After a decade and change spent in development hell, a live-action version of the iconic 1998 Sunrise anime Cowboy Bebop  is moving forward as a television series. The series, which follows a group of disparate bounty hunters trying to eat and make a buck in 2071, will be developed by Tomorrow Studios, a partnership between Britain's ITV Studios and TV producer Marty Adelstein (Prison Break, Teen Wolf), executive produced by Sunrise and written by famed comics/animation writer Chris Yost (X-Men: Evolution/ Thor: The Dark World), the TV show is the first positive sign of any sort of remake for the legendary anime since a film at Fox starring Keanu Reeves was shuttered due to budget issues.

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The easiest answer to the question of whether Western creators should tackle an adaptation of what's widely considered to not just be one of the greatest anime ever made, but possibly one of the greatest television shows of the 20th century is, for most fans, a firm "No." If the recent, enormous bomb of the Scarlett Johanssen Ghost In The Shell and the still-lingering stench of 2009's Dragonbal: Evolution don't remind you, the history of this sort of thing proves that, give or take a Speed Racer, Hollywood just does not seem to get how to translate the style and appeal of anime to live-action.

But these failures offer some lessons and if Yost, Adelstein & co. take the lessons that accompany them to heart, they could produce a show that, even if it can't surpass the original (because not even any of director Shinichiro Watanabe's follow-up series or his 2001 Bebop movie Knockin' On Heaven's Door have managed that) can at least make sure not to sully Cowboy Bebop's legacy.

LESSON #1: KEEP EVERY CHARACTER JAPANESE

This seems to be the hardest thing for people making these sorts of remakes to bear, so let's spell it out nice and simple:

Every character in an anime, unless explicitly stated as otherwise or obviously non-human, is ethnically, racially and culturally Japanese. 

And before anyone goes there and asks, "Then why do they all look white?" here's the best way to understand that. Y'know how, in The Simpsons, the yellow skin of most characters is implicitly understood as white? It's basically the same deal with anime, only instead of "yellow=white," it's "white=Japanese." There's a ton of complex motivation as to why that is, but this ain't a cultural anthropology journal and I'm nowhere near qualified enough to lay out the whys and hows of that. Suffice it to say, this is how it is, and always has been.

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Given the abundance of underutilized Asian-American acting talent in Hollywood, this show could be the perfect opportunity to introduce the next Masi Oka or Emily Kuroda to audiences everywhere. That, or the producers could follow the route of Takashi Miike's 2007 film Sukiyaki Western Django and simply get Japanese actors onscreen speaking English. Maybe even a cameo for the original Spike Spiegel, Koichi Yamadera? The sky's the limit here, and really, as long as we don't get another embarrassment like Justin Chatwin's Goku, the resultant positive publicity will only help the adaptation's potential success.

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LESSON #2: CRIB EVERYTHING YOU CAN FROM THE ORIGINAL

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What makes Bebop so special compared to other anime is that it looks, feels and sounds like nothing else. There had been urban-set, far-flung sci-fi before, but nothing with the series' unique mixture of '70s grit, jazzy cool, film noir visuals and ambiguous storytelling. Any production hoping to live up to the Bebop name needs to learn from that.

The best way to do so is to bring in the original crew. All the major players involved in the original show's production are still active and at the top of their fields, and it's not even that hard to imagine what they'd do with the live-action show if given the chance. Bebop's mechanical designer Kimitoshi Yamane could consult on the CG renderings for the good ship Bebop or Spike's personal flyer. Original series writer Keiko Nobumoto could be brought in to consult with Yost. Watanabe himself could serve as a visual adviser.

Perhaps the easiest thing to do, from a production and publicity standpoint, would be to hire composer Yoko Kanno to soundtrack the adventures of Spike, Faye, Jet and Ed once again. Kanno is one of the most respected composers in animation history and, outside of the show itself, Bebop's legacy to pop culture has been the soundtrack she composed and recorded with a rotating group of American, British and Japanese jazz greats called The Seatbelts.

Bringing Kanno back -- and maybe shelling out the cash to get current and former jazz luminaries like Branford or Wynton Marsalis, Espearanza Spaulding or Robert Glasper to strap in with the Seatbelts -- would not only garner the producers instant goodwill from the property's fans, but honor the rightfully titanic legacy of Kanno and the Seatbelts.

LESSON #3: PUT THE SHOW ON THE RIGHT NETWORK, FOR THE RIGHT AUDIENCE

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Let's not kid ourselves: a freewheeling show about a green-haired, suit-wearing bounty hunter and his robot-armed ex-cop friends isn't exactly "Thursday nights on NBC" kind of material. Nor should it be. If Supergirl's move from CBS to the CW has taught us anything, it's that a lower ceiling to hit in terms of ratings often means more freedom and opportunity.

Accordingly, when shopping their Bebop remake around, Tomorrow Studios has some good options. There's USA and TNT of course, who've had success with genre fare like Colony and Fallen Skies (and Tomorrow actually has a pilot in production for TNT with their other venture, a show based on the Bong Joon-Ho film Snowpiercer). There's also Syfy which, after a long decade in the Sharknado-infested wilderness, is getting back to its roots with shows like The Expanse and The Magicians.

But perhaps the best place to put a Bebop show is on the network that made its name with it: Adult Swim. Sure, Adult Swim's live-action output is almost exclusively comedy, but what makes it the perfect option was that Cartoon Network's nighttime-branded programming block took a risk and aired the original Bebop when no one else would. Heck, anchoring the new show at 12:00 AM on Saturdays with, say, a rerun of the original show to follow right after? That's almost too easy.

There's a long, ugly history of Western productions getting anime wrong. However Tomorrow Studios decides to take things, let's hope Cowboy Bebop breaks that trend.