"Big Shots" Re-Watch: "Cowboy Bebop: The Movie"

 Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

"Cowboy Bebop: The Movie" actually came out after the series ended. We are covering it now because canonically it is set between episode 22 and episode 23. Let's take a look at the first (and only) "Cowboy Bebop" movie. 

Spike looking down the barrel of another gun.

Anime movies are interesting. They usually come in two different flavors. There are movies that animate an arc from the manga it's based on that might be so important that it needs a big screen to tell the story like "Demon Slayer: Mugen Train." Or there is the more common, one off film that tells a relatively self contained story that maybe is just a little too big for the show itself. "Cowboy Bebop: The Movie" is the latter. It tells a story, later in the series life, that was a little too big to be told in the main series. It is also meant to work as an introduction to the anime that it is based on.

"Cowboy Bebop: The Movie" is pretty successful when it comes to being a potential gateway into the world of "Cowboy Bebop." From the opening scene, you understand exactly who these characters are and what this anime is all about. It opens on a convenience store that is being robbed. The head robber is sitting on the counter waxing poetic to the cashier about stews. It's nonsense and the movie doesn't try to make it look like anything other than nonsense. Spike Spiegel waltzes in with his headphones on and beats the shit out of the robbers not realizing that there is one still in the bathroom. The lone thief takes an old woman hostage and while Jet drops his gun immediately, Spike doesn't. He's up front that he doesn't really care about this woman's life. Spike's provocations allow him to shoot the last thief and save the old woman who asks who he is. Spike replies he's "just a humble bounty hunter." That's basically the mission statement of "Cowboy Bebop."

The story of this movie is a little bit bigger than most stories and is not one I think could have been successfully told in even a two-parter. While pursuing a bounty, Faye Valentine watches as an oil tanker explodes and the man who is driving it seemingly disappears. The tanker seems to be carrying a strange pathogen that no one can identify. Through investigation, the team learns that the people have been infected with nanobots that were created for military use even though that type of warfare has been outlawed across the galaxy. The crew of the Bebop find themselves working against not only Vincent Vojalu, the man who wants to release the nanobots on the populace of Mars but also Cherious Medical, the company that created them. They want to eradicate all trace of this technology including the vaccine that could save everyone.

Faye Faye

This is definitely bigger than most "Cowboy Bebop" episodes. Not only is the overall story bigger, but the action scenes are larger and more over the top. This is probably one of my favorite things about this movie. The action in it is top notch. It takes the action sequences from the series, which are pretty amazing to begin with and ratchets them up to 11. I feel like there are signature action beats in "Cowboy Bebop" and the film showcases all of them at one point or another.

The first action sequence that we see a lot in "Cowboy Bebop" is the one that is sort of played for laughs. We see that when Spike and Elektra Ovirowa take each other on in the hallways of Cherious Medical, while Spike is wearing a janitor's uniform. They match each other blow for blow with Spike using his push broom as a weapon. But he also sprays incoming security guards with a fire extinguisher and launches himself over a cleaning cart. As he tussles with Elektra, it's clear that Spike is falling in love with this woman who feels like his equal. The action continues with Spike vaulting off the balcony onto the first floor and then running over a truck and over a fence to escape.

The next are the more visceral action sequences and "Cowboy Bebop: The Movie" has those. These are some of the most violent action sequences we've seen in this anime. On the train, Spike throws down with Vincent and we see an innocent bystander get shot in the head. It looks like Spike has the upper hand at one point, but Vincent takes him down, using a five finger technique on his chest that draws blood. He shoots Spike in the stomach and sends him out the window of the train to his almost death. Spike's final showdown with Vincent is just as visceral with the two going at each other on the roof of an unfinished building during a Halloween parade, the light from exploding fireworks illuminating their dueling bodies.

The last battle that we usually get in the show is a space battle and while we don't get a full space battle in the movie, we do get some air maneuvers. There are the planes that Jet hires to disperse the antidote over the city to save the citizens. It's not exactly what we're used to, but it's close.

Commander Shepherd!!

If you've played a video game in the last 15 years, then I'm sure you recognize the voice of Jennifer Hale as Elektra. That's right. We have the voice of the female Commander Shepherd from the "Mass Effect" trilogy of FemShep, in this movie. And she kills it. Hale is one of the best voice actors out there and she lends her pathos and gravitas to this role. But she's not afraid to lighten things up when the script calls for it. She's a legend and she's definitely one of the high points of this movie.

I love when "Cowboy Bebop" employs interesting backgrounds for it's plot, so I love that the final battle takes place during a Halloween parade. The giant balloons being filled with these nanobots are giving me big first Tim Burton "Batman" vibes and that is not a bad thing. I sort of wish they had leaned a little more into the Halloween setting. I think that could have really helped this movie stand out from other anime films of the time.

This movie isn't perfect. There are definitely some things that I would change. First of them being, I'd beef up Faye Valentine's role. Faye is a main character of the show and she gets very little to do. She gets a couple fun moments in the beginning of the movie. I like when she tracks down hacker Lee Sampson at the arcade when he's playing a shooting game and she threatens him with an actual gun. She tracks down Sampson and by proxy Vincent with the help of Ed. She spends the majority of the film tied up and at the mercy of Vincent while he monologues at her. It's kind of lame. And Faye is a badass. She deserves better than that.

You can't knock the hair.

The pacing of this movie is kind of all over the place. It clocks in at 2 hours, which feels long for any sort of animated movie but especially long for an anime film. There are definitely things that could have been trimmed in the movie to make it a little more leaner and make it flow a little bit better.

One of the things that they could have done is cut all the scenes with the two ISSP detectives. They aren't really necessary. I understand that the scene with the ISSP officers going to the water treatment plant is important, but we could have gotten there without focusing on these two characters. Their scenes slow down the movie and kind of rob it of momentum that the movie then has to waste time ramping up again. 

Then there is Vincent. On the surface, Vincent is a good villain, particularly for a movie like this. And he is good. The thing that bugs me is that he could have been great. He has the potential to be great. But he stalls out at good. We hear so much about him, but I feel like I would have cared more about him if we had saw more than just heard about his past from other people. It's a shame and it could have really elevated the film and the character above where it kind of stalls out.

All in all, this is a great movie and if you initially saw it when it first came out, then it was probably a lot of fun to re-visit the world of "Cowboy Bebop." For newcomers to the series, it's not necessary required viewing, but there are worse ways to spend two hours.

Next up, Faye goes undercover in a cult and she tries to learn more about what she saw on the Betamax tape.

What did you all think of the movie? Did anyone see it when it first came out? How was that? Let me know in the comments.