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), 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 this time were 15) My Funny Valentine, 16) Black Dog Serenade, 17) Mushroom Samba, and 18) Speak Like A Child. Continuing the theme of learning about the past of the characters, Valentine shows a glimpse of Faye's past. How reliable her version of the events is suspect, but it makes for an interesting character study where the universe's biggest con artist (Faye) finds herself on the receiving end for a change. Then in Black, we get to see how a younger, more aggressive Jet Black lost his arm while dealing with a notorious assassin (much like the character in Firefly or Serenity). He's usually so quiet about his past as a cop that such an episode serves the audience particularly well as he remembers through a series of flashbacks what happened as well as how he deals with the situation on hand to deal with his old nemesis. Like all the episodes of the series, there is a lot more going on than is revealed at first glance but ultimately, Jet does what you "know" he'll do to clear things up. In Mushroom, the viewer is treated to an episode where the lead Cowboys (Spike, Jet and Faye) are incapacitated by some magic mushrooms (peyote), leaving the hunting of a notorious bounty to Ed and Ein. Needless to say, her style is markedly different from the first string team and the results are hilarious, even if there was a bit more stereotyping than some folks might appreciate. Lastly, in Speak we're treated to something that provides a more objective view of Faye, clearly uninfluenced by her scheming plans. It was one of the funnier episodes in terms of the guys searching for abandoned technology (along with the electronics geek that could easily be a future version of any number of you out there). There wasn't a filler episode in the bunch, making it well worth another rating of Highly Recommended if you don't already have a previous version of the DVD.

Picture: Cowboy Bebop Remix 4 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 different to me so this was not a selling point if you already have the previous volumes. That said, I was treated to watching this one on a friend's very high end system where he and I tried to decipher if it looked better, worse, or the same as his older version. Lacking an identical side by side set up, we couldn't definitively state that there were no differences but reported "great improvements" are simply wishful thinking (and not noticeable on mid to upper mid range systems like most of you without tens of thousands of dollars to spend on equipment likely have).

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: The best extra of the DVD was clearly the audio commentary, thankfully reinforced with English subtitles, by director Shinichiro Watanabe, composer Yoko Kanno, and the scriptwriter on Mushroom Samba. They were all over the place in terms of what they talked about with very little discussion about the episode on hand, though I'll make sure to have plenty of mushrooms stocked up the next time I invite Yoko over for dinner, but it was still amusing to listen to them prattle on about the series as a labor of love. Otherwise, the extras were the usual trailers and protective cardboard sleeve.

Final Thoughts: Cowboy Bebop Remix 4 played up the supporting characters of Ed, Jet, and Faye better than any other volume of the series to date though doing so at the expense of Spike's direct involvement (he was in all the episodes but relegated to a supporting role for the most part; though it was funny how he tried to fix the Betamax VCR in Speak as I've tried that myself in the past). One of the highlights of the show is how each character contributes to the overall whole, so it made a lot of sense to showcase the other players as was done here, and they sure had a lot to offer, making this a particularly replayable volume of the show to enjoy. I strongly urge new fans to start with Cowboy Bebop Remix 1 and watch the volumes in order to get the most out of them, but you'll enjoy the quality right away. In terms of upgraded audio and video, well the audio was significantly better and perhaps the Blu-Ray HD format will serve to enhance the visuals since this one was left relatively untouched.

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.