Cowboy Bebop: The Real Folk Netflix Blues (VIDEO SCRIPT)

Readers, I was just like you when I was hit with the news.

I was at home, scrolling on my phone, sitting down with no pants on which is the universal sign for “I’m not stepping a foot outside of my fucking apartment”

/When I came across the news that the live-action film rights for one of my favorite anime series Cowboy Bebop had been acquired...by Netflix./

Now at the time, that was all I knew about the situation

And given how my experience with Netflix and adapting anime into live action, my first initial thought was that it was gonna be a movie

Which made me immediately go

/”Oh no” clip from MotP/

Of course, as we all know by now, despite me being very valid in my feelings upon finding out that tid-bit, I was wrong in my assumption.

Because it’s not going to be made into a movie like Netflix’s last attempt at a live action adaptation of an anime in the form of a Death Note movie that’s getting a sequel.

/Instead, it’s getting a live-action series, with the first season being 10 episodes long./ https://variety.com/2018/tv/news/cowboy-bebop-live-action-series-netflix-1203038458/

Now for a lot of people, that’s a difference of night and day

After all, when it comes to their television shows, Netflix has a better track record of producing watchable content... Mostly (Iron Fist, Super Drags)

And while that helps put me at ease a bit that this live-action show will at least be...watchable

/The facts that the director of the anime Shinichiro Watanabe is being brought on to the project as a consultant, and that three members of the anime’s home studio Sunrise Animation will serve as executive producers for the series made me feel...so much better about this happening./ Cowboy Bebob - Variety

This is already a HUGE step in the right direction than the live-action Death Note movie when it came to there being a sense of creative collaboration

Since neither of Death Notes creators, the director of the anime, or members of the Japanese animation studio Madhouse that produced it were approached to help with the live-action project at all.

Now that’s not to say that I’m holding my breath regarding the final outcome of this series; if it’s shit at the end of the day, I’m gonna acknowledge it and it’s gonna get flushed.

And that also means I don’t know who approached who first; my guess is that because Sunrise Animation is involved, that Watanabe & Co just knocked on Netflix’s door and was like:

Hey. Let’s show y’all how to do this the RIGHT way.

But Readers, whatever the outcome of this series is, I can’t help but respect the lengths that they’re going to make sure that what we get is genuine.

It honestly reminds me of the situation between Universal Studios and Nintendo in how they made sure they had a say in how their animated Mario movie is getting made, and I have just as much respect about how that happened

Also I think following in Watanabe & Co’s example how we can go about making sure something we care about is handled properly in newer hands is something we should actually practice.

If motherfuckers are deserving though. That’s a... that’s a VERY important asterisk.