Just Your Ordinary Kick-Ass Anime Film Ma’am!

When you look at ‘Animation’ as a whole in this present day, it is highly arguable to state that the overall market for animation, is particularly advertised and monopolised by family members. In no way shape or form am I saying that this is a hindrance, in fact if you think about it’s a good thing. But the point that I’m trying to convey to you is that across the whole span of ‘animation’, you don’t really see high-productions animations that strictly appeal to the adult audience and get critical acclaim. Sure you do have a couple of the Disney/Pixar animations that have their moments in their films where it speaks to the more mature audience. However, for me at least, there really isn’t an animated film that I have seen in recent years that focused all their attention on the mature demographic. One anime film where I think it not only is successful in appealing to the wide spectrum of the mature demographic, but also has some of the best animation, action and characters in animation that I have ever watched is the Cowboy Bebop Movie. I mean again, don’t get me wrong, the likes of the other great and well renowned anime films like Akira and or Ghost in the Shell do stand out from the rest and did both particularly changed the way the Western audience viewed Japanese animation. However, for my money, I think if you were to recommend an anime film to someone who doesn’t normally watch anime at all, the one anime film that I would suggest watching first out of all anime’s is Cowboy Bebop: Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door as it has a cool roster of characters, great entertainment value, animation which is slick and nice to look at and a story which has no real ties to the original series and is something of an elongated original episode.

So to make things simpler for those who have never watched or heard of Cowboy Bebop before, I won’t be digressing into the main characters very much when I talk about what this anime film is about simply because I have sought of done that already with my review of the Cowboy Bebop series which I have done a review of which can be accessed by scrolling down below. Like the series, the film takes place in the same year of 2071. Following a terrorist bombing, a deadly virus is released on the populace of Mars and the government has issued a 300 million woo-long reward, the largest bounty in history, for the capture of whoever is behind it. Hearing upon this recent development, the bounty hunter crew of the Bebop: Spike, Faye, Jet and Ed, take the case with high hopes of collecting the tempting bounty. However, the mystery surrounding the man responsible, Vincent, goes deeper than they ever imagined, and the Bebop crew aren’t the only ones hunting him. The original creators of the virus have dispatched Electra to deal with Vincent and take out anyone who may stumble upon the truth about him. As the hunt for the man with no past and no future continues to escalate nearing the day of Halloween, they begin to question what reality is and what a dream is as the line between sanity and insanity becomes more apparent. 

So changing from what I usually do with Anime reviews in which I talk about the actual animation first, for this instance I’m actually going to go ahead and talk about the narrative and the way it’s structured since I think it really appeals to the greater wider audience. One of the best reasons and qualities in which the Cowboy Bebop Movie attracts the wider audience successfully and doesn’t just stick to the one main target audience that adores anime so much is simply because the Movie in no way shape or form links to the original series. Looking at both the original series and the movie separately, they’re completely different specimens from one another despite them having the same cast who do the norm thing of collecting the bounty reward. With the ‘Cowboy Bebop Series’, while the majority of the episodes consist of the Bebop crew aiming to get their reward with a bit of comedy and cool action mixed into it, it does have it’s fair share of Melodrama and seriousness when the main story of Spike kicks in. Looking at the Movie in contrast, for me it just seems like a very long episode of the Bebop getting the highly tenacious but valuable bounty, but by no means am I saying this is a bad thing, in fact it’s really good positive in the film’s favour. Due to the fact that it plays out to be a very long episode and doesn’t really have ties with the series’s main story, I think for the casual audience, it’s really an easy watch for which they don’t have to think about anything else. The main protagonists in the film kind of introduce themselves as though you know what sought of people they are and the other characters such as Vincent and Electra who aren’t in the original series at all, are really convincing and bold characters once you see them in action for the first time. Even though I think there are lots of qualities that makes this film relatable to the casual audience, there are a few things that the Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door brings from the original series; in particular, the themes of living and dying. What I like about the placement of these themes is that they’re not just shoved into the audience’s faces as though they’re forced to acknowledge them, in a way they just sought of linger there for the audience to question over. Apart from what may be a complex story-line to some, the themes pose some meaningful questions about the nature of life and death and our own reality. For my viewing experience from watching both the series and the film, it’s interesting that this anime along with others happen to focus their themes on such a delicate subject matter. On one level, you could argue that Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door presents these themes in such a manner that it can be quite haunting. 

Moving away from the story now but still linking the original ‘Cowboy Bebop Series’ and the film together is the characterisation. Sure, for those who are familiar with the series, it’s clearly evident that the main protagonist out the heroes displayed, Spike Spiegel, is someone that embodies the characteristics of a ‘Heroic Bloodshed’ good guy with the way he sometimes goes off to get the bounties alone with his wit but skilled martial arts moves with the use of his gun. I think for the casual audience just watching this film alone, he is your typical good-guy with a bit of humour who you know has got the ability to save the day in the end. One of the aspects I really like about the characterisation in Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door is how they introduce two new characters that never appeared in the original series; more specifically the antagonist of Vincent. One of the advantages of making an animated film is that the animators can tailor-make a character. The physical appearance of the actual person doesn’t necessarily matter. The artist can draw the character exactly to his liking. No where is that apparent than in this film. The villain to be more exact since he is truly frightening with his overall dark look. 

Vincent’s overall design is in my opinion visually striking contrast to the visual colours that this film uses and the voice work, is simply just terrifying. What I like more though is Vincent’s contrast to Spike; looking at them both together, they’re two sides of the same coin. Both are trained in expert martial arts, but on one side is seeking for a future that he can one day get, and the other is looking for only revenge and death. While I think this little ‘rivalry’ between Spike and Vincent is catalytic in terms of this films success and appeal, it would be a crime to not mention the side characters. Again, if you are someone that knows the show, you kind of know what you’re going to get with the likes of Faye who is very much brash and the female version of Spike essentially, Jet who is the wise-father figure that is there to help and then there’s Ed… the radical know-it-all who provides the comic-relief of this crazy adventure.

Now we move onto the animation which I won’t digress into that much. All I will say is this, Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door is visually stunning and probably one of the best animated films to display hand-drawn (cell) animation. I said in my previous review of the ‘Cowboy Bebop Series’ that the animation in that moved effortlessly like an oil painting coming to life. With the film as your watching it, it genuinely feels like an upgrade due to the fact that I think it benefits from the widescreen aspect ratio. What I think is greatly admired specifically in this film in terms of it’s use of animation and art, is its level of detail whether it be with a character doing something, a location that’s filled with pop-culture references. A good example to share with you would be actually the weaponry that Vincent, Spike and the other characters use. I mean I’m not a gun expert but supposedly by looking at the detail of each gun each character uses, you can indeed identify specifically what make the actual gun is. Furthermore, the music/soundtrack that Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door uses like the animation is a highlight of just how the film and even the show to some extent, go towards the call of duty. I know I’m going to sound like a broken record to some anime enthusiasts, but Yoko Kanno’s score is just delicious to listen to and perfectly brings you back to the original series while presenting some absolutely stunning new songs in the mix as well. The compact blend of blues/jazz and Rock/Pop music heightens each independent scene accordingly and graces slower paced scenes with an equally effective repertoire.

To summarise all that has been said, Knockin on Heaven’s Door is overall a fun ride to watch throughout. if you are someone that enjoyed the original series, then there’s no second guessing that you’re going to LOVE the film which does play out to be a very long, but enjoyous episode. Even if you’re someone that hasn’t watched the show or is someone that doesn’t watch anime at all, this is probably my strongest recommendation into getting yourself into anime and the original show. If I was to appeal and advertise this film to the general, casual audience, then I would say it’s like watching an animated Tarantino film; it has cool, likeable characters filled with high-octane entertainment value that is choreographed and put together beautifully (hallmarking back to the original ‘Heroic Bloodshed’ films), and music which you’ll want to listen to over and over again.

As always everyone, if you have enjoyed reading my latest film review of Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door and have read up to this point, a big high-five to YOU and secondly, feel free to drop your opinions and thoughts down in the comments section down below. One last note, instead of leaving a trailer for this film, instead I’ll leave a AMV of this with Johnny Cash as I think even though his music was never in the film/show, I think the song in the video fits perfectly with Cowboy Bebop’s music style. Once again, thank you for reading and I’ll be back next week with another new film review. See you soon!! 🙂

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ – Alex Rabbitte