Current Events > So you'll never guess who is in fact in Cowboy Bebop live-action *SPOILERS*

(+) Yeah! (+)

I forgot, how did Spike get out of that booby trap again? I mean all they had to do was get a heavy object like a box or something and put it on the button, but I forget what they actually did.
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why is spike being played by harold from harold and kumar? wtf? Picked the dude with the least amount of sex appeal in hollywood and Asian cinemas.

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So is Ed a part of the crew for the whole show or was it just a cameo?

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CyricZ posted...

It's okay to have an opinion that doesn't match mine. :)

:)

WalkingLobsters posted...

why is spike being played by harold from harold and kumar? wtf? Picked the dude with the least amount of sex appeal in hollywood and Asian cinemas.

KneeOnBest posted...

So is Ed a part of the crew for the whole show or was it just a cameo?

I answered dis already, just a brief cameo at the very end of da last episode

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spanky1 posted...

I forgot, how did Spike get out of that booby trap again? I mean all they had to do was get a heavy object like a box or something and put it on the button, but I forget what they actually did.

They didn't show it. The episode ended with Spike standing on it and Jet agreeing to come back. The next episode picks up on the next job.

I don't really consider that in particular a foul or anything. The implication that Jet helped Spike deactivate it without further incident is fine, and not really essential, especially given, like you said, they could just weigh it down or something. More than likely, Jet returned with something to deactivate it given they probably didn't want it to explode causing collateral damage.

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Shablagoo posted...

I answered dis already, just a brief cameo at the very end of da last episode

Ah, I didn't see the post. Thanks.

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CyricZ posted...

like you said, they could just weigh it down or something

I hated how they didnt just grab one of the abundant objects around the room to do that lol

KneeOnBest posted...

Ah, I didn't see the post. Thanks.

np playa

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Shablagoo posted...

I hated how they didnt just grab one of the abundant objects around the room to do that lol

CyricZ posted...

More than likely, Jet returned with something to deactivate it given they probably didn't want it to explode causing collateral damage.

Like I said, of the fouls committed by this series so far in its first two episodes, this is minor if trifling.

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lol @ all the bebop fanboys denying this is a 1:1 translation

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Shablagoo posted...

Aw I liked the new bounty show

I do also. Those two are great. Wished they had them in more episodes.

I started it and found it tollerable. But then I finished it and was mad at how bad it ended.

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WarfireX posted...

lol @ all the bebop fanboys denying this is a 1:1 translation

They're fleshing out characters.. Its definitely not 1:1 though.

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So in case you haven't figured it out yet, my commitment to keeping this topic alive and writing about each episode as I watch it is what's fueling my watching of the show.

Episode 3 - Dog Star Swing
It's at this point that I've come to realize that they're (likely) all just word salad titles that reference what happens in the episode, plus a musical term, and not references to actual musical things. The anime did that a little but also mostly did not. If it's not obvious, this is the one to reference "Stray Dog Strut".

I've also noticed that a lot of the new tunes simply sound like slight reimagining of old tunes. The opening tune here sounds very much like Autumn in Ganymede, but isn't.

Quick cold open of Spike getting info from one of Ana's informants. I don't know why but "VICIOUS KNOWS" as a message is just kind of silly to me. The informant tells Spike to stay in the city for more info.

Another slight remix of a lead in to Tank! rather than the straight opening, which again, I feel, misses the point of Tank!

Jump to a commercial for a doll (continuity!) and I admit I paid attention to the names of some of those retailers, and a few were pretty clever.

The saga of "Spike not telling Jet he's got assassins on his tail" continues with Spike convincing Jet to hang around (despite not being able to find the doll) and brings up a 15 million bounty. Jet decides that in order to track down the bounty, he'll have to call "Woodcock". We also get a little bit of "Ask DNA" from the movie here, but just the opener. Don't tease me like that.

Woodcock is the eponymous "blackmail" lady, and she's mushy-mouthed, mugging for the camera, and overtly racist right out of the stargate with her flirting with Jet, so the whole blackmail line that's been going around is less just dropped in from nowhere and more "this is her entire character and it's all just as bad". Anyway, Jet convinces her to give him raw footage of the bounty's latest attack. There's a decent scene with Jet and Spike bantering as they go through the footage and they get a lead off a "zoom and enhance".

The lead is to find who gave the bounty a low-cost "AR skin changer" thing, which you apparently can only get in low-quality brothels. They use "Chicken Bone" for establishing cuts of the brothels, which is a decent enough use of that track. Jet uses a scrambler which is convenient enough to cover the entire city, and we get a dumb scene where the dude's gassing up and an old lady just fingers him as the killer. Good job old lady! Fortunately he runs off instead of killing her (he's heading back to the brothel he got it from).

At least the brothels aren't discriminatory. Skimpy dressed men, women, fluid people.

While he's doing the stakeout, Jet picks up one of the dolls from a black market distributor who is also hamming it up.

Meanwhile Spike is at the brothel who gets the hit, and sticks up Abdul Hakim (the bounty from "Stray Dog Strut"). Hakim bolts and Spike has to chase him to the roof where they have their fight scene. I will say the face changing thing is an ingenious way to have a speaking actor do the lines while a stunt actor does the fight scene.

Jet is hurrying over to where Spike is and just... drops the doll. And it gets run over by a car. Of course that had to happen, but why just for no real reason? Naturally the doll gets even more punishment as Jet makes his way to Spike. Unfortunately Spike loses his fight to Hakim and ends up hanging from the roof while Jet has to pull him back up, which gives us one decent shot where Spike is upside down pressed against a large display art of a naked woman.

Vicious and his toadies have to shut down their side-hustle drug lab, so we're treated to a quick scene of them gunning down a drug lab full of naked workers with their eyes sewn shut. Y'know just in case we needed to establish Vicious any more as a character (we didn't). And wait... NOW we get the title card? Episode's half over!

Next up is Julia, in Ana's bar. I think I like Ana. Probably my favorite character thus far, just in general design and costume and attitude and dialogue. Ana and Julia talk about Julia's abusive marriage and it's here that it's really clear how awful Julia's wig is. This is obviously meant to set up a thing I've already been spoiled on.

Anyhoo, Jet manages to get a lead on another non-busted doll, but doesn't have enough cash. He makes to leave again (and why? He won't find a cheaper doll) but Spike again convinces Jet to stay in the city to track down Hakim (which is reasonable given they have the best shot at finding him, being the only ones who know his actual face).

We now cut to Hakim in a remote location lining up a bunch of dogs to apparently kill. For what reason we're not told yet, but we get the obvious shot of one of his carrier boxes being hacked open from the inside and the contents escaping.

Spike picks up more info from the informant and then they interview Mistress Greta, Hakim's favorite girl. In an okay scene, they make note of the fact that he's rich enough to have a dog (apparently dogs are incredibly rare in the live-action world, whereas Ein in anime world was worth 2 woolongs). Anyway they use that and some info on atmo farms to track down the location we saw Hakim at earlier, and learn his motivation; that he was kidnapping dogs in his crimes.

The pair go to the only decommissioned atmo farm in the city and stumble across Ein, looking positively adorable. They follow Ein to find Hakim, who spills his true motive: when the Gate blew up and dusted Earth, rich people took their dogs with them to escape to other planets, but left their hired help behind, which included Hakim's family. Hakim was planning to kill the dogs, but couldn't because of their cute widdle faces I mean how could you. Yet another bout of overacting consumes a character as Hakim chews the scenery. He's clearly ready to go to jail with them.

Then the cops show up and blow Hakim away, because it's not like the cops want to pay the bounty. How did the cops know to come here? How did they know the guy they got is Hakim? I guess it's not important. Anyway, Jet does come to a quick realization that they've got something better than a doll for his daughter. Jet delivers his present, and we get an admittedly good match cut to Spike opening a rifle case.

Spike has a sniper rifle and is scoping out for Vicious (again with the long guns, just doesn't seem tonally consistent). Jet's daughter Kimmie gets Ein (the tag clearly says "E1N", but we'll leave that for later). Here I was wondering if dogs are expensive to keep, and fortunately it pays off as Jet's ex-wife confirms that there are taxes and she can't afford to keep it. Jet has to take the dog with him, and Kimmie is largely okay with it if it means she can call some time.

Anyway back to Spike. He calls Vicious (apparently has his number). Vicious answers with a "mushy mushy" (I swear to God that's what he says). Instead of shooting Vicious, Spike just delivers him a "hey I'm alive and I'm deciding not to kill you" call. Spike shoots his bulletproof window as a threat and Vicious goes "FEEEAAARLLESSSSS" and we close on The Real Folk Blues for the first time over the credits. One of those things where you realize that the art that goes into the anime ED really adds to the enjoyment of TRFB, but it's still a banger no matter what.

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radical rhino posted...

Is the whole show this bad?

It's pretty bad. The infrequent 7+/10 moments are largely drowned out by cringeworthy dialogue and baffling character and story changes.

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I've never seen Cowboy Beebop or w.e.

Wtf is this shit lol

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CyricZ posted...

So in case you haven't figured it out yet, my commitment to keeping this topic alive and writing about each episode as I watch it is what's fueling my watching of the show.

I'm enjoying the write-ups! In fact, your write-up of episode 1 convinced to watch the show just to follow them lol

As for the show itself, it's not bad bad, just okay. It's not the original show, but what is? That said, I'm afraid I have to echo the sentiments of what a lot of people are saying about Julia. Without spoilers, I did not enjoy the direction they took with her. And Vicious was just awful the whole way through.

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I'm enjoying it. It's got bad moments but overall it's pretty good

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Episode 4 - Callisto Soul
I saw a shot earlier of the opening of this episode with some fakey advertisements, and I admit those look kinda cute.

So we're back with Faye, on approach to a con. She goes through the prep before we match cut to the actual play, where she forgoes the con and straight up threatens a guy. Turns out we're jumping right to "My Funny Valentine", because she's looking for Whitney Haggis Matsumoto, but oops, we've also crashed into "Gateway Shuffle" because while Faye's trying to get the guy for info, Twinkle Maria Murdock's thugs show up, hold the scene hostage, and kidnap a lady. A touch of incompetence later and the lady they were trying to kidnap breathes in terraforming spores and turns into a tree and the CGI is only a little not good for that.

Faye chases after them (because they grabbed her mark) and gets a bullet in the shoulder for her trouble, which... doesn't seem to slow her down much at all really, but they do make off with her ship (not the Redtail). I still don't think much of her dialogue and mugging for the camera, but at least Tank! is straight up normal.

Jet and Spike are at a diner (pause on the menu for some easter eggs; one of the menu items is "Mushroom Samba"). The dialogue between them is actually kinda nice even though it's about misremembering what a "bidet" is.

Faye just enters the diner, sits down at the table like she's Elaine Benes, and describes her scene to our unimpressed boys. A convenient news report on a nearby TV corroborates her story (and it's probably the least professional looking news program I've ever seen in live-action media). Also Faye's wound isn't cleaned or dressed or anything so it's just kinda squirting.

Anyway, cut to Murdock's eco-terrorists and the browbeating they deserve for bungling the job, including taking Faye's mark as a hostage. They plan on getting their terraforming missiles and nothing really else interesting happens except Murdock hamming it up.

Back to the Bebop and Faye (wound still not dressed) is helping the guys establish Murdock's bounty and she also meets Ein, looking to alternately sell and/or eat him. Ein, for his part, holds his own in this scene. Jet and Spike, stepping away, discuss whether they can trust Faye. Spike reveals he stole Faye's tracker, then Faye reveals she stole the Swordfish and Ein as she gives them a lame kiss-off line before leaving.

I'm starting to see what people are complaining about with Faye. It's not just that she's a backstabbing bitch (like she was in the anime), it's that her lines are just so low effort and just make her not interesting.

Back to Vicious and Julia. Vicious wants to depose the Van now with a frontal assault, but Julia suggests a coup via gathering the other capos. Vicious, for his part, is seriously considering her suggestion. Honestly, this is probably the best scene between the two of them given what they're building them up as.

Faye catches up to her ship and Ein finds her mark, now turned into a tree. I don't know what she pulled out of that hole near his crotch and frankly I don't want to know. Spike and Jet catch up and we FINALLY dress Faye's shoulder wound. Jet is forgiving, because he's Jet.

Another Ana (yus) and Julia scene, but it's quick, and basically Ana knows that Julia's looking to see out Mao Yenrai (one of the capos, female in live action) for her own safety.

Spike, Jet, and Faye use a name dropped to find Murdock's husband, which turns out to be jackpot because the Murdock group is there, stealing missiles to tree-ify the planet. One thing I do want to mention is "Cat Attack Part 1", which plays when Faye starts fighting, an actual song with some identity and Mai Yamane on vocals and I'm here for it. Faye bungles stopping Murdock and her daughter but does get the phone she was trying to get from her mark earlier. She gets the call she was hoping for from Whitney Haggis Matsumoto (female in live-action) and ugh, comedy male voice time as Faye tries to mimic the guy who owned the phone.

Long story short, Faye has a choice to save Callisto from trees or go get revenge for her past and she ultimately chooses to stop the missile by crashing her ship into it. We get a decent moment as Faye leaves a black box log, and Murdock's daughter gets revenge for years of abuse.

Faye lived, is on the Bebop, and honestly, this scene between her and Spike? Pretty good.

All things considered, this episode was okay with only a couple of stinker moments. Murdock's crew were always a mess so their bumbling fits and the dynamic that the trio are starting to settle in fits well enough.

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Episode 5 - Darkside Tango
Out of the gate, we're pretty obviously in the live action version of "Black Dog Serenade". The scene is flashback, shot in sepia tone. Jet is in one piece, in a passenger's seat, and his partner Fad is driving. The perp they're after is Udai Taxim. I do like how this scene, in addition to being sepia tone, looks like it takes place in the fifties, given the cars, buildings, costumes (despite, y'know, taking place on Ganymede or wherever).

They go to Taxim's apartment but he's outside and gets the drop on them before running off. Fad takes one in the shoulder and Jet gives chase (good tune for this one, too, but I haven't been able to ID it off the OST). Much like Black Dog Serenade, Jet corners Taxim but "the dirty cop" gets the drop on him and that's your cold open.

Okay I do like the presentation of Big Shot in this episode. More dynamic, less just standing around, audience participation. Also, there are plenty of references in the names on that board, both to Bebop and other media. Anyway, a prison ship crashed leaving a lot of bounties scattering (rather than being a prison ship hijack) and Taxim was on board, which makes Jet very quiet. He tells Spike and Faye to go hit the other bounties, while he goes to reminisce about his old ISSP days. He gets the old file, the old suit, the old sepia filter, and meets up with Fad again.

Spike and Faye are arguing over who among the escaped prisoners to nab. Doesn't go anywhere, but it's not an awful scene.

Now we cut to Vicious and Julia, going over their plan for winning over Mao. Short scene.

Back to Spike and Faye jan-ken-ing over who to go after. I think the joke is that while they're arguing, the bounties are either being lapped up or are too dangerous.

Jet and Fad hit their lead, hard, and it's a cute interrogation scene. On their way out, they have to duck out from Chalmers and Duero (who was referenced earlier). Jet believes they're both dirty.

Next is a scene with Spike and Faye comparing scars and bounty catches. It's not awful, unless you've been hating Faye's delivery, because it's more of that.

Jet and Fad are in a quiet spot going over their notes. Fad gets a call who he says is from his wife, but from a mile away you can guess he's talking to Udai and ready to set up Jet again.

Vicious meets with Mao, and we have the standard "you don't know what you're getting into with this coup thing" and it's not too bad, y'know, if you've come around to the fact that Vicious is just a little bitch in this canon. We also get introduced, via reputation and flashback, to Santiago the Eunuch, which is where we get the "until you've tasted the testicles of a man" line that's been going around. Anyway, the deal sours once Mao drops Fearless' name and Vicious gets all pissy about it, but Julia is able to turn it around.

Faye regales Spike with the story of how she caught Roland Dupree, using Ein as an adorable prop, and actually this scene develops into some great bonding for them.

We go through the motions with Jed, Fad, and Taxim. Fad kills Taxim, Jet blocks Fad's bullet on his arm, then ends Fad. Just like in Black Dog Serenade, only this time Chalmers and Duero show up and basically let Jet go, mostly because Chalmers pities him, which is actually a hard-hitting thing for Jet to be left with.

Closing on a scene with Vicious and Julia. Vicious berates her for upstaging him and Julia's like "Dude, you need her support if you're going to coup against the Van". Vicious storms off and Julia puts two and two together that Spike's alive. The episode closes on "Adieu", one of my favorite pieces, but cuts off once the credits roll and I'm like "Nooo that's a good song for the credits!"

Altogether, this has so far been the best episode, and I think it stems from the fact that the showrunners really wanted a noir feel for the entire series, but Black Dog Serenade is really the only episode where that works quite well, and it sticks the landing in that regard.

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I just rewatched the anime after watching the live action.

Ed is super low key in a lot of the episodes. Then when she's not she's just a kid having fun.

The live action Ed feels like a shitty cosplayer you'd find in a high school anime club.

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For those of you who were SBFP fans, Pat and Woolie had a discussion about this in their last podcast and I feel like they hit the nail on the head (also, its super funny to see Woolies reaction, since hes a big Bebop fan).

https://youtu.be/Cx73Z9P4TMM

TLDW: The actress is way too old and is clearly trying to emulate the way an adult (incorrectly) thinks a child acts. Also, that wig is baaaaaaaad. If they were going to include Ed at all, the correct choice wouldve been to cast an actual child.

The Vicious episodes were the worst in the anime, and it seems like Netflix is just doubling down.

This is gonna be a "meh" for me.

IndustrialTrudg posted...

She wasnt even like this in the anime. Maybe it's been a while but I recall her being quirky but not constantly energetic and obnoxious.

I rewatched the anime right before the live action show aired and youre right
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Mistere Man posted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRid-B5xqlA

Jesus Christ

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5gNCvrcztbQ

This popped up just now. I'm through the first ten minutes but will wait until I'm done for the rest.

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I would have liked if Ein were in more live action eps, he didn't need to be doing anything. Just sitting there in-frame. Anyone besides me count how many he was in?

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An Ed that's not overacted and just plain bizarre, is not Ed.

Geez, I'm only halfway through?

Episode 6 - Binary Two-Step
This one starts out with the Bebop needing repairs and they're grounded for a while, so Jet sends Spike on a lead from "Radical Ed" for Dr. Londes (the mark from "Brain Scratch"). Meanwhile, Faye's happy because she just got a new weapon: a revolver railgun, which both Jet and Spike tell her is a scam. Tank! gets a remix for this opening, which... seems to be just normal Tank! but slightly distorted in places?

Anyway, Faye speaks to the female mechanic, who openly flirts with her. Honestly the mechanic lady, Mel, is pretty cute and charming, so I feel it works.

Spike pulls into the "Londes Center" and we get some Brain Scratch stuff where he's getting the cult spiel and being led to the goggles that wipe his brain. Why he would sit in a chair with very obvious restraints on it is beyond me. He jumps out after a few seconds and tries to search for the backroom, only to find an alley. As he walks into the street, Julia is just... right there. First thing I thought is that this was an illusion created by the goggles, and sure enough, Julia gets gunned down and Vicious and crew start shooting, then Spike wakes up and takes the goggles off, and then we go again, because he's still in the chair.

This carries on for a bit. The scene makes a point of exaggerating how fake this is, even though we already know. They feel they have to put in distortion effects and random speed-ups just to remind us even though we can see Spike in the chair with a percentage meter creeping up and weird tech stuff being injected into his bloodstream.

Spike is stuck in his dream world trying to convince Julia to go with him (a scene that would carry more emotional weight if we didn't know it was fake and ultimately pointless). Jet is able to drive into the scene (which is weirdly shot implying he's part of the fantasy) and finds Spike in the chair. Jet also finds a guy working on Spike, trying to save him. The guy says that "Londes" doesn't exist and that the real problem is an AI trying to steal Spike's consciousness.

Anyway, back to Faye having just banged the mechanic lady. I will say the idea of Bebop having actually sexually active characters is an interesting idea, but mostly this scene is for Faye to talk more about her amnesia after waking up from cryo sleep. Honestly this scene is okay since it allows Faye to bare her soul a bit, and it's not Faye just being snide and Buffy-dialogue.

Spike continues in the dream world, spilling his guts to Julia about his life. Apparently the AI is waiting for Spike to abandon his "emotional tether" so it can absorb him, which I guess translates to him giving up on Julia.

So, Spike's fighting it. Jet learns that they have to shut down the AI mainframe, which is apparently on Earth, of all places. Jet runs back to the Bebop and takes off, yelling at Faye and the mechanic to put on some clothes and help with the part they need. Spike is having a goofy gun battle with Vicious' goons that has absolutely no stakes, because ultimately none of it has any to do with him getting his brain eaten.

Jet half-wrecks the Bebop getting to Earth, but ultimately it's Faye's railgun that breaks the bulletproof shield and destroys the mainframe. There's an unimportant gag where we learn that "LONDES" is an acronym, which is then explicitly explained to us, the goldfish public.

Also the Bebop is fixed just fine after having a crash landing and engines blowing out back on Earth, because apparently that doesn't matter.

Faye and the mechanic get their ending, with the mechanic leaving with the railgun. We do get a legitimately great camera shot as the mechanic walks down the hallway to leave, but we can still visibly see Faye hang her head in thought and regret.

So my main problem with this episode is that one of the overriding messages of Spike as a character is that he can't let go of his past, and it's ultimately what will kill him (and does in the anime). The idea of Spike giving up on Julia and his past is honestly a very healthy one for him, and yet in this episode to have done so within the machine would be to die. So it feels like the entire essence of the show is saying to Spike "the minute you give up on the thing from your past that's going to kill you, you're going to die anyway". A bad, bad message.

Oh and also the only reason this entire episode happened as it did was because Spike was stupid enough to just sit in a chair with obvious restraints.

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Kami_no_Kami posted...

For those of you who were SBFP fans, Pat and Woolie had a discussion about this in their last podcast and I feel like they hit the nail on the head (also, its super funny to see Woolies reaction, since hes a big Bebop fan).

https://youtu.be/Cx73Z9P4TMM

TLDW: The actress is way too old and is clearly trying to emulate the way an adult (incorrectly) thinks a child acts. Also, that wig is baaaaaaaad. If they were going to include Ed at all, the correct choice wouldve been to cast an actual child.

I saw that earlier lmao

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Episode 7 - Galileo Hustle
A nice little scene with Spike and Faye hanging out outside (Faye getting a little too full over herself for having recently got laid) is interrupted when Whitney Haggis Matsumoto shows up. As I mentioned in the other ep, Whitney is a woman (played by character actor Christine Dunford), and in fact pretended to be Faye's mother after Faye got defrosted. Whitney's here for a ride off-planet, and lets Faye get the first punch for free.

Faye hates Whitney, but Whitney dangles the carrot of giving her her "identi-kit" back (something she was supposed to have when defrosted), and also there is some pretty well done "complicated relationship" stuff going on here, as one might relate to if one ever had a mother figure that was a little on the "divisive" side.

So Faye plays up the lie, and the boys like her well enough, but unfortunately the Bebop isn't going anywhere given Kimmie's recital is coming up. The scene is actually quite good because you can tell that she's really suckering in Spike and Jet with her performance.

A quick Julia and Ana scene ("You knew he's alive?" "It's not safe for you.") Standard stuff, and it's fine because Ana's in it and I loves her.

We cut back to the Bebop where Whitney's making dinner. Faye is having difficulty keeping up the charade so Whitney casually reminds her what's on the line. Then Jet actually does get slightly suspicious given Faye's body language.

A quick scene with Julia and Gren, who apparently knows Julia knows about Spike and Vicious, and basically says "you'll never be free as long as Vicious is alive" and Julia gets a long shot of her face close-up where she gets an evil smirk like she's just figured it all out.

Back to the Bebop and Jet's instincts about Whitney pay off when they look her up on the ISSP database and learn that she's a con artist. Here's where Faye gives the boys her life story (which is to say, what she knows given the amnesia). Jet is a little too "you're a bad person for lying Faye" for my tastes, but eh, that could be a result of me knowing anime Faye as being a career con artist.

Turns out what we're going to do next is answered when they're contacted by the "Iron Mink" a new character who's basically a Russian arms dealer, and wants Whitney.

The crew decide it's better to turn Whitney in for her bounty. Partway there, they notice she's got a tracker, which is how the Mink has been following her. Jet and Spike take the tracker to lead the Mink away while Faye and Whitney go get her identikit.

We cut to the Eunuch (remember him? Tasting balls?) It's the long-rumored meeting between him, Vicious, and Mao. The other two are being a little pretentious, but Vicious is, of course, being a little childish shit, because of course. Anyway, Vicious goes over the intended plan of Mao offering up Vicious as a traitor and Vicious just taking his katana and killing all the bad guys. The most anime plan I've ever heard.

Spike and Jet are stuck on a bus in a traffic jam trying to get away from the Mink. Faye and Whitney con their way into getting a ride where they need to go.

Julia and Mao meet. Apparently Julia came up with the coup plan (which honestly I don't know what's worse) and wants Vicious dead as a result.

Faye and Whitney have a talk about their past and the fun of the con, etc. Decent scene, y'know, mid-range TV stuff. Nothing truly special, but passable.

Spike and Jet get lost and Jet realizes it's time for Kimmie's recital, so he's going to holo call in. He picks a nearby bar to do so and there's a nice scene with Alisa and Chalmers. The recital is cute, but the actually fun part is when the bad guys show up and Spike is fighting them in the background while Jet's having his nice family scene. It's legitimately cute.

Whitney gets to her safehouse where she's got all the crap she conned over the years. She offers Faye the con life, but Faye just wants her identikit. Finding the deposit box with her number, all she finds in it is, naturally, a VHS tape. Funny thing is it's obvious what it was in 98 in the anime, but I wonder how many people won't actually recognize it watching this. >_>

Anyway, this is where Iron Mink shows up (he put a second tracker on Whitney). Faye ends up saving Whitney's life with the con and takes her cut of it with the ship in Whitney's warehouse (the Redtail).

So yeah. This is a decent-to-good episode, and y'know why? Because they didn't spend their time trying to ape an old episode, did their own spin on an established concept (Faye's past), focused on character interaction, and it worked. It actually worked. The whole series should have been focused around this. Make the references sly and do your own thing.

They do ape one thing, because it turns out the Bebop has a VHS player (why? But I guess they can skip "Speak Like a Child") and we get the young Faye video, pretty much beat for beat what the anime had, including the cheerleading. Much like the ending for that episode, it's a soft and somber note to end on, and it still pretty much works, even though Faye gets no actual clues to her identity.

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CARRRNE_ASADA posted...

Somethings just don't translate well...

Yeah. Honestly that is probably the best acting someone could do with Ed... She is meant to be annoying. It is just cringe when seeing it in real life.

Questionmarktarius posted...

The Vicious episodes were the worst in the anime, and it seems like Netflix is just doubling down.

This is gonna be a "meh" for me.

All of the episodes are bad. Most of them are forgettable self-contained plots with one-off characters you couldn't give less of a fuck about. The important stuff with Spike, Julia and Vicious are just boring edgelord shit that a 13 year old could have written.

It's a shit series from start to finish. The main and side plots all suck.

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AP3Brain posted...

Yeah. Honestly that is probably the best acting someone could do with Ed... She is meant to be annoying. It is just cringe when seeing it in real life.

It was cringe in the anime, too.

All the hate the Netflix adaption is getting, but people should really wake up and realize Bebop was always crap.

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Scotty_Rogers posted...

It was cringe in the anime, too.

All the hate the Netflix adaption is getting, but people should really wake up and realize Bebop was always crap.

I remember you and your weird obsession with sexualizing kids in anime. I definitely don't care about your opinion on Bebop lol.

Anime itself sexualizes kids. I just remember you trying to make excuses for it.

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Enough of whatever that was, it's time for the downward spiral, now that we got the good episodes out of the way.

Episode 8 - Sad Clown A-Go-Go
This is the "Pierrot Le Fou" episode. Oddly enough, the anime only ever called him "Mad Pierrot" or Tongpu. "Le Fou" was just the title of the episode (based on the 1965 film of the same name). Vicious and his retinue raid Cherious Medical to pick him up from his cell to contract him to hunt down Spike, because as always, it all has to tie together to the main plot.

To his credit, actor Josh Randall is clearly having a LOT of fun being the clown assassin.

But anyway, we join the Bebop crew bowling. Jet is very cute in his bowling shirt and he has his own black bowling ball with a dog engraving on it. Spike makes a strike without looking and Faye diaper-throws into the gutter. Turns out this whole trip was just to declare today Faye's birthday. I don't know, but I kind of like the idea of them actually being a proper team instead of just Faye kind of being in and out.

Turns out the place they're at is C'est la vie (which was the name of the bar Spike was at at the beginning of PLF in the anime). This is also the point where Pierrot attacks. At this point he's just in a long coat with a coat full of guns. He's still got the floating powers and can stop bullets. He blows up a car to separate Spike from Jet and Faye and gets Spike with that floaty kick combo from the anime. It's done in shadow, of course, since there was no way they were CGI or wiring that shit.

Oh and Pierrot now hates dogs instead of cats, so now when Ein barks at him, that's when he freezes, and the crew take the opportunity to leg it. They patch up Spike (and there's a callback to the loofah talk from Episode 5 as Faye hands Spike the loofah to bite down on). Faye is left with watching over Spike while Jet goes out to find out who the assassin is.

Oh good, another scene with Woodcock. She reveals she doesn't know jack about Pierrot and also that she did a check on Spike, and also couldn't find anything. Thanks Woodcock!

Jet brings rum with him when he visits Spike recovering and obliquely asks him about his past. Spike evades and notes that he changed when he saw Ein.

So I think we covered this in the topic already but one of the tests done on Pierrot was to establish neural links with the dogs in the lab. Sure why not.

Also this is just the safety guy in me, but the fact that the surgeon operating on him in flashback has blood all over her face (splattered off him) to the point where she's getting it in her mouth is some serious BBP failure. Wear a mask, lady.

Anyhoo, Pierrot hacks into Ein and uses him to broadcast a message calling Spike out to Earthland, the amusement park (which is in Pierrot's memories as his happy place). There, Pierrot finds his costume (you know the one, and it even bears the name "Tongpu").

Spike is gearing up for his fight and Jet gives him the "I know your past" speech, assuming Spike's ex-military. Spike, of course, is evasive. I don't know what to make of the gag where Spike grabs a new jacket, and it's one of several of the exact same kind on his rack. Cute or cringe, I can't decide.

Then the Bebop crew does the worst thing ever and leaves Ein behind (since he has a connection to Pierrot, clearly). Bastards.

Vicious and Santiago prepare for the coup. There's some silly sniping as Vicious demands to be taken on his own ship with just Santiago.

The team go over the plan to face Pierrot, which is never a good sign for it going off. It's goofy.

So the execution plan happens. Somehow, Vicious and Santiago got switched (using that face scrambler stuff), so Santiago was the one who got his head cut off by Mao (who thought she was actually killing Vicious). Odd thing is, Santiago could be understood through his gag kinda, so why he didn't just say "I'm Santiago" is beyond me. Vicious takes his katana, kills Mao (so much for her I guess), takes down every last one of the Van's bodyguards with crappy fight choreography, and faces the final remaining elder. The Elder takes off his mask, and hey, it's John Noble (Denethor from LotR).

Also it turns out that the Elder is Vicious' father, which means... absolutely nothing, because there's just a little "shame Mom isn't here" stuff and Vicious shanks him. John Noble is mercifully done after his one scene and Vicious gets pipe organ stings to signify his victory. His stupid, stupid victory that should have failed in so many places. Wow that was a bad scene.

After a scene that SHOULD cap off an episode in any sane production, we're back on the Bebop, because we still got ten minutes left in this bitch. Spike heads out to start the plan, but uploads a virus into the Bebop so it shuts down. Don't really know why, because it's not like Pierrot's going to talk about his connection to Vicious given how the plan is going to go down, but Jet and Faye are left in the dark, even more suspicious about Spike now. That's the last we see of them this episode.

Wait sorry one last minute with Vicious as he catches up with Mao and she tells him "Tell Julia I'm sorry for not delivering your head". Now given Vicious is a total narcissist, I would think he'd take that as a promise made not to her, but a taunt for her, but Vicious sees a copy of the script in the corner of the room which lets him know that means Julia betrayed him.

Spike strolls up to the amusement park and we get a cheaper version of the final fight between him and Pierrot from the anime. It's not terrible and Pierrot's performance does most of the heavy lifting. Ultimately Spike throws out a toy dog which distracts Pierrot and we get the leg stab and Pierrot crumbling, which honestly is less creepy like it was in the anime and more just kinda pathetic. Spike kicks Pierrot's jet boots and Pierrot just... flies back to his home planet? It's kind of unclear.

One last scene with Vicious and Julia. Vicious comes home covered in blood and carrying Mao's head, clearly in the mood for more murder. That's it. Episode over.

Oh boy oh boy. The only thing saving that one was Pierrot doing his thing.

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Ep 8 would have been better served if they told us of his mental degradation, like in the anime. Him crying at the end made no sense otherwise.

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Im always in favor of western adaptions of anime dropping this type of cringe-s*** and going more serious.

When they do the Neon Genesis Evangelion adaption hopefully they cut out all the Asuka tantrum yelling & Misato moaning as she drinks an entire 12-pack of beer.

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The funny thing is that they do in fact drop it in some places. Episode 7 is actually a really good example.

And your old pal Cyric has to put his enjoyment of Jojo on hold so he can finish this. Episode 9 (the flashback episode) tonight.

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Episode 9 - Blue Crow Waltz

Spike (Fearless) and Vicious in the past, having a conversation about ball-shaving (this production really likes testicles for some reason). Fearless is a killer, but a pro, and Vicious is nuts, getting stabby.

After their job, the pair return to Ana's bar and meet with Stax, their superior. He's looking to have the pair broker a deal with a Neptune gang. Stax is weird because he's got the whole look and attitude of a guy who likes being the boss, but apparently his motivation is to retire and live on a boat somewhere. Just another odd element of this production.

Fearless is told in no uncertain terms that the whole point of the deal is so that Vicious, being an Elder's kid, will make capo, and Fearless is to make sure it doesn't fuck up. Oh boy, I wonder if it will fuck up?

Anyway, Ana and Spike have some cute dialogue, and then it turns out that tonight's singer is puking like a lot, so Julia has to go on. A lot of time is spent on Julia's number, and I'm like, what's the point? It's not like we just met her, so it's like they're trying to re-establish her, a character we've seen every episode. I mean, it's not a bad song, but it's no The Singing Sea.

Vicious and Julia start going out and we cut to Stax informing F&V that they have to go in without weapons and Vicious makes his impetuous stinkface as Fearless ushers him out to cool him off. Vicious even tries to bring a gun to the deal despite it all, but Fearless grabs it off him. We don't actually get to see the deal, because we cut to later when Stax is incredulous that Vicious tried to cut off the gang leader's hand. To be fair, watching the deal probably would have been cringe as hell. Anyway, F&V get their browbeating from Stax and go to drown their sorrows. Julia comes up with the news that Ana made her a headliner at the club and Fearless is all nice and cheery while Vicious is stinkfacey.

Julia wants to dance, Vicious doesn't want to, so Fearless gets to do it. They walk over to the dance floor and get all cute and stuff, then as they all leave, they spot the Neptune gang leader and Vicious runs him down, gets out and starts beating on him, and this is all just soo... bland?

Vicious gets to wreck the gang leader and Julia and Fearless have their moment. Again, just kinda bland. Only decent thing is a cut between booze being spilled of a table and it transitioning into gasoline being poured on the Neptune gang leader, but I barely have to describe these scenes for you to know how they go. Fearless and Julia's post-coital moment has the deep commitments of someone who hasn't just banged his friend's girl for the first time, completely out of place.

Fearless gets the word from Stax that Vicious has to die and Fearless has to be the one to do it. When he goes to Vicious, we get him spilling the story of the night his mother died (really unimportant) while Fearless just kinda... stands there in the scene doing nothing, which makes it really awkward looking. Fearless is supposed to kill Vicious but apparently takes pity on him in this moment. I just realize I hadn't mentioned that Vicious saved Fearless' life when they were little, but honestly who cares.

Fearless decides to fix it by killing all the Neptune gang members to the last person, including a teenaged girl. The scene is shot from outside through slats and Fearless is silhouetted, so there's a little bit of art going on here, but honestly the scene is uninspired.

Fearless begs Julia to run away with him and they have the audacity to put the saxophone beginning to Space Lion in this tepid scene (Gren's solo from Jupiter Jazz). Julia agrees to run away with the guy she slept with once.

Fearless goes to Ana to get his name scrubbed (apparently it's that easy?) and Ana has the only bad scene of her when she's like "no no no no. Weelllll, okay, but just keep her safe". Ugh.

Back to Vicious waking up after getting piss drunk and it looks like they paid John Noble for two scenes, because he swaggers in and starts with the faux congratulations for the cartel wipeout, but then slaps Vicious down because he knows Vicious had nothing to do with it. He tells Vicious that Fearless is leaving with Julia, too, so Vicious goes to Ana, stabs her in the leg (thus her limp), and learns their plans.

Although I suppose it wouldn't have taken much to find Julia, because she hadn't left her apartment yet. Vicious' lieutenant shows up at her door to take her to Vicious and Fearless is waiting at their pre-arranged spot, which I suppose Julia must have told Vicious about because only the two of them knew of the spot (which was "under the bridge", by the way, which... what bridge?) So basically there was no point in Vicious even showing up at Ana's when he could have just gone to Julia in the first place.

Anyway, Fearless and Vicious have a gun battle and Fearless falls into the river, Vicious assuming he's dead and stepping on a flower, and the show delivers its worst line yet with the closing text sting:

"YOU'RE GONNA CARRY THAT WEIGHT"

Yeah. They did that. They put the final line of the anime, the one thing that every Cowboy Bebop fan knows more than any other thing in the show. The cap of the series. They put that at the end of the crappy flashback episode, the penultimate episode of Season 1.

Like the worst part of this episode is that it's ultimately bland, boring, serves to give us nothing new about the characters, and was completely unnecessary. We knew enough about Spike, Vicious, and Julia in the anime with the merest scraps of information, and we still knew exactly what was going on between them. This live-action series has given us tenfold that amount of information constantly and still feels like it needs to give us an entire flashback episode.

*sigh* Almost done.

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Yup we're finishing this tonight.

Episode 10 - Supernova Symphony
I don't suppose it's any surprise that this episode cribs heavily from "Ballad of Fallen Angels". You see that shot in the opening after all.

We pick up from the end of Episode 8 with Vicious having come home from his cheat mode win over the Syndicate. Vicious drops the anime line "there's nothing in this world to believe in", which hits the ground with a thud, and there are more lame threats from him.

Spike is MIA after the Pierrot battle. Jet and Faye can't find him but surmises due to some scorched earth that he was taken by someone else on a ship, which is... an odd deduction. Faye also finds another small lead connecting her past together on an advertisement.

Spike wakes up in Ana's club. The "how'd you find me" is tenuous at best. Ana and Gren tell him that Julia knows he's alive and he says he'll kill Vicious. Ana tells him to find Julia first. Jet and Faye track Spike down and show up. There's a tense standoff which goes on a bit too long given Spike is obviously at ease with both groups in the room. One would think that's enough, but whatever.

Once they get settled, Jet gets a call from Kimmie, but it's actually Vicious. Remember in Ballad of Fallen Angels how Faye gets kidnapped for Spike to show up? Well, this time Vicious kidnaps Kimmie, although I can't imagine Vicious being nearly savvy enough to figure any of that out on his own.

Jet is mad at Spike for not coming clean with him and his willing to turn him over. Faye says "I won't carry that weight" (stop please) and refuses to be part of the handoff. Jet bundles Spike into a car (where did he get a car).

Julia is also being escorted to the showdown by car and she drops to the goon who grabbed her that since the goon also knows why Vicious is trying to kill Fearless, her life is also forfeit (the goon's, that is). The goon fucking falls for it despite having no good reason to and kills the other guys in the car, which doesn't seem wise while it's moving, but what do I know. It makes for a decent flip on the car.

Turns out Jet isn't actually turning in Spike and they get the drop on Vicious' people. They manage to take three down before the realization that Vicious and Kimmie (and Lin and Shin) aren't actually there, but calling in. More thugs show up to stick up Spike and Jet (well glad that plan was pointless).

Julia survived the crash, but the female goon doesn't make it (convenient and dumb). Julia takes a gun and walks off to... somewhere.

Spike and Jet are now tied up in a church. Also they both have had blood drizzled on their face, which I imagine was meant to make them look like they were beat up, but there are no real notable wounds on their body to suggest that and their clothes are largely clean. Also Spike could totally move his leg and get out of the ropes tying him to the pillar.

Vicious walks in and gives the same speech that anime Vicious gave Spike in BoFA (lol bofa) about angels forced out of heaven, and it duds. There's a lot of threatening, and it's weird having Jet in a scene where Vicious and Spike are trading lines. Just as they're about to finish them off, who should show up but Faye in the Redtail (how did she find them who cares). She guns down some of Vicious' men and the line "Welcome to the ouch, motherfuckers" is just the cherry on top of the poop sundae that is Faye's dialogue.

The scene with Faye is set to a polka. No I don't know why they thought a polka would be good to follow up this dark scene, but here we are. Faye also shoots Spike and Jet's ropes because why not (no see she's got thermal targeting because, y'know forget it). Apparently the church is now empty because Spike grabs Kimmie and Jet and Faye lands her ship. Jet and Kimmie get bundled into the Redtail and they take off, leaving Spike behind. Faye's use of "shoot them before they shoot you" is... actually okay in this context.

Spike heads back into the church and "Rain" starts playing, which of course, is meant to set the scene, not go back into it having just left it. Still a good song, though. Spike makes his way to the upper part of the church, killing Lin and Shin along the way. Spike and Vicious have their gun vs. sword fight, which somehow works a broken-chair-tonfa into the duel, straight by the numbers from BoFA. Same "ravenous beast" dialogue, which is odd, because Spike isn't looking all that ravenous at all.

And here's where the tables turn because the two connect their hits, instead of Spike just going out the window, Julia comes in at this moment and shoots Vicious, who drops like a sack of potatoes.

And now we get to watch Julia slide even further down her character arc as she blames Spike for letting her stay with Vicious. Also apparently she wants the Syndicate throne now. Why? How? She hands Spike her gun to kill Vicious and now Spike doesn't want to kill Vicious? Julia says Spike "made her" what she is, which is absolutely untrue for SO MANY REASONS. She shoots Spike and he falls out the window to "Green Bird". We even get flashbacks as he goes into the water below, of their ONE NIGHT TOGETHER.

Jet delivers Kimmie to Alisa and Kimmie calls Chalmers "daddy", so any effort Jet was making to put himself in Kimmie's life is apparently now gone with that awkward statement.

Faye gets ready to leave the Bebop to go find out who she is with her lead. She says her goodbyes to Jet and he lets her go, clearly in the worst shape he's ever been in.

Hey Vicious is alive. Chained up in a basement somewhere, where Julia can torment him and run the Syndicate on his behalf. Sounds great.

Spike finds his way back to the Bebop (not bad with a few bullet holes in him, but hey Jet says he's a cockroach). Jet promises that if he sees Spike again, he'll kill him. Jet hobbles back onto the Bebop, which takes off without Spike (and also takes off with Swordfish, which was Spike's ship, but OH WELL).

Last scene. Spike stumbles out of a bar drunk and collapses on the ground and... y'know what? Y'all know what happens last. I made a topic about it.

I'll probably have some final-er thoughts tomorrow, but holy shit was that a faceplant into a cowpie of an ending.

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Alright, Netflix, go fuck up Trigun now.

So I also finished watching the Mother's Basement video I posted several messages ago and it's tough to distill my thoughts out of what I'm thinking out of his stuff, but go watch that video. It's proper.

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Fuck it.

Session 1 - Asteroid Blues

God the little things. Everywhere the little things.

The art of TJ going in.
The bouncing of shots between Jet cooking and Spike training.
The cat in the bar.
The simple interaction between Asimov and Spike in the bathroom.
The grumpy frown on Katerina after Spike steals her hot dog.
Spike's "traveling performer" act.
The simple fact that charming Katerina probably saved Spike's life since she told him to stop choking Spike.
Spike with his sombrero and serape. The full menu for the cafe on the wall behind him.
Spike on the roof of the gangster car, practically dancing as he taps each of the bad guys.
The Hammerhead. God the Hammerhead. No guns on that thing yet so useful.
The episode starts as it began, with Spokey Dokey harmonica and Jet cooking. Just a day in the life.

God.

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Session 2 - Stray Dog Strut

I totally forgot about "Doc".
Ein is cute. Super cute. I'm love him.
lol when Hakim falls onto the boat and gets crabs on his face.
"Seems that way."
lol Jet thinks he's so cool. And he is. :-P
"Jet! He got away!" "Hakim!?" "THE DOG!!"
Hakim jacking the wedding car lol.
Such a cute and goofy episode.

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CyricZ posted...

The cat in the bar.

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