This adds validity to how it pertains to Spike. Throughout Cowboy Bebop, Spike is relatively guarded when it comes to his personal life, choosing not to disclose details of his life to anyone. This prompts Annie to bluntly tell him never to call her that, saying there are only two people who can call her by that name.
#Spike cowboy bebop live action full
What supports this theory is when Spike reunites with Annie in "Ballad of Fallen Angels." Investigating the death of Mao Yenrai following his murder by Vicious, Spike tries speaking to Annie about what happened, going as far as calling her by her full name, Anastasia. This makes it possible that Spike never even told Julia. The anime gives us just enough in not only Spike but every character to see ourselves in, while holding back just enough to avoid getting bogged down by its own lore, creating a perfect recipe for emotional resonance that keeps the show feeling fresh no matter how much time passes.It's likely that throughout the anime, Spike went about his days never mentioning his real last name, wanting to keep a low profile should he ever run the risk of needing to evade the authorities, the Syndicate, or any rival criminal organizations. Everyone has unfinished business they'd rather not have to think about, people they wish they could see one more time, and actions they wish they could take back. In the anime, though, Spike's feelings are universal. At one point, Spike literally says "I'm the orphan," a detail that can be inferred but is never confirmed in the original show it thus becomes unmistakably his story, with no room for interpretation. In the live-action show, Spike's history is explained so thoroughly that it's difficult to relate to. Spike's feelings of guilt with Vicious and Julia in the anime are perfectly expressed through dream-like imagery when the viewer watches Spike beat himself up over decisions long since made, the vagueness of his regrets encourages them to see their own pasts in his. What it does miss, though, is much more important: why the original show chose to keep the specifics of Spike's backstory so vague in the first place, and what is lost by over-explaining it. The intricacies of anime Bebop's story are vague, but not unknowable, and choosing to center this adaptation on the corners of the story that were previously unexplored goes some way to making it feel like it has a purpose beyond simply translating the cartoon to a new medium. And it's not like the ways the Netflix show chooses to elaborate on his backstory are without reason Spike's history is up to interpretation, and Netflix's choices feel like reasonable elaborations on what we're given to work with. Since Spike's tumultuous past is such an important part of his character and the show's ideas as a whole, wanting to explore that part of him more thoroughly is a natural inclination.
#Spike cowboy bebop live action series
Every character in Cowboy Bebop is running from a past they don't want to acknowledge in their own ways, and between all the heists and chases, that thematic throughline keeps the series feeling like the same show with the same characters no matter what mood or setting it might choose that week. In fairness, it also doesn't come from a place of misunderstanding the original show's intentions.
Where the rest of the cast feels somewhat tied down by expectations that they look and act like their anime counterparts, Vicious has so little in the way of characterization in the anime that Hassell's version of him is allowed to be emotive and, frankly, entertaining beyond what might have been thought possible before. In addition, Hassell's Vicious absolutely steals the show, at least in part because of how much freedom he has to interpret his character. It requires inventing a whole lot of lore where there was once none and, by forcing everything to be connected, erodes the original's celebration of life's fleeting joys and losses, but it does the job of making it more bingeable. Placing Vicious into every corner of the plot gives viewers a motive to binge, to find out more about Spike, Vicious, Julia, and the Syndicate.
Cowboy Bebop doesn't come pre-packaged with an easy-to-grasp hook that would keep people's eyes glued to the screen, letting Netflix's autoplay go on until it runs out of episodes. It's understandable why the writers of Netflix's go at this story would feel inclined to bring Vicious more to the forefront.
RELATED: Alex Hassell Says Replicating the Church Fight Scene in 'Cowboy Bebop' Ended Up Making it More Difficult
0 kommentar(er)
