OK- now that the dust has settled a bit from the live-action Cowboy Bebop; I thought I might talk about spoilers. Naturally, this will also involve spoilers for the anime to an extent. I will obviously be talking about any changes when relevant to this post; but to keep things simple, I will be talking about what I liked; what didn't work as well, and the reveal for a major character.
Let's start with the good first. Obviously, translating a series as visually-recognizable as the original anime would mean a lot of work would have to go into the production; and that aspect is easily one of the strongest. There are many instances of iconography from both the TV series and the "Knocking on Heaven's Door" movie that would be tricky for anyone to translate to live-action; but all things considered, the production does make it work. One of the recurring production designers of the series is industry veteran Grant Major (whose extensive credits include The Lord of the Rings trilogy); and I definitely liked the look of the sets and locations being portrayed. The retro-futuristic, 1970s-infused aesthetic is so baked into the material that I'm glad it was retained. Even the brief glimpses of 22nd century Earth I've seen look faithfully-recreated.
I was also curious how the combat would be handled, and I can argue that it captures the unconventional approach from the source in a different way. Everything from pulp sci-fi to film noir to Chinese wuxia films influenced the fights in the anime; and all things considered, it does a decent job. It's not quite the hallway fight in the Daredevil series (fingers crossed about the potential revival with Charlie Cox reprising his role), but it's also not Iron Fist either (maybe that can be soft rebooted in a potential Shang-Chi sequel). I can at least identify each character by their fighting style, much as I could in the source.
Of course, my favorite aspect is that Yoko Kanno and the Seatbelts came back to do the music; since the freeform jazz soundtrack is honestly hard to imagine the series without; or worse, someone else trying to replace it. I was honestly not expecting the story to be on the same magnitude as the original; but at the very least, it had more effort put into it than other adaptations I've talked about here.
That's not to say that the series doesn't still have room for improvement. While there were indeed a fair amount of violent scenes, sensual romances and dirty words in the anime as well; they were within reason. The source material understood that you can't rely solely on those elements to make something "adult," that you need a strong story and interesting characters to truly succeed at that. That's why even though Netflix rates the anime at TV-MA, it's not that different from other places I've watched it and fits that description way better than something like Future Diary does to me (apparently they're rebooting it soon, not looking forward to that). Granted, many of the source material's uses of these are retained; but the dialogue is even more sweary than the source material. Admittedly, the basic f-words and s-words aren't a deterrent on their own; but then there's plot points unique to this version about finding a lead to a bounty in the red light district, complete with gear that made me think: "well, somebody saw Pulp Fiction and remembered the scene with Zed." Let's just say that there's dialogues that even I think would feel more at home in an erotic parody of the anime rather than a straight adaptation. I won't be mentioning those here, which should give you an idea of how raunchy and unintentionally hilarious they are. I will state that Faye Valentine sharing her name with the infamous adult film star is no longer the filthiest thing about this 'verse.
On that note, there is creative license taken with Julia and Vicious' arcs with Spike; and I admittedly have mixed feelings about it. On one hand, it's a change that gives me flashbacks to Jack Napier killing Bruce Wayne's parents rather than Joe Chill or another unknown assailant. On the other, I understand why they did it; even with my love for Vicious as a villain from the original anime. As for his "Death Note" line- as previously stated, this adaptation at least has more effort put into it than that; though that's a low bar to clear.
Now, comes the part everyone has been talking about: the live-action depiction of Radical Edward.
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| "Wake the duck up, Cowboy: we have a city to burn." |
So, after Spike has his fateful fight with Vicious; he is approached by Edward (Eden Perkins) with a new bounty or several to collect. Seeing as Ed was among my favorite characters in the original; I don't know what to feel based on one scene, but at the same time; I'm curious. I don't know about any "Spy Kids" comparisons (personally wondering more if/when Machete Kills Again in Space is getting made); but this is actually not that different from a humanized version of L3-37 from Solo (as I compared that character to a droid version of Ed). As someone who had no real frame of reference of who I would cast, I could at least believe that much like her counterpart; she could gleefully bring down satellites like someone playing a game of Minesweeper.
Bottom line- I reaffirm this adaptation is an imperfect; if watchable take on an anime series I absolutely love. Not a complete trainwreck, but not exactly the adaptation that jumpstarts live-action anime adaptations either. Much as I sometimes wonder what could have happened if Shane Black made his version of Death Note (can you imagine Light finding the note at Christmas? I can.); I can only wonder what might have happened if the Wachowskis version of the story was the one we ended up getting. I guess I can think it over while I'm at The Matrix Resurrections; and contemplating what lies ahead. Until next time, see you cowgirl, someday, somewhere.
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