Cowboy Bebop-Volume 3 (1998)

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General		Extras
Category	Anime	Menu Animation & Audio Featurette-Keiko Nobumoto Interview Featurette-Yoko Kanno Interview Featurette-Voice Actor Interviews Biographies-Character-Jet Gallery-Jet Image Gallery Trailer-Ah! My Goddess The Movie; Ring; Excel Saga
Rating
Year Of Production	1998
Running Time	98:29 (Case: 100)
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	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, as 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 third release contains the next four 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.

Toys In The Attic
    An unknown organism is attacking members of the Bebop crew. With several members of the crew incapacitated from the mysterious bite, Spike must discover what is attacking them and devise a course of treatment.

Jupiter Jazz, Part 1
    Spike separates from the crew to search for his girlfriend after he finds a vague lead on a remote planet. In search of a bounty, Faye travels to a mining colony with no female population.

Jupiter Jazz, Part 2
    Spike continues his search for his girlfriend, but it has now become clear that there is more to the situation than he initially thought. Faye has met the man with a bounty on his head but he also seems to have a connection to Spike's past.

Bohemian Rhapsody
    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 group of extremely obvious MPEG artefacts may be seen for a few frames at 31:02 which are quite distracting.

    A small number of aliasing artefacts may be seen during the transfer. Some examples of these may be seen at 5:23, 8:24 and 27:23 but these are all minor and are not annoying.

    No film artefacts were seen during the transfer.

    An obvious frame rate conversion artefact may be seen at 5:46 but as this only lasts for a short period it is only minimally distracting.

    Some small NTSC to PAL conversion artefacts mat be seen at 0:20 and 1:21 but these are also only slightly disruptive.

    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. No subtitles are provided during the closing credits for the episode Jupiter Jazz, Part 1.

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: Keiko Nobumoto (0:54)

    This short interview with Keiko Nobumoto discusses her work on the show as series composer. 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: Yoko Kanno (1:10)

    This is a short interview with Yoko Kanno discussing her work on the show as series musical composer. 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.

Voice Actor Interviews (2:43)

    This is a collection of short interviews with the Japanese voice actors for the characters of Ed, Jet, Spike, and Faye. 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.

Jet Profile

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

Trailer: Ah! My Goddess The Movie (0:50)

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

Trailer: Ring (0:51)

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

Trailer: Excel Saga (1:38)

    This trailer is presented with a Japanese 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 third disc continues the highly enjoyable Japanese television series that will be sure to appeal to all fans of anime.

    The video transfer is acceptable but it does display a small number of minor 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