So last night, Netflix announced that a live-action adaptation of the critically-acclaimed anime series Cowboy Bebop is officially in the works.
For viewers unfamiliar with the series, Cowboy Bebop follows the misadventures of a motley crew of bounty hunters as they travel space in a ship named the Bebop. With it's mixture of Western and Sci-Fi themes, the 26-episode series is considered a classic amongst many anime fans, and is often credited as a gateway series that helped introduce Japanese animation to North American audiences. (Side note: the show originally went off the air in Japan in the late '90s, but you can still watch it on Hulu and can occasionally catch reruns of the English dub on Adult Swim's weekend Toonami block.)
(Another, much queerer side note: Spike Spiegel was also one of my first crushes. Just LOOK at him!)
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While the possibility of some new Cowboy Bebop material is an exciting one, when you consider all of the...let's call them "creative liberties" North American production companies take when they adapt an anime series for Western audiences—with whitewashing being the most notable of these liberties—it's hard for die-hard fans who treasure the series to get excited. (After all, we don't want another Death Note or Ghost in the Shell fiasco happening now, do we??)
And people weren't shy about letting their reservations about a live-action adaptation of Cowboy Bebop be known...
We'll try to be open-minded and optimistic, but considering all the whitewashing that's already happened in Western, live-action adaptations of many beloved anime series, we're not really that optimistic...
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