Yeah, I also thought Cowboy Bebop was fine. I actually even liked a lot of it. It seemed like most of the fan base was determined to hate it before even watching it. Most people I’ve talked to who didn’t like it didn’t make it past the first episode. While I think the show is better it seemed like One Pieces’ fans were just overall much more positive.
3 Likes
I would just like to state for the record
that I thought the live action Æon Flux film was pretty good science fiction.
As long as you pretend it wasn’t an Æon Flux (the animated series) adaptation.
2 Likes
I’m not sure I believe this. Who is it aimed at then? Most people won’t want to watch a show - live or animated - with mostly child protagonists, because it seems like it’s for children. It seems to me like they’re banking on name recognition and fans of the anime to watch it and promote it enough for other people to watch it.
Did lots of non-anime watchers watch Death Note, One Piece, and Cowboy Bebop?
It’s hard for me to extrapolate from my peer group since we’re all anime adjacent, even those who don’t watch anime, but no one I knew who hadn’t seen the animated shows was interested in watching the live show.
1 Like
Different generations of anime fandom at play here. This may be a sweeping generalization, but younger anime fans seem to be a lot more excited and open to things than the generation that felt like they discovered Cowboy Bebop and are so precious about it. Maybe it’s the fact that anime is so much more accessible these days that makes people less precious about it.
3 Likes
Making more didn’t work out super well for the avatar franchise. I really wanted to like Korra, and I think the idea and initial characterization for her were really good and strong choices, but some of the stuff they did with the larger world was not as strong a set of choices. My opinion of course, but I didn’t like how suddenly it’s maybe a 1930s level of tech and risking a spoiler, but the decision at the end of season 2 with the past avatars? I want a series to change and grow, but it felt like they threw a lot of what was good about AtLA in the bin. I have liked the comics though.
1 Like
The problem Korra has was the show was constantly threatened with cancelation. So there wasn’t much in the line of multiseason planning. They were constantly writing as if each season would be the series finale
2 Likes
That makes a lot of sense, especially for the end of season 2. But, I also just didn’t vibe with the bender sports league or the cars/tech.
2 Likes
I liked the setting. Reminded me of Fullmetal Alchemist with magic + dieselpunk.
1 Like
I understand the case for a (live action) adaptation for something like One Piece, because the original is not super accessible (being a million episodes long). I don’t really get that with ATLA. It’s already good, it already has a manageable length, there isn’t really anything in there that has aged so poorly you’d want a redo. At best, a live action version will be expensive enough to be just as good?
3 Likes
My usual test of the matter is to say “let’s watch the live action X” around my anime-obsessed older child.
If the suggestion doesn’t trigger a 20-minute rant, then Netflix has indeed succeeded.
Child 1 approves of One Piece. 
2 Likes
Does any artistic endeavor really need to make a “case” for itself? I guess the case for the live-action series is that Netflix is subscribed to in a far greater number of homes than Paramount+, and this allows Netflix to have an Avatar: The Last Airbender show in perpetuity to offer audiences while the original series is locked onto a service that people don’t really get unless they’re Star Trek fans. (It’s also on Pluto TV, but only on weekends, offered only as a marathon, and without the last four episodes.) That’s a really cynical take, though.
Personally, I like the idea of experiencing different takes on stories. Looking at something from a different angle reveals either something new about the story or the viewer, and you only get that by allowing a revisitation to the story. I know not everyone is interested in that sort of thing – and there have many times when I haven’t liked the result of it – but it’s something I’m open to and find fun. None it is needed. The originals weren’t either. But you never know what’s going to resonate with you or anyone else, so I say it’s better to create and put something out there for someone to possibly enjoy than to not put it out there at all. And while we all agree that we’d like to see more productions of original works instead, it’s fine to have an original take on an existing story – and we get plenty of those, too, even if they’re not explicitly based on another work.
/unnecessary rant
Fair point. The original show is on Netflix where I live. I just remember watching the live action movie and thinking, “What was the point of this?” Every aspect of it was just so much worse than the source material.
If the pitch is just “it’s the same thing, but live action” I don’t understand how that has artistic merit. That’s what I meant. I’ll probably watch it, or at least part of it. Who knows, maybe they do something new and interesting with it.
On the other hand Netflix made an anime version of a live action movie…
1 Like
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
