well with this anime and movie. The character motions and their fluidity are great, and the few action scenes in the movie are done so well that I could probably learn some nice figthing moves merely from studying them. The coloring is the only thing that's a bit behind, but considering its age it's not a problem. And moreso, the dulled coloring actually melds perfectly with the style of the movie, and helps on the movie's atmosphere.

The soundtrack is what you should expect from the original series; awesome. Yoko Kanno does her work as she did in the series; with an amazing soundtrack that fits perfectly with the atmosphere of the movie and its individual scenes, and the opening and ending themes are wonderful to listen to. The only downside is that there is a lot of silent scenes, where no background music is present at all.

Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door is a movie that delivers the goods, but stops at that. It's not marvelous, but it's great, and a must-see movie for any Cowboy Bebop fan.

I'm never that comfortable with films of series. Mostly, that's because all too often a film of a series consists of some kind of edited-all-to-hell clip show that tries and totally fails to boil down the story of a long series to a relatively much shorter film. Knockin' on Heaven's Door isn't that, which is very much in its favour. Rather, it's basically like a two-hour "lost episode" that belongs somewhere in the middle of the series - without spoiling anything, by the end of the series, there's characters missing who are still present in this film.

Another point in the film's favour ... is that it's pretty much equally accessible for existing fans and those unfamiliar with the characters. While there's plenty of details that might be lost or not fully comprehensible for new viewers, by and large the film stands up well as a stand alone drama, introducing its characters and their situation. However, this in a way exposes another major weakness of films of series. Series are, by nature, episodic. They devote an episode to introducing a character or exploring their personalities. Once this is done, they generally have plot episodes, in which the main thrust of the series is pursued, and then they have one-shot episodes that have our characters in some kind of interesting situation, but which is basically unrelated to the plot - if there is one. Films, by contrast, do all of this at once. The proceedure is totally different, and a director or scriptwriter used to a series format adapts less well to a film format. Knockin' on Heaven's Door exemplifies this - while the film as it is works, it's more obvious and cumbersome than a film directed by a director used to a feature-length format.

The storyline, also, suffers in this way. It's not that it's a bad story, in fact it might make a great two- or three-part episode, but as a film, the material comes across as stretched, holey and lacking in substance. It's also remarkable in that it's not half as quirky or original as Cowboy Bebop's famously eclectic mixtures of ideas: biological terrorism unleashed by a madman with a mysterious and sinister military past, fascinated by death and bent on destroying the world, with cod philosophical pretentions to fil gaps between action and a garnish of some fashionable christian mythology. It's all very generic really, and frankly the only things that make this Cowboy Bebop and not something much more generic are the familiar characters, who are luckily strong enough to make the thing hang together. The new characters are not much to speak of, either - Vincent the aforementioned madman, a hacker accomplice, a Moroccan information seller and, of course, Electra, a tough, wildcard femme fatale with a mysterious connection to our antagonist. Electra comes off as the best realised of these, and, perhaps not coincidentally, closest to a series character (though she's a dead ringer for a more mature version of BGC2040's Priss as well). Vincent seems very like main series antagonist Vicious stripped of his hatred of Spike, which is to say, not that special and a bit rabid and foaming for credibility.

The film drags. It's just too long. What this is primarily due to is unclear; maybe an over-developed story with far too much exposition (every character seems to need every other to explain nanomachines to them, it seems. We, however, do not), or perhaps the increasingly egregious and segmented action scenes (why are there spitfires on Mars? Who knows, let's cut back to Spike being pursued by military jets for no apparent reason!), or it could be the ponderous attempts to fashion some sort of existential aspect to the story ("I'm not insane, the rest of the world is." - oh really? You don't look thirteen years old, Vincent, but you sound it). Philosophical-minded action films are not especially uncommon; good and effective ones are extremely rare. Suffice it to say that I was surprised and rather disappointed when the apparent climax occured and passed with a good half an hour left on the clock.

As I say, the film hangs almost completely on the main characters. It would have been unthinkable to not bring the original cast in for this gig too (can't speak for the dub cast, don't know), and they all acquit themselves just as well as they do in the series. Music, too, such a central part of the series, is again provided by Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts; while the styles used in and prominence given to the music may not be to everyone's tastes, the versatility and range Kanno's score covers while still retaining a high basic quality standard is nothing short of incredible. Visually, the quality seems to have been kicked up a notch; the animation of the series was never bad, but the film is sumptuous and extremely well detailed.

However, one of my main bones of contention remains. The art design is realistic, unapologetically multicultural and sort of grimy, very credible in its way, but under even cursory analysis, it's illogical in the extreme. Why is Mars covered in early twentieth-century New York-style tenement blocks and labyrinthine Moroccan markets? Has anyone remembered that it has one third of earth's gravity? Is there, in fact, any reason for this to be set on Mars at all, other than to tie in all these diverse elements? It's sci-fi doing what sci-fi does most often and least well - making half-baked stuff up to accomodate its ideas, with no thought for maintainance of disbelief suspension.

I was never as bowled over by Cowboy Bebop as many people seem to have been. Overall I liked it, certainly, in fact I thought some of it was absolutely excellent, but other parts I thought were pretty terrible, and it was quickly clear that the series was never going to be "a classic" in my eyes the way it is for lots of others. This was primarily because of its disjointedness and apparent lack of story direction, and the same is true of this film. Now, after watching it, I'm left with the same "...well, so what?" feeling a significant amount of the series gave me, but because of the length and the negative impact it has, I have comparatively more holes to pick at as well. Perhaps if you're a real fan, this film has more to offer, but overall, for me, while I'd not actually call it bad, this doesn't reach the already kind of saggy standard the series set.

Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door was released in Japan on September 1st, 2001. Shinichiro Watanabe stayed on as director, and it was produced this time by not only Sunrise, but also Bandai Visual (famous for their work on the .hack series and Dennou Coil), and Bones (famous for their work on Fullmetal Alchemist and Ouran High School Host Club). It was released Stateside by Bandai on August 11th, 2002.

It's just a few days before Halloween on Ganymede, a major national holiday, and a terrorist has blown up a tanker filled with a biochemical weapon. The government posts a 300 million Wulong ... bounty for the terrorist, and the Bebop crew just decides to go after it. But the more they investigate, the deeper the rabbit hole seems to go...

Yes, to answer any questions ahead of time, this is not a sequel; it takes place between episodes twenty-two and twenty-three. It's not quite what I was expecting, admittedly, but it's still a pretty good plot. It could've been fit in the series as a two or three part episode, and apparently Wantanabe had wanted to originally, but he couldn't have gotten away with it on TV.

The visuals for this are absolutely beautiful; the animation got an update in the three years since the show had aired, and things are definitely smoother than they were in the show. There's an even more unprecedented amount of detail in this, and it's absolutely beautiful.

Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts came back to do work on the music again, and it's just as awesome and catchy as it was in the series. I found myself humming a few of the songs after it was done.

All the seiyuu and the voice actors were able to return for the movie, which just adds t o the awesomeness of the movie in general. And the dub for this was actually fairly accurate, which surprises me, as this was released Stateside a little over a year after 9/11, and a few days before the 9/11 attacks over in Japan.

All in all, a pretty good movie, with a good plot and unprecedented detail and smoother animation, if not what I was expecting.

It was a good follow up (in-between, actually) to the series. I suggest that if you’re planning to watch Cowboy Bebop – Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door, you should watch after you get to the episode when Ed is introduced. You just need to get to know all 4 major characters to understand the movie.

I didn’t like it as much as the series, mostly because the series kept me interested by introducing new plot lines in each episode. Having to focus on one specific plot for 120 minutes was a bit exhausting. It has a nice plot – throughout the movie you’ll get why “Knockin’ on ... Heaven’s Door” is part of the title. I also found the plot to be timely. Terrorism is a problem that’s been widespread throughout the world for years, and it’s interesting to see a group of bounty hunters trying to do something good for mankind.

The characters are back, of course. They’re still the same as they were in the series. 2 more major characters are introduced throughout the movie. The villain is Vincent Volaju, a mysterious terrorist with a forgotten past. He is definitely convincing as a villain, at least I think so. Electra is also a character added to the mix. I didn’t really like her, mostly because she looks like a guy, but her presence is important to the story. The original voice actors are also back to reprise their respective roles. I would have been mad if they changed the voice actors.

I think one of the major innovations in the movie is the visuals. The visuals are 10 times more stunning than in the series, all thanks to the collaboration with BONES studio. I guess it may have something to do with the fact that it was produced in 2001, and 2001 animation definitely improved since 1998. The screenplay was also as great as before.

Yoko Kanno came back to do the music again, but I have to say I’m a bit disappointed. There were less tracks than there were in the series, and there were a lot of scenes where there was no background music at all. That was a rare occurrence in the series. The opening theme, "Ask DNA" by The Seatbelts featuring Raju Ramayya and the ending theme "Gotta Knock a Little Harder" by The Seatbelts featuring Mai Yamane, were really nicely done though.

Obviously, I liked the series better, but that may have something to do with the fact that I finished the series first before watching the movie. It’s kind of hard to top the ending of the series, so it’s best if you watch the movie in between the series.

Warning : minor spoilers ahead

It was a month ago when I finished cowboy bebop series, and i would say that i was a little bit disappointed. Why would I be disappointed? Well, mostly because many episodes almost feel like fillers, they don't support character development and some enemies just minor criminals/bounties and those villains rarely have interesting characters.

After sometime, I decided to watch the CB movie. And I would say the movie was very good. This movie has the elements that some cowboy bebop episodes lack. Mostly the well developed story and characters(villains).

Story (8/10)
"Which one is dream? Which one is reality? A 'deadman', searching ... for that answer, tries to endanger the society. It is up to Spike and the gang to stop him". Yup, that was pretty much the synopsis of the movie. Like the series, the story presents a sci-fi modern era where humans has lived in other planets. Our MCs (Spike, Jet, Faye, Ed), are bounty hunters. This time, they are trying to catch an unknown terrorist. Unlike the series, which lack episodic story development because they have only 20 minutes duration for one story, the movie has almost 2 hours duration. It really has a great difference to tell a story. The story plot is very well chronologically executed, and not rushed. We got to see a complex investigation, gaining information, interesting background story and past of the main villain, good action scenes, and a nice final conclusion of all of them. The big differences i felt most with the series are this movie presents us a nice built villains, well developed plot, bigger case and conflicts that put our MCs in critical situation, which rarely seen in the series.

Art (9/10)
Considering the time it was aired, I would say the animations are great. The backgrounds are nice and the movements were fluid. But what I like most is the character design. It was unique in my opinion, no moe, and it gives me more mature atmosphere from it.

Sound (8/10)
The sountrack is like the original series, the classic ones. Nice OP and ED. Soundtracks also fit well with the atmosphere of the scenes. Though a few scenes were quiet and don't have BGM in it. Voice acting is also good.

Character (8/10)
We got our MCs back, Spike and the gang, whose characters are the same with the series. Spike being a cool badass, Faye being selfish and ignorant, Jet who is sometimes being the most sane one, and Ed is.. crazy..
What really caught my attentions was the main villain's character, Vincent. A man with an interesting past that leads to his interesting philosophy (which one is dream, which one is reality). To seek his answes he will do anything. Interesting terrorism, which he also left mystery to be solved. Above all that, he also really got some skills to overpower the main protagonist.

Enjoyment (8/10)
Yeah, let's make this one short. From the scores above I'd say I really enjoy this movie. It was a nice watch and it has cured my disappointment of CB franchise.

Overall (8/10)
Cause the majority of above scores i gave were 8s, then my overall score would be 8, which means really good.

Meant to take place between episodes 22 and 23 of the series, "Cowboy Bebop - Knockin' on Heaven's Door" is just like an extra long episode of "Cowboy Bebop". It's got the same style, same humour, and even the same underlying melancholic feel. The production somehow manages to look even more expensive than the production of old, with the crisp animation shining through especially, featuring some fluid, breathtaking action sequences that's at least as good as anything in the series.

Having the "Cowboy Bebop" tag in front of the movie's title is both a blessing and a curse for the movie. The blessing is that it ... gets to use the great foundation set by the series. In particular, it's always good to see the colourful characters that make up the crew of the Bebop once more. I've grown so fond of them it's like meeting old friends again - they've not changed a bit. This movie is good in much the same way that the average single episode from the series is good - it's just a really well made action/adventure story.

At the same time, it's only natural to start comparing this movie against the series... and this is where it falls considerably short. You see, the series is far greater than the sum of its parts - although each individual episode is very good in its own right, they are rarely spectacular with a few notable exceptions, and this movie ain't one of the exceptions. When you add all the episodes together, then you start seeing what makes "Cowboy Bebop" so brilliant - its variety. When you take this aspect away, the whole idea starts to break down. The "Cowboy Bebop" movie is supposed to feel like a longer story, but instead feels more like a normal length story stretched out to be film length - perhaps this is due to the fact that I've come to expect a certain amount of freshness from the series' constant genre switching, and obviously this freshness is lost when it comes to this movie.

Still, most of the essence of "Cowboy Bebop" is still here, and it's enough to make "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" a very good movie in its own right... but it just can't match the enjoyment and addictiveness offered by the series. As the final outing featuring the crew of the Bebop, it felt like a bit of an anti climax because it couldn't quite compare with the grand finale of the series. So I would advise other people to watch this before episode 23 of "Cowboy Bebop" and allow the ending of the series to finish the franchise in style.

Overview:

How do you follow up a series as badass and flawless as Cowboy Bebop? This is a difficult task, but this movie did a pretty damn good job!

Plot and characters: 8/10

The plot obviously didn't have the time to create the same amount of character development, background, and depth that a 26 episode series has. However, the movie introduces a pretty decent antagonist with Vincent. Vincent is a bioterrorist who happens to bear a striking resemblance to Vlad the Impaler for whatever reason. He is a man haunted by a cruel past. This includes the brutal Titan War that Vicious and Gren also fought in during ... the original series, as well as enduring horrendous biological experiments much like Gren. Unlike Gren, Vincent doesn't develop female sex charactericstics and instead is driven totally insane. However, unlike Vicious he retains some level of sympathy and isn't purely evil like our favorite katana weilding psychopath. Elektra is another character introduced in the movie that was a fun character with some awesome fight scenes. The plot is essentially that the Bebop crew must hunt its biggest bounty ever while saving Mars from a bioterrorism attack. The plot wraps up nicely and doesn't leave any dangling plot threads. It isn't the deepest story ever, but it works very well for an action movie. The fight scenes and action scenes are INCREDIBLE and the movie features in my opinion the best aerial dogfight of any movie...ever! I don't even care its a cartoon. It is the best!

Animation and sound: 10/10

This not only gives us the triumphant return of Bebop's amazing jazz soundtrack, but smoother animation and as mentioned previously, incredible action. This movie looks great, sounds great, and is an absolute joy to watch.

Overall: 9/10

This is a spinoff action movie for the Cowboy Bebop series, so like I mentioned earlier it doesn't really have time to establish the same depth as the main series. That isn't really the point. The point of this movie is first and foremost to be entertaining and it succeeds in that very well! For what it is, this is a great movie and a must see for any Bebop fan or anime fan in general!

Story:
Like a bad gift wrapped in golden paper, Cowboy Bebop: Tengoku no Tobira is nothing but a facade. It's slick animation, amazing voice acting, and captivating score offer in little in giving weight to this clinical mess. It bothers me to no end how something so enthralling still manages to make me question the time I put into it. Both the show and this film seem to have elements of quality but are surrounded by flashy imagery and boring motives. It's as though the best of the best qualities were point into 2 or 3 elements and the rest were hung up to dry in ... the middle of winter. Is there a reason why something so good at times can be so bad at others? I don't know, but I know that it DOES happen, and Cowboy Bebop is one such franchise that is plagued with this conundrum.

To sum up a lot of how I feel: At one point Jet says that "this is bigger than ourselves.' in regards to the conflict they are in. However, the world feels VERY small, the conflict seems VERY limited, and their contribution feels stilted and lightweight. I shook my head when he said this because of how absurd it was. Bigger than you guys? Are you kidding me? This is nothing, and right now you guys are a bunch of nothing. Nothing has really happened with any sense of coherence other than "Let's have a reason to watch Spike kick some butt and throw jazz in the background."

Look, I like fight scenes as much as the next guy, and Cowboy Bebop has a tasteful enjoyment to how they execute their combat sequences, but everything else around such flashy perfection is absolutely NOT worth it, especially with this film. I was hoping that, since this was a small narrative, the film would be much stronger in terms of story in comparison to the show, but I was misled. Instead, I watched something that, at the end, I enjoyed the fact that I'd never willingly watch this film on my own ever again.


Art:
This film has some great animation but I felt there was a lot lost in the setting. Everything feels very small despite the "consequences" being large. I couldn't help but figure that the story would have been better told in a corridor rather than on, what I would describe as colorless cityscapes. Something that the art can make in a narrative emphasizes the impact of the situations taking place. This was a missed opportunity and could have enhanced the story if these had been taken.


Sound:
Great VA work (watched in English, of course!) and an excellent soundtrack. Although there weren't any memorable tracks from the film, the same essence of pizazz is still there but the fact that the story is forgettable, the art is forgettable, and now the music itself fails to enhance the film really dampens any impact this film can have.


Character:
And if that weren't enough, holy cow the characters were definitely the worst part of the film. Everyone is very one-dimensional, the main villain is really uninteresting, the new hero character is as boring as the villain, and man alive I just couldn't care about any of the risky events. Since the film had to throw in every leading character, paired with the fact that they're risking life and death, any sense of threat was extinguished. I knew they were all going to live because the events of the film are set before the end of the show, so obviously, everyone was going to survive. That said, if they had only Spike and Jet in this film, then they could have had a cast of new characters which would enhance my sense of urgency when threats came into play.

But, we don't get that.


Enjoyment:
This film borders on fan-service for those who just want to watch some rad. And, in some respect, that's what those people get. However, I didn't get anything from this movie, and I wish Blockbuster was still around cause then this would have been a $2 rental instead of a $12 Amazon purchase.


((If you liked this review, check out my other reviews by going to my profile and clicking the 'reviews' tab. I review virtually all anime and manga I find!))

Okay guys, what's up all... It's 5:21pm as I'm writing this. What i have to say I was a little disappointed to see little in the way of either cowboys or dancing in the feature of the same name (which came out in Japan in 2001, but hit U.S. theaters briefly in the spring of 2003), but that's ultimately probably for the best. In the world of Cowboy Bebop, it's the year 2071, a time when the Earth has become almost uninhabitable and everyone has moved out to other planets in the solar system, like Mars. The plucky little band of bounty hunters who ... star in the film -- the closest thing to cowboys here -- are getting restless with picking up minor thugs for chump change. Fortunately for them, a terrorist explodes a tanker truck full of some germ agent on a crowded downtown highway - apparently they haven't fixed the traffic problem on Mars yet - killing dozens of people and getting a massive bounty put out on him.


Vincent, the "terrorist," baffles everyone, as he doesn't seem to have much of a motive, and might just be having anger management issues. Most of the Cowboy band - coolly magnetic Spike Spiegel, gruff Jet Black, and the very capable Faye Valentine - spreads out across the city to find out what the guy's problem is and what exactly what was the agent that he was using. It's a good excuse to show off the film's impeccable design, which incorporates familiar elements from Earth cities and reproduces them on Mars, presumably as the inhabitants' way of remembering their ruined home planet (several New York icons are used as background, including the Flatiron building and even, this being a 2001 film, the World Trade Center). Thus we get several scenes set in a North African-style bazaar, and even a climactic showdown on an Eiffel Tower, during a Halloween parade, no less.

Some have complained that Cowboy Bebop is not much of a movie and is merely a standard-issue episode of the series stretched out to a little under two hours in length. Again, having never seen the show, this could very well be correct, and it is definitely true that there's probably only about an hour's worth of story here. And although some passages in the film drag, especially before the truth of Vincent's psychopathic mission is uncovered, the lustrous animation is more than enough compensation.

Also, it seems churlish to make such a critique of a movie that not only has such wonderful characters but isn't particularly hurried to push them into drama for the sake of drama. At a time when Hollywood live-action product is so neurotic about keeping its audience glued to the screen at every possible second (jokes! explosions! no down time!), it's ironic that an anime feature, a genre which had originally penetrated the US market based primarily on its high-impact, anti-Disney, sex 'n' violence approach, should be so confident and relaxed. Even the voice actors here take it low-key, often talking in quiet, hushed tones instead of the !exclamation marks! favored by most animated product (Pixar excepted).

Spike Spiegel is a case in point. Not your average anime hero - he doesn't have steroid-sized muscles, a gun the size of a person, and isn't a vampire - he's pretty good with his kung fu and knows how to use a pistol, but seems more interested in kicking back and having a smoke.

Now to finalize it all, Cowboy Bebop is one of the most popular and influential animes out there. Directed to jazzy perfection by Shinichirô Watanabe, with a brilliant score by the musical legend, Yoko Kanno, Cowboy Bebop is a must-watch. *Okay I deserve a pat on my back lol 😆😆😆* 10/10

Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door (retitled in America as simply Cowboy Bebop: The Movie) is the full-length feature film based on the show of the same name.

All in all, this movie is basically like an extended episode of the anime series (and was apparently originally intended to be just that). It does not outshine the show, but does not sit in its shadow either. It holds its own against any number of the more "exquisite" episodes of the main series. (Biased me: They're all good to begin with, but you get my drift.)

The movie technically/officially takes place between episodes 22 and ... 23 of the series, but does not affect the events of the main show in any way (or vice versa). For this reason, it is a very versatile entry to the Bebop universe.

The plot is fairly standard for an episode of Bebop and features the crew searching for bounties on Mars. When a truck is detonated in the planet's capital city causing a huge spread of a biochemical weapon, a generous bounty is posted by the world's government for the capture of the unknown terrorists. Obviously in their true typical form, the crew of Bebop doesn't miss a beat in responding to the call. As the crew digs deeper and chases the mysterious terrorists, they discover however all is not as simple as it should be.

The entire voice cast (both Sub and Dub) reunite for the film, as well as the welcomed return of the iconic Yoko Kano and her band The Seatbelts (who composed the music for the original show). On top of these perfect garnishes, due to a higher budget, the animation is also simply a smoother version of the original show's material. What cannot be liked here in the technical department?

As I mentioned earlier about this film's versatility, Cowboy Bebop: The Movie works on multiple levels. If one is trying on Bebop for size due to the amount of praise they have heard about the show, this is a great in-road to go with (this or episode 5 are my recommendations for starters). Or, on an even more general plane of scope, many consider this a great film to give someone a taste of anime in general. I wholeheartedly agree, this movie is that good (and yes, I'm kind of biased as this is my favorite anime of all-time, in general).

Unlike the show, we don't get 26 episodes to watch the characters of the Bebop crew develop and grow as we piece together their backstories/flush out their personalities. However, the movie does a good job masking this, in the sense that it doesn't need to do it. Whether you are unrelated to the show or not, the movie is still enjoyable and intriguing. The characters are their classic dynamic selves (which is what makes the show so special). The plot does lean on complexity, in terms of exposition, for the finer points...but for a first-time watcher it didn't bother me (and on return viewings, I've since figured everything out).

If you like Cowboy Bebop at all, there is no reason you will dislike this movie....none. It flows as well as any given episodes of the show and even has a bit more "grandiosity" to it because of its status as a film. It is definitely an action-filled blast. Whether you missed it during your original watch through the main show, or picked this up where it works in episodic order, you won't be sorry you missed this special outing with the Bebop crew.

It's a good film no doubt but it's definitely a bit too long. It plays like an extended TV episode (which isn't necessarily a bad thing) but unfortunately it isn't up there with the best episodes to be found in the series. Still it's always good to see Spike and the gang in action seeing as it looks like there isn't going to be a new series made anytime soon for obvious reasons! Its very stylised and is fantastically shot but it seems to drag at times. It would have been nice if it could've linked in a bit more of the Vicious/Julia/Spike backstory into ... the plot too. As it is it's a worthwhile and entertaining side story but probably isn't gonna convert any non-believers out there.

O.K., let's face it; I haven't seen Cowboy Bebop: The Movie in a very long time now and let's note that I am a HUGE Cowboy Bebop fan and was quite disappointed to see the movie on television and say that it just wasn't my cup of tea.

Why did I think the movie was average compared to the reviewers here who thought it was great? Let's compare it to the show and see:

Story:
Cowboy Bebop: 9/10
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie: 6/10

Anyone who remembers the Cowboy Bebop series knew that the storyline was more detailed while simultaneously comedic. The drama ... and comedy blended together made the series a good anime. It's story revolves around a group of four bounty hunters who *desperately* seek for money by taking criminals to the cops. Spike was a stubborn, pigheaded cowboy and Jet was officially commanding. As for the other main characters, Faye Valentine is dreamy and hotheaded, Ein was naive, and Ed was technically hyper and mischievous. After the three main characters joined in, the hunters seemed to split into two teams; they did before Faye and the others got in, but it was too complex for poor Spike to handle, so you should be happy that he's got a team quite like ones in a scavenger hunt or something. His team takes you to a certain place where the bounty heads are placed and he kicks their butts to make it easier to capture. The other team obviously *tries* to capture the bounty heads while Spike's team tries to set things right, that's usually on Edward's team.

Knockin' On Heaven's Door, I'd say seemed to start off with an interesting plot, but it has a lot of references to other movies and therefore, it seemingly takes place between episodes Cowboy Funk and Brain Scratch. If you are watching the show right now and haven't got up to episodes 22 or 23 yet, then you might as well wait until you get in touch with those episodes before you touch the movie.

Art:
Cowboy Bebop: 8/10
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie: 7/10

This really depends on what style of person you are. The music in the Cowboy Bebop series seemed to act like the music that were released between the 1950s and 1970s so if you are an old person between senior and middle aged, then you might be impressed with the art's activity as it *does* seem to remind people back-in-the-day (well, for me... yeah). The art and animation in Cowboy Bebop The Movie seemed to do well in its improvement. Bones had made it and Tristar Pictures and they make well thought out movies. Spike seemed to look a little different in his facial expressions as well as Ed and Jet, but the rest seemed to be just fine. The supporting characters are well, new and they seem to fit the style of the Cowboy Bebop movie.

Sound:
Cowboy Bebop: 10/10
Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' On Heaven's Door: 7/10

These are both perfectly related so the VA in this film come from the series. I always thought Knockin' On Heaven's Door had better Animation/Art than Cowboy Bebop did, but I'd have to say that Hollywood studios seems to make hit T.V. series into movies which are usually, well, not topping the series and other people think the series are much better than the movie(s) they're making off of it. "I think it's time to blow this thing and get everyone and stuff together. O.K., three, two, one, let's jam!" The opening theme song "Tank" on Cowboy Bebop is considered to be the most awesome anime openings to ever hit the history of anime and I was wondering why it wasn't featured in the movie at some point. Knockin' On Heaven's Door had a lot of country music rather than jazz (at least from what I remember) and I was like... "Eh, they should've stayed on the jazz style." Although, the voice actors for both series are top-notch. Steven Blum was as good as Koichi Yomada, who played Spike making him look like a stubborn cowboy. Jet's VA sounded grumpy. Faye's VA sounded sexy. And Ed's VA fitted her perfectly with the sound of a "YAO!" and stuff like that.

Character:
Cowboy Bebop: 10/10
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie: 7/10

Like I said above, I explained how the characters were compared to the series in compact with the movie and how their personalities were. Although I think Cowboy Bebop had better supporting characters than the movie does, although Electra was a good one.

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, well, can't really say, I thought adding an apparent BF for Spike is kind of irritating, although not too much since if they were lovers, she would make the perfect girlfriend. And I was wondering why nobody mentioned Vicious in the movie. Vincent is a new villain for Spike and Spike, apparently got affected from his nanotechnology didn't seem to show his feelings for him as he did with Vicious because every time he confronts him, something bad happens.

Overall:
Cowboy Bebop: 10/10
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie: 6/10

O.K., so I compared the series to the film and it's totality seems to hit the series more (which I thought was better.) I don't dislike the film, but I was quite disappointed when I flipped through the channels, awaiting for it to come on and spent almost two hours watching an apparent average movie or some movie that people don't really care too much about. The story mainly revolved around bio terrorism than it did with bounty hunters. Nanotechnology, and other stuff just didn't top the series. I mean, I know Spike and his mates are supposed to be ghetto, and I'm not trying to be mean, but I'm sorry to say that the series had its potential while the movie was just "I don't give a darn." I'm not bossing anyone around to avoid the movie; you saw what I wrote, and opinions are opinions, so if you liked it, good. if you didn't like it, I'm very sorry. But if you thought it was average (or sparingly not better than the series), then you'll see what I'm talking about. it was pretty good in my opinion, but like I said: average, which makes me want to write a review about it and send it out to the public.

Knocking on Heavens Door by far one of my biggest cult classic anime films of all time.

I will tell you now this gets straight 10s across the board. This film is the follow up to the cowboy bebop series and its a great addition to the saga. In the series were left with some unanswered things and this movie is not about answering that or tying loose ends. This is like a really long episode of Bebop with a exceedingly deep plot.

You could kinda have guessed its like a episode since its named after a song by Bob Dylan like every episode in the series ... with its musical themed names. This movie actually ups the production value of the show a lot with a grittier and darker style animation with some rather beautiful scenes. The musical influences of bebop is seen in the general flow of the show in how it all runs smoothly into the next scene. A great soundtrack by the seatbelts who performed the majority of the series music.

The characters we all love are back together for the task of saving mars from the pathogen. What makes me happiest is that the series did not have to necessarily end on the sad notes the tv series did. Since this came out after bebop ended and it is set between episode 22 and 23 of the series a lot of people could see this as a more triumphant ending to the franchise rather than a awesome side story. I am not saying they could consider this taken place after the series but more than a better send off than the way it left spike in the stairwell.

I felt this was great, i liked seeing the crew of the Bebop in one last true victory. I liked the ending of the TV series but i wish it could have ended with a stronger sense of victory and that's what this movie gave to me in the end.If i can say anything more about this show is that it carry's with it the spirit of the series on a epic scale.

I didn’t know what to expect from the Cowboy Bebop movie. I knew it took place between episodes, which put it in a strange position. The movie could only be filler. And that’s all this is. Filler isn’t inherently bad. If done right, it can tell an interesting side-story story or reveal more about the characters. But this villain and plot are generic. It’s not bad, it’s just not interesting. While watching it, I kept on asking myself “why does this exist?” It’s just a long episode of the show, but with worse pacing. If you want more Cowboy Bebop, I’d say watch it, but ... I wouldn’t call it essential or even worth your time. Completely skippable.

Three years after the conclusion of Cowboy Bebop, we return once more to the futuristic world of Spike Spiegel and his fellow bounty hunters to solve one last bounty, one that boasts the highest stakes of them all. Tengoku no Tobira challenges the conventions of an "anime film" by serving as a proper, standalone addition to a well-renowned, richly developed universe.

Story (read the synopsis first!)

While the story initially starts off like just another bounty, there's a certain amount of character to this movie that sets it apart from the original series. For one, its involves a darker, more sinister tone that juxtaposes itself to ... Cowboy Bebop with a stark contrast of attitude. Further, while most of the previous bounties focused on isolated antagonists, Tengoku no Tobira concerns itself with a primary antagonist in Vincent Volaju, one quality enough to rival even Vicious.

The story progresses at a smooth rate, though some viewers may find themselves uncomfortable with the length of the film. There are several scenes that are silent and drawn out, such as Spike's wandering around Mars, with others very sedentary and dialogue-heavy, such as various back-and-forths between Spike and Jet. Personally, I enjoy both of these types of scenes, as well as longer film lengths, so I didn't find it much of an issue. Just sit back and enjoy 'em!

Art

Man, wouldn't it have been great if this is the animation we had from the start? Considering its age, Cowboy Bebop expressed respectable animation, yet Tengoku no Tobira kicks everything up a notch by featuring considerably fluent, colorful, and realistic animation for our viewing pleasure. The atmosphere of a scene is never in question and properly made to represent a the intended tone of a scene. Certain combat scenes were considerably inventive for their time, showcasing the technical prowess of each of the three studios involved in the animation.

Sound

Nothing surprising here. The soundtrack of the film was quite amazing. Yoko Kanno returns as the music director as certainly does not disappoint by bringing the same stylized vibe that enlivened the main series to Tengoku no Tobira. Certain tracks also assume the locale in which it is played, notably the Arabic district Spike visits at points in the film, enriching the cultural value of the soundtrack as well.

Character

None of the characters from the main series particularly change their attitudes or personalities in this film. I think retaining a certain sense of familiarity was the better route, as the story was meant more to focus on the newly presented characters and not so much any character development from the original cast. That being said, it's always fun to hang out with the Bebop crew again, and there's enough screen-time for each of them to please any fan.

While there are a handful of supporting characters, the two new additions worth mentioning are antagonist Vincent Volaju and deuteragonist Electra Ovilo.

Vincent redefines what it means to be cryptic and menacing, inciting some particularly intriguing dialogues on the concepts of both sanity and morality. Whereas Vicious' antagonism towards Spike was more one of relation, Vincent's was one of ideology, yet no less intense.

Electra served more of a supporting role in the film, though her relationship with Vincent and Spike led to some interesting dynamics that did well to increase the value of the plot. Those who enjoy strong, independent female characters will enjoy Electra.

Enjoyment

It's hard not to enjoy anything remotely Cowboy Bebop related. Watanabe and the crew could have put me in front of a two-hour dialogue between Spike and Jet on the merits of bonsai and I'd have gotten a kick out of it. Tengoku no Tobira, however, sets it apart from your typical anime film in that its very standalone in terms of its depth and relevancy compared to the main series. It's not a simple time waster presented to fans of the original series to bait their wallets, rather we as consumers complete the film with a sense of appreciation and admiration. Simply put, if you liked Cowboy Bebop, you will like Tengoku no Tobira.

Be sure to look out for the butterflies. They're quite beautiful.

I've been on a roll with this Cowboy Bebop show. Just finished the series earlier today, and now I'm done with the film. Let's jump into this review!

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie is essentially a high budget, longer than usual episode of the show. And you know what? There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. This time around, we've got Spike and company going up against Vincent, an ex-military soldier turned bio-terrorist. He's launched a campaign of carnage on Mars, leaving a path of destruction in his wake. Oh, and there's a 300 million Woolong bounty on the fellow.

It's a typical Cowboy Bebop story, and it ... works fine. The whole gang is back, plus some new additions. Of course, you've got the villain, Vincent. He's not just an evil maniacal villain, he has motivations for his actions and everything makes sense with him character wise. He's a pretty compelling villain, honestly. Also helps that he's a complete badass, going toe to toe with Spike in hand-to-hand combat.

We've also got Electra, a military agent with connections to Vincent. She's also pretty well-developed. She can kick some ass too. There are a few other minor new characters, but they're not really worth mentioning. Spike is the focus in this film, so the rest of the Bebop crew don't get a whole lot to do, but every character gets a few good moments.

With a bigger budget, Sunrise went all out on this. Cowboy Bebop was a very well animated series for its time, and the movie is ten times better. And hell, this came out in 2001. The fluidity is even better in the film, everything looks natural, especially in the visceral action sequences. The final battle in the film is some of the most exciting stuff I've seen in an animated feature.

The lighting effects are awesome as well. You didn't get a whole lot of this in Bebop (at least, I don't recall anything this grandiose) so it's refreshing to see such great lighting. The character designs are basically the same, with some added splendor due to the film's higher fidelity. The film uses a dull color palette, which fits with the mood of Bebop.

The soundtrack is a solid follow up to the series. It's nothing short of brilliant. Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts kill it once again. The music fits perfectly with the atmosphere of the film, and the opening and closing tunes are superb. The soundtrack also knows when to go silent, just to let character moments play it out based on performance alone.

Yeah, it's just another great Bebop adventure. And I've come to the realization that this is; I don't have anything else Bebop related to watch. That makes me sad. But hey, I might just watch the whole series over again.

See ya, space cowboy.

Cowboy Bebop Knocking on heavens door is an outstanding film that will always have a place in my top movies.

Story: The story takes place in-between Sessions 22 and 23 of the original series. One great addition is it sticks the original fashion of Cowboy Bebop, so you can connect if you've seen the series.

Art: Cowboy Bebop taking place in the year 2071, i found the art to be wonderful. It shows all the different ideas of the future, such as ships, cell phones, space, and very much more.

Sound: Experiencing both the English and Japanese tracks, it is always very ... opinion based. Although i typically watch Anime in subtitles, i loved the voice of Steven Blum as Spike. I also noticed on the final fight scene, the grunts of pain and heavy breathing simply did not exist on the Japanese track.

Character: Cowboy Bebop has very odd characters, making it all so much sweeter. Weather it is Spike's humor or Faye's attitude, all characters deliver a very unique experience.

Enjoyment: Being a fan of the series before i even saw the movie, I knew i would very much enjoy Cowboy Bebop. It met very well to my expectations, and has got me to re-watch it over and over again.

Overall: Cowboy Bebop is an outstanding film, and I would recommend it to Anime fans of all kinds. Especially if you are a fan of the series, this is a must watch.

I've never seen the anime movie like this! It is a masterpiece! The plot is awesome. The art was really given attention, I think the artist is a perfectionist or have an OCD because in every details everything is precisely the characters and scenery from the air pressure, shakiness, firing of bullets, drops of sweat and rain and eating noodles. The sound has a perfect timing, especially in the first part in the kick that was awesome. The background music is cool and jazzy. The characters, even the main villain are as usual interesting, especially Spike Spiegel the coolness and handsome. My eyes feast in ... the close counter fighting and gun scenes, especially the fighting moves were clearly delivered. Overall, I did enjoy watching this one. If you are a fan of Cowboy Bebop you should watch this.

So the Cowboy Bebop basically got all the parts that the TV show didn't really capture, Spike is a cool guy at the forefront of a major kind of planetary issue, and it's cool to be on his side. Unlike the show, it plays up his charming and suave compassion/skill and less his burdened past and all that.

Also, Elektra is kind of this fiery sort of passionate personality which is a bit unusual in the Bebop world. I also personally was a fan of Spike being more active and focused in contrast to his usual lack-a-daisical attitude in the TV show.

There were also several ... really spectacular fights such as a fight on a train as well as a few other really exciting sequences. In general, I thought the movie was a compression of the interesting ideas and possibilities in the TV show but stripped of the filler and other things like that.

Mostly though, never really thought Bebop was an incredible franchise, a fairly solid one, perhaps, but not on the level of some of the classics, so my attachment remains somewhat limited, would probably just have to settle for an 8 or so here although was tempted to drop it to a 7. One way or another, it's the best encapsulation of Bebop that I've seen.

*Check the bottom for TL;DR*

My friend came round for A Level results celebration and so I was wondering what film to watch. As an anime fan I didn't really want to watch a normal film so I was wondering what anime film to watch. I also ordered a harmonica off amazon last week which came in the post today, so I've been playing harmonica all day so when I was thinking of films, I immediately thought of cowboy bebop. Because Cowboy Bebop is so good and so loved around the world, I checked to see if there was a movie, and praise the lord there ... was! However a lot of film adaptations are really bad representations of the source material, so I checked MAL for rating; 8.4 or something so I thought, looks promising. I want my friend to watch Cowboy Bebop the series so I was worried that if this film was bad it would put him off watching the series. After watching it I am soooooo happy! This film was awesome! My friend loved it, I loved it and I am just so glad this film was true to Cowboy Bebop. Truly fantastic and definitely worth watching both if you have seen the series, and if you haven't!

For those of you who've seen Cowboy Bebop the series, you'll know it is acclaimed for it's art, marrying of western and Japanese styles, music, creating a whole new genre, characters, seeing things from the bad guy's side and so much more. This movie has to be commended so much because it does all of those things just as well as the series! If you loved the series you'll love the movie. It doesn't lack a single thing in my opinion. The art is the same great style we see in the series, the music is new but sticks to the same blues/rock/jazz style that I love and the characters are just as full and memorable as they are in the series, although if you haven't seen the series, you will have missed a lot of backstory.

TL;DR
This film has everything you expect from Cowboy Bebop. It's a great film, with or without the series and is so worth watching. Romance, action, thrill, sci-fi, fantasy, and so much more it's beautiful.