Last week, Netflix released its live-action adaptation of “Cowboy Bebop,” a jazzy series about a bunch of luckless bounty hunters on a ship called the Bebop.
Spike Spiegel, the lackadaisical big-haired former assassin-turned-bounty hunter who’s the protagonist of the series, is so central that the wrong actor would have doomed the adaptation from the jump.
As for his partners, Jet, a tough former policeman with a soft heart, and Faye, a sassy con woman without a past, Mustafa Shakir and Daniella Pineda feel like the animated characters magically come to life.
One question “Bebop” fans had as soon as the cast announcements, images and trailers started to roll out was, “Where’s Ed?” In the series, Ed is the last addition to the crew.
It only lasts a few seconds and the result isn’t as refined as what we get with the rest of the main cast — after an entire season without the beloved Radical Ed, what we end up with is an actor dressed up in what looks like poor cosplay.
Starting with the opening theme, with its familiar silhouettes and color-blocked panels, the cinematography of the Netflix series is sublime and full of arresting visuals .
Crucially, the soundtrack also lives up to its predecessor.
In the anime, Vicious is dramatically villainous: a deadly member of a crime syndicate, he stalks around killing people with a katana while a creepy black cormorant perches on his shoulder.
But it’s the direction and acting that really sinks these characters: Alex Hassell’s Vicious is more cartoonish than threatening, and Julia, as played by Elena Satine, is more vacuous than her charismatic animated counterpart.
This “Bebop” smartly walks the line between the two routes, leaning heavily on characters and stories from the anime, even replicating specific scenes , among others, are lifted exactly from the original.
At 10 episodes, the adaptation cherry-picks from the 26 episodes of the anime and condenses everything, linking characters and events that weren’t connected in the original.
The anime’s plot is mostly episodic; the thrust of the show is about the day-to-day adventures of a group of weirdos who all have to reckon, in one way or another, with their pasts.
The show’s original ending is notorious among fans — Julia and Vicious are killed and Spike’s fate is unclear.
Julia’s unearned shift to the big mobster on campus and the division of the Bebop team all point to a transparent attempt to set up a second season.