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Jun 28, 2014
I feel compelled to write a review for this outstanding anime. As many people have already commented, both on this website and others, it may seem like a girly, silly anime at first glance - but do not be fooled. It becomes emotional, compelling and beautiful. Yes, in many aspects it is a "magical girl" anime, a genre which, understandably, puts many people off, but apart from the (wonderfully brief) outfit changing segments, and the main girl's dedication to her mission, I felt this was much more of a drama and a fairy-tale than a "magical girl" anime.
My opinion of the series
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changed with every episodes, the first few are engaging, with humour and seriousness balanced very well. As the series goes on, there are perhaps a few too many "filler episodes," but even these allow for character development and for us to become more attached to them (or in one case, less attached...). The last set of episodes become a great deal more tense, culminating in three final episodes which are particularly heart-wrenching.
********BRIEF SPOILER ALERT********
Unlike some viewers, I was not pleased with the ending. Seeing as Fakir is a storyteller, couldn't there be some way for him to have changed Ahiru back into a human (so at least there would be the possibility of a Fakir/Ahiru couple?)? From what I was led to understand, Ahiru really got a lot of out being human, while as a duck she was, well... More like a duck, with fewer people to enhance her life. To say that she should stay a duck because "she was born that way," is like saying to a potential ballet dancer that they should give up and just not learn to dance because they were not "born as ballet dancers", they were born as people who couldn't do ballet. With experience you change from who you are born as, that's what life is all about! Well, that's what I believe, anyway.
********BRIEF SPOILER ALERT OVER.********
Anyhow, on to the details of the series.... The story itself, written in the background by the ever creepy Drosselmeyer, about a duck, changed into a human girl, trying to give back a heart to a prince who is nothing but a man without love or emotion, is a good one, although there are many twists and turns in the story, particularly towards the ending, which I did not find satisfying, although other viewers may disagree.
The background art is very good, giving a more European, fairy-tale aspect to the setting of the story. The character designs are very good to excellent, although sometimes I felt their animations were a bit too slapstick-y in the less serious moments of the series, particularly of Ahiru, Pique and Lilie.
The music is all Classical, borrowed from various Classical pieces, including Tchaikovsky ballets. Personally I am a huge fan of this kind of music, so each segment chosen really enhanced the series for me. It also helped emphasize the theme of ballet dancing in the series, plus the fairytale feel.
The characters are very well done, even though I wasn't aware of their full potential at the beginning of the series, I enjoyed watching them grow and mature, plus I found out a great deal more about them. There are a few characters who are simply there for comedy, such as the Cat-Sensei, who teaches ballet and is constantly waiting to marry someone... Yeah, for me that joke got old pretty quickly, but characters like him helped keep the story a little bit lighter, in other places it is very dark. Characters who I disliked at the beginning are now among my favourites, luckily this is not the other way around in this series, love and goodness being two of the main themes of this series.
The series is very engaging, enjoyable and funny in places, although there were certain moments that I felt made the series lag a little bit, plus, as I have already mentioned, there were major plot points that displeased me.
I would recommend this series to just about anyone who enjoys anime, and apart from the cat-sensei segments, to anyone who is new to anime and doesn't know that they enjoy it yet. ;-) It has combat, beautiful animation, character pairings, love and other themes that appeal to many anime-viewers, although in places it is perhaps a little too immature for older viewers. This is an anime that I will not forget quickly and I will try and dispel people's first impressions of this series as much as possible.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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Feb 5, 2014
Unlike some anime shows, this one does not grip you at the start, and some of the best/most interesting characters do not come in until a lot later. The animation is slightly dated, and there are few special effects such as we are used to now. The "futuristic" world shown is perhaps more reliant on spaceships, space travel, and successful colonization of neighbouring planets than is realistic. However, despite these flaws, Cowboy Bebop remains an overall entertaining, engaging and, somewhat surprisingly, a moving show.
Great things about this show - the characters - they do have personality, annoyingly we never see the full
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depth of some of the characters, even by the end of the show there are still some mysteries that are never solved. The people in the show give a good idea of the feeling and setting of the show, a series of run-down, rather sorry worlds after the almost ultimate demise of the first.
The animation, as I said earlier, lacks special effects, particularly in the space-scenes, that we are accustomed to seeing in the 21st century, however the actual character designs are somewhat wacky and goofy at first - but ultimately, wonderful. The unrealistically long legs and odd, long movements of the people in the show characterize its style, and somehow help to define the people in the show. In particular the unrealistically wobbly arms of Ed (a character who arrives a little bit later) give us a good idea of his/her carefree, wacky, young, "wobbly" personality.
Some of the episodes, especially considering those nearer the end, feel a great deal like filler episodes, but almost every one is worth watching for the build-up to the last few, plus the film which came after this series and happens at some point "between" two of the episodes. Most of the episodes in the beginning and middle give us little snippets of the characters' backgrounds and the plot which comes into play later on (most of the episodes are basically separate storylines).
The music is also a highlight of the show, most of being composed by Yoko Kanno, famous for her diverse anime soundtracks. Well, the variety and depth of music in Cowboy Bebop should not disappoint. Some of it is country/folk music, fitting the Western theme of the series (COWBOY), but that which is not, is less expected and is fitting to whatever mood the show is trying to portray.
I thoroughly recommend Cowboy Bebop, even if, on the surface, it does not appear to be your sort of anime show. The kind of anime I generally watch does not fall into many, if any, of Cowboy Bebop's categories (e.g Ao No Exorcist, Blood Lad, Persona 4: The Animation), but I have absolutely no regrets whatsoever after watching a show of this nature. Trust me, even if it is not your sort of thing, you'll have to admit, even if after watching only one episode, that Cowboy Bebop has its merits.
Reviewer’s Rating: 9
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