Oh boy. Where to start with this… Cowboy Bebop is close to 25 years old now. It is the anime series to recommend to people who ‘don’t like anime’. Twenty six episodes and one full length feature film of high quality stuff. Is it all great? No, but as a whole the show occupies a place in my brain that really, really loves it.
There had been a rumour of a live action movie (with Keanu Reeves as Spike) back in the aughts. For various reasons that never happened but we now have the live action Netflix series, just around the corner.
As with everything these days, there is a huge division in early opinion. I, personally, don’t really have too much interest in fighting over whether John Cho is a good choice to play Spike (I do think he is a fine choice).
All I want is for Netflix to not fuck this up. I am as excited for this series as I have been for any movie or show ever.
Takeaways from the trailer…I love the adherence to the esthetic of the show. There is a feel that is common to the trailer that comes from the series. I love that we see Pierrot le Fou, the Teddy Bomber and Twinkle Maria Murdoch. I am not sure how the translation of the fight scenes will work, the little bit I have seen is not my cup of tea. Also, while there is clearly an Ein, it isn’t clear if there is an Edward which may be a good thing.
This trailer looks much better than the teasers put out. I loved Cowboy Bebop but I haven’t watched it in well over a decade. I think I’ll wait until after I watch this to rewatch the anime.
Apparently, Ed will be featured in some way, but they haven’t mentioned her in the cast at all.
I would recommend watching the anime, which was just added to Netflix this month. It’s pretty much the top of every “What anime to watch if you’ve never watched anime” list.
I’ve never seen the anime because, well, I just don’t like the art or the animation. I’m totally onboard with giving this a watch tho. Already have my reminder set up on Netflix. Going into it totally blind, avoiding trailers and clips.
I love the original and the trailer seems fun though I will keep my expectations low in part because I don’t know if there are any human actors who can replicate Spike’s loose-limbed charisma or Julia’s ethereal beauty. I suppose the best thing would be to forget the anime and just judge the film on its own merits.
Ah OK. I will definitely watch the first episode or two and then see how it goes. A TV show will probably be easier to get used to and judge on its own merits compared to a one-off film.
I’m definitely not loving it. Sure it looks very Cowboy Bebop. Almost too much so. And the action and acting are a bit flat and dull. Like watching people cosplay episodes of Cowboy Bebop.
Never seen the original but after two episodes I like it. I like the style and the tone and the actors, but I’m not sure about some of the writing yet. So far, Spike seems like he’s borderline incompetent, and his partner Jet seems too forgiving. But I’m going to continue as long as it’s still fun.
I’ve watched the first few episodes of the animated series and the live-action series and neither series particularly sucked me in.
As far as the live-action series goes, the visuals look great and the plots are interesting enough but the dialog is pretty weak (IMO), especially the “witty” banter that sounds like it might have been cribbed from old reruns of “According to Jim”.
