Cowboy Bebop (Live Action): Series Premiere

 

Based on: Cowboy Bebop by Hajime Yatate

Developed by: Christopher Yost

Starring: John Cho (Spike Spiegel), Mustafa Shakir (Jet Black), Daniella Pineda (Faye Valentine), Elena Satine (Julia), Alex Hassell (Vicious)

I have seen the anime before, but it's been quite a while. Probably a several years. And while I really enjoyed it, it didn't leave a huge impact on me, so I don't feel like a large part of my mind is comparing original the adaption as I watch this. 

What I did compare, I did as I saw production development: I noticed that the cast looks remarkably like the anime characters. Even Jet, who's a black person, I thought felt like a black person in the anime, even though his skin tone was lighter. I appreciated that Faye's shirt was a bit more conventional, and I thought the pre-released opening credits mirrored the anime to a ridiculous extent. Like, pretty much shot for shot, not to mention identical music and tone. 

As someone who's hotly anticipating the now-in-production Avatar series from Netflix, this has all made me quite happy. 

I don't remember the plot of this first episode of the anime (and that's all I've seen of this adaption, since this review is on the premiere), so I'll give my thoughts independently of that. I think it threw me in quite nicely! It's exactly what it claims to be: a space Western, heavy comparisons to my other favorite series, Firefly. I've noticed more emphasis on the space travel and sci-fi elements than I expected. The anime had more of a noire feel, but the technology depicted in this episode made me feel... optimistic? I guess watching glowing space warp systems, glowing energy weapons, glowing stars, glowing planets, and glowing hologaphic storefronts has all left me feeling happy. It was all functional, too. Usually in a noire tone, a lot of these things would be depicted as defunct, broken down, or otherwise non-functional to contribute to a bleak, bland, hopeless atmosphere. 

The characters were introduced well, too. In the middle of a fight at a club, Spike emerges smoothly from an elevator and stops the show with his presence. He then flips a coin into the air and kicks it perfectly at some target (which I forget), knocking something over or someone out. He then proceeds to kick butt and take name, swinging thugs over his shoulder and taking out two bad guys at a time. Jet joins him soon, and together they take the place. Faye is introduced a little later as a competing bounty hunter who they kidnap and then joins them on a job. 

It looks like the show is going in a good direction and I'm excited to see how the season pans out.