Movies/Shows Reviews

Cowboy Bebop

Hola, amigos!

Welcome to the review of Cowboy Bebop! A sci-fi adventure story about bounty hunters, a hacker kid, cute corgi (who's also good at hacking), and woolongs! Ya'll ready for this darn tootin' showdown?

Ok, let's drop the country accent, shall we?

As a kid growing up in the late 90's through 2000's, I remember the time when our house had analog tv (thankfully it wasn't equipped with antenna) and VHS rental store existed. One of my favorite memory was when the US introduced anime. Back then, Cartoon network had like Pokemon, Sailor Moon, Gundam, Tenchi Muyo, Dragon Ball Z, and many more. It was a nostalgia for me to have discovered and fell in love with them. 

I can't remember when Cowboy Bebop aired but I wasn't into it at that time. Some sci-fi themes piqued me but most times I was into the girl power, supernatural, romance, and comedy section.

Fast forward to November of 2021.

Netflix released the live action series called Cowboy Bebop and in October of 2021, they released the original anime version (possible reason must be to stall viewers excitement? I guess).

Now if you're a (hardcore) anime fan, there's been years of knowing that both Japan and the West aren't doing their job right in making live actions based on manga. The US versions of Dragon Ball was... I cannot even complete this sentence (it was a good watch. Just the dialogue and acting was cringe). And you have Japan with their Attack on Titan--which doesn't earn an applause from me as it was ok but some of the plot and characters' personality are way off. 

Although I question if filmmakers actually stated they were gonna make an exact plot of the title or we just assumed they were gonna follow? Adaptations and 'based on' have different meaning. It doesn't mean someone will copy everything of the original but more likely take the original samples and mix with their own ideas, leading two ways: excellent or worst.

I first checked out the live action to see how well it was (and John Cho was in it). In my opinion, the show wasn't bad. It had a vibe of some 2000's jazzy mystery show to it. So then I went to check the reviews from Anime News Network and other sites that I typed on Google. There were some people who liked the live action but majority of anime fans hated it. I thought, 'hmm, guess time for me to dive deeper!'

After binge watching all episodes of the anime, I can partly see why the fans not loving it, however, it's still wasn't horrible.

Plot

(From Wikipedia) In 2071, roughly fifty years after an accident with a hyperspace gateway which made Earth almost uninhabitable, humanity has colonized most of the rocky planets and moons of the Solar System. Amid a rising crime rate, the Inter Solar System Police (ISSP) set up a legalized contract system, in which registered bounty hunters (also referred to as "Cowboys") chase criminals and bring them in alive in return for a reward.

Characters

Spike Spiegel - A former Assassin in the past, despite he doesn't reveal his history (especially to Jet), Spike is the kind of guy who helps strangers during on a bounty mission and kind of an annoying but goofy 'brother' to his crewmates.

In the live action, John Cho played as Spike and the way he acted had a similarity to it. Yes, he looked old with those forehead creases and other lines. But aside that, the way he interacted with Jet is pretty much same to how the Anime version of Spike talks to Jet; a married couple bickering everyday (lol). 

Jet Black - An ex cop turned bounty hunter with a mechanical arm and owner of his ship, Bebop. He's more of the leader among the crew and cooks whatever food they have in the fridge. 

Now in the anime Jet's not black whereas in the live action he (played by Mustafa Shakir) is. I have no problems when they portrayed Jet as a black man as long the actor plays the part well. There are times you can judge a skin color, but that's if the movie plot is based on historic or something, not all fiction. Anyway, Mustafa's performance was also quite good! 

Faye Valentine - Earth woman who had been in cryogenic sleep for a long time after a space shuttle accident, she doesn't remember her own identity (due to waking up with an amnesia) and discovers that the doctor charged her a big debt for helping her recovery. At the beginning episodes, Faye even had trust issues ever since the betrayal from the clinic and thus created herself the new Faye.

I have mixed feelings with the live action Faye (played by Daniella Pineda). In the anime, Faye is a femme fatale and her ways are like a smooth scheming fox. But in the live action, she's more of a tomboy that sort of cusses a lot. Being a tomboy doesn't mean it's a bad thing, however, to follow the anime character is...disappointing. Though one good thing I do like is the 'family' interaction just like the anime. When Faye joined Bebop, she treated them like siblings especially to Spike, so I give thumbs up to the actors for that. But overall, I'm in the neutral for her.

Edward Wong Hau Pepelu Tivrusky IV (AKA ED) - An eccentric genius hacker kid who joined Bebop by themselves.

In the anime they referred as 'she/her' while manga (which I never read) made Ed as 'he/him'. I think using 'they/them' fits. In the live action, Eden Perkins, is nonbinary. They only briefly appeared in the last episode. While I can't say about the hair but I thought maybe the actor fits as Ed's character.

From Wikipedia: Originally, Ed's character was inspired by the "inner behavior" of the shows' music composer, ("a little weird, catlike, but a genius at creating music"), and was first developed as a dark-skinned boy. It was changed to even the gender ratio on the Bebop, which was, with Ed as a boy, three males and one female. The original character design appears in as a young boy that steals an adult magazine from Annie's bookstore by smuggling it under his shirt which eventually he takes out and reads. 

Ein - This Pembroke Welsh Corgi was part of an experiment by a research facility and then got kidnapped by a man named Abdul Hakim for money. His enhanced intelligence and friendship with Ed makes a great teamwork.

This is kind of questionable for me if in the live action they made Ein a half cyborg dog or is he even a real dog? He too was part of an experiment as well had been captured, but one scene put me in the same position as Faye did. 

Pro vs Con

Pro:

- The diversity and LGBT

- Opening song is same as ever (thumbs up to that)

- Some choices of actors playing the role are spot on

- Settings and part of some storyline

- The villains and side characters

Con:

- Few wrongful actors in their role (e;g Vicious and Faye)

- Some parts of dialogue (Faye's dialogue was really bad that I wish the scriptwriters would watch the anime to learn about her)

- Less character introduction (like they couldn't bother to add VT with her awesome guitar shaped space truck?)

- Sequence of plot order (although can it be compared 10 episodes with 26?)

Overall result

One thing I think the live action lacked is that while it follows some episodes of the anime, it more focuses on Spike, Vicious, and Julia rather than the space chasing adventure. The other part that now irked me is Vicious. Compare to the anime, they made Vicious a comedic guy with huge anger issues instead of the stoic 'vicious' (yes, I had to go there) viper type. If they were maybe less immersed with the trio and delve more on the random missions, then perhaps the anime audience be calmer.

I did wanted to see what they have in stores for season 2 but sadly, it got canceled. 

Stars: ⭐⭐⭐(insert half star)

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