Forum - View topicNEWS: Netflix's Live-Action Cowboy Bebop Show Posts Opening Credits
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TheBeastAR
Posts: 27 |
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You sir speak the truth. I've been thinking about this particular point all the time and it's something that few if any fans, ever seem to acknowledge. I'll agree with you in that progress is being made. Both East and West, I've seen a few adaptations of anime/manga/light novels and games that have been very enjoyable over the last few years. Granted Yamato, Kenshin, Detective Pikachu, Edge of Tomorrow etc might not be a whole lot when measured up against the vast number of adaptations that crop up on a regular basis in Japan, but it's a noticeable improvement. These are adaptations that I have enjoyed and will happily rewatch and that is a big plus in my book. Kenshin The Beginning is one of my favourite films of the years and I never thought that would happen. If the live action Bebop sucks, then no one here really loses anything because the original anime will always exist. If it is good, then we stand to gain something wonderful. The other thing is in terms of that very real fan hostility, it's something I have understood but also been perplexed by. Dragonball Evolution happened in 2009. Just because that sucked does not mean every adaptation after the fact will. That was over a decade ago. We need to move on. |
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Rentwo
 Posts: 184 |
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I'm not sure what you mean. Ed would correct people who mistook her for a boy and say she's a girl. |
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Cryten
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The floatyness of the movements makes it feel quite artificial. Where the original felt like a homage to old cinema and manga/comic books this feels more like a homage to cowboy bebop. And do you want your show to radiate being a fan of the original material when making new content?
*Shrug* Im curious that they emphasise Fay using those weird curved daggers. Does anyone else get brought to mind one of those cosplay shots at a convention where they do their moves extra slow to give the audience time to take pictures? |
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Suxinn
 Posts: 245 |
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Hm, while I enjoy the idea of this, the editing in this sequence is... not great. I don't think it has anything to do with the actual editing/shots of the show itself, which look typically high-budget Netflix, but whoever edited this sequence seemed particularly hampered by trying to make it exactly like the original, which ultimately ended up making it look... awkward. It'd probably have been better if they had just emulated the visual language/style of it instead of trying to reproduce it frame by frame.
Still have no idea what they're going to do with Faye's backstory with this, though, considering that Faye was the only one in the original series who actually came from a real-life place, and Pineda's casting definitely doesn't fit that. (Still wish they'd casted a spoiler[Malaysian Singaporean actor], or something, but eh, whatever.) |
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NeverConvex
 Subscriber Posts: 2366 |
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I'll give it a shot, thanks! I saw that while scrolling through Netflix the other day and had no idea what it was; was wondering if it was any good. I think I'm also more likely to enjoy a live-action anime series if I haven't seen the original animated show, so maybe it'll work for me. |
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Panino Manino
 Posts: 748 |
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This looks just like those cheap and very embarrassing japanese live action adaptations.
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DangerMouse
Posts: 3986 |
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Thought it was pretty good.
Really like that CG sequence of the Swordfish taking off too in there. Doesn't really show yet how it'll feel when the show has to pull off the whole mood within an ep, but not a bad start.
This. They chose the best option, recreating one of the best OPs. And, like was said earlier, also the stuff they chose to cameo in there too was some nice side picks, so I think they showed a good amount of love for the show. |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16941 |
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Exactly. Hell, look at early Marvel movies from the 80's and 90's.For more recent the vast majority of the X-Men movies, new and old. More duds then successes. How many Spiderman series have we had? Now we have arguably the best movies for Spiderman. I'd much rather Hollywood, and Japan, keep trying to get the "formula" down to make them as good as they can be. The recent Japanese Kenshin movies are pretty darn good for example. While flawed Battle Angel Alita was a big step forward from stuff like DB Evolution or other flops. Even GITS wasn't THAT bad. It was passable. As I said, I would rather be positive and hope for them to succeed and get better. The faux outrage so many show when adaptations are announced just seems so tiring. Now, I do get that there's hesitation from fans. Especially given the overall track record thus far from Hollywood, and Japan too overall. Let alone any other foreign obvious adaptations that might not share the name due to copyright issues. Hoping that they fail, and meeting projects with outright hostility though is like cutting off your nose to spite your face. The failed adaptations have done virtually zero to influence the actual anime market. It's not as if those failures have somehow altered the anime market overall. Japan still make swaths of anime (many even say too much) and they make the anime they want to. Hollywood movies or Netflix won't change that. So if an adaptation comes out for whatever title and it does suck, then just ignore it and move on. If you (general sense) let some failed alternate adaptation ruin your enjoyment of the original material then I think you have weak skin, and that's on you. Hell, the crappy adaptations have only made me enjoy the original material MORE so far. |
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Spoofer
 Posts: 356 Location: NY |
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The concept of requiring templates and evolution to finally result in a good adaptation is nonsense.
Oldboy was one of the first great manga adaptations. Road to Perdition, in a roundabout way, was likewise an adaptation of an adaptation of Lone Wolf and Cub. The original Matrix was an amalgamation of many established and popular anime sci-fi concepts of the late 80s and 90s. These films were great 20 years ago simply because they were adapted and recrafted for their particular mediums and audiences by competent filmmakers, end of story. Bebop, more than most anime, would have been an easy adaptation in the right hands, considering there's nothing too out there or unfamiliar about it compared to what Western sci-fi has been tackling for over half a century. And it's a work heavily inspired by now-classic live-action and broad pop culture to begin with, so if Netflix had been willing to throw some decent money and talent at it like they did with their other love letter to past film/pop culture history, they could've made something that actually looked like it could be somewhat decent. As it is, the promo images, now this opener, and truly from the very beginning considering the names they attached to this project, warning signals were being evaluated and interpreted on their own merits, even before getting past fan disillusionment with B and C-name talent dragging their fan-favorite properties through the mud. It doesn't have to be this way. |
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Spoofer
Posts: 356 Location: NY |
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[didn't think this post went through]
Last edited by Spoofer on Mon Sep 27, 2021 11:25 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Spoofer
Posts: 356 Location: NY |
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While Batman and Robin was trash, Burton's Batman and Returns were well-regarded back in the day. Another example of a creative visionary convincing execs to give him a chance, when the most well-known adaptation of Batman prior to was Adam West. I can't recall anything really approaching the maturity or sophistication of Begins or The Dark Knight either, prior to Nolan putting his touch on the superhero genre. Both sets of films kickstarted dozens of imitators in their wake, few measuring up.
We want talent, not templates. |
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LinkTSwordmaster
 Posts: 426 Location: PA / USA |
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Have been HIGHLY excited for this ever since they posted the set previews.
I will say, it looks like the timing of some of the shots for that opening are a bit off. It actually looks better if you have a TV with Motion Smoothing (the Soap Opera Effect) IMO. I love that I'm getting a bit of a (Robert Conrad) Wild Wild West vibe from it. |
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BonusStage
 Posts: 307 |
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I know live-action superhero movies have been big these past couple decades, but they're generally poor adaptions. A lot of the most popular superhero movies we got are about as accurate to their source material as Dragonball Evolution is. Yet that one is considered a flop while the superhero movies are some of the top grossing films of all time. There's a lot more expectations and consequences when you try to adapt a manga with over 100 million copies in circulation compared to a comic book that gets 10,000 readers a month. Suddenly it goes from "Who cares if the X-Men, Fantastic Four, and until recently Spider-Man aren't in the Marvel Cinematic Universe?" to "Why is Ed seemingly not in this? You can't have Cowboy Bebop without Ed!" If you're just looking to be entertained for a few hours then that's one thing but if we're talking genuine attempts at an adaption then it's going to be a lot harder for anime and manga adaptions to be well regarded and compete against superhero movies. So I don't think superhero adaptions are necessarily a good comparison. |
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RockSplash
Posts: 495 |
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I feel Anime adaptions need to adapt shows that are easier to adapt without all the "anime-ness" of them. Things like Black Lagoon, Monster, anything Urasawa really. Hell, Baccano is a 1930s period piece. You could easily adapt that series with enough money. Instead they puck the stuff that looks way too goofy in live action. |
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Spoofer
Posts: 356 Location: NY |
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Yeah, that's a large part of the issue of what's wrong with this, IMO.
As I said earlier, Bebop succeeded for many reasons, but a large one was because of how well it borrowed material and inspiration from live-action material, and successfully incorporated aspects of those into its own medium. It knew to use what could work and translate over to its own medium, and abandon that which didn't. The problem with recent anime adaptations is they fail to acknowledge this same lesson, to borrow and use only what works within the expectations of live-action (especially when it's Western live-action), and discard that which doesn't. And instead they simply attempt to port anime over in a more 1:1 fashion (truncated or mutated story beats aside), when the live-action medium doesn't play to those same strengths or retain the same audience expectations. It's why Oldboy and Road to Perdition worked when fully adapting conceptual ideas to a new and unique medium, but instead when live-action attempts to out-anime anime, it's attempting to play outside of its own strengths. And this opener sure looks like the creative team are focusing on entirely the wrong thing, to the point where they seem to think they need to accentuate the cheese. That's the problem, though. No one fondly remembers Bebop because of how "cheesy" it is. While all of those elements from the opening are within Bebop, it's not the focus because those are accepted everyday elements of the medium. We instead remember Bebop for how it distinguished itself within its own medium, primarily for the quality and seriousness of its craft and how deftly it interweaved its underlying mature narrative with outstanding direction and cinematography, while being the episodic equivalent of a great music album where the sum is strengthened by its varied but cohesive parts. It's the weight that we'll always remember, and which we'll continue to carry. What the live-action team should've done, IMO, is emulated the works that inspired Bebop in the first place, and presented the story with a straight face. Bebop is also great fun, yes, but that fun should have been recontextualized in a way that made sense for both live-action and Western audiences. Retain nods to those sillier anime elements, perhaps, without the need to fully commit to them in a medium which they do not belong to. And this could've been accomplished in many ways without the end result looking like a total schlockfest. |
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