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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Wednesday, 08 June 2005 10:34 |
 More Cowboy Bebop, with the UK getting the original release just as the US is about the get Bebop Remix. Sometimes it's annoying being behind the times. On the plus side, this is the best volume of the show so far...
15 - My Funny Valentine
Faye doesn't have any real memories of her
past - all she can remember is what's happened to her since she was
brought out of cold-sleep some years previously, and even then all
the doctor knew about her was how large her medical bill was -
300,000,000 woolongs. Being unable to pay her bills, she was assigned
a lawyer by the medical centre's insurance company - one Whitney Hagas
Matsumoto. It wasn't long before Faye and Whitney became somewhat
involved - although the story didn't have a happy ending, as Whitney's
motives were more insurance-based than he'd led Faye to believe.
Fast-forward back to the present, and as luck would have it, her old -
and allegedly dead - 'friend' Whitney is Jet's latest bounty, and he's
just been brought back to the Bebop. But even at this stage, Whitney
has plans to avoid being handed over to the police...
16 - Black Dog Serenade
There's
trouble on board a prison transport when the inmates manage to get
loose - with the crew all killed, the ship is quickly under their
control. One of the escapees, a syndicate assassin by the name of
Udai, is an old adversary of Jet's - the man responsible for him having
a false arm, in fact. When Jet hears of his escape he's initially
unwilling to dig up the past, but his sense of justice eventually gets
the better of him, and he heads off in pursuit of the transport with
some help from old colleague Fad - but Fad hides a few secrets from the
past, and an ulterior motive of his own now...
17 - Mushroom Samba
Times
are hard on the Bebop - there's no food left, and someone's even eaten
Jet's emergency rations (and it would have to be real bad for anyone to
face that prospect). Everyone's paying so much attention to 'who ate
the food?' that no-one's paying attention to traffic - until they're
hit by another ship, and end up crash landing... While Spike & Jet
work on repairing the ship & Faye spends most of the episode in the
bathroom (guess who ate the emergency rations), Ed is sent in search of
food. After reaching a town that seems to have been lifted straight
from a blaxploitation movie, she eventually finds some - mushrooms.
Magic mushrooms...
18 - Speak Like a Child
A courier package
arrives for Faye from Earth, although she doesn't hang around to find
out what it is, as they only thing she's owed by most people is
trouble. It's also a good way of avoiding the Cash on Delivery Charge.
Jet and Spike are a little more curious, though, and open the package
to find a Betamax video cassette. They track down a video otaku in the
hope of finding a way to play the tape - he has a Beta player, but it
chews the tape pretty quickly & Spike's way of fixing the problem
means it''ll never work again. Plan B: Ed tracks down another place
where they can get a deck, but it means a trip to Earth is called for,
along with a scouting expedition through some truly wrecked buildings...
 
Three serious episodes, and one comedy, with the comedy almost stealing the show - Mushroom Samba
serves up some of the best laughs of the series along with its magic
mushrooms, and is well worth watching. Ed and Ein are the stars
of the episode, and I suppose this proves they deserve their own series.
The remaining episodes all dig into the past - two episodes of Faye's and one of Jet's. Black Dog Serenade
is one of the most graphically violent episodes of Bebop, and explains
how Jet got his artificial arm, among other things, but the two Faye
episodes are the ones that will tug on the heartstrings - particularly
in episode 18, where Faye watches her younger self, who she has no
memories of, giving her 'Go! Me!' cheer. Classic stuff.
It's safe to say that there isn't a dud episode on this disc - an easy 'recommend' and well worth watching.
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