Five Thoughts on Cowboy Bebop’s “Cowboy Gospel”

I think it’s time I blow this scene, get everybody and their stuff together.

That’s right, the live-action Cowboy Bebop is upon us, and I have the honor of reviewing it. For the next several weeks, I’ll be watching each episode and leaving five of my thoughts, whether the show turns out good or bad. (Occasionally with spoilers too, so read on with caution.)

It’s been quite the ride leading up to this series, with everything from rumors claiming Ein was going to be a husky instead of a corgi (Ein is still a corgi, don’t worry) to the amazing announcement that Yoko Kanno was returning for the soundtrack causing our anticipation and expectations to rise and fall. And the tightrope the show has to walk between being a faithful adaptation and being able to stand out as its own thing is incredibly thin.

Now, to provide a little context: I freaking love the Cowboy Bebop anime. It wasn’t my first anime (that would be Samurai Pizza Cats) but it was the first one that showed me how amazing an art form anime could be, and is to this day the only series I could get my parents to watch and enjoy. However, it has been a few years since I last watched it, so while I’ll be able to catch more than a few references and parallels to the anime, there may still be some things that have slipped my memory.

I fully intend to review this series on its own merits, rather than just as an adaptation, but that will factor into things too. Several of my thoughts involve how it compares to the anime (especially in this review, since I want to cover the general adaptation elements early on), but if something works, it works.

Okay. Three, two, one – let’s jam.

1. The Music

First and foremost: Yoko Kanno’s music made the original Cowboy Bebop, and it makes this adaptation as well. The soundtrack is utterly iconic, and nothing Bebop would work nearly as well without it. The jazzy tunes accentuate every scene, add life and energy to the key moments, and match the atmosphere and tone every time they’re used so perfectly.

The music is put to good use, whether it’s to set scenes, create character motifs, or carry the action. No matter what the scene is, hearing that iconic soundtrack creates the atmosphere that can only be Cowboy Bebop.

The opening theme uses the iconic “TANK!” of course, although it switches out a lot of the scenes for clips from future episodes. While this showcases upcoming stories and characters, it comes at the expense of the visual and symbolic artistry that the anime’s opening had. It captures the visuals, but loses the meaning. So take that as you will.

But even if this entire adaptation turns out to be garbage in every other way, at least we have the soundtrack.

2. Aiming for the Aesthetic

Along with the music, the live-action adaptation is trying its hardest to capture and recreate every element of the Cowboy Bebop anime it can. We can see this in the designs of the ships, the set pieces, and the characters’ outfits (yes, I know Faye’s takes some liberties, but any Faye cosplayer will tell you those booty shorts are a pain to move in).

The cinematography also tries to use the same visually style as the anime, such as frequent close-ups on characters’ eyes and the way shots are set up. We can even see many places where it tries to do a direct recreation of scenes from the anime, such as Asimov’s fight while under the influence of Red Eye.

The same can be said for the fight scenes. John Cho has managed to get Spike’s fighting style down nicely, capturing even the little details in the way he moves. The fight scenes we got were fast paced and well-choreographed, although there were some slightly ridiculous moments here and there, like when Spike kicked a casino chip into a man’s forehead with enough force to knock him back.

On the other hand, one thing that I had to notice was how the entire color pallet was a little… dusty. There was a dirty brown tint to pretty much everything, even the water on New Tijuana. I get that it’s a stylistic choice designed to make things feel more “realistic,” but even the real world has far more colors than that.

So: some ups and downs.

3. Our… Heroes?

Alright, let’s take a look at the main cast and see how well they work.

We have John Cho as Spike Spiegel, Mustafa Shakir as Jet Black, and Daniella Pineda as Faye Valentine. How well they’re adapted from their anime counterparts varies.

John Cho not only has Spike’s body language down, he also had a shirtless Wing Chun scene to show that he got his body in shape for the character as well. He does his best to capture Spike’s attitude and behavior, which comes across nicely.

This version of Jet is very similar to his anime counterpart, but he’s given more emphasis on the ex-cop aspect, along with having an ex-wife and an estranged daughter. In fact, his motivation in this episode is primarily to earn enough money to buy his daughter an expensive doll for her birthday. But he still has the same general attitude as his anime version – they even took care to get his facial hair as close to the anime as possible.

Then we have Faye Valentine. Now, Faye is introduced earlier in this series than in the anime, but they weave her into the episode more or less well enough. So far, she feels the most removed from her anime version (and I’m not talking about her clothes, the outfit is unimportant). She still carries Faye’s confidence, but is significantly more aggressive than her anime version, not to mention she drops pretty much every F-bomb in the episode. I can understand that they’re trying to show that there’s more to her than just “sexy lady character” early on, but the anime Faye has a fascinating backstory and depth that we get to see as our time with her goes on, so I hope the live action version gets the same.

With all that said, the characters still have good chemistry. We get some scenes with Spike and Jet arguing and laughing together, showing how well they work together and where they clash. We even get them eating Jet’s famous “bell peppers and beef without the beef.”

So far, Faye has been more of a rival than an ally, so we don’t get much time seeing them working together. In fact, it feels like they had Spike bring Faye back to the ship for the “locked in the bathroom” scene just because she’s there and it happened in the anime, rather than there being a need for it.

But this is just the start, so we’ll see how their chemistry grows as the show goes on. We don’t have Ed or Ein yet, so we’ll see how they fit into things later (assuming they keep Ed, which I hope they do).

4. Asteroid Blues

Alright, I’ve talked a lot about the overall atmosphere and style of the show, but not much about the actual plot. The main story of the episode is more or less the same as “Asteroid Blues,” the first episode of the Cowboy Bebop anime.

So the story follows Spike and Jet hunting down Asimov, who has a decent bounty on his head. Along the way, Spike meets Katerina (Asimov’s partner in crime and love), who dreams of escaping to Mars. Shenanigans ensue, some key character details are dropped, and both Asimov and Katerina die.

Those are the broad strokes, and the live action version captures those well. Some of the details are very accurate, like the way the Red Eye drug is represented and how Katerina was pretending to be pregnant to hide their stash. We also get Spike’s occasional flashbacks to the end of his syndicate days, featuring the usual scenes: the rain, the falling rose, gunshots, and a lot of making out with Julia. Actually, I think the frequent makeout flashbacks are a live-action addition…

Other details are changed, like Faye crashing the Spike’s conversation with Katerina instead of Asimov. In fact, Faye’s introduction also introduces what could be a new plot point: Katerina’s expanded backstory, making her the heir to the Montgomery Group. This appears to be one of the big corporations alluded to in the opening casino heist scene, so it sounds like that’s going to be an overarching plot point that will come into play later.

Faye’s interference also changes a bit about the ending. In the anime, Asimov and Katerina start to escape, but Katerina realizes they’re not getting out alive and Asimov is too long gone. So she shoots him herself and lets them get shot down after saying “Adios, cowboy.” In this version, Faye shoots Asimov before they can make their escape, and he bleeds out in his ship before Katerina gets them shot down. Her last words in this instance are “It’s time to wake up,” a reference to her earlier conversation with Spike.

So these changes do impact how the characters behave and what it means for them, but the overarching story remains the same, and it’s clearly building more on Spike’s own story. Overall, these changes do not make too big a difference to the overall story, at least not yet, so it still hits the usual beats.

5. Vicious and… Julia?

This brings us to the end of the episode, which focuses more on Spike’s history as a syndicate member. The syndicate members he fights recognize him, and one of them calls him “Fearless.” So we’re given our first introduction to Vicious, played by Alex Hassell.

Okay, so… this is definitely a look that the anime can pull off better than live action. In anime, sure, we can imagine a white-haired guy dressed in all black can go around swinging a katana in space. In live action, he just looks like, well, an edgelord.

This is one of the most difficult parts for an adaptation to do well. Vicious is an iconic foil to Spike, so fans would rage if they changed him. But leaving him unchanged runs the risk of making him overly edgy and hard to take seriously.

Then we get to the last moment of the episode, with a significant departure from the anime. We see Vicious go to a blonde woman with a rose tattoo on her shoulder, who we have to assume is Julia. Now, Vicious and Julia did have a relationship in the anime, but she had an affair with Spike and the two almost ran off together. He faked his death, she went into hiding, and they never reunited until the end of the series. In the live action Cowboy Bebop, it looks like Julia isn’t in hiding and is back with Vicious.

So this will change things down the line. We’ll see where things go from here.

Post-Review Thoughts

Alright, so this review was primarily a look at how things have remained unchanged or were changed for the adaptation. But as the series goes on, we’ll be able to look more closely at each episode and the themes within, rather than comparing them directly to the anime.

So check back soon as we look at episode 2. By that time, you might have already binge-watched the whole series and will know how everything plays out, but stick with me and we’ll see how it plays out together. Until then…

See you, space cowboy.