Adapting any story from one medium to another is always difficult–there will always be changes to make the story work in another medium. But while some adaptations have been successful, others have not, and Cowboy Bebop director Shinichioro Watanabe has said that Netflix’s adaptation of his legendary anime was unsuccessful in a new interview with Forbes.
“For the new Netflix live-action adaptation, they sent me a video to review and test,” Watanabe said. “It started with a scene in the casino, which made it very difficult for me to continue. I stopped there and so only watched that opening scene.”
“It’s clearly not Cowboy Bebop,” he continued. “At that point, I realized that if I wasn’t in, it wouldn’t be Cowboy Bebop. I felt that maybe I should do this. Despite the value of the original anime now, somehow, it’s not going to be Cowboy Bebop. was much higher.”
Watanbe didn’t elaborate on what the film’s opening scene was that he found very upsetting. our review enjoyed the adjusted character arcs and scores of the original anime, but found the pacing a bit confusing, with some characters being too literal in their translation. Immediately after the program was released, Netflix canceled it, ending any fan hopes of a sequel to protagonist Spike’s story, or the film having a good chance of doing well with Radical Edward’s post-production reveal at the end of the film. The program performed well at launch but dropped rapidly in the following weeks. Netflix is still working on adapting some of its beloved animated projects into live-action, including pirate anime. One piece and Nickelodeon Avatar: The Last Airbender.
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