So a funny thing happened to me on a recent business trip to Japan. I was asked if I wanted to see the COWBOY BEBOP movie. After about 1/1000000 of a second, I said "Yes!" (duh) and so I managed to attend one of the pre-release screenings held at Sony Pictures in Tokyo.

The screening theater had about 150 seats and a good-sized screen. And as the room filled up, I noticed it was occupied by three types of people: (a) executives from the companies involved (Bandai Visual, Sony, Sunrise), (b) Japanese press (or what appeared to be Japanese press), and (c) me—the lone foreigner in the room.

As I arrived early, I had time to peruse the film program (the contents of which are provided in English as an addendum to this article). Then, a representative of Sony stepped in front of the room, politely apologized for being late (which of course they weren't, this being Japan and all), and the room darkened and the film began rolling...