Neither Cowboy Bebop nor this movie need any introduction you know what this series is and how much its praised by a lot of people I am part of that crowd who absolutely adores it so theres a spoiler for how this review is gonna go. Many anime movies tend to be just extended episodes usually a similar formula to one off episodes and extending it to fill a movie runtime rarely adding too much into the mix. Knockin On Heavens Door is one of these type of movies but I believe theres more going on here than it simply being more Cowboy Bebop. To begin with the animation is absolutely stellar every scene is incredibly well made and every movement feels natural. This bleeds into one of the best parts about Cowboy Bebop and thats the setting the few montages we have of the gang investigating this bounty showcase the world of Cowboy Bebop perfectly. Its a drab and gritty world where people are all just trying to get by peoples stories are all being told as were watching and theyre not going to wait for our main cast to catch up. This level of quality is maintained all the way up to the final fight scene which is arguably one of if not the best handtohand fight scene in anime history. Another high point of praise of many I have is that pacing of this movie is close to being absolutely perfect its brisk but it isnt too fast to the point where it feels like its skipping over details everything is laid out but nothing outstays its welcome. Well thats aside from the climax going on for a little too long particularly the battle with the aircraft but thats really the only complaint I have with this movie. Quite literally every other scene besides is perfectly paced from start to finish. This combined with the beautiful animation gives this movie and incredible sense of flow. You really have to just watch it for yourself in order to understand what I mean. Now lets get into the main meat of this movie: the story and its damn good. We begin when the status quo is still being maintained Faye and Ed are in the Bebop and the gang are still struggling to afford food when on one day a man named Vincent blows up a tanker on a highway with his accomplice Lee which leads the gang to discover he has a massive bounty on his head. The rest of the movie follows the Bebop crew investigating Vincent and trying to stop his master plan. We have 2 new big players to talk about with this movie the first being the aforementioned Vincent. He was once a soldier in an unnamed war on Titan who was experimented on with a nanomachine virus that infects the blood of people and kills them by destroying their brains Vincent was the only one with the vaccine. Abandoned by his government he returns to the world wishing to release the virus unto it because of the vaccine turning him insane. Hes a very mysterious and melancholic man stripped of all his memories his motivations for doing what he does are unclear perhaps out of some twisted sense of duty but in his mystique he can be seen as a mirror to Spike with how he uses guns and martial arts alongside the similar hair the connection to a woman in their past and similar clothing to that of Spikes when he worked for the Syndicate. Similarly to the other cowboys present in the series Vincent also reflects a part of Spikes character whereas Vicious was the embodiment of his dark past and Andy a parody of his cowboy persona Vincent shares his apathy. Both men can be neglectful at times but both also cared deeply about the woman they loved. Electra is that woman to Vincent she was a soldier whom he gave the nanomachine vaccine to and fell in love with but stopped their relationship because of Vincents lost memory. Her personality isnt very deep and she mostly serves as a plot device but her relationship to Vincent and the whole story cannot be overlooked. Understandably like how Vincent is a reflection of a facet of Spikes character Electra has many similarities to Julia with how she was forced away from her partner and were both motivated to kill that person by an outside source. I mention all of this because it leads to probably my favourite scene in the movie where Spike and Electra are held up in cells and have nothing to do but talk to each other and Spike opens up to her. Its never entirely explained why he does this but I chalk it up to her few similarities to Julia. Nevertheless this is one of the few times in the whole series where we get an insight into Spikes character where he explains that he had never really feared anything before he met Julia and when he was in her company he felt afraid to die. This does so much for Spikes character because it says so much about his actions throughout the main series he realises that his time with Julia is what truly mattered in the world but he couldnt put the past behind him and this similarly is what Vincent goes through in his final moments when he remembers Electra and his love for her and they both die trying to get over their past or lack thereof. An interesting angle to view this movie in is that this could be a long dream that Spike has as hes dying in the main series I dont think its entirely likely thats exactly whats happening but throughout this whole movie theres a strange dreamlike vibe to it with a lot more imagery of spiritual/fantastical elements such as zombies and vampires as well as a nativeAmerican shaman being featured at one point when Spike had seemingly died. It makes sense considering the context this movie was released in as this was released years after Cowboy Bebop had ended. This is the encore all the main characters are still here and they havent completely met their depressing ends yet. While that interpretation is debatable this movie does still reflect the series most prominent themes being death and vulnerability. Vincent similarly to many of the other oneoff characters in the series has a vulnerability to him being his relationship to Electra and as the main series showed frequently having that vulnerability is not a good thing it will get you hurt and it ends up getting Vincent killed we can see this in a lot of side characters in the series such as Katerina from the first episode and her longing for a better life on Mars or Grencia from the Jupiter Blues arc and how he was used as a test subject. Death is obviously present here with a few characters dying Vincents apocalyptic plan I mean it takes place on Halloween for crying out loud. This movie is a microcosm for the entire series which is why I consider it to be the perfect companion piece as it has all of the characters themes and ideas of the main show wrapped into one fun nearly 2 hour long romp and thats one of the best parts of this movie its just an incredibly fun watch. With the mysteries being unraveled throughout the story at an incredible pace and culminating in a climactic and melancholic finale. This movie cements Cowboy Bebop as one of my all time favourite series in anime and I hope you found similar enjoyment in it too.