Cowboy Bebop Volume 2

“Space isn’t remote at all. It’s only an hour’s drive away if your car could go straight upwards.” – Sir Fred Hoyle. 

Anime Ltd. concludes their re-release of this classic sci-fi anime, which for the first time in Britain has come out on Blu-Ray.

Part 2 of Cowboy Bebop continues on from the first, seeing space-age bounty hunters Spike the ex-hitman, Jet the ex-cop, Faye the gambling-addict con artist, Edward the female hacker and Ein the intelligent dog again struggling to make ends meet as they travel around the solar system trying to bring down crooks for cash. 

There is an interesting mix of episodes in this half, ranging from the comedic to the dramatic. The more comic side mainly comes from Ed, especially the episode in which she and Ein go out to find some food and come across some magic mushrooms which she tests on the other crew members. You also have drama from Faye trying to piece together her past, as we discover she was cryogenically frozen and lost much of her memory.

The other dramatic moment occurs in the two-part finale, in which Spike returns to his old crime syndicate and faces a final duel with Vicious, while also trying to reconcile his former relationship with Julia. The end has always been somewhat divisive amongst fans and personally it does feel a bit flat in my opinion. 

However, as a whole the series is very good. The characters are good, as are the relationships between them, the storylines and the art. The Blu-Ray version does look better and also there appear to be no glitches in this collection.

In terms of extras, there are some episode commentaries and “Ein’s Summer Holiday”, which is a short picture gallery with music featuring the show’s clever canine. The main feature however is not on the discs, but a 40 page art booklet featuring designs from the series. Sadly my review copy of the series does not include the booklet so I am unable to review this.

There are many reasons to get this collection. There is the quality of the series, the fact it is a Blu-Ray release of a classic show, and also the fact that it is released by a new company, so getting this series will help Britain’s latest anime distributor.