Cowboy Bebop-Volume 2 (1998)

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General		Extras
Category	Anime	Menu Animation & Audio Featurette-Shinchiro Watanabe Interview Featurette-Sunrise Staff Interview Biographies-Character-Faye Gallery-Faye Image Gallery Featurette-Shoji Kawamori Interview Trailer-Boogiepop Phantom;Armitage Poly Matrix;Armitage Dual Matrix Trailer-Evangelion Death & Rebirth; Vampire Princess Miyu
Rating
Year Of Production	1998
Running Time	123:06 (Case: 125)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (73:52)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	4	Directed By	Shinichirô Watanabe
Studio Distributor	Madman Entertainment	Starring	Kôichi Yamadera Unshô Ishizuka Megumi Hayashibara Aoi Tada Gara Takashima Norio Wakamoto Miki Nagasawa Tsutomu Taruki Takehiro Koyama Hitoshi Hirao Akihiko Nakajima Hiroshi Naka
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$34.95	Music	Yôko Kanno

    Cowboy Bebop is a highly entertaining Japanese animated television series that follows the adventures of bounty hunters Spike and Jet as they travel in their spaceship, the Bebop.

    Set in the year 2071, Cowboy Bebop follows two bounty hunters, Spike Spiegel and Jet Black as they travel across space in search of the elusive big score. During their journey they are joined by unusual characters such as Ein, a Welsh corgi, and Faye Valentine, an attractive gambler. Spike is an ex-gang member with a shadowy past and Jet is a former police officer with the ISSP. Together they pursue a constant stream of fugitives and wanted criminals but the elusive big score seems to always slip through their fingers.

    You should definitely check out this series if you are an anime fan. It has something that should appeal to everyone with a mixture of action sequences, comedy, spaceships, interesting characters, a fantastic soundtrack and a well written script.

    This second release contains the next five episodes from the twenty-six part series. I have included a short description for each episode but as these may contain some minor spoilers you may wish to skip directly to the Transfer Quality section.

Sympathy For The Devil
    Spike and Jet discover a young boy who is a talented musician and a man in a wheelchair named Zebra. These people are somehow connected to an unidentified precious stone that Spike was given by a dying man called Giraffe.

Heavy Metal Queen
    Spike meets a female space trucker known only as VT. While they are chasing down a bounty on a man known as Decker, the crew of the Bebop and VT must work together.

Waltz For Venus
    On a trip to Venus pursuing a number of bounties, the Bebop crew are informed of a disease known as Venus-Sickness. A fugitive known as Roco has stolen a plant that is used for the disease's cure and Spike tracks him down.

Jamming With Edward
    It appears as if a hacker has commandeered a space-based laser system and used this to carve into Earth's surface. The crew of the Bebop head to Earth to track down this valuable bounty.

Ganymede Elegy
    With the Bebop crew, Jet returns to his home city on Ganymede and is determined to catch up with an old friend. Soon after arriving in town, Spike learns of an easy bounty and he heads off to make the arrest. As Spike pursues his bounty, it becomes clear they have some connection to the person Jet has come to see.

Video

    The transfer is presented at its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

    The transfer is consistently sharp and clearly reveals the detailed animation. No low-level noise was detected at any stage during the transfer. The transfer displays excellent shadow detail and the animation shows a high level of detail in the dark backgrounds.

    The transfer utilizes a wide range of colours including many subtle shadings and these are cleanly and accurately portrayed throughout.

    A small MPEG artefact may be seen at 2:46 but it is very minor and only minimally distracting to the viewer.

    A number of minor aliasing artefacts are visible during the transfer. Some examples of these artefacts may be seen at 2:01, 2:47, 4:52, 8:18, 16:27 and 18:05. The majority of the artefacts are quite minor but due to their frequency they are slightly distracting to the viewer.

    A number of minor film artefacts may be seen during the transfer. Some examples of these artefacts may be seen at 2:18, 2:26, 2:31, 10:28 and 13:16. All of these artefacts are quite small and are only minimally distracting.

    Some minor NTSC to PAL frame rate conversion artefacts may be seen at 0:18, 1:20 and 22:48. These artefacts are minor and only minimally distracting.

    A single set of yellow English subtitles is included on this disc. These subtitles are always clear and easy to understand. A set of white burned-in subtitles is provided during the closing credits, alternating between English and Romanji for each episode.

    The layer change occurs at 73:52 between episodes and consequently is not distracting.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Japanese and English Dolby Digital 224 kbps 2.0 soundtracks are provided on the disc.

    The dialogue is clear and easy to understand at all times during both soundtracks.

    As this is an animated feature, there are the expected obvious problems with audio sync for each soundtrack. No dropouts were detected during the transfer.

    The series features a fantastic score by Yoko Kanno that has a strong jazz influence but also incorporates country and pop references. The tone for the series is set by the enjoyable episode opening track Tank!, performed by Seat Belts.

    The surround and subwoofer channels were not utilized during the transfer.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    The minimally animated menus are presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

Interview: Shinichiro Watanabe (2:00)

    This is a short interview with director Shinichiro Watanabe discussing his work on the series. This interview is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with a Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack and white and yellow English subtitles.

Interview: Sunrise Staff (1:34)

    This is a short interview with animators and various staff from the series production company Sunrise. This interview is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with a Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack and white and yellow English subtitles.

Faye Profile

    This is a short two-page profile for the character of Faye Valentine. Also included in this section is a gallery of five images featuring Faye.

Interview: Shoji Kawamori (0:55)

    This is a short interview with Shoji Kawamori discussing the concept of hyperspace. This interview is presented at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 with a Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack and white and yellow English subtitles.

Trailer: Boogiepop Phantom (0:32)

    This trailer is presented with a Japanese Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

Trailer: Armitage Poly Matrix (1:30)

    This trailer is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.66:1 and it is not 16x9 enhanced.

Trailer: Armitage Dual Matrix (1:51)

    This trailer is presented with a musical Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

Trailer: Evangelion Death and Rebirth (0:15)

    This trailer is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.78:1 and it is not 16x9 enhanced.

Trailer: Vampire Princess Miyu (0:30)

    This trailer is presented with an English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack at an aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

    Both versions of this film appear to be identical and I therefore would have no preference for either version.

    This second disc continues the highly enjoyable Japanese television series that will appeal to all fans of anime.

    The video transfer is acceptable but it does display a number of minor aliasing artefacts.

    The Japanese and English Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtracks should appeal to fans of both dubs and subs.

    The short collection of extras contains some interesting comments from the series production staff.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall