Forum - View topicINTEREST: Shinichiro Watanabe Spills the Tea on the Live-Action Cowboy Bebop, The Animatrix
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garfield15
 Posts: 1517 |
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I feel really justified in believing Watanabe had absolutely nothing to do with the show and the "Consultant" title they said he had was just BS
EDIT: You know that Forbes interview is actually way way more interesting than anything about the Bebop live action because it's going through Watanabe's entire history in the industry Last edited by garfield15 on Fri Jan 27, 2023 12:27 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Beatdigga
 Posts: 4378 Location: New York |
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Watanabe is vindicated. He’s also right that the spectacular failure of the LA Bebop made people appreciate the anime more popular, so good on him finding the silver lining.
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animefan1238
 Posts: 299 Location: Ma |
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Kind of shows how Hollywood has no idea how popular a subculture is unless it makes news. If they went to an anime convention they'd discover about half the attendees have at least heard of Cowboy Bebop. They'd also learn how popular it is and fans love the anime. He's justified in his complaints and should have been offered a larger role in the adaptation.
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Somer-_-
 Posts: 988 Location: Canada |
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Feels kinda good knowing Watanabe got as far in to the live action Cowboy bebop as I did. I think I dropped out when they started talking about Bidets.
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DerekL1963
 Subscriber Posts: 1114 Location: Puget Sound |
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Rest assured, Hollywood knows exactly how popular anime actually is... That is, outside of the Toonami style staples (mostly long running shonen battlers) and Ghibli - not nearly as popular as many anime fans seem to think. It's not as niche as it was a decade or so ago, but it's still pretty niche. That being said, live adaptations like this aren't really aimed at just our subculture. We're just the yeast, the starter. They're mostly aimed where the real money is - at the mass market. |
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Blazi
 Posts: 501 |
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Shows that Hollywood only goes about for popularity, not even once trying to capture the originality of the original show.
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wjbraden
Posts: 34 |
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The more I see Western parties continue to exploit, go over the heads of the original authors/creators, and (quite frankly) just not "get" the source material, leads me to think that the West really isn't capable of making or heavily facilitating their own adaptations, be it live action or animated. We've seen how all of these Netflix "Originals" perform terribly amongst anime fans, critics, and the coveted mainstream audiences alike, so perhaps it's time to just hang it up, especially if you're just going to shut down the original creators in Japan and want to go your own way. I also kind of thought we were over the whole 'Westernization of foreign media' bit, especially after hits like Squid Game went toe to toe with homegrown TV. If we got laughed out of town here for live action Bebop making changes, one can only imagine what the reception will be like for live action One Piece if the same off-base approaches are made. You also mention Toonami, and I'll tangentially bring up that Warner Bros. Discovery has been funding and producing a bunch of anime productions, some of which have already been out for awhile (and already written off/vaulted for tax purposes like many of their other shows), but it's the same thing; none have seemed to resonate or make a huge splash with anyone. They're soon even releasing seasons 4 and 5 of FLCL, something I think no one asked for but here we are. Even though some of these Western parties might have good intentions with bringing more anime-related material to us, I think there's just too big of a disconnect between East and West to make decent shows that measure up to what Japan alone can do, in most cases. If anything, I think we should simply be giving money to Japan to fund projects that Japanese creators and parties already have in mind, and let them do things on their own terms. I think it would save a lot of people here and abroad a lot of money and heartache if they did that. |
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JoelBurger
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But everybody who said Cowboy Bebop live action was going to own the chuds said that the show had Watanabe's full blessing. Are you trying to tell me that was just corporate speak for the hype machine??
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Dark Mac
Posts: 313 |
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Crunchyroll's up to 10 million subscribers. That's way bigger than Toonami ever was. |
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wjbraden
Posts: 34 |
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Yeah, but that's worldwide subscriptions. If you factor in all the international Toonami/Cartoon Network platforms that showed anime, that probably had a much greater reach back in the day, comparatively speaking. Especially from a paid subscription standpoint and being readily available to general audiences (i.e. people who aren't already anime fans or just want to casually watch anime, unlike many Crunchyroll subscribers who are already hardcore fans). Netflix is the better platform that targets new and "mainstream" audiences and can really get reach, in theory anyways. |
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allnightclerk
 Posts: 43 Location: Osaka, Japan |
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I'm always dubious whenever these kinds of adaptions claim that the original creators are involved.
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Beatdigga
Posts: 4378 Location: New York |
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Same. Unless it’s a case where the creator is updating on production (like Oda was doing to point out he was heavily involved), it’s more or less lip service. |
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allnightclerk
Posts: 43 Location: Osaka, Japan |
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I still doubt how much input Oda has on that show given the stuff we've seen already that seem to go against his original style. Probably more than Watanabe did but that wont necessarily make it any better of a show for it. |
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DerekL1963
Subscriber Posts: 1114 Location: Puget Sound |
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You also have to factor in Cartoon Network's enormous self-marketing muscle for it's programming blocks. Otherwise, yeah. CN/Toonami were broadly available and visible to the general public, even random channel flippers had a non-zero chance of being exposed to it. And back in the day... CN was extensively marketed. And had more than a few groundbreaking shows. And quite a bit of programming aimed at the nostalgic late Boomers/Generation Jones/early Gen X age band. It generated a ton of buzz in the media and general public. On a scale of 1-10, where CN defines "10" in terms of marketing muscle, reach, buzz, etc... I'd say Crunchy rates (at most) a "1". |
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garfield15
Posts: 1517 |
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Unless the creator specifically says what they're doing on the production to be 'involved', always take it as them totally lying
Did Oda say what he was doing to be heavily involved? I know he took a break from the manga to visit the set. I think he said the casting was good, but has there been any documented information as to what Oda has been doing with Netflix's One Piece specifically? I believe he has an Executive Producer credit but I think most people know by now that doesn't mean anything. |
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