Cowboy Bebop (Live Action TV Show)

[MT 917]

Spike, Jet, Faye, and Vicious have all been cast. I...don't hate it?

[Anelle 794]

I still have no idea how to feel about this project as a whole

[Hoob 10]

Its not very far into this trend of live actioning anime and I'm already tired of it, sorry to be a party pooper but it just seems like a hollow cash grab to me with nothing interesting added in

[Psycho666Soldier 283]

21 minutes ago, Hoob said:

Its not very far into this trend of live actioning anime and I'm already tired of it, sorry to be a party pooper but it just seems like a hollow cash grab to me with nothing interesting added in

To be fair, Japan has been making live action versions of anime since at least the 80's. 

 

At least this Cowboy Bebop one isn't completely whitewashing the source material.

[Hoob 10]

It just reeks of the whole overselling of sequels and remakes that are fashionable right now and it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

I won't shit on anyone else for wanting to give money to that stuff and I honestly envy them for the ability to just like stuff but I can't help but feel this way about a lot of whats coming out lately.

At the end of the day Cowboy Bebop still holds up in terms of quality for the most part and if I wanna see it again I can just watch it again.

[Psycho666Soldier 283]

I don't disagree for the most part.  I'm the same way when it comes to remakes and such.  Sequels I'm cool with in the right context.  This sort of thing usually isn't my bag, but I think a re-imagining in a live action environment has a lot of potential to be excellent.

 

I don't expect it to meet those standards, but I cast I can get behind is a good start.

[Anelle 794]

Except for Willem Dafoe as Ryuk, the Netflix Death Note missed SO MANY notes and cues as to what a good adaptation needs to be that I am just......... really really reluctant to have any sort of feelings about this other than "please do not"

 

The Alita movie was fantastic, completely different league I know but still... it's POSSIBLE to do something really cool with an adaptation. 

[Revolver 27]

I don’t think you can get anyone to play Spike and do it right. Good luck John.

 

I’m interested but also hesitant because of the bad track record of these adaptations.

[Galeigh 308]

Nyup, nope, nuh uh. Not even gonna touch this movie. Live action anime interpretations NEVER end well. 

[MT 917]

40 minutes ago, Galeigh said:

Nyup, nope, nuh uh. Not even gonna touch this movie. Live action anime interpretations NEVER end well. 

The same was said about comic book movies for years, and look how big that got.

[Galeigh 308]

They big cause they were actually GOOD. Garbage will always be Garbage unless it actually tries to be better. No anime adaptation to live action has actually tried to BE better. The best we got is BA Alita, and even that has some glaring problems. 

[Tassifox 418]

Irony that I'm re-binging my DVD of the show.

Well at least Keanu Reaves won't be part of it. Dodged that bullet.

My other thoughts is as much as I knew this was going to happen seeing this is making me initially think. "Oh gods...this....this is really becoming a thing now"

Japan as been doing this forever and to be fair. Also fail majorly in getting their live actions to not suck as much as America does. America is just way more cringe worthy in their anime/cartoon LA remakes.

Who's gonna be ED!?

I'm pretty much on the fence with this one. It can possibly be okay, or it will most likely burn in another dumpster fire. I do like the style of the cast so far with their previous works.

[MT 917]

4 hours ago, Galeigh said:

They big cause they were actually GOOD. 

Dude, before stuff like Iron Man and Blade, comic book movies were GOD FUCKING AWFUL. Saying live action anime can NEVER be good is just ridiculous.

 

I mean, just look at this shit

 

 

 

The Fantastic Four movie was so bad, it was never actually released in any official capacity. Or shit, any of the original Batman movies that weren't by Tim Burton. There are plenty of terrible examples of comic book movies and look at them now, raking in billions of dollars to high critical acclaim.

[Mera'din 308]

I actually didn't mind the Captain America and Punisher movies they did in the early '90s. They were campy as fuck, but kind of fun.

 

Seriously though, it's something that just has to go through the process like similar things have. They've been making comic adaptations since like the 40s (I know there was a Captain America serial at the very least back then) and it took a long time, but they've come a LONG way over the years.

 

Alita was really good all things considered and a lot of it's story issues came from the fact that it was in development hell for over 10 years. It was originally supposed to be James Cameron's project he would be working on after the show Dark Angel was done and kept getting pushed back. Think the earliest versions of the script was floating around in like 2000 or so but not fully "done" until like 2008. The script got passed around pretty heavily from there and it wasn't until a few years ago that it was turned into a proper shooting script by Rodriguez. It was in various states of pre-production for so long that the tech developed to make the movie ended up being used in Avatar. I really enjoyed the movie overall, though I have only the most rudimentary experience with the source material. I felt like it was probably the best example of an anime adaptation thus far and if things continue to improve from there we'll start seeing some decent stuff before too terribly long I would think. Someone will get the formula right one of these days.

 

I'll give this a shot. If it's shit then whatever, more of the same. If it's not, then cool. I have no real expectations which never hurts with this kind of thing.

[Downshift 54]

7 hours ago, Galeigh said:

They big cause they were actually GOOD. Garbage will always be Garbage unless it actually tries to be better.

Are you saying the Cowboy Bebop anime was Garbage?

[Galeigh 308]

no, I am saying every attempt at live action anime has been garbage.

[Downshift 54]

OK good

[Tassifox 418]

Well they already fucked up.

LA CB casts husky for Ein

" When asked about concerns related to fan backlash, Netflix’s spokesperson replied with “Just like the genre the show is named for, sometimes it’s better to do what’s unexpected, what’s never been done before. (sic) This is the ethos of Bebop, and we’re being true to that. We’re confident true fans of the show will embrace this choice.” "

They don't know anime fans well.

[MT 917]

“Nothing in the story says Ein has to be a Corgi,” 

 

How about EVERY SCENE HE'S IN?

[Anelle 794]

FOR FUCKS SAKE

[Mera'din 308]

They had one fucking job.

 

Like seriously, the number of people I know who have/like Corgi's because of Ein is fucking STAGGERING. Myself included if I'm being completely honest. You don't fuck with that kind of devotion.   

[webhead 519]

Why would they change that?

 

It's so pointless and like...corgis are super popular anyway.  For christ's sake.  It's a bunch of fuckinh contrarians making this movie isn't it?  I don't know why I'm surprised.

[Tassifox 418]

Dude. I love Huskies. But corgi's are FUCKING ADORABLE are within my exception of no small dogs life rule. Plus EIN IS NOT JUST ANY SIMPLE CORGI! HE'S SUPER CORGI AND YOU CAN'T ERASE THE CUTENESS THAT HE IS THAT MAKES EVERY EPISODE SPECIAL!

Just.....I don't know why they had to do this. This makes me terrified for Ed now. Do we know who's casted for her yet?!

[Galeigh 308]

Just.... Stupid. 

[MT 917]

I've heard that story isn't real from two different people, but haven't seen anything about it in any official capacity.

[Revolver 27]

Yeah, anime is already such a huge, well-developed thing that these projects are starting with an uphill battle because there is typically such a polished version of the story already available. Like what are you going to add to this to make it a worthwhile endeavor? And if you make significant changes then you anger the fans.

 

Seriously the action, music, cinematography, acting, etc are all already so good. I mean a book or comic adaptation at least makes sense because clearly you’re able to view the material in a brand new way.

 

But maybe this isn’t for us. My friends wife loves horror stuff and knew nothing about Death Note before seeing the Netflix adaptation. She liked it and started watching the anime soon after (and that was probably her first anime ever).

[Jane 100]

 

My guesses as to why they've switched Ein for a husky - although part of it probably is that they know people think huskies are kewl, it's probably also partly convenience; I'm gonna hazard a guess that it's a lot easier to find huskies already trained for movie and TV work than corgis (though maybe The Crown could spare a few corgs... there must be some in that, lol), and a bigger dog is probably going to be easier to keep in shot next to human actors in a variety of scenes.

It's still rubbish that they're changing him, though.

 

EDIT: ...though I have just actually read the article and that husky is super cute.

[Tassifox 418]

If it was going to be THAT complicated to train a corgi they could have at least thought of the option of CG'ing him like they do with Ghost for GoT but knowing the costs of that and how much they would probably need Ein on screen would counter that thought but GGGAAAHH! AT LEAST TRY TO THINK OF MOAR OPTIONS JERKS! And actually in the show The Crown the corgis in there didn't seem that hard to train. They had MORE THAN 1 in the scenes for pete sake!

[webhead 519]

Most dog breeds can be trained fine.  Not like Corgis are particularly difficult.  If this is legit it just seems like typical Hollywood "we have to make it our own!" shit.  And they wonder why everyone hates videogame and anime adaptations.  They always fuck them up.  It's like they already have a movie they want to make and they buy the rights to something popular to slap as a skin on top of their shitty generic movies.  It's infuriating.

[Jane 100]

I'm not saying corgis are more difficult to train than huskies - far from it, training a husky is probably harder. But there's probs more demand for husky-types in Hollywood (I'm guessing that'll be where most of this will be filmed) - especially as they can double up as cheapo "wolves" fairly easily;  so animal actor agencies will have more of that sort of dog available to choose from. Of course they will be thinking about it stylistically too, but from the production company's perspective it's not about how easy different breeds are to train, it'll be how easy it'll be to find an already-trained example of that breed (they're not likely to train a dog themselves, and doing an exhaustive search for the perfect dog would take more time and therefore more cash).

I can totally imagine the staff being like "well, everyone thinks huskies are cool anyway, and it'll be easier to find one and to film one of those than a smaller and much less common breed, so let's go with that".

[Tassifox 418]

    I. Hate. Hollywood.

[Tassifox 418]

FUCKING THANK THE GODS. They must've got enough flack from fans and media that they listened and did the thing! WE GOT OUR EIN!

https://comicbook.com/anime/2019/10/07/cowboy-bebop-netflix-live-action-production-begins-ein-casting/

[Mera'din 308]

Looks like production has been delayed for 7 to 9 months. John Cho injured his knee severely during a shoot and it's going to require surgery and what not before they can start up again.

 

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2019/10/19/john-cho-injured-netflixs-cowboy-bebop/4036613002/

[MT 917]

Fuck. Yes.

 

 

 

[Tassifox 418]

*takes hype notch a tiny bit up*

[webhead 519]

Intro at least looks like its trying.  We'll see.  I want it to be good but I have low expectations based on....every time anyone has done this.

[Lucy 108]

Me at that OP:

 

LIKE

 

OK

OKAY

 

There's effort going in here, I'll give it a chance
(mind you I've been kombucha face since I heard there was gonna be a Seatbelts soundtrack but hey)

[Tassifox 418]

Pretty much echoing you 2. Pretty much almost any anime LA no matter where it has been filmed has little succession. And Netflix's attempt at Death Note was a dumpster fire only worthy of Rifftrax. 

 

But.

 

The main cast is tight. From what we're glimpsing at the rest of the cast in the opening could also be p guud. The look feels right. We might even see a glimpse at Vicious in this season. We got corgi Ein. (From the word i'm hearing Ed won't be possibly coming until maybe S2 if it survives this season which makes sense since she doesn't show up in the anime until later on). My expectations are def staying under but the effort is being made....so far....

[MT 917]

 

The comments in the reddit thread were hating on it, but I don't think it looks that bad.

[Mera'din 308]

I loved it. It was fun, and the presentation was interesting. I'm actually starting to look forward to it.

[Tassifox 418]

*pushes the hype bar up one more notch*

[h2ojunkie 96]

Looks cool. The color thing was interesting, wonder if it's just for the trailer. 

[webhead 519]

On 10/19/2021 at 7:01 PM, h2ojunkie said:

Looks cool. The color thing was interesting, wonder if it's just for the trailer. 

Was thinking the same thing.  If the SHOW was actually like that, holy shit that would be incredible.  Somewhat reminiscent of all the weird shit they did in Scott Pilgrim.  

[MT 917]

 

 

Ein! Still no Edward though...

[Tassifox 418]

Spoiler

The thing i'm hearing on the grape vine is we probably won't get to see Ed until S2 (if we get one) which makes sense considering Ed comes In later after the first handful of eps. They don't even have Ed listed in cast on IMDB. So could be possible. 

 

[MT 917]

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO *deep breath* OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

 

Yeah, I heard that too. Still sucks if it's true.

[Tassifox 418]

Very much so. 

[Gardenstaff 3]

Harold and Kumar have had very interesting career paths.

[Mera'din 308]

I think the fact that they were doing this was announced about a month ago at least, but I don't recall if anyone said. They got the original cast back to do the Japanese dub for the show, which is pretty cool. I can't stand watching live action dubs of stuff so probably won't try to watch it that way, but it's another good sign showing they cared about what they were doing with this at least:

 

 

[Tassifox 418]

I'm about halfway through ep 4 and so far.....I don't hate it? I do have some thoughts though and I will probably rewatch the animation before confirming some of them. Music is fucking spot on though as well as the actor who plays Jet.

 

Spoiler

One of which I feel like they've lightened up a LOT of Viscious's personality. Like I expect a little embellishment here and there since, it's Hollywood being a whole separate identity vs a book or an original but I never felt any kind of comedy relief or even a hint of that from Viscous from the original. And I think here they did that with him being Julia's husband and their attempt to flesh out that particular story element with Julia's visits to their old haunt and showing far more of Spike's story than (from what I remember) they did in majority of the anime, I'm not sure how I feel about that.