Cowboy Bebop: Netflix Strikes A Faithful Chord With Anime Fans [Review]

Cowboy Bebop had high expectations from fans as it’s an adaptation of a beloved anime. But, after spending time with its 10-episode first season, fans can rest assured, this is the real deal.

Don’t You Want To Hang Out And Waste Your Life With Us?

Many fans will want to know how accurate of an adaptation the live-action Cowboy Bebop is.

The answer is as close as humanly possible. The show is condensing down 20 or so anime episodes into a cohesive 10 episode season. So what they do is take stories and characters and put them together in a way where you’re familiar with the characters. They’re coupled and used in different ways. It felt fresh and new despite using things we’ve seen before. As a fan of the anime, it kept me guessing how they would use characters and stories I love.

Three, Two, One. Let’s Jam!

The show’s energy jumps off-screen, never did I feel bored or like the plot wasn’t going anywhere, even some newly embedded exposition and character development felt fresh and exciting. There’s one exception, and that’s with the second to last episode, it felt like an odd choice to tell the story it was telling and a bit anti-climatic in some ways, but I still enjoyed it, just felt like it could’ve been a story told sooner than it was.

Kids… animals… and women with attitude

The cast is all fantastic, with all of the roles feeling brought to life. There are a few moments where John Cho’s Spike shows his age, and it was pretty distracting for this reviewer, but other than that, he is Spike. The rest of the cast also performs brilliantly. There’s a good amount of subplots for most of the main cast, so even though Spike is the lead, you feel like everyone is well-rounded and three-dimensional.

They Say Hunger Is The Best Spice

By the end of episode 10, I was excited to see where season two would go. There’s a good amount of intrigue and mystery still left, and I genuinely want to find out what happens next to our favorite bounty hunters. Whether you’re a long-time Cowboy Bebop fan or someone just entering the series for the first time, this is an enjoyable watch and is hopefully a sign of a turning point for live-action anime adaptations.

So, are you looking forward to Cowboy Bebop? Do you want a season two? Let us know in the comments below.

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