The First Teaser For Neftlix’s ‘Cowboy Bepop’ Has Landed, And It Looks Sick
November can't come fast enough.
Cowboy Bebop is one of the most stylish, slick anime series around, a serve of pure unadulterated cool that combines deft humour with sheer exuberance.
There’s truly nothing like the show around, a whirling actioner in which Spike Spiegel, a futuristic bounty hunter, must face a rogue’s gallery of vicious villains and his own demons. Aided by Ein, an ultra-smart Welsh Corgi, Edward, a gleefully demented computer hacker, and Faye Valentine, an amnesiac with a penchant for cigarettes, Spiegel must make his way through the vast and chaotic reaches of space, collecting bounties in the process.
Simply put, there’s before Cowboy Bebop and there’s after it. The show had an incalculable impact not only on anime at large, but on Western cinema and television — its influence can be felt all over everything from Rooster Teeth’s RWBY to the John Wick series.
All of which means that there are lots of good reasons to get very excited about the new live-action adaptation of the series, coming this November from Netflix. With John Cho embodying the ultra-suave Spiegel, the series promises to drill down into what was special about the anime, combining humour, heart and balletic action sequences that would make John Woo blush.
Now, finally, audiences have had their first proper taste of the forthcoming adaptation, in the form of a “Lost Session” dropped by the streamer.
For those not in the know, “Sessions” are what the original anime calls episodes, meaning that this is a self-contained story designed to raise hype. It’s not a teaser per se — it’s a hermetically sealed object entirely of its own, one that gives a good indication of the tone and style of the new series.
And what an incredible style. Featuring fast-paced editing, quippy jokes, and post-modern playing around with split-screen, the “Session” has nailed the vibe of the original show perfectly, making the adaptation a deeply exciting, inventive proposition.
Watch the “Lost Session” in full right here: