The curse of the live-action adaptations was quite real before the release of Netflix’s One Piece. Every anime or manga series that was adapted faced criticism from anime fans because of multiple elements and aspects not fitting well with the original story. One such live-action that was heavily criticized by fans was Cowboy Bebop’s adaptation.
Set in the year 2071, Cowboy Bebop follows the lives of a traveling bounty-hunter crew: Spike Spiegel, Jet Black, Faye Valentine, Edward, and Ein. As the Earth has become inhabitable, the crew travels through space in their spaceship called Bebop. It is considered to be one of the greatest anime series of all time.
However, the legendary image of Cowboy Bebop was ruined by the live-action adaptation. Even the director of the anime series, Shinichiro Watanabe, hated the live-action series so much that he couldn’t continue watching it after the opening scene. This in itself proved what kind of reception it got from the fans of the original anime.
Shinichiro Watanabe Couldn’t Watch Cowboy Bebop’s Live-Action Adaptation
In January 2023, Watanabe was interviewed by Forbes, where the anime director was asked about his journey through the industry, his works, his favorite projects, and his opinion about the live-action adaptation by Netflix that was released in 2021. Watanabe was extremely disappointed with the series.
He stated:
For the new Netflix live-action adaptation, they sent me a video to review and check. 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.
One of the main reasons Cowboy Bebop flopped was its divergence from the source material. A lot of scenes and storylines were different from the original, which led to fans losing their interest.
Watanabe, who spent a lot of time building Cowboy Bebop’s legacy, couldn’t witness it being destroyed by the live-action series. Thus, he decided to avoid watching it after the first scene. He instantly realized that adapting his work into a live-action was a bad idea, and it could potentially tarnish the name of Cowboy Bebop.
Shinichiro Watanabe Believed He Could Have Done Better With Cowboy Bebop’s Live-Action
Shinichiro Watanabe has worked on many prominent projects, but he is mostly known for Cowboy Bebop. It was his first full directorial project, and he received universal praise for it. Thus, seeing it be failed by a live-action adaptation hurt his sentiments. He believed that he could have done a better job with the Netflix series.
Watanabe stated:
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.
Cowboy Bebop was a gateway series that allowed the anime industry to earn recognition from a worldwide audience. The series’ legendary status comes solely from its intriguing narrative, which was a big thing in the early 2000s.
Thus, Watanabe’s disappointment with Netflix’s adaptation was understandable. Fans to this day hope that if Cowboy Bebop makes a return, it should be under the guidance of Watanabe so that it can get a better adaptation, be it anime or live-action.
Cowboy Bebop live-action is available to watch on Netflix.
