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COWBOY BEBOP Turns 20 with 3 Giant Collectors Sets

It’s hard to believe Cowboy Bebop turns 20 this year. Not in the “Oh my crikey, I’m getting so old my name may as well be Methuselah Van Winkle” way; more in the fact that Bebop has always felt so fresh and ahead of its time, it seems like it’s always brand new every time you watch it. One of the finest television series ever made, in any genre, but a keystone of sci-fi-action anime, Bebop deserves celebration any time, but now for its 20th birthday, FUNimation is giving fans three different ways to appreciate.

That’s the unmistakable pipes of Jet Black himself, Beau Billingslea, telling us about three ways for space cowpeople to get anniversary Blu-ray gift sets. There are three different packages, each with different perks, extras, and the like. None of them get made unless they reach 1,000 bids, meaning people have to, like a Kickstarter or Patreon, promise to pay for the item if it reaches the requisite number of bids. If all three reach 1,000, all three will get made. Make sense?

It should be noted that all of the packages are pretty pricey. The “Bounty Hunter’s Steel” set is $250 and includes the complete series and the movie in a rigid collector’s box, along with a new extra, two LP vinyl records of the soundtrack, a 200-page art book featuring illustrations and newly-translated intensive liner notes by Dai Sato, and five lithographs. The next level up, the “Boogie Woogie Box” is $350 and has all the same stuff except it has different art, a different package, and a display box. And finally there’s the “Bebop Crew” which is $550 and contains even differenter art and two PVC bookends featuring the characters.

You can find out all the information and check out the different sets here.

As of this writing, there are still 24 days to reserve your package, and none of them have reached even half of the required pledges. Cowboy Bebop is a once-in-a-lifetime series, and much like Spike Spiegel himself, you’re gonna have to carry that weight to get these made. But, in any case, the series is currently streaming on Hulu and any time is a good time for a rewatch.

Images: Funimation

Kyle Anderson is the Associate Editor for Nerdist. He’s written the animation retrospectives Batman: Reanimated, X-Men: Reanimated, Cowboy Rebop, and Samurai reJacked. Follow him on Twitter!

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