Won't bore you with more praise.

holeary

At least not for the art. It is some of the best, and only Watanabe's team do it better.

Or the story. It is all the classics told for a new world.

Or the action. Is is what the matrix movies are trying to be for action.

Or the music. It IS audio perfection, with Ask DNA being required listening to all young people. Not hearing, LISTENING!

What I will say is this: Cowboy Bebop is a mental timebomb. You can sit through the whole thing and have one or two insights, but then you watch the end. And then you are hit by everything in the series at once. It ends with a simple statement, one easily turned into a question. And everyone answers it differently.

I know it wasn't supposed to have that effect, but in our time, Cowboy Bebop is a perfect metafor. Becuase it covers all of the classic stories and themes, they start running about in your head. The finale just let's that mental fuzzball go running loose. Without trying, Watanabe-san has created something with a semi-spiritual and mental effect on an order that I have rarely seen on the small screen. Or the silver screen, and never as subtly. Not a world-changing realization, and certainly not a religion. Just a swift kick in the ass that travels up your spine to your mind, knocking something either into place or loose. Either way, you will have a realisation.

I want everyone who knows the end to ask themselves the question: What load will you carry becuase of Bebop?

For those who don't know the end, watch all of it. And when the tears stop flowing, ask yourself the question. The answer may suprise you.

score /10

holeary 21 June 2003

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0679661/