Cowboy Bebop live-action: why we can't have nice things

I enjoyed it. It helps that I didn’t remember too many details from the episodes I’d seen of the original 15+ years ago. I started rewatching the original after I finished the live action. I like the updates. The style was spot on. The characters were authentic interpretations.

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The Expanse is a really interesting one though, as the writers of the books are heavily involved in writing the series, and it’s one of the rare examples where they really do complement eachother.
Changes don’t feel forced, but more like nice twists from the writers to give you a new perspective on things.
Really looking forward to starting the 6th (final?) season later tonight.

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Frankly, I’ve found the original Cowboy Bebop difficult to finish, I think I’m 17 episodes in now. Just find the characterizations very superficial and a lot of the usual anime comic-relief tropes just take me out of the story.

Going to have to seek out the film, saw a clip from it that suggested it is much better.

I’m looking forward to checking out the live-action version some time. I think it likely will do decent justice to the series concept, and the characters can’t help but be a bit more fleshed out when they are made of actual flesh.

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Yeah, the cast alone (and their chemistry) made the live-action version work for me.

Yeah, seems like the best thing to do is diverge from the source material and be its own thing (because it is); something that, sadly, they won’t get a chance to do now.

I think a big problem that the Watch couldn’t overcome was that what people really wanted (myself included) was more Terry Pratchett stories. Which obviously wasn’t going to happen. If it had been made while Pratchett was still writing, it would have been a different situation (and reception). It at least could have failed on its own terms.

Yep. Although their algorithms that apparently they slavishly follow are more than a bit wonky, and I suspect the critical panning it got (often from fanboys) hurt it too. It seems like they’re more likely to keep shows that get good responses, for the prestige value.

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Oh please have her watch the GITS series…es. Serii? Seren? There’s two worth watching: the original 2-season series (Stand Alone Complex), and the one from a few years ago, Arise, which comes in a couple different formats). The newest one I haven’t made it through yet, but it doesn’t start very promising, being 3d animation not even as solid-feeling as the earliest Pixar films.

The sequel movie for the original had it’s fans, but it’s nearly completely without Kusanagi, and there’s a newer movie taking place after Arise IIRC, though I haven’t watched that yet personally.

But yes, by all means, she should watch the Cowboy Bebop anime! If she liked GITS, and the live action CB, it should be a… a… some kind of sport metaphor I’m sure. A home basket?

Right, and they just happened to have a VHS player and CRT TV on board the Bebop.

Oh shit. I totally forgot to have A Problem With That!

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I’m still enjoying the Netflix series very much. I think I can point out spots where they missed without being one of the fans that killed the show.

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Can we still get nice touring live concerts, at least? (People still want concerts, right?)

Howl’s? Really? I’d not realized its stature was so prominent, even among other Miyazaki films. I would have thought someone would have gone after the related books by now one way or another if that was the case.

I completely forgot there was an FMA adaptation.

I seem to recall Speed Racer being repeatedly branded as The Worst Movie Ever for the longest time. At least, until the Wachowskis released Jupiter Ascending.

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The best version of Kenshin is the stage musical staged by the takarazuka Revue…

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The last 15-20 minutes were busby berkley type musical numbers that had nothing to do with the story… Sheer fucking perfection… which looked like this…

Here are some clips without translations…

Except for the Kenshin OVAs. The OVAs are the best…

Also, they did Lupin III

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Cancelled already? Well, shit.
There are some frustrating changes to the source and it’s always going to come up short when compared to the anime but that still leaves a lot to like and nowhere near the disaster i was expecting.
Having just watched “Sad Clown A-Go-Go” i didn’t think they’d ever manage to pull off Pierrot LeFou but i think they totally did and watching them walk through the plan in rhyme to take him down was a delight. But… they just left poor Ein on his own like that?! THE FUCK! :rage:

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It made sense to me in story why they felt the need to ditch Ein but yah, that was a gut punch. Him ending up with Ed was perfect tho.

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I binged the anime before watching the live-action version, and I really struggled to get through the remake.

There are certainly some things to like about the live-action version, they deserve credit for not completely botching it, and I suspect that people who haven’t watched the anime will like it the most. They translated the design to live action pretty well (not sure why they absolutely butchered Faye’s ship). The casting is solid. The music is there. There’s some good action. They kind of missed the mark on some of the retro-futurism by just going straight retro… but it’s not too bad.

The worst part for me was that a lot of the dialogue in the remake is cookie-cutter sitcom stuff. The original series was way more noir-esque, and sometimes serious to a fault. Most of the humor was situational and episodic rather than low-hanging “haha bidets wash your butt.” I’m not sure how they ended up there with live action. Maybe a bunch of self-involved jerks that only sometimes get along is harder to sell with real people?

Some of the exposition drove me nuts. There were at least a few scenes where a character is literally explaining the scene we just watched… this is especially maddening when they’re rehashing episodes from the anime. Maybe they were trying to correct some of the vaguer plot points of the anime, but they seriously over-corrected.

I have a feeling viewership probably started off high and fell off a cliff. I honestly wonder if it would have fared better if it were worse… it felt neither good or bad enough to get people talking.

I haven’t watched much of the show yet but did they ever explain why these (initially just two) guys travel in a huge space-fishing trawler instead of something a bit more fuel efficient and practical? They’re bounty hunters, right? Something more van-sized would do the trick, no?

Jet’s big motivation in the pilot episode was that he didn’t have enough cash to afford a simple birthday present for his daughter. Seems like in that cavernous ship there must have been something of value to pawn in exchange for a simple present.

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Given the fact that googling Coeboy Beebop recently mainly returned articles trashing the show I suspect the toxic fan soapbox was large enough to make a dent in viewership.

As a fan of the Anime I really enjoyed the story told by the live action. When did reimagining source material and creating something new become a bad thing? Thankfully there weren’t any toxic Shakespeare fans out there for Kenneth Branagh to have to deal with :wink:

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Which one? The one she crashed or the one she obtained from her ‘mom’? Cause that second one was perfect.

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Netflix algorithmic major success criteria are making me think I should never start a show until I know If it’s canceled and ended well.

The OA cancelation for example left soo much untold. Yet Stranger Things kept going well past what felt like should have been it’s natural lifespan. I fear Netflix is just evolving into a standard major tv network.

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As an ex-cop, Jet may have had access to impounded vehicles. We know the solar system in the CB canon is a lawless place. Even though Jet seems to have been an honest cop, perhaps there’s some legitimate way he obtained the Bebop via his former job.

I’m willing to apply Hodgson’s Law here.

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In the original anime there are episodes in which the crew of said giant spaceship are somehow unable to afford even food so the economics in this universe are a little sketchy.

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The second one was ok, but on-screen for a whole of maybe 30 seconds? they just didn’t make it part of her character like they did in the animation. I really missed the transition shots of just… ships hanging out in space and some of the dogfighting. In the anime there are a few scenes where Faye holds her own with Spike as a pilot, and that does more to show her “toughness” than the broish “oh good, beer” dialogue.

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