Shinichirō Watanabe, the creator of the beloved anime series Cowboy Bebop, has sounded off on Netflix’s failed adaptation of his show. The live-action version of Cowboy Bebop was canceled only three weeks after its release on Netflix. According to Deadline, Watanabe couldn’t even make it past the opening scene of the show. Watanabe said, “It started with a scene in a casino, which made it very tough for me to continue. I stopped there and so only saw that opening scene. It was clearly not Cowboy Bebop, and I realized at that point that if I wasn’t involved, it would not be Cowboy Bebop. I felt that maybe I should have done this. Although the value of the original anime is somehow far higher now.”
Is Netflix’s Failed Adaptation of ‘Cowboy Bebop’ a Sign to Cut Live-Action Anime?
While Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop did do enough to garner an Emmy nomination for recreating the anime’s opening sequence, that wasn’t enough to make it impress fans of the anime. However, this is not the first time a live-action take on an anime series has fallen hard. Live-action adaptations of anime have a tragic tendency to be major disappointments to fans of the source material. From the disappointment that was Death Note to the mess that was Dragon Ball: Evolution to the disaster that was The Last Airbender, it does not seem as though anime translates well into live-action. While there are some exceptions to this rule (e.g., Detective Pikachu and Bleach), those appear to be diamonds in the rough.
The fact that Netflix’s take on Cowboy Bebop couldn’t even impress the creator of the source material only furthers its reputation as an epic fail. For Shinichirō Watanabe, this wasn’t even really Cowboy Bebop. And given how quickly the show was canceled, it appears the fans agree with him.
