Cowboy Bebop: The Movie

Cowboy Bebop: The Movie, known in Japan as Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door (Japanese: カウボーイビバップ 天国の扉, Hepburn: Kaubōi Bibappu: Tengoku no Tobira, lit. Cowboy Bebop: Heaven's Door), is a 2001 Japanese animated science fiction film based on the 1998 anime series Cowboy Bebop created by Hajime Yatate. Multiple staff from the original series worked on the film, including director Shinichirō Watanabe; writer Keiko Nobumoto; character designer/animation director Toshihiro Kawamoto; and composer Yoko Kanno. Both the original Japanese and English voice cast also reprised their roles.
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie is set between episodes 22 and 23 of the original series. The plot centers on a mysterious terrorist planning to destroy the human population on Mars using an unknown pathogen. The bounty hunter crew of the spaceship Bebop work to find the terrorist and discover the pathogen's source before the attack can take place.
The film was conceived by Watanabe as an extension of his work on the television series, which he treated as a series of miniature films. So as not to alienate fans of the series, a large amount of aesthetic material was incorporated, while also adjusting it to make it accessible to newcomers. Increased budget and production facilities enabled the use of filming styles associated with live action films and a higher animation quality than the series. Arabic thematic elements were incorporated to contrast against the series, which entailed Watanabe traveling to Morocco for research. The Arabic atmosphere was also used in Kanno's music.
The film was produced by studios Sunrise, which had previously developed the original series; Bones, a later studio founded by former Sunrise staff; and Bandai Visual. Cowboy Bebop: The Movie was released to theaters in Japan on September 1, 2001, and in the United States on August 11, 2002. It went on to gross over $3 million worldwide, and when released on DVD, it ranked high on Japanese and US charts. The film received generally positive reviews from mainstream and anime critics and was nominated for the Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Animated Film.
Category:Films