Cowboy Bebop 2021 Review: Is It Any Good?

Netflix’s live action Cowboy Bebop is here and it not only stays true to it’s source material but also gives us a great live action Spike Spiegel in the form of John Cho.

In this review (Like my other reviews) I’ll be telling you what I loved, hated, whether it’s better than the anime and whether you should check it out so lets begin.

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1. What I Loved And Hated

What I Loved

The Jazz

I watched the original Cowboy Bebop super recently and one of the many things I loved was the jazz, the jazz is very vibey and they did not double down on it in this live action remake which was pretty good and also kept reminding me of the anime.

Another thing about the jazz in this is that there wasn’t too much of it, like they did not overdo it but kept it at a minimum and didn’t make it the center stage of the series.

John Cho

Like I said in the introduction, the live action Spike Spiegel is really really great and John Cho is the perfect casting choice. John truly embodies Spike and sort of carries the entire series with his perfect perfomance which I myself thought would be impossible to bring to live action.

Another thing, the live action Spike Spiegel is not really super anime accurate but he is still pretty good and matches the tone they set for this series, I really enjoyed John’s portrayal of the character.

The CGI

The CGI on the space ships was great giving some The Mandalorian level CG and world building, it was futuristic but also kept some things modern and didn’t go overboard with it’s VFX. I did not expect to see CGI that good in this series especially when you look at the other stuff they did (The wigs) it was quite impressive.

Some of the casting

I absolutely loved John Cho as Spike but I have to admit, I did love the other cast members most importantly Mustafia Shakir as Jet Black, Daniella Pineda as Faye Valentine and Cute Pebroke Welsh Corgi as Ein, they all gave pretty good perfomances that although were different from the anime still worked great.

I don’t really know how to feel about Ed to be honest lmao but I think it will be fun seeing what they do with the character and how they explain her linking to Spike, her entrance is still one of those “Oh my God please no” moments you have while you watch.

Some things really are hard to bring into Live Action and anime is one of them lol.

What I hated

SOME of the story changes

This being a Netflix Live Action remake, a lot of the stories had to be changed to be made linear and allow for a swift continuation of the series. I personally did not like some of the changes made.

To avoid spoiling it for anyone thinking of watching the series, I wont name those changes but I do promise you a lot of changed we made and although they don’t make the entire series bad, they do sort of miss that thing from the anime.

That wig and the facial hair

Now look man, these 2 things are not like the “Please don’t watch this” reasons but are definitely one of the “Man, that reminds me of a Tyler Perry movie” especially looking at Vicious’ hair and Jet Black’s hair, both things iconic AF from the anime but look pretty goofy in live action.

Is It Better Than the Anime?

Well hell no, I don’t think there’ll ever be a anime remake that matches the greatness of it’s source material mostly because of the need to get more seasons but also because these are two very different forms of media that have their own different advantages and disadvantages with anime having the advantage of doing whatever tf it wants and it turning out perfect.

As much as I enjoyed the live action remake, It is far from being what the anime was because of what animation can do which is beyond the abilities of live action and also because the anime was just perfectly written and had so much adventure and wholesomeness.

Should You Check it out?

Yes I think you should, Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop is not a perfect remake but it is a good remake which I think if you watched the anime you may enjoy and if you haven’t, you’ll probably need to watch the anime immediatly after.

Conclusion

Yes Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop remake is not the perfect Anime remake but it is an okay remake that I think will get better over time with the exploration of other stories and introduction of more iconic characters from the anime.

Out of 10, I give Cowboy Bebop a 5/10.

That’s my review, what did you think of the live action remake? Did you enjoy the remake over the Anime? Do you think we need more anime live action remakes? How would you rate the anime out of 10? Talk to me in the comments below.