TV ► Cowboy Bebop Live action series

[LostArtist]

And each characters' arcs aren't told through 4 episodes in a row, but rather over the course of the series with different jobs inbetween, and I appreciate that realism just the same as how in life we frequently have waiting periods between big or momentous moments.

I get what you’re saying. Personally I enjoy episodic series when each episode is completely their own thing, anthologies I guess? Or if the episodic series is really really out there.

Otherwise it feels more and more like an American cartoon to me like Futurama where for the most part, it’s very slice of life feeling even though characters are built throughout the series, or like monsters at work. Or actually even anime like Pokemon, where every week basically has it’s own story etc.

But I feel as though there is a way to make something with waiting periods and big moments, and still have it feel much more connected and much less slice of life feeling? Breaking bad or Better call Saul come to mind.

Whereas with filler it's more like, hey, we need something to kill time while the manga develops further, buy us a year with a 54 episode filler arc, buy us a few months with a 12 episode arc. Sometimes there's also the fun filler just to get to enjoy the characters on an offbeat adventure, very similar to the original-story movies we see so frequently in anime.

Yea, I know how fillers work, I was just trying to describe the feel of it. I think a better description is slice of life esque space cowboy bounty hunter style?

character moments during these smaller scale stories that can help you get attached to these people, and in the back of your head you always know "Spike is gonna run into Vicious again," or in Firefly's case "We're going to find out what experiments were done on River and see why she ended up so crazy."

Again, breaking bad or better call saul come to mind when thinking of something that feels very arc focused yet also has smaller scale character moments and waiting periods vs big periods. Even oddball episodes sprinkled throughout. They both sprinkle in character backstories across different episodes (much more so in better call Saul). And a lot of the time it feels like the story moves in small increments. Things get introduced and dropped and then brought back later, etc. But it always has a driven feel to it, like a balance of realism and story.

its stellar soundtrack

Absolutely

So basically I’m not too into the slice of life feeling in story based series (it’s better in comedies)(edit: it depends how it’s done and within what context, here it doesn’t do it for me). I think the main thing for me, somewhat connected to the slice of life, is the whole setup. how after 8 eps in, I still don’t feel any type of overall goal to get to. And I’m also not terribly emotionally attached to any of the characters yet.

Keep in mind this is after 8 eps. And even though I am unfortunately already an adult, who knows, my feelings for it might change with time regardless.

really appreciate your wholly written response

 

[Deleted member 246005]

The new Teaser is pretty fun....damn I haven't seen the anime since I was in college....atleast now I can watch both. .

 

[Max]

The new Teaser is pretty fun....damn I haven't seen the anime since I was in college....atleast now I can watch both. .

I can't decide if it's actually the acting or if it's the writing or a combination of both, but it just feels kind of cringy/cheesy to me, and not in a "fun" cheesy way. The action and choreography were great and I can appreciate what they're trying to do with the style and transitions, but anytime anyone spoke I was like

 

[Deleted member 246005]

I can't decide if it's actually the acting or if it's the writing or a combination of both, but it just feels kind of cringy/cheesy to me, and not in a "fun" cheesy way. The action and choreography were great and I can appreciate what they're trying to do with the style and transitions, but anytime anyone spoke I was like

It's more campy than I thought it would be. But it fits to me because anime lends itself to that sort of tone. Or my expectations are pretty low after Netflix Death Note. I'm just glad it looks good.

 

[Max]

It's more campy than I thought it would be. But it fits to me because anime lends itself to that sort of tone. Or my expectations are pretty low after Netflix Death Note. I'm just glad it looks good.

That's such an odd line to walk for me personally. Like, you're right, the anime does also have that kind of tone in places, but it's also one of those things where certain things lend themselves better to anime than live action. And to me that kind of campiness falls in that category. It's such a double edged sort because if you retain EVERYTHING from any anime in a live action adaptation, those things that don't work so well outside of animation stick out like a sore thumb and some people (guilty myself) have a hard time watching that. On the other hand, if you change anything too much (which in some cases is even a slight change), then you lose some charm the original might have had and all of a sudden everyone is saying they did a poor job adapting it.

It's a lose/lose most of the time. I enjoyed Rurouni Kenshin live action, that was about as close as someone was gonna get to a good live action adaptation. Hated Dragon Ball Evolution. I didn't hate Netflix Death Note as much as the rest of the world oddly enough. That's not to say it's good, but I controversially liked it better than the Japanese live action. Attack on Titan live action was garbage.

The list can go on and on, and I know I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said a million times before. Based on what we've seen so far, my expectations for myself are that I won't think this live action will be the worst thing in the world, but I don't imagine I'm gonna care much for it if the whole show follows the same tone as the teaser. But that was a 2 minute video, so obviously I can't judge it yet. I'd love to be wrong and it be fantastic.

 

[Cassette-Disk]

I've heard people say that this would have been better as a live action adaptation of Space Dandy since that would have fit the tone better, and I kinda agree tbh.

 

[Deleted member 246005]

That's such an odd line to walk for me personally. Like, you're right, the anime does also have that kind of tone in places, but it's also one of those things where certain things lend themselves better to anime than live action. And to me that kind of campiness falls in that category. It's such a double edged sort because if you retain EVERYTHING from any anime in a live action adaptation, those things that don't work so well outside of animation stick out like a sore thumb and some people (guilty myself) have a hard time watching that. On the other hand, if you change anything too much (which in some cases is even a slight change), then you lose some charm the original might have had and all of a sudden everyone is saying they did a poor job adapting it.

It's a lose/lose most of the time. I enjoyed Rurouni Kenshin live action, that was about as close as someone was gonna get to a good live action adaptation. Hated Dragon Ball Evolution. I didn't hate Netflix Death Note as much as the rest of the world oddly enough. That's not to say it's good, but I controversially liked it better than the Japanese live action. Attack on Titan live action was garbage.

The list can go on and on, and I know I'm not saying anything that hasn't been said a million times before. Based on what we've seen so far, my expectations for myself are that I won't think this live action will be the worst thing in the world, but I don't imagine I'm gonna care much for it if the whole show follows the same tone as the teaser. But that was a 2 minute video, so obviously I can't judge it yet. I'd love to be wrong and it be fantastic.

That's fine.

 

[Max]

I've heard people say that this would have been better as a live action adaptation of Space Dandy since that would have fit the tone better, and I kinda agree tbh.

I haven't watched Space Dandy yet, but from what little I've seen from this live action teaser and the little of Space Dandy I'm familiar with, I can see that.

No matter what happens with this live action, we're being blessed with fantastic music, and that's awesome.

 

[Max]

The trailer is finally out:

Dialogue still sounds too corny/comes off weird, especially Faye, but I will say that it's stunning to both look at and listen to. They've done so well with the technical aspects of this, I love the way the ships look inside and out. And Yoko Kanno always sounds great.

 

[Zettaflare]

So many references to the original series(both in terms of action sequences and characters). I curious to see how the Mad Pierrot episode will play out since it's my absolute favorite

 

[Xickin]

So my father has never liked any form of media originating from Japan. He saw Cowboy BeBop, people at his work told him to give it a try. He watched an episode. Saw the live-action trailer, decided to watch another episode or two. I told him it's a slippery slope for anime from there. Was I right to warn him? Or should just throw out his iPad to keep him safe?

 

[Hamster Lord]

The series seems to be getting mostly negative reviews. I haven't liked any of the footage I've seen and I hate how like almost everything else that's been remade these days they do that confrontational/outrage marketing bullshit. Also think it's a shame Netflix picked up the streaming rights for the show but not the movie since that's rare/out of print on physical media. Oh well. At least the original is on there for everyone to see.

 

[Max]

The series seems to be getting mostly negative reviews. I haven't liked any of the footage I've seen and I hate how like almost everything else that's been remade these days they do that confrontational/outrage marketing bullshit. Also think it's a shame Netflix picked up the streaming rights for the show but not the movie since that's rare/out of print on physical media. Oh well. At least the original is on there for everyone to see.

The movie can still be found without too much hassle for around 25 bucks or so if someone doesn't mind used, but I get what you mean. It isn't readily available for purchase, especially not new, and there isn't a convenient way to stream it. It always bothers me when that happens, like Fullmetal Alchemist being on Netflix but not it's movie. And the movie is the actual ending at that, makes me glad I picked these movies up back in the day.

Speaking of, I have 2 copies of the Bebop movie, one on Blu ray and one on UMD

But yeah, I'm not surprised by the reviews. I'll still give it a watch myself to decide how I feel, but based on what's been shown so far and the typical track record of these adaptations, my expectations aren't very high.

 

[Deleted member 246005]

I'm halfway through the new Cowboy Bebop show and I'm liking it so far.

 

[Max]

I've watched the first two episodes.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

I made it to episode 5 before going to sleep last night. Jet is fantastic, Spike is great too but I still can’t help but feel that John Cho is just a hair bit too old to play Spike when everybody is calling him “kid” lol

Faye was rough with her changed introduction and her utterly manic personality that I think was meant to be seen as badass, but just comes off as overly hyper. I’ve since grown to like her.

There is a lot of fantastic stuff in the show but it is also not great at all. The tone is all over the place. The scene in the first episode when Asimov is selling the Red Eye and the potential buyer is like “and then we can have cupcakes!” was just so weird.

I absolutely hate Vicious. This isn’t a cold, calculating man. This is a big manbaby with too much power. I also don’t like the plot change at all here. I also dislike that Vicious is determined to kill Spike out of pure hate rather than this being a sad tale of betrayal and bitterness born of lost love and friendship. Vicious was a foil to Spike. Now he’s just this big dumb nothingburger.

Julia…I…don’t know how to feel. On one hand, I don’t like how early she was introduced. Second, I don’t like her role in this, but I also respect that they made this change so she isn’t this non-existent character for 90% of the show.

As a whole the show has a mix of good moment, amateurish dialogue and cinematography, and idk how I feel. I’m still watching so at least it is entertaining.

Gonna try and finish the rest of the episodes today.

 

[Deleted member 246005]

I agree with Oracle's assessment. 7 episodes in and Vicious is the main letdown. He needs more interesting things to do or atleast a cool fight scene.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

I made it to the flashback episode and maaaaaaaan they really should have just made a new show.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

HAHA fuck this show

 

[Hamster Lord]

Just wanted to come back to this thread to say I'm 4 episodes in and cannot believe how bad it actually is. The sets feel so clean, the way the show was shot looks so cheap, the writing is like a compilation of the most unfunny Marvel quips, and most of all the way they handled Vicious and Julia is just bad. Fuck I hate it.

More on the topic of Julia and what I was saying about the outrage marketing thing: in the original show, Julia is a phantom that haunts Spike and we don't even know if she's alive for half of the show. When we do finally see her, she is absolutely badass - measured, put together, and Faye learns very fast why Spike would be so obsessed with her. So of course when the marketing cycle for this show began and they were saying things to the extent of we're gonna give Julia more things to do since she doesn't really have a role in the original, I felt they didn't understand her role in the show. And then the show comes out and she's a fucking battered housewife who gets beat up the whole show and then at the last second says fuck it I want to rule the syndicate. Fuck. Who writes this shit? I haven't seen the last few episodes in full yet so I'm only speaking on what I read and skimmed through so I could be wrong about some things, but still. Also, having Spike kill a child (after we watch him in every episodes just killinng people and laughing about it) makes him irredeemable. In the OG, when he killed intentionally, it was usually a very serious moment. Just garbage.