Forum - View topicINTEREST: Shinichiro Watanabe Spills the Tea on the Live-Action Cowboy Bebop, The Animatrix
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jimmyzinny
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Sigmanabe!!
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MFrontier
Posts: 11669 |
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That explains a lot.
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JoelBurger
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No, we've gotten nothing about what - if anything at all - Oda has actually done for the show. So take it like every other creator statement, nothing more than a marketing tool for something that will probably be awful and that they'll retroactively disown after a year or so. |
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Romuska
 Subscriber Posts: 802 |
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That definitely seems like how it generally goes. Unless they’re the executive producer the creators seem to have pretty much no say on these productions. |
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wjbraden
Posts: 34 |
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Absolutely. I think a lot of us in the online anime community at large are "in the bubble" in terms of how popular we think anime really is here in the west. Just because something anime-related trends on twitter does not mean it's something the masses are talking about. And I think that kind of bloated perspective on things has leeched over into how distributors perceive and want to sell, or rather oversell, anime. Anime is bigger than ever before in the US, but it's still very much niche in regard to the rest of the entertainment industry (and probably always will be). I think Netflix has realized this with their bubble popping, as there's been whispers that they're going to start tapering down on funding new anime projects outright, and just stick to surer bets, third-party licenses, and movies. |
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DerekL1963
Subscriber Posts: 1116 Location: Puget Sound |
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It's a bit more nuanced than that... And the basic problem is just how uneven anime's popularity is. We had a discussion on Reddit the other day about anime and how popular it is with the general public... and same dozen or so shows (mostly Toonami staples) were repeatedly cited as proof of it's popularity. And they're not wrong, that double handful or so of franchises are wildy popular... even among people who don't think of themselves as anime fans. And there's a lot of people who do think of themselves as anime fans who've never seen anything outside those franchises. But what I think Netflix (and many others) miss, is that once you get outside those franchises, popularity and general public knowledge drop off a cliff. Dragon Ball and Pokemon are widely known and wildly popular - but 95-99% of seasonal anime? All but the biggest (such as AoT or MHA) are all completely unknown outside us otaku and weebs. And that produces a paradox - anime as a whole appears popular... But it isn't once you look carefully. And that's one of the reasons Netflix continues to fail. They've failed to grasp that paradox. It's producing anime that you'd think should be popular among the general public... But they flop, because anime isn't actually all that popular. (As well as mostly being poorly done.) What little chance they do have to be popular is destroyed by the infamous Netflix Jail. The community they want to reach, to have generate buzz that hopefully will lead to larger audiences... They don't binge watch. They live and die by the weekly Japanese broadcast schedule. "Binge twelve episodes? Buddy, ain't nobody got time for that. I've got six, seven, eight episodes of this season this weekend. I'm not going to waste time watching what my friends aren't!" As far as the anime community being "in a bubble", it's less that than the anime community has this desperate fawning need to be accepted. |
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penguintruth
 Posts: 8467 Location: Penguinopolis |
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Watanabe didn't hold back!
The worst part about that live-action Cowboy Bebop was Vicious. He was so silly. It's like they refused to make him menacing. |
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LadonTree
Posts: 24 |
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Trying to make anime appeal to the masses I think it's a mistake, if doing so strips it of what anime fans like about anime in the first place.
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wjbraden
Posts: 34 |
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Fair points. It's very much true that people glom onto only a handful of "top tier" or perhaps "hyped" titles. I'd also see that as an output problem, in that we're constantly bombarded with new stuff left and right (which is not just a problem exclusive to anime of course, but found all across the TV/Streaming landscape). Many shows simply aren't able to be marketed or given enough time to build an audience. When there's too much to choose from, and you're a casual fan, you're just going to gravitate towards whatever you see's most popular. Heck, I'm a major weeb and this stuff flies by me at a million miles an hour!
Agreed. What has always made anime "special" and well-liked, past and present, is how it tells stories from a different cultural perspective. When you start injecting Western ideals, perspectives, etc into anime inorganically, it all falls apart. Just let Japan do what it's always done, and let the shows that end up calling to the Western masses (DBZ, MHA, AOT, etc) come organically. |
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Cardcaptor Takato
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Watanabe’s criticisms of the live action Bebop are valid and reasonable. I still think it was overhated for ridiculous reasons like Faye wearing pants or Jet being black instead of real issues like the writing and poor direction choices. I also still think Netflix handled the release of it poorly and cut it off too soon. And now I’m already seeing questionable nerd sites like Bounding Into Comics using this interview as justification for their behavior towards the cast and crew.
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4414 Location: New York |
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Considering that Netflix’s most popular shows tend to be more often than not, originals like Aggretsuko or straight manga adaptations like Record of Ragnarok, there’s probably some notable wisdom in just letting them do their thing and distributing, rather than creating something you think will appeal to the crowd. It’s something that at the very least, Toonami has understood about Watanabe. Rather than force him to recapture Bebop, they let him do what he wanted, even if Watanabe wasn’t happy with it (a few weeks back, Jason DeMarco of Toonami claimed Watanabe considers Space Dandy a failure, an opinion he vehemently disagrees with). That’s more likely to get something with a creative spark. |
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Chris Handsome
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Even more screwed up is what they did with Julia. What I really couldn't stand though is how they tried to push Spike and Faye actually getting along... it made my stomach churn. Faye giving Spike bathing tips? The way live action Bebop tried to sanitize the main characters just struck a huge nerve with me, it's absolutely asinine. They are not by any means "the good guys", but that's what Netflix feeds you. |
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BadNewsBlues
Posts: 6002 |
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Curious who said this as most of the narrative was. “This is going to suck” “They’re going to ruin the anime” “Who asked for this?” “Why make this when the original anime exists”.
That itself isn’t without its flaws as that different cultural perspective can lead to stuff being being thrown in or added that might wind up being seen as problematic. Such as the portrayal of blacks. No we’re not all gifted athletically and don’t have big lips. Also despite what manga like Eyeshield 21 have shown openly mistreating one of your players because of the color of the skin is something that would very likely get you fired from a coaching job in real life regardless of your reasoning nor would it lead to you being easily forgiven by the player your tormented because of his race. |
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Fedora-san
 Posts: 464 |
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Last I heard they were actually thinking of doing an Americanized version of Squid Game. No idea if it'll ever come out though. Although I feel in anime's case it has more to do with it being animation rather than foreign media. Animation still is looked down upon here; especially in a time where more people care about the live-action versions of books and comics than the source material. Getting a popular live-action show is the endgoal for most franchises in America. I could sing the praises of something like the DCAU being the best adaption DC comics ever got but it won't matter to the mainstream who worship the DC shows on The CW or the Snyderverse. Something being animated severely puts it at a disadvantage to the average viewer.. My sister actually liked the live-action Bebop. She tried to watch the anime afterwards but didn't like it. So that's at least 1 person out there that this show was a success for.. |
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JoelBurger
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Look at any comment section about the show here, it's not that hard. |
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