This short review appeared in the April 5, 2002 edition of Entertainment
Weekly:
Anime
Cowboy Bebop: Session 1
Voices by Koichi Yamadera, Unsho Ishizuka (1998, Bandai, 125mins,
unrated, dubbed and subtitled, also on DVD) There may not be a dearth of actual
cowboys in this Japanese sci-fi series (which also airs weekly on the Cartoon
Network deep in the p.m.), but there's plenty of bebop. From the funky, jazz-album-cover-inspired
credit sequence on each of the five episodes collected here to the easy, off-tempo
attitude of bounty hunter Spike Spiegel, Bebop lays down a stone-cold violent,
futuristic grove. Sure, some of Spike's adventures may be a little strange - hunting
down cyberdogs, pregnant interplanetary drug dealers, and really important casino
chips, to name just a few - but they're definately worth sampling. (And if you
like, hunt down sessions 2-6) B+ - Marc Bernardin