Tentale-Free Anime: The "Cowboy Bebop"/"Trigun" MoviesTime for another two-for-one experience! This week I decided to tackle two movies associated with two incredibly popular anime fondly remembered by many, and both made years after their respective series ended. Knockin' on Heaven's Door and Badlands Rumble respectively.
I had originally planned to cover the movie along with my main Cowboy Bebop review last go around, however that article simply got too bloated and I so I decided to cover the movie on its own. Which is fine, because there's still plenty to talk about.
I really like this film. I did not watch it the very first time it came out in the U.S., I watched it years later alongside a re-watching of Cowboy Bebop and thus I viewed the story canonically and avoided those feelings and expectations. I agree with the popular opinion that it feels more like one long episode rather than a movie, but if you look at it that way its a damn good episode. To start out, the animation is gorgeous. Working with a decent budget goes a long way for creators trying to tell a visual story that's both meaningful and beautiful. Filling it with plenty of action while overlaying it with plenty of heart. There are scenes in this film that are so good, other anime copied them. I'm sure many of you have seen the comparison gif, but there is a fight scene between Spike a new character, Ovilo, with such great choreography the same exact choreography was used for the characters Naruto and Neji in their famous chuunin exam fight in Naruto. Now that's a legacy. 
Vincent vs. Spike
But there's also a beautifully animated downward angled shot towards the end of the film that introduces us to this Halloween festival going on in a big city. There's giant jack-o-lantern balloons being paraded around, it's literally this film's version of the Macy's Day Parade but more like an All Hallows' Eve Parade. It's my favorite shot in the film for its grandeur and atmosphere. It's also an important scene in giving us a key clue – or answer, if you're paying attention – to a riddle the villain proposes to our heroes just a few scenes before about where he plans to strike next. But while the animation is great, the characters are pretty important as well and everyone returns in this spectacle. Spike, Jet, Ed, and Faye. Faye and Spike get the most to do this go around and their roles match up with their usual roles within the main series as well: Faye gets into trouble, Spike's trail across the city brings him into line with Faye who's already at the enemies' doorstep, Spike saves Faye, Spike goes to stop bad guy. And repeat. However, things do get a bit more adult for Faye this time around as in the past she has been tied up before, but here she's bound, paralyzed and nearly raped by the film's main villain. I honestly felt like that was a darker side to Bebop we didn't really need to see. Making the villain of the film, who's name is Vincent by the way, a mad bomber was already dark enough. Having him also be an attempted rapist was pushing it overboard in my opinion. That being said, I actually like the villain in this movie despite that wrinkle. Having had his memories stolen from him, the man is basically lashing out in an attempt to gain answers or kill everyone else in the process. Overall, that makes the plot of the movie very basic and formulaic of a Cowboy Bebop episode. But everything does feel pushed up a notch just a bit. The music may be the weakest thing about this film, as I don't remember any songs really jumping out at me this venture, as so many others did throughout the entirety of Bebop proper. For a show well-known for its excellent music, and a film named after an excellent Bob Dylan song, I will admit the music is the only part of it I would call the weakest link of the movie as a whole. 
Down the barrel of a gun
Even though the film was done at a different studio, made after the original series ended and ultimately didn't live up to the expectations for many people as a proper continuation of the story, it did provide us with extra content starring some of our favorite characters with a pretty decent story to boot. And that fact cannot be overlooked. And don't get me wrong, this entire time I've made it sound like the movie was never well received by fans, but a lot of people really like it. Only when I hear this film come up in conversation in tandem with the main series, the excitement level is just never there for it in the same way as the main series. Which I feel is slightly unjustified as it's pretty damn good movie and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to check out Bebop for the first time... Or even more Bebop, if you just haven't seen the movie yet. Until next time, see ya, Space Cowboy. Final Score: 3.5 Giant Jack-o-Lantern Balloons out of 5
Just like the Bebop movie before it, Trigun: Badlands Rumble was made years after the original series it spawned from. Except instead of being made 3 years after its original series ended, like the above film, this one was made a whopping 12 years after the original Trigun ended. Now, both Bebop and Trigun actually have a lot in common, as both came out in 1998, both are touted as two of the greatest anime ever made by many fans, both are space westerns, and both of their films take place within the original series canon instead of acting as sequels or epilogues to their respective parents.
But let's talk about the movie itself now. It's definitely not on the level of Bebop's film in terms of story quality and fluidity of animation. The characters themselves aren't as well-rounded as they are in the show and I feel more-so than Bebop you do have to be aware of these characters a bit before you jump right into this film. So it doesn't feel entirely stand alone in that way.
It's a really fun movie, though, and I quite enjoyed it. I understand its flaws, but I continue to have fun every time I view it, and I've probably seen this movie three time now. And if you're wondering where in the canon it takes place, while I don't know between what episodes these events happen, I just know that Wolfwood's in it. So for those of you who've seen the original series, it takes place at some point early on. 
Booze and bullets all around
Vash is as fun and diligent as ever in his crusade not to let anyone – good or evil – die under his watch, even if he's known as the humanoid typhoon, the deadliest character on the face of this series' planet. I do feel that he was a bit more cocky in how he approached the female lead of this movie, Amelia, than he ever would have been in the original series. I could be remembering that wrong, but I don't remember him being as much of an asshole there as he was here. But he's lovable asshole, so it's all okay, right? Amelia – a feisty redhead – serves as the real main protagonist of the episode as she seeks revenge against Gasback for some mysterious event involving the death of her mother when she was a child. How they handle this reveal, as well as Amelia as one badass chick, I truly appreciated. Instead of beating the answer to the mystery over your head early on in the film, or even midway through, the mystery is built up and I feel it revealed at just the right time near the end of the film. It even ends up adding a bit more to the rarely seen human side of Gasback, a fun well-rounded villain who's just as fun to watch as Vash is when he's running around mowing people down with his impossible to build wrist gun. Though he and Vash also share a history with one another, even if the two hadn't met before the main story would have worked just as well and been just as fun. The film incorporates a lot of modern CGI for its vehicles and some of its bigger set pieces, adding a bit of clunkyness during some scenes overall, though I do feel like the series had very beautiful animation in terms of color and crispness. Though I'm not usually great at breaking down why I feel that way on those kind of things, so that's all I'm really going to say about that. The action, however, was fantastic. 
Gasback and Crew
I love seeing all the crazy characters this series can introduce, their different weapons and how they use them. This film is not short on those and, like I said earlier, moments like watching Gasback and Vash run around the town shooting off their weapons, or seeing Wolfwood once again pull out his impossibly heave cross-shaped mega-gun, along with plenty of other moments makes for a very fun action film in the end. The story never pretends to be deep, there's plenty of comedy, the action is great and the characters are fun. While it would have been awesome to get a series finale out of this film in terms of tying up loose ends left by the original anime I'm actually okay with what we got because, at the end of the day, it was a lot of fun. Both of these films are a lot of fun. And I'll make sure to cover the original series soon enough. Give it time. Final Score: 3.5 Double Dollar Bounties out of 5 And that's it for our double dose of TFA! Let us know what you think of the movies in the comments! 
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