Series Bang!
I've watched quite a lot of anime adaptations, particularly Japanese made ones, and they consistently demonstrate two truths: 1) a lot of anime's stylings simply do not translate into good live action and 2) anime fans will insist you put it in anyway, all other considerations be damned. Netflix's 2021 Cowboy Bebop is no exception to either of these truths.
For those not familiar, Cowboy Bebop is a Space Western about a gang of down-and-out bounty hunters; they're incredibly cool and skilled, but through perpetual misfortune and infighting, they can never make any real money off of the criminals they take down. Bebop is also one of the most beloved anime series of all time, so as you might imagine, the new show has earned the ire of a lot of anime purists.
Fortunately, the live action show has all the important parts. It has the anime's kitchen-sink of genre tropes, the grubby sci-fi, the kung-fu, and all the splendid big band music. Of chief importance, it gets its trio of main characters right. Spike is suitably aloof, sarcastic and always thinking about his stomach. Jet is a gruff father figure who tries to keep the others out of trouble. Faye is the selfish asshole who is always grifting for her piece of the pie. Faye is perhaps the most different from her anime inception in that she's much more vivacious and extroverted here. It's a change that's absolutely fine, and does its job of differentiating her from the other two miserable blokes she shares a spaceship with. With these strong characters, we get some good personality clashes, and the bantering and childish bickering is a highlight.
Episodes roughly follow the plots of the source material, sometimes remixing scenes or writing in slightly different outcomes. Tonally, the show is mostly going for campy, with split screens, colourful characters, surreal elements and silly jokes. The budget is visibly straining at times to show everything it wants to show, and there are occasionally crummy special effects or simple mistakes, whilst fight choreography can be a bit sluggish too. For the most part it works though. It looks right, if a bit rough around the edges.
What doesn't work is the villain. Vicious is the worst part of the anime; a two dimensional Sephiroth wannabe that fortunately only appeared in a few episodes. Live action Vicious is even worse. There is a whole new subplot about his rise to power, and its impossible to take it seriously because of how goofy he looks, a sad 40 year old with tacky goth costume jewellery and bad silver hairdo; It's Anime stuff that won't translate. His subplot is a misstep, even if it resolves some of the plot holes of the original anime.
I liked Cowboy Bebop. It was never going to be better than its inspiration, and no one expected it to be. Being less good =/= not good however, so if you are a fan of the show or new, give this a watch. And if you are a purist, the original anime is on Netflix for you still.
Series Misfiring on all cylinders
Arrogance, thy name is Netflix Cowboy Bebop. Simply put, even if the show was above the line of mediocrity, there would still be no reason to watch it. Cowboy Bebop 1998 was and still is the seminal work of, not only animation, but TV storytelling as a whole. The writing there still is head and shoulders over not only anime, not only Japanese television, but most pop media. Any attempts of remaking this is destined to be an inferior product. And the producers and executives of the netflix venture still thought that they could improve it. The final result is a product that completely betrays what the original series strived to be. Where the original was smart, the remake is dumb. Where it is poetic, now it's loud and brash. Where it was kinetic, now it's slow and staged. And finally, where it was mature, now it acts like a kid who learned their first swear word. Nothing is more emblematic of this inversion of values than the new Julia and Vicious. In the original anime, their love triangle and backstory with Spike is left ambiguous on purpose, they are almost cyphers for what Spike's past. When we do see them, it is always the exclamation marks of the series. Julia's appearance is specially remarkable, as showing that Spike didn't just fall for a pretty face, but as someone just as capable and charismatic as himself. Vicious, a cold and pragmatic psycopath always leaving a trail of blood that he cares nothing for. So now those two cyphers are completely filled out by being the opposite. Vicious cares a lot for what everyone around him think and Julia is left as distressed damsel to be abused only for her to do a 180 at the very last second. If those two's storyline weren't already dreadful, while the series used those two sparingly, Vicious and Julia is now ommipresent, appearing every episode. That the series was cancelled after the first season means that there is no reason to seek it out. There won't be a second season to course correct these baffle decisions. The time spent watching the original series will be the same in length as watching this terrible remake, but much more rewarding.