Costume designer Jane Holland discussed how her teenage children's friends told her not to ruin Netflix's adaptation of Cowboy Bebop.In a video released by Still Watching Netflix on Twitter, Holland said, "You know, I have a couple of teenagers in my household who have anime-watching friends. When I first got the job, I sort of said, 'Do any of you know Cowboy Bebop?' And they were like, 'What? Cowboy Bebop? Yeah, yeah.' They knew the anime and I said, 'No, no, no, we're making a live-action.' And they kind of went, 'Oh what?' and then they just went, 'Don't f*** it up.'"
"My thing that I really want is for those teenagers to kind of go, 'No, you didn't f*** it up," Holland said.
The original Cowboy Bebop is among one of the most famous animes in the last two decades. Although it only ran for one season, its 26 episodes gathered a cult following over the years, inspiring not only Netflix's live-action adaptation but several video games and an animated science fiction film called Cowboy Bebop: Knockin' on Heaven's Door.
Netflix's version of the cult classic only aired for eight episodes, with one of its lead actors John Cho describing it as an expensive work of fanfiction. The adaptation sought to translate the unique aesthetic of the original anime into live-action, with Netflix bringing darker tones into play for some aspects of the story, such as Spike and Vicious' backstory and the origin of Ein, the hyper-intelligent dog found in the Bebop.
Fan-favorite characters, such as Radical Edward, are present in the show as well. Ed's actor Eden Perkins discussed their experience playing the gifted teenage hacker, sharing, "Ed is such an amazing character. She's just so incredibly lively, and she just brings energy wherever she goes. Looking at all the scenes from the anime of Ed, she's just so cool. She's an amazing character, and I really relate to her actually and it was so, so incredibly exciting being cast as her. One of my favorite Ed moments from the anime is definitely when there's a bounty on the Bebop, and he's being mean to Ein and Ed just comes down, bonks him on the head and starts biting him. It's truly amazing."
The first season of the live-action Cowboy Bebop is available to stream on Netflix, which means reviews have been pouring in. While the reviews were relatively positive at first, the series received a mostly negative reaction from critics, who highlighted that the adaptation did not quite recreate what has existed for the last 23 years.
Season 1 of Cowboy Bebop is streaming on Netflix.
Source: Twitter