Cowboy Bebop Thread - Live-Action Adaptation cancelled after one season (it was shit)

[Kari Kamiya]

And Alita, which I'm amazed even worked.

I think Alita only worked because James Cameron is an actual fan of the series and had waited 20 years for technology to catch up to make the movie he wanted to make. Legit, I think he only worked on Avatar just to make more money to work on Alita. I think he knew he was going to make a shit-ton of money because he's motherfucking James Cameron, but I don't think anyone anticipated the massive box office.

Though mind you, he wasn't the director (lol it was Robert Rodriguez, no wonder I got Spy Kids vibes from the movie), but he was heavily involved with the script and was the producer. I definitely got a feeling the movie was a labor of love, but because it's cyberpunk, it didn't grab the normies' attention.

 

[The Cunting Death]

Tbf Robert Rodriguez is a fantastic action movie director
Horrible as a kids movie entertainer

 

[XYZpdq]

I think Alita only worked because James Cameron is an actual fan of the series and had waited 20 years for technology to catch up to make the movie he wanted to make. Legit, I think he only worked on Avatar just to make more money to work on Alita. I think he knew he was going to make a shit-ton of money because he's motherfucking James Cameron, but I don't think anyone anticipated the massive box office.

Though mind you, he wasn't the director (lol it was Robert Rodriguez, no wonder I got Spy Kids vibes from the movie), but he was heavily involved with the script and was the producer. I definitely got a feeling the movie was a labor of love, but because it's cyberpunk, it didn't grab the normies' attention.

Cameron was weird about Gunmu. Like, he was into it enough to make it his white whale since well before the late 90s anime boom, but he only knew about the ova and the first trade of the comics.
One of the scriptwriters of Avatar mentioned how he told Cameron there was more of the comics and James was like "well shit this changes everything"

 

[Mr. Zed da Robot Poon Fed]

I was honestly surprised when I found out Alita was based on Nip manga and not just another new YA creation (along the veins of Jupiter Ascending and Hunger Games).

But yeah, Western adaptations of Japanese media historically never worked well, which you can boil down to typical Hollywood arrogance.

tbf Japan doesn't have a much better track record of adapting their own stuff into live action, either

Because this stuff was never meant to be live-action. Manga/anime was the perfect venue for these stories and these characters.

It's like the decision to greenlight Cats to make it.....well....what it is now.

This remake's PR has turned out exactly like I predicted.

It's all about trashing the fans and morally posturing at the altar of wokeism.

Ah yes, the tried and true formula of something that is guaranteed to not be good. I'm not going to even bother with this shit.

And shame on you if you hate-watch it and give Netflix the streams.

It's just like with The Last Jedi. Blame the fans. Blame the fans, not the unoriginal hacks who greenlit this stuff.

I can name only two instances of a live action adaptation of a Japanese Anime/Manga/Whatever that worked

Edge of Tomorrow: mostly because it did its own thing and still kept AYNIK's spirit
And Alita, which I'm amazed even worked.

Could you say that the Korean version of Oldboy worked?

Shouldn’t this guy go back to collecting boulders instead of having hot takes

This is the same fatass that publically admitted to trying out his own cum.

 

[PS1gamenwatch]

Could you say that the Korean version of Oldboy worked?

What about City Hunter with Jackie Chan?

 

[The Token Ethnic]

What about City Hunter with Jackie Chan?

It has its moments. The fault lies with Wong Jing. He films so many movies, they tend to be rushed out quickly. Check out his Street Fighter rip-off Future Cops to see how nonsensical it is.

 

[XYZpdq]

What about City Hunter with Jackie Chan?

iirc it was okay, but I'm not super into City Hunter enough to pick up on its successes and failures as City Hunter, but as a Jackie Chan it's nice enough
the Golgo 13 with Sonny Chiba was pretty decent, its problems are more what happens when you do a G13 story beyond "Arrive, ' . . . ' , Leave" than live action in specific's fault

 

[ロボ﹏§¤r﹏h¶rœ]

I liked the live action Initial D.

 

[Overly Serious]

Someone told me that Ed isn't going to be in this. But earlier in the thread they said somebody had been cast for the role. Do we know if Ed is actually going to be in this or not? Can't see her on the IMDB page.

 

[The Token Ethnic]

I liked the live action Initial D.

It was good! Anthony Wong showed up, so that was a plus. The live action Ichi the Killer was also a nice surprise.

Someone told me that Ed isn't going to be in this. But earlier in the thread they said somebody had been cast for the role. Do we know if Ed is actually going to be in this or not? Can't see her on the IMDB page.

I'm guessing that season one will end on a cliffhanger introducing or mentioning her as setup for the second season. They want to prolong the outrage and have more PR fuel when the second season comes around.

 

[Overly Serious]

I'm guessing that season one will end on a cliffhanger introducing or mentioning her as setup for the second season. They want to prolong the outrage and have more PR fuel when the second season comes around.

If they get one...

Thanks for the info. Ed is my favourite character. Much less interested without her or if they non-binary / troon her.

 

[XYZpdq]

I never watched a full ep but I saw a few clips of that more recent GTO live action (not the ancient tv drama), and the casting and hair for that was uncannily on-point.
Cro High was great live action, too.

 

[Cool Dog]

I think Alita only worked because James Cameron is an actual fan of the series and had waited 20 years for technology to catch up to make the movie he wanted to make. Legit, I think he only worked on Avatar just to make more money to work on Alita. I think he knew he was going to make a shit-ton of money because he's motherfucking James Cameron, but I don't think anyone anticipated the massive box office.

Though mind you, he wasn't the director (lol it was Robert Rodriguez, no wonder I got Spy Kids vibes from the movie), but he was heavily involved with the script and was the producer. I definitely got a feeling the movie was a labor of love, but because it's cyberpunk, it didn't grab the normies' attention.

They made a mistake by basing it on the meh-at-best OVA rather than the manga

 

[Super Sad Smile]

The Kyou kara ore wa live action adaptation was pretty good, although the actors play very over the top. There was also dragon zakura and grand blue.
I also liked the fable movie a lot, it's mostly a direct adaptation except with more over the top action scenes instead of the stealth killer vibe the manga had.

 

[Jonah Hill poster]

John Cho recently did an interview with Vulture regarding the fans displeasure on how they think he’s too old to play Spike, while “investigating” the Cowboy Bebop anime for the first time.

Some relevant quotes:

Were you a fan of the original anime Cowboy Bebop?
I didn’t know it. The first thing I read and fell in love with was our episode-one script, which I thought was really brilliant, and I thought, what the hell is this? And then I investigated the anime and just thought this was the most unique piece of entertainment I had seen in a long time: the combination of genres, characters, the music. I called Aneesh Chaganty, who directed Searching, to talk about it. “Are you aware of a show called Cowboy Bebop? I’ve got this offer to do an adaptation of this anime.” I remember him telling me: “You have to do it.” I didn’t realize what a big deal it was.

Americans also have a tendency to impose their ideas of race onto everyone else.
And there’s two ways of looking at it for me. I flip-flop. I’ve seen a lot of animation in my house because I have kids, and sometimes you go, okay, I wish that there were more Asian characters in animation. Flip side, sometimes when I see American animation, I feel like when they do draw a person of color, it’s so focused on the phenotypical differences between a white person and a person of color that it gets almost … creepy. Like, who cares, you know what I mean? There’s something loose and free about the way anime handles race, that it seems less meaningful. And I go, maybe this is what we should strive for.

Some fans thought Spike, who is 27 in the anime, should have been played by someone younger. Were you concerned about that?
The biggest fear that I had was I was too old. I knew people were gonna have issues with my age. And I had to get over it. I’m not a person who says age is just a number or whatever. It was gonna be harder — physically. And I was gonna look different than a 25-year-old guy. At some point, the opportunity is “Yes or no — do you wanna do it?” And I did wanna do it. So I wasn’t gonna stop myself from doing it.

How does that approach change the character, as opposed to if you had done it when you were 27?
First of all, I couldn’t have done it when I was 27. I mean, maybe I would’ve been better suited athletically, but in terms of my discipline, I am strangely better suited at this age. I don’t think I would’ve done justice to the emotional depth we tried to give Spike. There’s always a trade-off. What young men are typically best at as actors is rage. And that might’ve been a more pronounced element in the character. What I’m better at, being older, is showing weakness and vulnerability and love. Those things are more accessible to me. Personally, I’d prefer the version I’m able to do now. That’s my taste.

Okay. Did you get to meet Yoko Kanno, the composer of the series?
I haven’t. She was in Japan the whole time. I made sure that she was locked in before saying yes. I didn’t think the show should go forward without her involvement. [She is] too integral to the show. Our iteration minus her would suffer too much.

Spike also has very iconically poufy hair. What were the hair conversations?
I don’t know if I like the hair. My hair’s such a mess, and it’s very hard to make it do anything. My discussions with hair and makeup were “We could do this exact version that would match the anime, but I want him to look like this is natural” and “He just washes his face and goes.” And “I don’t want to wear a wig” — I didn’t want to [do action scenes] while having my scalp pulled. And so I had to try and make my hair grow as fast as possible before episode one.

 

[XYZpdq]

Cho seems pretty not-spastic

 

[Drag-on Knight 91873]

Pineda should have done what Cho did.

 

[A Grey Cat]

"see ya space cowboy"

"if you dont work you dont eat." She says while eating dog food.

The og animie will never be beat.

 

[Chilson]

Honestly, who the fuck had a problem with Spikes casting? It seemed pretty spot on for me and his costume is the only one that doesn't look like a 12 year old larper made it.

He seems to be one of the few things that people are actually not mad at tbh.

 

[KEKMUHLORD]

Honestly, who the fuck had a problem with Spikes casting? It seemed pretty spot on for me and his costume is the only one that doesn't look like a 12 year old larper made it.

He seems to be one of the few things that people are actually not mad at tbh.

The issue with Spikes casting is the age. Cho is near 50. Spike is 27-28/late twenties in the series.

So yes. That is an issue. But Cho is a professional and not a spastic asshole so people overlook it. Which is okay. I like Cho.

All in all the casting is a mess from top to bottom and it is apparent they did not care about being accurate to the series or the creators vison at all.

Fuck Netflix to sum this rant up.

Edit: Grammar