Cowboy Bebop (2021)

It all adds up to an enjoyable feeling of anything-goes delirium. At a time when popular sci-fi has gone gritty and self-consciously “dark”, the caffeinated fever dream of Cowboy Bebop feels like a loving distillation of the original and a breath of fresh air.

It’s a hangout show as much as it is a thriller, a space opera, and so on. And it’s good at nearly all these things. Every time it seems as if none of these elements should make sense together, especially in live action, Cowboy Bebop goes sprinting off a cliff, refusing to look down at the void, and just keeps moving forward.

The series has a routine professionalism that serves it well in its lighter moments but doesn’t alleviate the drudgery of its later episodes. ... In its resolute ordinariness, the main value of this new “Bebop” would be to drive you back to watch the old one.

Viewers returning to the “Cowboy Bebop” franchise with fond memories for the anime might enjoy their favorite episodes receiving the live-action treatment even with the above caveats, but those turning in for the first time will likely be left wondering why this was a big deal.

Instead of feeling like a fun remix, Cowboy Bebop is at best a just-okay cover version, and for the most part an out-of-tune rendition of the greatest hits.

All of the good things about Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop are betrayed by poor writing, uninspired action scenes, and a truly baffling obsession with the most annoying characters in the series.

The result lacks a color palette, a distinct visual language, and any resemblance of soul. This is just like the Cowboy Bebop you remember (or that your friends told you about), except it is absolutely nothing like it.

Serie muito divertida, com um história legal. Os efeitos especiais são muito bem produzidos e implementados.

John Cho and Mustafa Shakir star as bounty hunters chasing down dangerous criminals all over the galaxy. The live action remake of the 1998 Japanese series echoes some of the original anime style, but goes for a grimier, more industrial feel. The casino showdown early in Episode 1 features some impressive fight choreography, but subsequent encounters are less inspired. There are some weirdo characters, but Cho’s swagger is the show’s main asset. TV series Preacher and Ash vs Evil Dead did this sort of graphic novel adaption with more pizzazz. After watching 4 episodes, i the style and stories are all over the place, but there’s sufficient energy to keep it interesting if you’re into the genre.

In my opinion, adapting anime into live action is almost always a mistake, and Cowboy Bebop is another weak entry into the anime-to-live genre. Live action just can't achieve the same heightened realism or extreme emotion that is possible in anime. Anime can easily show Spike throwing lightning fast kicks and then throw in a two second shot of him landing the key punch. And live-action requires a bunch of effort and budget to achieve a less-good version of that. The casting is mostly excellent, especially Mustafa Shakir who could easily be mistaken for the anime version of Jett for how well he nails the voice and mannerisms. Faye was kind of ridiculous in the anime, and I think Pineda does a good job of bringing her into live action. I love John Cho, but the dude is almost fifty and is not an action star. He's great when doing anything other than fighting, but Spike has to do a lot of fighting and it really feels like Cho just can't quite keep up. The fight scenes have good choreography, but they often feel like a slo-mo rehearsal. The frenetic jazz soundtrack tries to set a high-tempo, but the action on screen feels languid by comparison. And as far as style, there are more images seared into my brain from the 20-minute first anime episode than from the 90-minutes of the first two live-action episodes. Any sci-fi show is make-or-break in how well it uses its FX budget, classics like Firefly and The Expanse make excellent use of a few limited establishing shots and space ship fly-bys. Unfortunately, Bebop is clearly hindered by its budget and falls short of those much older shows. Episode 1 ends with a fight in what is supposed to be a space-port, but is clearly just an airport with a CG spaceship composited in. Anime is great because it takes advantage of all the benefits of animation: heightened realism, fantastical settings, time dilation to convey speed or impact, etc. But porting it over to live action robs anime of all its magic. And Cowboy Bebop feels like its huffing and puffing to capture a sliver of that anime magic, and only captures a sliver.

Is it watchable? Sure. Is it good? To some. Did I like it? Sorry, no. The Cowboy Bebop anime is probably my all time favorite anime ever! (Besides DBZ) So when this came out on Netflix, I went in with low expectations knowing how bad anime adaptations can be as live action shows. I knew right away, oh this is kinda corny/cringy. It felt like I was watching one of those bad CW shows or a cheap Fox show. I hated what they did to certain characters like Vicious and Julia and Ed. I honestly blame the show runners for its failure not the actors. I was hoping this show would be good but sadly its not.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]