Reviews

It's functionally a two hour long episode of Cowboy Bebop; it has all of the strengths and motions of a Cowboy Bebop story, but spread over two hours, instead of a 25 minute episode. As always, visuals, choreography, audio direction- all are fantastic. It immediately introduces the striking visuals of the show, both with its directorial vision, and the aforementioned animation quality. The real star of the film is the antagonist, though: Vincent.

He acts directly as an intentional parallel to Spike, both having the detached world view that disconnects them from the reality around them, forfeiting their ability to appreciate the importance of what they have - for Spike it's the Bebop crew, functionally his family, and for Vincent it's Electra - until right at the end, just before they die (Vincent does a more literal type of suicide, whereas Spike's is subsumed under the guise of revenge against Vicious). Various pieces of dialogue indicate this parallel, and their action sequences even involve similar movements, but it all comes together right at the end just as Vincent dies.