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TV ‘Cowboy Bebop’ Canceled By Netflix After One Season

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Emily

Guest
Considering how expensive this show was, Netflix's decision doesn't surprise me.
The move comes less than three weeks after the show’s Nov. 19 debut on the streaming service.

The space Western had a rough reception. The 10-episode series garnered only a 46 percent positive critics rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. Fans seemed to agree, giving the show a 56 percent positive audience score on the site. According to Netflix’s Top 10 site, the series has racked up almost 74 million viewing hours worldwide since its debut – so it got plenty of sampling out of the gate – but it plummeted 59 percent for the week of Nov. 29-Dec. 5.
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Insiders pointed out Netflix’s renewal rate for scripted series that have two or more seasons stands at 60 percent, in line with industry averages, and, like all Netflix renewal verdicts, the decision was made by balancing the show’s viewership and cost. The streamer also prides itself on taking big swings on projects like Cowboy Bobop and has many other genre shows on the air and in the works.

The project is the latest attempt to reinvent Japanese anime as a live action series that failed to draw viewers following titles such as 2009’s Dragon Ball Evolution, 2017’s Ghost in the Shell, and Netflix’s 2017 movie Death Note. The biggest success in the space so far was arguably 2019’s Alita: Battle Angel, which pulled sizable foreign dollars ($319 million) if not domestic ($85 million)
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Source: The Hollywood Reporter
 
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I'm a bit surprised this happened so soon, especially after how much they were boasting about it being a success.

I can't say I was interested in it (live-action anime hardly ever interests me), but sucks for the fans.
 
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for the love of god stop remaking perfect things

you gotta have a damn good idea to redo something as beloved as cowboy bebop
 
Netflix almost always gives stuff a second season so it must have had pretty bad ratings to get canceled. That plus the budget, bad reviews and lack of enthusiasm from anime fans and there you have it. It will quickly be shelved and forgotten about, which I guess means this is the last time we see the Bebop IP for the forseeable future. I didn't dislike the show, but there were so many production problems the changes needed for a season two would be so drastic you might as well just put that towards a new show.
Sander RX said:
I wonder if this is gonna affect One Piece live action.
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I have to imagine some executives are second guessing that, especially because it's gotta cost way more. But that's the Netflix model, throw infinite money into projects and see what sticks.
 
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Live action anime is pretty much always a mistake. Only worthwhile one I can think of is Speed Racer.
 
Not everything needs to be remade or re-adapted.

Some things can exist as a perfect time capsule of the culture when they came out.
 
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Well, if the trend of remaking well known cult anime properties continues, then question is live action Urotsukidoji when?
 
Having watched the first few episodes the only thing keeping me interested is the novelty of it. I don't even think it's horrendous or anything, I just don't get why this needed to be made.
 
Zellia said:
Having watched the first few episodes the only thing keeping me interested is the novelty of it. I don't even think it's horrendous or anything, I just don't get why this needed to be made.
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They were banking on capturing an audience that wouldn't watch anime but would watch live action TV. Safe to say they couldn't cash in on that bet.

It was fun to be in the universe again, and I would have watched a second season, but it was nothing more than a cute remix of a much better show.
 
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Branduil said:
Guessing lots of people watched the first episode but immediately dipped.
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Got my shirtless John Cho scene and left.

BGBW said:
Well, if the trend of remaking well known cult anime properties continues, then question is live action Urotsukidoji when?
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Probably soon. Grindr recently added tags you can add to your profile and fairly common keywords are missing from the currently limited list but "tentacles" isn't. The audience is waiting!
 
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I was roped into watching the first four episodes and ended up enjoying the cast despite disliking the show. I could see people continue it based on that but I suspect most dropped it earlier because of how bad the first few eps are. Feel sorry for Cho and co. but I won’t miss a misguided project like this.
 
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Not surprised in the slightest given the previews and clips
 
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One Piece is a differente beast. As popular as Cowboy Bebop is, it can't dream to compete with One Piece. Besides, Cowboy Bebop's audience is much older and picky about an adaptation of their favorite show. OP will get a lot of people watching who don't even care if it's faithful or not as long as it's fun.
 
Zellia said:
Having watched the first few episodes the only thing keeping me interested is the novelty of it. I don't even think it's horrendous or anything, I just don't get why this needed to be made.
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A lot of people have this view that animation is a lesser medium and that things need to be done in live action to be taken seriously and have value.
 
Leo said:
One Piece is a differente beast. As popular as Cowboy Bebop is, it can't dream to compete with One Piece. Besides, Cowboy Bebop's audience is much older and picky about an adaptation of their favorite show. OP will get a lot of people watching who don't even care if it's faithful or not as long as it's fun.
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One Piece's problem is it's 10x harder to adapt and probably much more expensive. It's supposedly getting a GOT-level budget and it's going to need ratings to justify that. Bebop was supposed to be "the anime you like even if you don't like anime" and easy to translate to film. One Piece is Dante Must Die difficulty.
 
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Wonder how the cast and crew of live action Avatar is feeling over at Netflix (unless they're hoping Paramount+ is gonna swoop in to save the set if it does go sideways for them too)
 
Quoted by: VHS
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Brofield said:
Wonder how the cast and crew of live action Avatar is feeling over at Netflix (unless they're hoping Paramount+ is gonna swoop in to save the set if it does go sideways for them too)
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Dont think Paramount would be interested, the creators of the series exited over production differences.
 
VHS said:
Dont think Paramount would be interested, the creators of the series exited over production differences.
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True, forgot about that, but at the same time curious about what the creative differences were. Would it have been about story telling? I get the concerns about white-washing the cast, but having just refreshed my memory with Google I don't see any white actors in the production having been announced so far.

I imagine if it weren't an issue with the cast they could theoretically go in to make their story changes moving forward, unless they'd rather have that opportunity to start fresh (but then if we only get one season of Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Iroh I'll be v v v upset)
 
Quoted by: VHS
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Brofield said:
True, forgot about that, but at the same time curious about what the creative differences were. Would it have been about story telling? I get the concerns about white-washing the cast, but having just refreshed my memory with Google I don't see any white actors in the production having been announced so far.

I imagine if it weren't an issue with the cast they could theoretically go in to make their story changes moving forward, unless they'd rather have that opportunity to start fresh (but then if we only get one season of Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Iroh I'll be v v v upset)
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I believe there was some odd romantic changes leaked right? About Zuko/Katara pairing
 
VHS said:
might be misremembering though, I did see this https://www.cbr.com/netflix-live-action-avatar-rewrite-aang-backstory/ about how the backstories have changed pretty dramatically
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Mmm, yeah, if it were enough changes in the backstory like that, I'd be annoyed too. I feel like if it were something that had to be changed for the sake of being different, it should be something that could have been inserted into the original show without feeling insulting to the audience or out of place. Sokka and Katara's mother dying from a supernatural event instead of a Fire Nation raid lose a great deal of their motivation to seek the downfall of Ozai
 
Brofield said:
Mmm, yeah, if it were enough changes in the backstory like that, I'd be annoyed too. I feel like if it were something that had to be changed for the sake of being different, it should be something that could have been inserted into the original show without feeling insulting to the audience or out of place. Sokka and Katara's mother dying from a supernatural event instead of a Fire Nation raid lose a great deal of their motivation to seek the downfall of Ozai
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from the sounds of it too the world was changed a lot to reduce the amount of bending, guessing that was for budgetary reasons
 
VHS said:
from the sounds of it too the world was changed a lot to reduce the amount of bending, guessing that was for budgetary reasons
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Oof, that's a shame. I get it, but like...that's the reason why people are willing to tolerate live action remakes if they're true to the source material lol
 
There's just nothing to really gain from a live action ATLA. The original is a masterpiece and one of the greatest American television shows of all time. What can another American version accomplish, just because it's live action?
 
Mekanos said:
There's just nothing to really gain from a live action ATLA. The original is a masterpiece and one of the greatest American television shows of all time. What can another American version accomplish, just because it's live action?
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Agreed. A live action sequel, them as adults, could be more useful imo
 
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Mekanos said:
There's just nothing to really gain from a live action ATLA. The original is a masterpiece and one of the greatest American television shows of all time. What can another American version accomplish, just because it's live action?
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Cartoons are for kids though! Don't you want stuff done with real actors, something you can take seriously, something for mature adults such as ourselves?

Sacrasm if that wasn't obvious
 
VHS said:
might be misremembering though, I did see this https://www.cbr.com/netflix-live-action-avatar-rewrite-aang-backstory/ about how the backstories have changed pretty dramatically
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Brofield said:
Mmm, yeah, if it were enough changes in the backstory like that, I'd be annoyed too. I feel like if it were something that had to be changed for the sake of being different, it should be something that could have been inserted into the original show without feeling insulting to the audience or out of place. Sokka and Katara's mother dying from a supernatural event instead of a Fire Nation raid lose a great deal of their motivation to seek the downfall of Ozai
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VHS said:
from the sounds of it too the world was changed a lot to reduce the amount of bending, guessing that was for budgetary reasons
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Just jumping in to say that all of that stuff is completely untrue and the show is staying closer to the plot of the original. Not saying it will be good, mind you, just that those early plot reports were very wrong and based on a deep miscommunication.
 
Starphanluke said:
Just jumping in to say that all of that stuff is completely untrue and the show is staying closer to the plot of the original. Not saying it will be good, mind you, just that those early plot reports were very wrong and based on a deep miscommunication.
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hey that is good to hear and I hope so, going to check it out either way as a big fan.
 
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Starphanluke said:
Just jumping in to say that all of that stuff is completely untrue and the show is staying closer to the plot of the original. Not saying it will be good, mind you, just that those early plot reports were very wrong and based on a deep miscommunication.
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Appreciate that, I mean I do want to see it succeed based on the calibre of cast alone, so I want to give it a genuine shot, but Avatar is held closer to my heart than Cowboy Bebop so while I'm sad that this thread in particular had to get made, I sincerely hope that whatever lessons they took from CB they can ensure that Avatar is a stronger success as a result
 
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I think I got through one and a half episodes total before I dropped it. It reminds me a lot of the first Silent Hill movie in that there were recognizable pieces from the original work, but remixed into something worse. But I've always have issues with adaptations that adhere too closely to the original material.

I almost wish they would have gone the HBO Watchmen route and tried to make a show evocative of Cowboy Bebop, maybe set in that universe, but more it's own thing rather than a poor remix.
 
There's been a lot of stinkers no doubt, but I can't subscribe to the idea that live-action anime is inherently bad or can't ever be successful.

I mean, when you get down to it, what's the difference between a live-action adaptation of an anime and a comic book movie?

Also Oldboy (the South Korean one, haven't seen the Spike Lee one) was pretty great.
 
Caviar said:
There's been a lot of stinkers no doubt, but I can't subscribe to the idea that live-action anime is inherently bad or can't ever be successful.

I mean, when you get down to it, what's the difference between a live-action adaptation of an anime and a comic book movie?

Also Oldboy (the South Korean one, haven't seen the Spike Lee one) was pretty great.
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Animation and live-action are different versions of the same medium (television/film). Comic books are a different medium entirely without motion, sound, etc. Fundamentally, what is accomplished by a live-action version that isn't accomplished by its animated counterpart? Especially in television where you will always have to make compromises thanks to the budget.

Speed Racer is the only live action anime adaptation where I felt it actually brought something to it the original didn't have with its bombastic direction.
 
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