The Live-Action Cowboy Bebop Is All Style, No Substance

Daniella Pineda, John Cho, and Mustafa Shakir in Cowboy Bebop. Nicola Love/Netflix

What a fever dream. It’s 2021 and the live-action Cowboy Bebop series has finally arrived. Fans have anticipated this for a very long time. For better or for worse, it’s here. My expectations were low when this was first announced, and they remained so after the first trailer. Cowboy Bebop is a beloved anime that was ahead of its time, a beautiful noir masterpiece wrapped in mystique, but surprisingly light in many aspects. It was a great balance of storytelling, visuals, and developed characters. It does have its flaws, Faye’s ridiculous outfit being one of them. It hasn’t aged well, but it helped pave the way for anime’s popularity in the United States.

The United States doesn’t have the best track record when it comes to live-action anime adaptions (I’m looking at you, Dragon Ball Evolution). Anime is an art form that has been used to illustrate fantastic stories that are hard to translate into real life. It turns into really bad camp and writing most of the time, or studios thinking they know best without keeping the source material in mind. That makes it hard not to be negative.

Spoiler warning!

Cowboy Bebop, the anime, was released in 1998, finishing with 26 episodes in 1999. It is set far in the future in a world where space travel is accessible to most. The story focuses on three characters: Spike, Faye, and Jet, each of whom has their own subplots. In between the individual characters’ various subplots, the three work as “cowboys” or bounty hunters, bringing in criminals to authorities for money. They all reside on the spacecraft called “The Bebop.” This new live-action series starts strong: the production value is very high, the chemistry between Spike and Jet is fantastic, and “Tank” is still the opening theme. We have a well-choreographed action scene with just a touch of camp. This trend continues throughout this season and sticks with most of the main plot from the anime. Spike, Jet, and Faye’s character development is fleshed out more than the anime. Jet has a troubled relationship with his ex-wife and child, and many segments focus on him trying to be a good father. Faye has amnesia from being in “cryosleep” (basically frozen) for too long. She tries to find out about her past and her family. Spike gets the most attention: a completely structured backstory about how he met Vicious and his affair with Julia.

This is where the live-action series suffers the most: it’s way too long. Netflix can probably be blamed for the show’s runtime. Netflix is all about tempting viewers to marathon its TV shows. That is, unfortunately, the era we live in. It’s not about quality, it seems, but quantity. The subplot that focuses so much on Vicious and Julia could be completely cut; their scenes are unnecessary and cliched. We lose so much of the mystery behind Vicious, Julia, and Spike. That is one of the foremost selling points for the anime: we are only given clues throughout the anime about Spike’s past. Julia shows up in the last two episodes of the anime; Spike and Julia finally reunite, and right when we think we are going to get answers, Julia is killed. She dies in Spike’s arms, which triggers him to go on a killing spree at the Red Dragon Syndicate and face Vicious one last time. In the live-action, Julia betrays Spike, shoots him, then takes Vicious as her prisoner. She then seemingly becomes the head of the Syndicate. This deviation wouldn’t be terrible if there weren’t so much time spent on exposition. The live-action series struggles to find its footing with how it wants to tell its story. It seems that it wants the style of the anime: a mix of sci fi with the flare of smoky jazz bars. However, terrible writing and weak story structure undercut this aesthetic.

Daniella Pineda, John Cho, and Mustafa Shakir in Cowboy Bebop. Nicola Love/Netflix

If you have never seen the anime, the show does work better. If the name Cowboy Bebop weren’t attached to the show, it would make for a better experience. But because we know that it’s trying to emulate the beloved anime, we have high expectations that the show fails to meet. Even with its faults, the show isn’t a complete waste of time. Again, the sets are great, the action/fight scenes are fantastic, and the actors seem passionate about the show. They take the material and lean hard into their roles. That chemistry does partially make up for the egregious flaws. Unfortunately, Netflix canceled the series already. I was hoping that the criticisms would be taken seriously and we would see an improved second season. 

Cowboy Bebop has a lot of flair and a great budget, but it lacks in the writing and story-telling department. The characters are well developed, and that’s due to the great performances. I shrugged when I finished it and was glad to move on to better shows. That is definitely in part due to being a fan of the anime. I hope we do see the space cowboys again but in a better light.