Hi amigos! How y’all doing?? Here we are, friends, an event we’ve waited for since we first heard those notes of Tank! more than 20 years ago. For all you fans looking forward to a long-hyped live-action Bebop event, Netflix has released a version of the beloved show that, on paper, looked like a home run: Shinichirō Watanabe as a consultant, Yoko Kanno providing new and expanded music, a great looking cast, etc.
So before we go any further, we have to acknowledge how we got here. In 1998, Sunrise released the jazz-infused anime that would forever change animation for the better. From Wikipedia, here’s the short run down. “Twenty-six episodes (“sessions”) of the series are set in the year 2071, and follow the lives of a traveling bounty hunting crew in their spaceship called the Bebop. Although it incorporates a wide variety of genres throughout its run, Cowboy Bebop draws most heavily from science fiction, western and noir films. Its most prominent thematics include adult existential ennui, loneliness, and the inability to escape one’s past.”
This landmark series has captivated millions, and even served as the entry point to the medium itself. The show is celebrated for the dazzling visuals, stellar soundtrack, captivating and entertaining story and, a rarity, a sensational audio dub. Suffice to say, the updated series had a lot to live up to. The Netflix team really tried some things with their adaptation, mostly giving backstory to select characters, and funneled the essential and fan-favorite plots of 26 episodes into just 10.
Having seen it I can say that, fan of the original or not, this effort missed the mark. Overlong and thin about sums it up, yet it’s not for a lack of trying, or passion for the source material…the streaming giant simply didn’t understand or know what to do with it. It’s a chore to get through and the liberties taken didn’t move the mercury either. But to truly evaluate the show, in case I just flat out missed something, I brought along two old friends who helped me start the site in 2009 and talk about this new series’ highs and lows.
Robert Estel, Peter Gulikers and I met each other in 1998 while at Oklahoma State University which is also the year Cowboy Bebop was released. The three of us bring a full spectrum of fan bases to this podcast – newbies to die-hards. Pete has never seen the show and is going in completely cold, I’m a huge fan, and Rob, who similarly loved the show, now lives in Japan where he can’t get away from anime if he tried.
On the podcast, we go into what we liked, what we didn’t, and ways to improve what we got. At the very least, it looked (at times) very good – costumes, scenery, character likenesses – and the casting was great. Also, Kanno and Seatbelts came back to do the music which was killer. But something was off. Like really off. So even though the whole revival effort was a legitimate misfire, we still had some laughs. And getting the chance to talk about it with Rob and Pete and doing a deep dive into the “sessions” made the trip worthwhile. So enjoy our latest episode!
