English Dub Review: Cowboy Bebop: Knocking on Heaven’s Door

The song remains the same, but it’s still a damn good one.

Cowboy Bebop is a series whose impact on its medium cannot be overstated. For many in the west, it was their gateway into anime as a whole, sparking an entire generation’s interest in it and igniting what was originally considered a very niche area of nerdom. It’s a show that is covered top to bottom with star talent and filled to the brim with unforgettable thrills, laughs, and heartbreaking moments. And now, for the 20th anniversary of its original Japanese broadcast, the 2001 movie has come to theaters to experience and stare in awe at all over again.

One of the most noted things about Bebop’s episodic style in the show proper is that each episode feels so distinct from one another. One week it’s a gritty crime drama, next week it’s goofy drug trip and heist flick, and the week after that it’s a puzzling mystery about Betamax tapes. With that in mind, Knocking on Heaven’s Door falls squarely on being an explosive blockbuster, which is fitting since it is in fact feature length. And with the three years between the end of the show’s production and the release of this film, the animation tech takes a considerable jump. Every crisp movement, beautifully drawn background, and striking character design at the pinnacle of 90’s anime style made even better on the big screen.

Though with that extended runtime comes a bit of falling back on a rather conventional film structure. More often than not, the instigator of each problem in the show was simply chasing a bounty for money to fuel Spike’s need for good food, Jet’s need for maintaining his ship, Faye’s gambling addiction, or whatever Edward and Ein are into at that given moment. That’s certainly how things start here, but it soon expands greatly into a city-wide crisis involving the police, a top-secret pharmaceutical company, and their experimental biological weapon that one of their escaped test subjects has taken in order to kill dozens of people. It’s not necessarily a bad plot, but it slowly becomes less personally motivated by the characters and more about just typical good guy and bad guy stuff. There’s not even much of a real personal connection between antagonist Vincent and ostensible protagonist Spike.

In fact, there seems to be a bit too much of Vincent and his old flame Electra that’s pulled from Spike’s series rival Vicious and love interest Julia. However, all of that may be hinting at something greater. Throughout the film, there’s constant mention of dreams and waking, with Spike bringing up an unseen connection between him and Vincent that is initially unclear. Even a small scene transition choice hints at a possible explanation: This movie is all a dream in Spike’s head. Yeah, I know, not exactly a huge revelation even if true. Anime movie adaptations usually take that approach anyway considering the characters have to developmentally jog in place the whole time, but it’s an interesting take, I think. Just like the old “Ash Ketchum’s in a coma since Ep 1 of Pokemon” theory, maybe this was just a way for Spike Speigel to work out some stuff in his head during the tail end of the story before things wrap up.

Whether that’s the case or not, this movie still has all the charm of show it’s based on and then some, even if it’s a bit lacking in unique and wacky character dynamics that would usually push it over the top. Ad the end of the day, it’s still Cowboy Bebop, and Cowboy Bebop is in the pantheon of must-watch animated shows for a reason. So, if you’re ever doing a marathon, be sure to include this (between Episodes 22 and 23) in that run.

Score
8/10