Cowboy Bebop (Live Action): The only good thing about this series is the soundtrack
You have no idea how many times I have been postponing watching this series, I think more than 10 times I have sat down, watched the first minutes of the first episode and left it, since I knew what I was going to face, however, after a long time, I finally started watching this nonsense adaptation of one of the best anime of all times and my favorite anime. When they announced this adaptation of Cowboy Bebop, I have to admit that my hopes were at 30%, because unlike other anime of the Shonen genre, Cowboy Bebop is much "easier" to adapt to Live Action and much more feasible due to its universe, plot and aesthetics, that is, they could have done something similar to Guardians of the Galaxy, since these two products are "similar" in terms that they are characters that go traveling through space and living "adventures". However, the rest of the % was against this adaptation, especially because who was in charge of making it was none other than Netflix, and this company is not well regarded with respect to this type of products, just look at what they did with Death Note and more recently with Resident Evil, all of these turned out to be garbage products that stray too far from the original product. However, what I really didn't think was too bad was the casting of the 3 main characters: Spike, Jet and Faye, since for a Netflix product these actors are really similar to their animated counterparts in terms of appearance, but in terms of personality they are a little different but not much.
Something that made me raise the % of believing that maybe this product could have been something "good", is that they used all the original soundtrack of the anime and for those who have seen Cowboy Bebop know that this soundtrack is one of the best there is, without any doubt, that's why when I found out that it would be the same soundtrack, I was glad, But when I saw the first chapter I knew that things would go downhill, not only because they changed a lot compared to what was seen in the first chapter of the anime, which I can understand that they change certain aspects to adapt it to Live Action and also because having 10 chapters unlike the anime that are 25, certain things would have to be changed, but every 40-50 minutes that lasts the chapter of Cowboy Bebop Live Action is a torture.
The first chapter of the Cowboy Bebop anime is excellently presented, we are shown the interaction of Spike and Jet from the beginning, their personalities and plans, also we get a little hint of Spike's past, which is one of the most interesting along with Faye's past. Regarding the first chapter of the Live Action, it follows in a free but similar way the events that occurred in the anime, however, the denouement, which in the anime is quite sad and shocking, in the Live Action it is not, especially because Faye is introduced arbitrarily and without any need and sense.
In the anime we are introduced to these two characters, a couple formed by Asimov and Katerina, they are fleeing with a lot of drugs stolen from the "mafia" in order to travel to another planet and live fully and happily. The anime is responsible for reflecting the despair, fear and anger that Asimov has, both for everything that is happening, as well as for consuming drugs, Katerina wants to go with her partner to live happily, however, as this chapter progresses and while Spike chases them and has some confrontations against Asimov, the history of this couple reminds Spike of his old love: Julia (who I'll talk about in a moment), reached a certain point in the chapter, Spike chases them through space, while an irate and even crazier Asimov wants to cross the inter-space border even though he is being blocked by the police, In this situation of seeing her partner totally unhinged and being totally unaware of his attitude, and also being totally cornered, Katerina decides to kill Asimov at that moment, while on the other hand, the police start shooting at the ship where the couple was traveling, Katerina also dying on the spot. This scene the first time I saw it impacted me and was the point that made me continue with this series. In the Live Action, however, although it follows to some extent what happened in the anime, it has certain details that make it boring and insipid. The first point is that in the Live Action they fail to reflect the madness and desperation of Asimov, much less have a fight as good against Spike as in the anime (In fact the fight choreography in this Live Action are pathetic), but the worst detail regarding this adaptation is that unlike the anime who is Katerina herself who is responsible for killing Asimov, in the Live Action suddenly Faye appears, for no reason. In the first time she appears in this first chapter she makes Asimov and Katernia escape, however in her second appearance she is the one who fatally shoots Asimov and although they manage to escape again as in the anime, Spike chases them in the ship through space and the police shoot the ship where Asimov and Katerina were going, it is not her who kills him in the end (Katerina), but before the police started shooting at them, Asimov had already been killed by Faye's shot, totally changing a quite shocking scene in the anime to introduce Faye in this first chapter out of nowhere, being totally unnecessary.
A moment ago I mentioned Julia, a very important character in Spike's life, she was his great love in the past when he was a member of the mafia, until their separation due to a confrontation with Vicius (main villain of Cowboy Bebop and former partner of Spike). Julia is a character that is introduced to us initially through flashback, in memories of Spike and we are shown how they fell in love even though she was the partner of Vicius, the relationship between her and Spike was in secret. In all the anime of Cowboy Bebop she appears very few times, but when she does it is because they are very important and representative moments of the anime, however in the Live Action she appears every time, occupying a subplot with Vicius totally unnecessary, leaving aside the impact and symbolism of the Julia of the anime when she appears for the first time before Spike after so many years without seeing each other. In the Live Action they do the opposite by making her appear in almost every chapter unnecessarily, the mystery of this character is totally lost in this adaptation. And if we talk about lost, Vicius, which is a character that in the anime is methodical, calculating and even terrifying, in the Live Action is totally the opposite, since the bad interpretation of the actor besides being bad, is overacted, this Vicius is the opposite of his anime version, this version is simply a big kid with anger problems and always makes stupid faces every time he hears about Spike, it's as if the writers of this Live Action got together and decided to make this character so emblematic of the anime and turn him into a stupid kid with anger problems. None of the epicness of the anime's Vicius is in this character, in fact, it's nothing like him at all.
Cowboy Bebop Live Action was really a product destined to fail, not only because of the creative liberties that were taken, which perhaps these "liberties" would not have been a failure if they had at least respected what the anime represented, not only with the dialogues that are in the anime, but also with the symbolism that is in its images and scenes. None of this is present in this adaptation. And as the title says, the only good thing about this series is its soundtrack. Don't watch this crap and watch the original version instead. Luckily this adaptation was cancelled (not surprising at all). Cowboy Bebop Live Action joins the garbage pile called "failed video game and anime adaptations", where you can find the most recent Resident Evil adaptations (even the first movies are better), Dragon Ball Evolution, Death Note and in the future will join the adaptation of "Knights of the Zodiac" and my beloved One Piece, I have little hope about these upcoming adaptations due to the bad reputation of Netflix, I hope that someday they understand that there are anime that can not be adapted to Live Action because of how they are, but there are others like Cowboy Bebop that if they can be adapted, as long as they respect the original product.
