Cowboy Bebop means a lot to me. The anime started airing in 1998 and at the time, the medium was extremely niche in the United States. Largely underground, VHS bootlegs were traded much like music concert bootlegs. You had to know someone. I did. In high school, a classmate ran an anime business out of his bedroom. Probably the first internet marketed business I ever encountered. Not thinking anything of it at the time, it was super illegal. He’d duplicate legit releases (that cost a fortune at the time, it was like $40 for 3 episodes of Dragon Ball Z on one VHS. That show has over 200 episodes) and sell them. I think he would also download the earliest fan subs from forums (oh, the days off BBS and listservs) and sell those. It took forever for English translations to be done by the companies that bought the Japanese rights to distribute the shows elsewhere. Plus, a lot of people hated the English dubs that came out and wanted the most accurate experience with the original Japanese voice actors with English subtitles (which is still true today).
Cowboy Bebop was the first anime I ever watched, along with the likes of Ninja Scroll, Trigun, and Ghost in the Shell. As a 17-year-old who already loved animation, action movies, and sci-fi, seeing the animation and storytelling that was being made on the other side of the planet was mindblowing. There was nothing like it being made in the US. There are some exceptions, one could argue Heavy Metal, but that was from 1981 so animation for adults was really rare here (I could even throw Cool World from 1992, but I think you get my point). Not too long after this, the Adult Swim block of anime started on Cartoon Network which started the mainstream emergence of the genre in the US.
Cowboy Bebop immediately stood out. There was a ton of hyper-violence in anime for action/horror fans (and let’s face it, predominantly boys), but Bebop took a different approach. Sure, people are blasting guns at each other and beating each other with fists and feet, but the presentation is so cool. Set in the distant future, Cowboy Bebop follows a rag-tag team of bounty hunters as they scrape up the money to fight another day while also dealing with their individual sordid pasts. In a world set in the year 2071, the vibe is entirely 1970s. The tech on the ships is very dated, think of how Alien is set far into the future but the displays and such are very analog with big switches, knobs, and levers, and low-resolution monitors that only display 3 shades of green. Most episodes jump around genres, from film noir, sci-fi, Hollywood summer blockbuster, and a whole lotta Westerns. It’s a really eclectic show that pulled from a lot of different inspirations and pop culture. Every adventure feels unique and the character-building is engrossing.
A good example of what’s loved about this series is the main character, Spike Spiegel. They immediately show you that this man is the coolest guy ever. He’s dressed in a simple blue suit with a yellow button-down shirt and a loose tie, his hair more of a messy mop than a selected hair-do. He’s tall and thin, effortlessly charming, often dry and funny. And he’s completely badass. He’s an incredible fighter, a fantastic marksman, and he can pilot a ship through hell and back. He’s also extremely loyal when it comes to his friends. The guy used to be in a notorious crime syndicate and escaped it without the love of his life. He both runs away and toward his past through the series.
The soundtrack is also stunning. If you’ve never heard jazz before, it can make you a fan. If you hate jazz, it’ll make you realize why someone could like the genre so much. Bebop is the first TV show soundtrack I ever paid any attention to. There are a lot of cinematic touchstones in the series, so that’s not too surprising. Just about every episode feels like you’re watching a movie. And there’s only 26 of them, along with a movie, Knockin’ on Heavens Door that was released in 2001. The experience is much like a supernova. It was suddenly here and gone with everyone lucky enough to see it talking about it for the rest of their lives.
So that brings us to Netflix’s live-action adaption of Cowboy Bebop. I wanted this desperately to succeed because I’ve wanted more Bebop for 20 years. Adapting anime to live action is really difficult…what works in animation doesn’t work with real actors. You can get away with far more exaggerated style and caricatures. For the most part, I really liked what they did to bring the anime to life. Changes were made to make it different, and that was necessary because you can’t remake the show. It’s just impossible as well as pointless. You can’t match the level of cool that was pulled off. What they wanted to do was expand the Bebop universe in a way that respects the original, while making a new generation of fans. It sorta worked. Not well enough apparently because a season 2 is not happening.
First and foremost, I really like the cast. John Cho as Spike, Mustafa Shakir as Jet Black, and Daniella Pineda as Faye Valentine. I think Mustafa does the best anime-to-live character portrayal of anyone on the show. Not only does he look just like Jet, but he accurately matches his speaking cadence and body language. Everything that I like about Jet, Mustafa does. In general, I think everyone does a fine job with what they’re given. It’s the changes that skew things. Before going into that more, let’s look at the rest of the production.
The set design is largely excellent, the Bebop spaceship, in particular, is a phenomenal achievement. The level of detail is crazy and beautiful in its worn out and broken down charm that mimics its crew. A lot of effort was put into making the world of the animated Cowboy Bebop real. The only knock in this regard is there are a few scenes where it looks like they are on a tiny set where the illusion of being in a living breathing environment is lost. Shot very close up, you never see much of the sky or a wide shot that shows depth. The CG set extensions, when they do them are very good. In fact, the CG work is really good as a whole. Space scenes are a real knockout, the ships and movement look really good. Every time they put you in the pilot seat with Faye or Spike in their respective spacecraft is awesome. Spike’s ship operates like a motorcycle and the excitng and forceful way he flys around from the original series is faithfully recreated and often looks real.
The series is also well directed. One of my favorite scenes is at the casino where the fight ends up blowing a hole in the building clear through to outer space. Really cool camera work with the change in pressure of the room. Just about all of the big battles are shot well. The fight choreography is good, but it’s clear the actors needed more time to train. Or more stunt actor replacement, there are a few slow and sloppy movements that don’t sell the fights well enough.
The soundtrack also rocks, as to be expected because they were able to bring in original composer Yoko Kanno.
Anime Bebop, as mentioned earlier, is 26 episodes. Around 22 minutes each. This Netflix adaptation is 10 episodes, around 45 minutes each. So the run time is pretty different and this Netflix run was never designed to cover everything the original does. It takes the basics, skips some things (leaving out main character Ed for example), and changes/expands some character stories. All of which I think is necessary for an adaptation. I got a big kick at seeing each character from the show appear. Depending on how much you hold Cowboy Bebop up on a pedestal will affect what you think of the changes. And if you’ve never seen the anime, you likely won’t care.
The show always feels odd because the aesthetics and navigation of the story are very anime. In copying what they show looks like, the direction does too. That can get messy because, as I said earlier, you can do and get away with a lot more in animation. So it constantly feels like the show is on guardrails. Too afraid to do too much differently, a slave to the source material. It can feel like the showrunners are afraid of offending Cowboy Bebop fans by simply making an adaptation. But when major changes are made, they are rolling the dice. It’s kind of a damned if you do, damned if you don’t scenario. With the complaints I’ve seen, it makes me wonder if going even further into making a new Cowboy Bebop with its own strong identity would have been more successful.
Quite a few stories from the original are used, the original material mostly comes from expanding ideas. A good example is that Spike and Faye spend more time together alone than they did in the anime. So their dialog is completely new. I loved this because my biggest wish has been to see more of my favorite characters together. And it made me think about how compressed the anime is. It moves very fast. In reality, they’d be on the Bebop all the time because space travel is pretty slow. It’s not like Star Wars or Star Trek where every ship has warp speed capabilities. You have to travel to jump gates (and pay for it) to travel to other planets fast. And you’d want other people to be on your ship or you’d go crazy from being alone all the time. Anyone you’d travel with, who wasn’t a bounty at least, you’d want to be able to have at least a decent relationship so you can socialize with them. So seeing Faye and Spike do that, along with Spike and Jet discussing things and bumping heads over important decisions was welcome.
It can fall flat at times though. Faye isn’t integrated onto the ship too well. She’s very antagonistic at the start (just like the anime) and for some reason Spike and Jet just let her hang around with them for no reason. Faye’s backstory was also changed. She can’t remember her past because she was put into cryosleep because she was sick. In the anime, a con man wakes her up and leads her on, who she then tracks down when she discovers his ruse. In the adaptation, it’s a con-woman who says she was Faye’s mother and she tracks down Faye. I have no problem with this as it’s still an interesting story and a lot is left on the table for Faye to find out about who she was. My problem is that Faye behaves differently. In the anime, while she questions her past, she still feels comfortable in her skin and with what she’s doing now (mainly scamming people). Netflix Faye is more childlike. It’s like they told Danielle to play Faye closer to her coming out of cryosleep and act like she’s having side effects from it. She doesn’t know stuff that others take as common knowledge which is used to play for laughs but it doesn’t work because that’s not Faye. She gets too goofy at times.
Speaking of goofy, let’s talk about Vicious. Played by Alex Hassell, Vicious is Spike’s nemesis. They share the same past, the one that Vicious stayed in with Spike’s love, Julia. In the anime, Vicious is one of the most popular character tropes. A quiet boogeyman that everyone is afraid of. He’s kept largely in the shadows to make him as mysterious as possible. Trench coat, long white hair, a gun or sword always in hand. He’s trying to take over the Syndicate through force and Spike is (likely) the only person who can stop him. In 1998 this wasn’t the biggest trope, he was part of that first wave (if you know Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7, there ya go) but today his look is played out. He’s a villain with no personality. The changes for him on the Netflix show are the most disappointing. They went too far in the other direction, making him a wide-eyed, manic cartoon character. No mystery, no nuance, far too heavy-handed and campy.
Now for Julia, I liked how they changed her story. Just like Vicious in the anime, she’s kept in the shadows and is mysterious. So much so, I consider her a ghost. You mostly see Spike pine over her, losing the love of his life is his deepest scar. You never find out what she’s like or why Spike loves her. He just does. That’s not interesting. Julia, played by Elene Satine, is given much more to work with on Netflix. She gets way more screen time and has a greater effect on the plot. Her arc goes in a new direction that I really wanted to see where it would go. Elene actually looks quite a bit like the anime Julia, so that was neat too.
The other fumble is with Ed. She shows up in episode 9 of the anime and is kept for the end of the adaptation. She’s mentioned in passing somewhere around the halfway mark and the setup for her introduction is completely different from the anime. She has a huge fan base and for me, she’s my least favorite. She’s entirely a cartoon character. Really easy for her to get annoying. They showed nothing but her worst traits in this adaptation. That type of character simply doesn’t translate into live-action. Do you remember the movie Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, when Jim Carrey tries to get info from a mental institution? He spikes his hair in all directions and dresses weird: combat boots, jean shorts, a pink tutu, and a white undershirt. He then proceeds to run around jumping off of furniture, with the final attention-getter of smashing his head into a seat. Take Jim Carey and replace him with a teen girl. No thank you! If they were to get a second season, I’d want them to change her to be much more grounded. You can have a character be eccentric and unique without being obnoxious and a distraction.
I wanted Netflix to succeed with this, to make another smash hit show. I had a great time watching this and I think they had their heart in the right place. They even translated the Big Shot show faithfully! What was wrong could be corrected and this universe could have been expanded with more great storytelling. It didn’t find its footing completely but I’ll be damned if they didn’t have both hands on the ladder.
See You Space Cowboy.
