The Series: From the original release of the first disc: "Jazz Agers, flower children, lost generation, beatniks, rockers, punks, nerds, hackers, lovers, generation X - whatever the designation, there have always been outlaws in our society who live in pursuit of autonomy. At times they are revered for their roles as pioneers, challenging the unknown; other times people consider them lawless desperadoes and a dangerous presence. Yet, really, it is only their exuberant music and an autonomy founded to express opinions different from those of others that set them apart from the rest of society.

The year 2071 A.D. That future is now. Driven out of their terrestrial eden, humanity chose the stars as the final frontier. With the section-by-section of collapse of the former nations a mixed jumble of races and peoples came. They spread to the stars, taking with them the now confused concepts of freedom, violence, illegality and love, where new rules and a new generation of outlaws came into being. People referred to them as Cowboy Bebops…"

As I said before, "like the aforementioned Firefly (a futuristic series about Earth colonizing space where the promised utopia remains but a dream for all but the wealthiest and best connected), society has its share of lost souls trying to scrape by using any means possible. Set much closer than that show to our own time though, it looks at the logical end result of many trends started in the 1980's (in particular, privatization, environmental concerns, and a general distrust of government). As the new frontier of space is opened up by virtue of various colonies and jump gates, societal means of control have all but broken down. The vast expanses of space have opened up far more opportunities for the criminal element to do as they please with unprecedented impunity, with the crooks knowing the governments are too thinly spread to do much outside their boundaries. As a result, a formalized structure of bounty hunters, known as "cowboys", travels the limits of known (and sometimes unknown) space to capture these crooks much as was used in the Old West in the USA (popularized by a multitude of movies like The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly starring Clint Eastwood). The bounties are measured in millions of Mulons, the standardized currency of the time.

Cowboy Bebop Remix focuses not on the entire system but on a small group that use it to pay their bills. Set on the spaceship Bebop, the lead character is Spike Spiegel; a former Mafioso from Mars. His fighting skill, luck, and overall cool in any situation serves him well as he seeks out those who'll bring in the best rewards (broadcast by means of a silly western style television show that lists the top bounties of the week). His partner, Jet Black, is his polar opposite; an ex-cop with tremendous investigative skill, a sense of morals about doing the right thing (unlike Spike's view of flexible morality), and a cyborg enhanced body as the result of his past service to humanity (when he was more inclined to protect and serve for the public good). In previous episodes they also picked up a genius dog, Ein, a computer genius human named Ed, and their sneaky femme fatale, Faye Valentine; all of whom expanded the ship's crew and provide more than a little extra excitement and adventure to the mix.

The episodes in this last volume were 23) Brain Scratch, 24) Hard Luck Woman, 25) The Real Folk Blues (Part 1), and 26) The Real Folk Blues (Part 2) and they detailed the break up of the Bebop bounty hunting team. Most of this is old news and I'll try to refrain from providing too many spoilers but the history of the show is well documented and as touching as some of the endings were, the characters were written in such a way that no matter how detailed I make this review, the richness of them won't even be close to tapped out. Initially, Brain Scratch provided another pop culture version of the mixing of church and cyberspace where people were pushed to abandon their bodies in favor of becoming part of a greater whole. The crew have to figure out if it's a scam or the real thing, with Faye nearly lost to the wide expanses of the internet until Ed uses Ein's super intellect to figure things out (it was the best use of the dog's abilities in the entire run of the show). That led to an episode that tied Ed and Faye's past into one another (in a sense) as well as introduce Ed's father, a rather bulky guy with a single minded pursuit, but for me; Faye's background revisited was the best part of the show. The ending two episodes reunite Spike with his arch enemy Vicious but also his lost love Julia. It was more of the ultraviolence that marked their previous outings together but it was a truer ending in the sense than you'll find in anime these days.

As a double dip, a lot of people have expressed mixed feelings about this remixed set of volumes coming out, and now concluding with this one. Considering how richly textured the musical themes were in relation to the show, the revamped audio was a definite improvement for those with even a half way decent home theatre but the advent of high definition discs has made an HD-DVD and/or Blu-Ray DVD release almost a given so you have to figure out for yourselves if it will be worth picking up. Still, the rating of Highly Recommended is largely for those of you new to anime since most true aficionados will probably already own it in one form or another. It's a great show that is well worth checking out in whatever format you like but aside from a handful of movies by a particular director, this is about as good as anime gets.

Picture: Cowboy Bebop Remix 6 was presented in the original 1.33:1 ratio full frame color it was made in back in the late 1990's. It looks like a product of the time and doesn't compare to the rich complexities of an anime release like Samurai 7 that has all the benefits of a huge budget and modern techniques but the sheer style alone was enough to win it awards and accolades. While the anime style didn't have as high a frame rate as some of you are used to, it used a lot of camera angles and techniques from film to convey a sense of the story (and stories in the sense that each episode was like a movie onto itself). There was some minor pattern noise on occasion but the overall look of the movie was extremely fitting of the material (a rundown future where making ends meet sometimes trumps individual moralities). For the record, the visual aspects of the remixed volume did not appear to be significantly different to me so this was not a selling point if you already have the previous volumes.

Sound: The audio was presented in both the original 2.0 Dolby Digital tracks (Japanese and English with optional English subtitles) as expected but also the newly remixed 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround version of the tracks. I know that a lot of older movies have been manhandled this way, often resulting in weakening the quality of the audio (purists would possibly argue that the original is always better) but this was definitely an exception to the rule. The dialogue was enhanced in terms of separation, the sound effects sounded cleaner and better placed, and the music score (an important part of the show mind you) benefited the most. Both language tracks were exceptionally well done, using silence as much as talking and music to tell the story. I blind tested the audio with a few friends and each of them, even the nearly tone deaf one, heard a difference. I also spent some time listening to the show without watching it (but paying close attention) and it really seemed a lot better (also adding some background details I missed previously at that). Was it worth buying another copy of the show? That's a personal matter for you to decide but due to the nature of this release and its importance to anime; it was worth it to me (along with the extras that is).

Extras: There was really only one extra worth noting here (though I like the cardboard slipcovers, they don't really do a lot for me) and that was the audio commentary on episode 24, Hard Luck Woman by Megumi Hayashibara (the Japanese voice actress for Faye Valentine) and Aoi Tada (the Japanese voice actress for Ed). While most of the discussion was random little anecdotes about the show in general (rather than a lot on the specific episode), it was cute getting a history of the show from these two ladies. Aoi was still in high school in Japan when recording her part and remembered coming in even after her character's role ended with this episode. Megumi, for her part, seemed to be more forgetful of the show with a few notable exceptions dealing largely with some lines that stuck in her brain (admittedly good lines but the show was replete with them). Dai Sato was the host of the commentary (he worked on the show with regard to the script and the layout but generally added in comments only when the ladies seemed to need prodding of sorts). It wasn't a great audio commentary but it was a decent extra for a show made so many years ago. There was also a section of trailers if you care about them; maybe the inevitable high definition volumes of the series will go even further.

Final Thoughts: Cowboy Bebop Remix 6 has proven to be many things for many people as a series and you can read a lot into the characters if you're looking for greater meaning. The futuristic world of the bounty hunting team of Cowboy Bebop is one that many of us wish had been revisited in other forms since the single movie that came out was somewhat of a disaster to true believers. In any sense, the pop culture references made in the series and drawn from the series in later genre works is among the strongest of any series for a reason and that is why the legions of fans are probably waiting patiently for the HD versions to become available but this is a decidedly solid effort to get while waiting for the next generation of media to sport this very fine show.

If you enjoy anime, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVD Talk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003, Best Of Anime 2004, and Best of Anime 2005 articles or their regular column Anime Talk.