Already cancelled - mixed feelings about it.
The biggest worry going in to watching this live action adaptation was if it was going to be the most expensive cosplay video ever made. It is and isn't at the same time. The main problem from my point of view is that the creators of this production either didn't understand one of the main components of the original anime or actively chose to ignore it. It's the music, not just the sound of the music but that the entire anime was composed like music. Granted that it's easier to do this with animation than live action, but it seems to me that the highly talented team behind this didn't get it. One you remove the music and make it largely an afterthought, you've removed the Bebop.
They also had a few problems with the casting and their approach. While the two leads for Jet Black and Faye Valentine got their characters down and added their own twists which is great, the actors playing Spike and Vicious seemed frequently lost and unsure of who they were playing. Neither really got their characters solid although John Cho seemed to get more comfortable as the series progressed. Vicious never went past a Harry Potter villain in looks or behavior.
The decision to open the series with a well-filmed but nihilistic Zack Snyder influenced action scene probably put people off. To have Spike just gunning people down right off so casually was a big, big mistake. The anime never made this mistake. Probably the big audience drop off can be attributed to things like this, the lead not fitting into the part (I'll blame the directors and a probably tight production schedule first before the actor himself) and too many things happening that made sense to people who watched the anime but not to new viewers.
After watching the anime again, my initial disdain for this live action interpretation wore off and I have come to appreciate some of their new additions to the story which I thought were actually taken from the anime. They are that integrated into the Cowboy Bebop universe. The one I still don't care for is the introduction of daddy issues for Vicious, can we please stop this overly repeated theme in superhero, fantasy and sci-fi productions?
The reordering of the anime's story arc to now revolve around Vicious and the complete non-inclusion of Radical Ed can be argued. My feeling is that it took away the needed humor which balanced out the anime. But it does close out the storyline instead of leaving everything hanging with the cancellation, so there's that.
Am I sad a second season isn't in the offering now? Yes, I actually am interested in how they would have continued it (also dreading where it could have been taken) but in the end I have the original anime in a BluRay set to watch and that's fine for me.
The biggest worry going in to watching this live action adaptation was if it was going to be the most expensive cosplay video ever made. It is and isn't at the same time. The main problem from my point of view is that the creators of this production either didn't understand one of the main components of the original anime or actively chose to ignore it. It's the music, not just the sound of the music but that the entire anime was composed like music. Granted that it's easier to do this with animation than live action, but it seems to me that the highly talented team behind this didn't get it. One you remove the music and make it largely an afterthought, you've removed the Bebop.
They also had a few problems with the casting and their approach. While the two leads for Jet Black and Faye Valentine got their characters down and added their own twists which is great, the actors playing Spike and Vicious seemed frequently lost and unsure of who they were playing. Neither really got their characters solid although John Cho seemed to get more comfortable as the series progressed. Vicious never went past a Harry Potter villain in looks or behavior.
The decision to open the series with a well-filmed but nihilistic Zack Snyder influenced action scene probably put people off. To have Spike just gunning people down right off so casually was a big, big mistake. The anime never made this mistake. Probably the big audience drop off can be attributed to things like this, the lead not fitting into the part (I'll blame the directors and a probably tight production schedule first before the actor himself) and too many things happening that made sense to people who watched the anime but not to new viewers.
After watching the anime again, my initial disdain for this live action interpretation wore off and I have come to appreciate some of their new additions to the story which I thought were actually taken from the anime. They are that integrated into the Cowboy Bebop universe. The one I still don't care for is the introduction of daddy issues for Vicious, can we please stop this overly repeated theme in superhero, fantasy and sci-fi productions?
The reordering of the anime's story arc to now revolve around Vicious and the complete non-inclusion of Radical Ed can be argued. My feeling is that it took away the needed humor which balanced out the anime. But it does close out the storyline instead of leaving everything hanging with the cancellation, so there's that.
Am I sad a second season isn't in the offering now? Yes, I actually am interested in how they would have continued it (also dreading where it could have been taken) but in the end I have the original anime in a BluRay set to watch and that's fine for me.