It isn’t an understatement to say that the 1998 anime series Cowboy Bebop, directed by Shinichirō Watanabe, written by Keiko Nobumoto, and scored by Yoko Kanno, is a masterpiece. Binding together influences from around our world, in particular noir thrillers like The Big Sleep, westerns like The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, and science fiction classics like 2001: A Space Odyssey, it became a gateway anime for many –including myself.
Its 26-episode (and one movie) run is far more approachable than most anime series. Despite its near-flung future setting –where the earth is ruined, and the solar system colonized–, Cowboy Bebop became a stone-cold classic of the genre that holds up to this day.
It’s only natural that someone would want to remake it as a live-action series; the only surprise here is how long it took to do so. With such an intricate world and iconic characters, adapting it was never going to be easy. Still, while Netflix has wrangled a promising cast and put a ton of money into re-creating the future of the anime series, they managed to miss the mark.
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