This is an intimidatingly bold thing to say about a medium I wouldn't consider myself especially well-versed in, but Shinichiro Watanabe is probably the only director I would consider an auteur in animation specifically, the kind of authorial voice whose stylistic flourishes stand alongside or even supercede the strict narrative and thematic structure of the work. Cowboy Bebop has a sure-handed weight to it, a confident, cohesive cinematic direction you rarely see in animation. You see its power in how people marvel, mostly unironically, at how Cowboy Bebop succeeds in spite of its plot rather than because of it.
Still, by 2001, it feels like the magic is a bit too thinly stretched, and stretched over a plot that's more desolate than ever. This movie is all the worst parts of Cowboy Bebop: casual misogyny, Jet getting utterly shafted, explicit acknowledgment of Ed's gender as something other than "fuckign creature"... If anything, the music, animation, and voice acting all being as fantastic as ever is more concerning for someone like me who hasn't watched the series proper outside of "Pierrot le Fou" since I was 15. What if this isn't a step down after all? What if the only reason I ever liked this show was Steve Blum being that much more convincing at spouting nonsensical philosophy than Daran Norris is here? Scary stuff. Luckily I'm very good at not watching TV shows so this problem basically solves itself. Hooray!
I think it's kinda funny that Steve Blum is the VA people remember from Cowboy Bebop because he's pretty firmly fourth best in a rightly universally praised main cast. Wendee Lee's Faye is the definitional voice of her character type as much as Blum's Spike is the voice of his, Melissa Fahn shows off as always with her next-level line reads, and as alluded to above, Beau Billingslea's performance is an absolute masterclass in making something out of nothing. I know I just praised Blum in the previous paragraph for not sounding too uncool saying some arch noir bullshit but they really do give him all the clunkiest lines. That's not really his fault but I'm not a casting director, I don't need to be fair or anything. I think Ed would kick Spike's ass if they ever fought and that's all there is to it. If you disagree, kill me or die.