Cowboy Bebopis a masterpiece anime, but few would make the same claim about its live action counterpart. While it might seem likeCowboy Bebopis the perfect anime to adapt to live action on paper, the reality is that a lot of what makesBebopspecial just isn’t something that can be easily replicated in real life.
Because of its more realistic approach than many anime,Cowboy Bebopdefinitely seems like it could be adaptedeasily at first glance. The series does, however, still make extensive use of the fact that it’s an anime, it’s just not always obvious when it’s doing that the way it is in your typical shonen anime. In fact,Cowboy Bebop’s reliance on its animated nature is what ultimately makes it impossible to adapt properly to a live action series. The first episode of the series is an excellent example of this, as it showcases everything anime can do that live action can’t.
Cowboy Bebop’s First Episode Isn’t About Plot, It’s About Tone
The Series' First Episode Sets the Tone for All That Comes After
In the very first episode ofCowboy Bebop, Spike and Jet are chasing down a dangerous bounty head, Asimov Solensan, who uses a drug known as Red Eye, which radically enhances his strength and pain tolerance. Rather than going in guns blazing, however, Spike approaches the situation undercover, and gets to know Asimov’s girlfriend, who is helping him to smuggle the drug. The actual action of the episode is largely contained in the final few minutes, while most of it is made up of scenes designed to get across the mood and tone of the series.
How The Worst Star Wars Movie Inadvertently Created One Of Greatest Anime Ever, Cowboy Bebop
Cowboy Bebop might never have existed if it weren’t for one Star Wars movie reinvigorating interest in spaceships and sci-fi.
Bebopestablishes many important facts about the series indirectly in this episode. The “bell peppers and beef” scene, for example, immediately makes it clear that Spike and Jet are short on cash, and that this is a pretty common situation for them. The episode is also full of lingering shots of the environment, as seen right after the title card for the episode, showcasing how different the world they inhabit is; floating above Mars and surrounded by ships and space stations, this world has a bustling interplanetary setting. Yet, later shots of the asteroid Tijuana feel almost indistinguishable from Earth.
The combination of these lingering shots withBebop’s iconic Yoko Kanno soundtrackinstantly conveys the tone of the series, showing the Western genre inspired elements that combine with the sci-fi to create something unique. It takes its time getting to the plot, with over half the episode elapsed before Spike runs into Asimov.
Cowboy Bebop Uses Animation In Ways That Are Difficult To Replicate In Live Action
Even Cowboy Bebop’s Establishing Shots are Hard to Pull Off
These long, lingering shots not only establish where events take place, but they set the mood of the piece; they’re essential to the pacing of the episode. For an anime, they’re mere scenes, no more difficult to draw than any other. However, for a live action series, these would be extremely expensive special effects shots, requiring a significant portion of any episode’s budget to be captured accurately. The live action series largely got around this by omitting them and cutting them short where they couldn’t be removed entirely, thus altering the mood these scenes help to establish.
The same goes for the action scenes, like the dramatic spaceship chase at the end of the episode. These become insanely expensive to create, especially to do them justice and have them resemble the anime. While anime action scenes can be more expensive than your average dialogue scene, the difference is far less significant than it is for a live action production. With both the moody establishing shots and the intense action suffering, there’s not much left that the live action can do properly.
Cowboy Bebop’s Animation Practically Dooms Any Live Action Adaptation
No Live Action Adaptation Could Match the Original’s Animation
Going beyond the first episode, there are also scenes such as the zero gravity space walk in episode 3, or basically any shot of theBebopor other ships in space. Recreating these scenes would be difficult and expensive, and so many times the live action adaptation just… didn’t. Despite its more grounded feel that makes live action seem possible,Cowboy Bebopis only able to be what it isbecause it’s animated. To attempt to adapt it to live action is to ignore this fact, and that predictably leads to problems.
Cowboy Bebopjust isn’t as cut out for a live action adaptation as it appears, and is better off left as the incredible anime that it is.
Cowboy Bebop
Cast
Cowboy Bebop is a 1998 animated series set in 2071, where humanity has colonized the Solar System following a catastrophic event. As crime surges, bounty hunters known as “Cowboys” are employed by the Inter Solar System Police to capture criminals in exchange for rewards.
