Okay, 3…2…1…Let’s Jam
Cowboy Bebop is one of the greatest animes ever created. Beyond its stellar writing, intense animation, and colorful and complex characters, it also acts as the perfect jumping-on point for anyone interested in getting into anime. Its blend of western genre influences and an excellent English dub make it accessible for American viewers new to the medium. Its episodic format and a compelling overarching story make it an easy watch among its 26 episodes at 24ish minutes a pop. For many a fan, including myself, it was our introduction to anime, sneaking into our parents’ basements to catch it on Adult Swim in the middle of the night, not caring about school the next day. So when Netflix announced they were making a live-action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop, there were many concerns, as live-action adaptations have rarely lived up to the originals. Fortunately, the live-action Cowboy Bebop is incredibly fun, building on what made the anime great while establishing its own intriguing identity.
Cowboy Bebop follows bounty hunters Spike Spiegel (John Cho), Jet Black (Mustafa Shakir), and Faye Valentine (Daniella Pineda) across various adventures in Jet’s ship, the Bebop. Much like the anime, while there is an overarching story involving a gangster, Vicious (Alex Hassell), hunting Spike, the series remains episodic. In an era where overarching narrative television is the norm, it’s refreshing to see a show balance a long-form narrative with standalone episodes. The execution of the overarching story with the standalone episodes is well handled, thanks to its relatably damaged characters and the writers shamelessly playing with genre conventions. The look and tone of Cowboy Bebop stand out, replacing the gritty and rough atmosphere of the original with more of a pulp look while keeping its edge. The show pops, maintaining a dynamic pace and look throughout the series, providing a unique identity to help it stand apart from the anime. The show retains its grit, as many of the cities and planets the Bebop enter beam with life and feel lived in. This look also enhanced its genre influences, as the noir and western elements are brought to the forefront through its mood and costume design. The music is incredible, with its incredibly wild jazz score that feels like a character in itself. There are times when the story gets so wrapped up in its style, it forgets to let its characters breathe. The pacing could be so fast and bright that it misses a few golden moments to be contemplative and reflective. Still, it has moments of heart, primarily when the team confronts their histories and personal traumas. These moments are the strongest in the series, as while the overarching story of Vicious hunting Spike is okay, I found myself gravitating more to the individual stories and subplots significantly more. I loved seeing Faye try to find her real identity, Jet try to get a job done quickly so that he can go to his daughters recital, Spike try to reconcile if he can get over his ex while just having fun hunting criminals. The writing is very character oriented, and the show’s at its best focusing on them. I almost wish it leaned more into the episodic format. Of course, all of this is possible thanks to the show’s excellent casting.
The casting is superb for the most part. It took me a while to get into John Cho as Spike Spiegel, as he’s a bit more intense, but by the end of the first episode, I was sold. His slickness made him a joy to watch, and his fight scenes felt polished but still improvised and smooth. Meanwhile, Mustafa Shakir and Daniella Pineda are absolutely spot on as Jet and Faye. From the second I heard them talk, I bought them. Shakir captured Jet’s world-weary, experienced demeanor, and in the scenes where he’s trying to manage his personal life, you can tell he was once a more put-together kind of guy. One of the significant changes for Jet is that he’s a dad, and it’s a positive one, as you see the lengths he goes through to try and be in his daughter’s life despite his divorce.
Meanwhile, Pineda just beams charisma right from the start. She projects Faye’s snarkiness and flightiness with ease, showing her as at times in over her head but still experienced enough to get out of whatever insanity she wound up in. All three actors have great chemistry with each other. Spike and Jet feel like they’ve been partners for way too long and are getting sick of each other but still have each other’s backs. Meanwhile, Spike and Faye just click, and while they do rib on each other, you can feel the strong instant friendship between the two. I could listen to these two compete over bounties all day.
The main casting I didn’t like was Alex Hassell as Vicious. He’s simply not threatening enough for the part, or at least not threatening enough for the type of villain Vicious needed to be. They were clearly going for more of an egotistic entitled type of performance for the character, similar to his role as Translucent in The Boys. His performance worked for that character because he was standalone as a narcissist with tremendous power, which builds on the themes of that show. But that type of performance doesn’t work in this context. Vicious is framed like his anime counterpart to be a dark reminder and reflection of Spike’s past, which builds on the show’s themes. Making Vicious more vulnerable and egotistic rather than brooding and menacing kills the character’s mystique and weakens his unique relationship with Spike.
The show has its flaws, and most of them have to do with the difficulty balancing the show’s direction. It wants to honor the original anime while going in its unique direction. It succeeds at times, but there are moments where they call back the original in ways that weaken the writing and production. It’s distracting, and I imagine these callbacks would confuse new viewers and annoy fans of the original. Characters like Ein or Jet’s ex-wife who were memorable in the anime are treated as an afterthought in the live-action version, which is disappointing. The shot callbacks are lazy and unnecessary, contrasting with the unique pulp aesthetic the show already establish and was presenting well. The series should have focused more on establishing its own identity.
It’s unfair to just compare the live-action Cowboy Bebop series to the original. It’s inevitable, I spent most of my intro gushing about it, but it is unfair. Do I still prefer the anime? Yes. But that doesn’t take away from what the Netflix series does right. The live-action Cowboy Bebop is an entertaining show, building on the original’s themes while providing a unique take on compelling characters. People unfamiliar with the anime will enjoy this series as a sci-fi genre mashup. Meanwhile, anime fans will enjoy the series for similar reasons as a stylistic reinterpretation of the original anime. Even with the distracting and nonsensical callbacks, it still does a good job capturing the heart of the characters’ arcs. What kept the series from being truly great was a lack of confidence in itself. If it had embraced its world and was a bit more daring in going in its own direction, rather than lean on its look and callbacks, it could’ve rivaled the anime. But, for what I got, I had fun.
