Genre blending...
Message:Cowboy Beebop, the amine, came out at a time when its studio, Sunrise, put out several truly amazing and innovative shows that threw several genres in a blender. Great designs, amazing music, interesting plots.
There are 26 22-minute episodes, so, by the end of season 1 Netflix will have a longer run time than the original, while mostly covering only the first third or so of the original. Obviously they've expanded and fleshed out the universe, tweaked several character's motivations, etc.
I don't currently have Netflix, but, from the promo materials online, the creators obviously payed great attention to the source material. The show has obviously been made with love and respect for the anime. This is NOT a given. JJ Abrams, for example, is NOT a Star Trek fan, which is why he made Star Wars movies with Kirk (he seriously did not understand the core character relationships at all). Rian Johnson isn't a Star Wars fan. That's why his Star Wars movie is a long Battlestar Galactica (reboot) episode.
I have high hopes for Cowboy Bebop on Netflix, but streaming services like Hulu, Disney +, HBO MAX and Paramount + don't (yet) exist in EU countries. All that stuff will be on Netflix in Ireland, so I'll watch Cowboy Bebop next year.
Compare the anime titles
https://youtu.be/EL-D9LrFJd4
To the Netflix
https://youtu.be/Yq2N-9EmedA
and you instantly see why I'm optimistic.
Another show from Sunshine from that era is "The Big O." The Big O is notable for being canceled in Japan, then given a second series from its American ratings - something that hasn't happened before or since. Another genre bender, the starting premise is some event happened 40 years before where everyone in the world lost their memories. The central mystery is, of course, what caused this. It's, thematically, somewhat similar to the "Matrix" movies without being totally stupid and dragged out. Few film series are so damn mindless, while pretending to be deep, than the Matrix films. Both parts two and three have hour long action sequences that fail to provide any character insight, or move the plot along. Oh, there's a fourth one coming out. Pass.
Yours,
IronMike
21-Nov-2021