Netflix Japan debuted the Japanese-dubbed version of the Cowboy Bebop teaser "Lost Session" on the same day as the English-language version. As part of staying true to the spirit of Cowboy Bebop, Netflix brought back the original Japanese voice cast from the anime to dub over the American actors portraying their characters in the live-action adaptation.
For the Japanese dub, Koichi Yamadera, Unsho Ishizuka and Megumi Hayashibara reprise their roles as Spike Spiegel, Jet Black and Faye Valentine respectively. Considering it's been over 20 years since the Japanese voice actors first portrayed these characters in the anime, fans were naturally curious to know how they'd sound revisiting these characters in their new form. In "Lost Session," the Japanese voice actors sound as though they've never left their roles.
To capture Spike's cool and laidback demeanor in the anime, Yamadera presents Spike with a calm and soothing voice, not unlike many other bishounen characters. Even during fight scenes, Yamadera's Spike does not typically scream as many male characters often do in anime. When angered or provoked, Yamadera's Spike tends to sound more forceful in his voice, but never rough nor coarse.
Spike is also a character who carries with him a lot of emotional scars, as informed by his past in organized crime. To capture those scars, Yamadera also portrays Spike as someone who has nothing to lose and is fine with death if it comes to him. For the live-action adaptation, Yamadera continues to bring these aspects of the character to life with John Cho's version of Spike.
In the case of Faye, Hayashibara's portrayal of the character is very different from that of her English dub actress, Wendee Lee. While American fans may be more accustomed to Lee's more mature and seductive sounding voice as Faye, Hayashibara's Faye is more noticeably cynical and playful in her voice, which makes sense for her character.
As a woman who was nearly killed in a space shuttle accident and was subsequently victimized by con artists in her past, Faye is profoundly distrustful of people, which Hayashibara flawlessly conveys in her delivery. Since Faye is highly reactive to situations and is known to play mind games with her comrades, Hayashibara conveys this in her voice acting as well. This seems to be the interpretation of the character Daniella Pineda is going for in her portrayal of Faye, which makes Hayashibara's voice a natural fit for Pineda. As such, Hayashibara effortlessly recaptures the original essence of her character from the anime with Pineda's onscreen portrayal.
For the live-action version of Jet, Ishizuka's portrayal is also mostly unchanged from his original depiction of the character in the anime. As the oldest member of the Bebop, Jet brings with him years of experience and lots of emotional scars. He was, after all, a former police officer who worked for the ISSP and was betrayed by his own partner, which cost him his left arm. He was also in a relationship with a woman named Alisa, who eventually broke up with him over irreconcilable differences.
To capture Jet as an emotionally beat man, Ishizuka provides Jet with a deep-sounding voice that's also coarse in the anime. Whether he's angry, calm or happy, Jet's emotional scars are always conveyed with different variations of roughness. Ishizuka continues to convey these aspects of the character with the version portrayed by Mustafa Shakir, which also hints at the character's past.
Cowboy Bebop will stream on Netflix on Nov. 19, with the anime making its Netflix debut on Oct. 21.