If a Mount Rushmore were made for anime, you’d have the obvious ones: Dragonball, Evangelion, and maybe Fullmetal Alchemist. But the fourth one is, without a doubt, Cowboy Bebop. It is monumental in revolutionizing the Western anime movement and was the first anime shown when Cartoon Network launched their off-shoot late-night programming, Adult Swim. The influence of it is seen throughout the medium, and it finally reached the point of a live-action adaptation.
The Netflix series stars John Cho as the main protagonist, Spike Spiegel, Mustafa Shakir as Jet Black, and Daniella Pineda as Faye Valentine.
Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop started strong. Right out of the gate, the show established what became its biggest selling point — the characters. The show opens up with a heist in a casino, which provides an introduction for two of the main characters, Spike Spiegel (Cho) and Jet Black (Shakir). Both actors did a fantastic job with their roles. Leading up to the show’s release, I wasn’t exactly sold as John Cho as Spike. Don’t get me wrong, I love John Cho, but I didn’t think he exuded the certain cool factor that Spike has in the anime. Fortunately, I was worried about nothing. Cho embodies Spike pretty well, showcasing some of his personality staples like his wit, sarcasm, and charm while still adding some new elements that weren’t wholly unappreciated.
Mustafa Shakir is the one cast member that, from the get-go, I thought was a perfect casting. He’s a great actor, and I enjoyed his roles in Luke Cage and American Gods, so I was excited to see how he’d do as my favorite character in one of my favorite animes. He didn’t disappoint. In fact, out of the entire cast, Shakir portrayed his character the best. He got the voice down pretty damn well but he also seemed to understand and emulate the character of Jet so well, which I can’t imagine is an easy thing to do in live-action.
Although I wasn’t sold on Daniella Pineda as Faye right away, she did grow into the character as the series went on, and by the end, I was a fan. Unfortunately, the writing restricted her from being better, but I’ll talk about that soon. Alex Hassel played Vicious, and while I’m not the biggest fan of the direction they took the character in the adaptation, I loved the way Hassel played the character.
Finally, here’s where the spoilers kick in, folks: Ed. The show cast a newcomer named Eden Perkins as Ed. Casting an actor who identifies as they/them was one of the times the showrunners seemed to actually care about the source material, as Ed’s gender in the anime is pretty ambiguous. Perkins did a fine job with their severely limited screen time; however, the issue stemmed from the actual character. Ed doesn’t translate well to live-action, but I’m curious to see how the actor does with more screen time if the show gets a second series. Also, an honorable mention goes to Charlie and Harry, two Welsh corgis who play the good boy Ein.
RELATED: Post-Production on ‘Jurassic World: Dominion’ Has Wrapped
Going through the series, I felt that showrunner André Nemec and writer Christopher Yost cared about paying respect to such an iconic anime. This thought slowly diminished as I got closer to the end, but for now, let’s talk about what they did right. The main theme intro was a smart move, and including the title cards, as shown in the anime, was also a small addition that I appreciated. I loved that they included much of the anime’s original music. Hearing music synonymous with one of my favorites in new live-action media in 2021 was such an awesome and surreal experience. Bringing on the original composer was the right move.
For the most part, the camera work in the series was great. There were a lot of really fun fight scenes that were shot well, and the choreography was very satisfying to watch. I’m a big fan of gun-fu, and the show featured many of them and made my heart happy. They used some unique camera shots that made even the most mundane shots, like opening a refrigerator and entertaining. I much preferred the physical sets over the ones swathed in CGI. The interiors of the Bebop looked great, for example, and other physical sets throughout the show.
One last thing I need to give ‘props’ to is the costume/prop department. They knocked it out of the park by recreating iconic outfits for the show. I know Faye’s character design got a lot of hate leading up to the launch, with her look not being accurate enough, but I thought they nailed it. If I could have added one thing, I would have given her Faye’s iconic hairband, which would have completed the look.
Earlier in the review, I remarked on my high hopes when I realized that respect was paid to the original anime. About halfway through the season, that hope started to die. The show’s biggest downfall is its wishy-washy indecision on whether to make a faithful adaptation or a show loosely based on the anime. The biggest example of this is the ending (spoilers following). They completely changed how the show ends, and it was here that cemented my belief that the team behind the show didn’t quiet understood the anime or it’s characters.
RELATED: 20 Years Later: The Enduring Magic of ‘Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’
In the iconic ending to the anime, Spike and Vicious face off in a cathedral. This happens in the Netflix show, except the show adds Julia (Elena Satine) to the scene. The focus then shifts entirely onto Julia, who becomes the catalyst for everything that made the ending great in the anime. I don’t understand why this choice was made. In an interview with one of the showrunners, it’s obvious the team behind the adaptation wanted to pull the female characters into the spotlight so they weren’t so “helpless” (which isn’t how I saw them in the anime). This is a solid mindset, however the problem is when they start twisting and contorting an already established and loved narrative to fit the bill.
I’m a big fan of comedic vulgarity…to a point. The anime starts pretty straight-edge, with little to no swearing and hardly any nudity. Three episodes in, it became apparent that the writer was trying way too hard to be edgy. My reactions went from “Oh, that’s a word I didn’t expect to hear in this…” to cringing by the halfway mark. There’s also a fair bit of nudity in the show, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing,but might limit the viewership it’ll get from younger fans who loved the anime.
As much as I like the set pieces, there were a few too many inconsistencies. For a show set in 2071, it didn’t feel very 2071. Spike loves his noodles, in one episode he gets his hands on some and it’s just a classic pack of ‘Cup Noodles’ that I can go right now and buy in a store. Inconsistencies like this took me out of the show far too often. For a show that had a lot of nice, practical sets at its disposal, it was pretty CGI heavy. Obviously, a practical set isn’t, well, practical for everything, but the CGI tended to be quite noticeable and a few times I even found it distracting.
Let’s talk about Ed one last time. Not so much about the character, but how the show used the character. When Ed finally debuted in the season, it became abundantly clear why we never saw the fan-favorite character in any of the marketing. Ed is barely in the show. I think the character had about 10-20 seconds of screentime, while in the anime she’s a main character and a staple of the Bebop crew. It’s decisions like this, and many more, made in the final episode that cement the fact that the team behind it started to shift focus from making a great adaptation to making a show that can set up a second season.
RELATED: ‘Doki Doki Literature Club Plus’ Gets Physical Release on Switch
The adaptation started off strong, the characters’ performances were great, and probably the best things about this show. The shift the narrative of an iconic series to something the creator and writer thought the world needed to see is the real downfall of the series. With the cast they built, the costume designers and set designers they had on crew, bringing the original composer on board, they could have done a really faithful adaptation of a great anime. But instead, like a lot of adaptations, the people behind it don’t seem to understand what makes the original source material special.
While the ending is bungled, some of the one-off missions were done decently, and the characters are portrayed pretty faithfully to the anime. Fans of the anime may want to skip this, but anyone not familiar with it may find the show campy, yet enjoyable. My recommendation, either way, is to just watch the anime.
With that I’ll leave you with a quote from André Nemec: “It’s Cowboy Bebop, let’s not f- this up.”
