Netflix debuted Cowboy Bebop, a live-action remake of the popular 1998 anime series, just last month, and the world reacted with, “It’s alright in parts, I guess.” I’m probably being a little harsh calling it “sucky,” but the show didn’t seem to please many people; it seemed slavishly in thrall to the visual motifs of the original show but lost much of the style and humor, and the elongated episodes slowed the pacing down to a crawl.
John Cho, Mustafa Shakir and Daniella Pineda were good enough in the lead roles of Spike, Jet and Faye, outer space bounty hunters running from their pasts, but the show didn’t seem to really be for anyone in particular. Audiences were underwhelmed, with The Hollywood Reporter saying that viewership plummeted 59% in its second week. In light of this, Netflix has made the speedy decision to cancel the show.
Netflix needs to lay off the live-action anime, or change the way it adapts them
Netflix has several live-action anime on offer, and literally all of them are lame. That live-action Rurouni Kenshin movie is lame, the live-action Full Metal Alchemist movie is lame, that Death Note movie will Willam Dafoe is bad…whoever’s behind these things needs to shift their strategy, cause it’s not working.
I saw that live-action Attack on Titan movie a while back and it sucked too. All of these movies seem to stick weirdly close to the source material when it comes to the visuals…even though anime visuals are inherently exaggerated and look dumb in live-action. If Netflix wants to keep focusing on live-action anime — and they do; there’s a One Piece remake coming, as well as a live-action version of the anime-adjacent Avatar: The Last Airbender — I think they need to find: 1) a compelling reason why there needs to be a remake in the first place, and; 2) someone with vision who can make the new version their own.
See you space cowboy…
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