What ANIMATION are you VIEWING?

Star Wars Visions - An anthology of anime shorts. The first episode is one of the best Star Wars things I've ever seen. Coming full circle to a Samurai pic with a great art style. The rest are a mixed bag. The Japanese clearly have a very different view of Star Wars than Americans do. Which makes these all at least a little interesting.

Anyone watching Cowboy Bebop in prep for the live action Netflix show?

On the one hand, the Netflix show is probably shit compared to the anime and a recent viewing will just highlight this.

On the other hand maybe the complement each other well.

On the gripping hand you will ha e just seen one of the best animes ever so even if you nope out of the LA show at least you saw the anime

I think it will be good.

I just watched the opening credits and am underwhelmed. It looks like the strictest possible interpretation of the source material. There are hints of shots of Pierrot le Fou, Teddy Bomber, the monkey terrorists, that pile of TVs from the cult episode, Red Eye couple and martial artist Kareem Abdul Jabbar. It looks like a remake in the most literal sense. They’re not adding anything new. They’re not giving me a reason to watch beyond “Faye has knives” and “animation is for kids, live action is for adults.” The odds are low, but even if they nail it, why not just watch the prime material again?

And John Cho’s wig looks terrible.

I feel for the creators. What are they supposed to do? Cowboy Bebop is weird. It encompasses Alien, Pierrot le Fou and the mushroom episode. It’s more a tone than a fully realized universe. You could more easily create an original series about a garrison of Gondor’s soldiers protecting Osgiliath than anything new with the Bebop crew. You could lean into the crime stories, but it wouldn’t feel right without the immortal harmonica player or adventures in Betamax or Cowboy Andy.

I agree with you, I'll probably watch it but I just don't see how it will translate regardless of the skill of those involved.

I hope it will be good. Seems like Ed isn’t in it, so who knows. I also don’t think a live action show will in any way detract from the anime, good or bad.

hotseatgames wrote: I hope it will be good. Seems like Ed isn’t in it, so who knows. I also don’t think a live action show will in any way detract from the anime, good or bad.

With the decisions they've made so far has put this on the HARD PASS list for me. I'll just stick with the anime.

Years after Firefly was on tv, I finally watched Cowboy Bebop, which seems like a major inspiration for Firefly. Aside from the amazing theme song, I was very underwhelmed by Cowboy Bebop. I disliked all the characters, especially Ed, and yet the only episode that I really enjoyed was the one that featured Ed. But I'm a big fan of Firefly, though not too big to overlook the weaknesses in Firefly. Anyway, I don't feel any interest in a live-action Cowboy Bebop.

Cowboy BeBop didn't grip me either. Though the early episode where they pick up the dog has some pretty amusing moments.

A remake has potential. There's a good idea there, but it's all about the execution, isn't it?

I don't have a reference link, but apparently Netflix has confirmed that Ed WILL be in the show, but they didn't say how or when.

Cowboy Bebop is a cool anime but I haven't watched it in twenty years. I'm taking a wait-and-read approach with the tv show. If it gets really good reviews I'll check it out because I like sci-fi. Otherwise I have plenty of other shit to watch nowadays.

I'm actually watching Cowboy Bebop for the first time, having just completed the first season of it. I dunno, I like it a lot. I think it has a different pace and feel than anime often has, which is kind of a welcome respite. I tend to like anime, but its long-form story telling wears on me, so something more episodic like CB works well for me.

The live action show might be good. It also might be bad. I do not know which.

I recently started watching The Brave & the Bold cartoon on HBO Max. It's based on the long-running silver age DC comic of the same name, which was a monthly team-up book of Batman and a guest hero. The comics played fast and loose with continuity, leaving the creative team free to feature all kinds of characters from other times and places, including Sergeant Rock (WWII), Wildcat (Earth-2), and Kamandi (post-apocalyptic future). This cartoon is similar, and leans into a light-hearted blend of DC's silver age and modern fare.

An episode generally starts in medias res with Batman and a guest star wrapping up some adventure. Then the opening credits roll, followed by the main portion of the episode, often featuring a different guest star. This is a silver age Batman, so he is like a dignified version of Adam West Batman. There is some humor in the mix, but the best lines only elicit a smile from me. Good fun for the whole family. The nostalgia gets to me, as one of the first few comics that I bought as a kid was an issue of The Brave & the Bold that featured Etrigan the Demon, and he appears in one of the early episodes of the show.

I like B&B better than the venerable BTAS, if I’m being honest. It’s quite often laugh out loud funny and it goes DEEP into the DC vaults- when you are rolling out Gentleman Ghost, you are going way deep. There’s an episode with the Doon Patrol that’s great and the Aquaman family vacation episode is a masterpiece.

There is also a hilarious skewering of “gritty” Batman fandom delivered by Batmite.

In a parallel world, Brave and the Bold would have become the template for the DC franchises. In that world there’s no pandemic, and fascism died the death it deserves.