Cowboy Bebop Creator Shinichiro Watanabe on Live-Action Version

Shinichiro Watanabe is responsible for making the coolest anime ever – so cool that it has aired regularly on Adult Swim for the last two decades quiet to be watched. It’s a testament to how awesome cowboy bebop is that all these years later it still charms audiences – anything Live action adaptation by Netflix decisively did Not Afford. And Watanabe was definitely not enthusiastic about it either.

In an excellent interview about the long career of the director forbes asWatanabe said what he thought of the Netflix version starring John Cho, Daniella Pineda and Mustafa Shakir. He didn’t have much to say, but he didn’t mince his words either: “For the new Netflix live-action adaptation, they sent me a video for review and verification. It started with a scene in a casino, which made it very difficult for me to continue. I stopped there so only saw this opening scene. It clearly wasn’t Cowboy Bebop and I realized at that point that it wouldn’t be if I wasn’t involved Cowboy Bebop. I felt like maybe I should have done that. Although the value of the original anime is somehow much higher now.”

I don’t think Watanabe necessarily has a problem with casinos – the scammer Faye Valentine is introduced in one of the third episodes of the anime – but it’s easy to see which, as such, Watanabe would prefer its beginning via a generic action sequence. The anime begins with a flashback where Spike is walking in the rain to meet his lover Julia and his rival Vicious and he knows it won’t work out well. It’s damn cool.

And if I may, I think this is probably Watanabe’s deeper issue with the difference between the two bebop. What got the live-action version so wrong, while staying true to the anime’s look and story, is that it wasn’t cool. At all. From the first scene it never felt cool. And that’s what the Cowboy Bebop Anime was primarily from its very first animation cel.

Either way, Watanabe would have an easy time judging the show and realizing it wasn’t his cowboy bebop, and decides not to punish himself by watching the rest. If you have time, I recommend you to look around the forbes interview– It’s a fascinating, honest and uncompromising retelling of his anime career, including his time working for other dumbass in America.

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