She’s funnier than her anime counterpart, and her sexiness is transformed to make her feel more competent and less like an object to ogle.įaye’s transformation is the first evidence of Cowboy Bebop being a faithful representation of the spirit of the show and not a simple recreation to the letter. She’s not the Faye Valentine I knew but a better one, updated for modern audience sensibilities. Pineda’s Faye was the breakout character, though. You’d be forgiven if you heard Mustafa Shakir as Jet Black and thought you were listening to Beau Billingslea from the anime dub. John Cho (and his hair) can do no wrong, and he perfectly embodies the kind of nonchalant, wiseass I know Spike Spiegel to be. It wasn’t any of the actors’ fault I just felt they were doing their best with less than stellar dialogue. I already didn’t like that the opening credits was a shot-for-shot reproduction of the anime’s credits, and the first episodes looked amateurish - like Netflix was putting on a Cowboy Bebop community theater performance rather than an ostensibly million-dollar production. I couldn’t lose.īut my cautious optimism deflated after the first two episodes. If the show succeeded, I’d finally have an anime adaptation worth a damn, and I’d get new Yoko Kanno music.
If the show failed, at least I’d get new Yoko Kanno music. But instead of recoiling with horror when the show was announced, which is understandable whenever an anime gets life action-ified, I was cautiously optimistic. Its aesthetic, from the noir-style storytelling to its jazzy soundtrack, became the foundation from which most of my taste, style, and ambitions come. I can definitively state that I wouldn’t become the person I am now without this show.
Cowboy Bebop was such a formative experience for me as a teenager covertly watching the anime long after my appointed bedtime. It took some time and looking past some of the show’s rough edges, but I got there.Īsh, what was it like coming to this from the anime?Īsh: I felt what you felt initially. I went from not caring about these characters to tearing up when Faye finally gets the smallest hint about her past.
The way Jet can’t help but be a dad, taking everyone out for bowling and forcing them to have fun, or how Spike tries to do the right thing but keeps getting caught up in his old life. The highlight of Cowboy Bebop for me has been the found-family dynamic between Jet, Faye, and Spike. It seemed like the show expected me to already know and understand these characters.īut things changed the more time I spent with them. Meanwhile, everyone behaved like a flat caricature in the early episodes. The action felt stiff, and the CG looked cheap. Some of it was the aesthetics - Jet’s strange beard that’s obviously a wig or Spike’s odd-fitting suit. It’s a great setup, but something about it felt… off, at least early on. Soon enough, they’re joined by Faye Valentine (Pineda), an amnesiac looking to find out who she really is. Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir), his self-serious partner who used to be a cop and is trying his best to be a good dad. There’s Spike (Cho), the prototypical badass with a dark and mysterious past. The Netflix series is centered on a trio of bounty hunters - called cowboys, in this universe - who form an uneasy alliance. It has a lot of things I love: great music a retrofuturistic world elements of noir, westerns, and even a hint of samurai movies and characters defined by mystery. Let’s go, space cowboys.Īndrew: I have to admit, the show didn’t grab me at first, which was surprising. To figure out whether or not the series will satisfy any of these audiences, we enlisted long-time Bebop fan Ash Parrish and newcomer Andrew Webster to binge all 10 episodes and report back. There’s the painfully stylish opening credits sequence, a promising cast featuring the likes of Daniella Pineda, John Cho, and John Cho’s hair, and the all-important news that Yoko Kanno would return to compose the main theme. Night Shyamalan’s forgettable take on The Last Airbender.Ĭowboy Bebop, though, has offered glimpses of hope in the lead-up to its debut.
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For the most part, these have been an unqualified disaster, whether it’s the Americanized Death Note movie or M. On top of this, Netflix’s Bebop is also the latest in a growing list of attempts at turning classic anime into live-action shows or movies. Then there are those coming to the show without existing expectations, who are just looking for some great space capers. Much of those come from the existing fans, of course - those who loved the original anime with its jazz- and corgi-infused mix of noir and sci-fi and are hoping the new series does it justice. Netflix’s live-action take on Cowboy Bebop comes with a lot of expectations.