One important factor that doesn’t get brought up much is that the Netflix show wasn’t just translating anime to live action - it was also translating a half-hour format into an hourlong format. Part of what makes the original Bebop so special is how streamlined the storytelling is - with just 22 minutes to work with,…

Well keep in mind that the Cowboy Bebop anime also appealed to western audiences. That’s the whole reason Netflix made the show in the first place - to capitalize off its popularity in the U.S. So I think it’s legit to point to decisions they made to ‘westernize’ the property, if those decisions didn’t pay off.

Okay... The decision to make Spike’s syndicate name ‘Fearless’ made me cringe at how, um, not good it was.

Oh my god, the one thing I COULD NOT HANDLE in the Netflix show was that Spike’s syndicate name was ‘Fearless’. I know it was meant as a play off ‘Vicious’, but good gad - naming your hero ‘Fearless’ is the absolute most cringe thing imaginable.

The thing that bothered me more than anything else about the Netflix show was how it felt the need to explain EVERYTHING. Might just be a western storytelling thing. Anime in general tends to just drop you into its world and expecting you to catch up on your own, and Bebop in particular does this masterfully.

I was very skeptical going in, but ended up enjoying it. It wasn’t great, but it was fun enough. My girlfriend, who has zero interest in anime, quite enjoyed it. I was really hoping for one more season, with Edward joining the crew. (and maybe doing a ‘Mushroom Samba’ episode).

The question is not ‘what is the rule’, it’s ‘why is this the rule’ - the answer to which is not ‘because it’s the rule’.

Still struggling to understand this. So the Williams/Farro were added to the songwriting credtis for “good 4 u”, but *not* listed as songwriters for the Album of the Year nomination? Why not, exactly?

When that decision hit, I assumed we would see THOUSANDS of similar lawsuits pop up, but it didn’t really end up happening.  

Drew Magary puts like half dozen of these into every column he writes

The anime part felt about as threatening as a JibJab video. The fascistic immigration imagery was much more disturbing

Yes, Kathy Griffin was pretty much universally bashed for that photo. But that doesn’t matter in the conservative media retelling. Heck, we all saw Trump’s recent comment about how Israel ‘used to own Congress, and rightfully so’ and now don’t anymore because AOC and Ilhan Omar ‘run everything’. He was saying that…

This was so stupid. You know what would have been the easiest thing in the world? To ignore that video. Do that, and it’s barely a blip. Gosar’s Twitter followers would have already forgotten about it. Instead, it becomes another predictable rallying point in the culture war. Pelosi gave Republicans everything they…

Why wouldn’t you read reviews of something you plan to watch?

I don’t think the reviewer was talking about the characters have a sense of detachment from their lives, but that the actors and direction have a sense of detachment from the material. Like they’re winking at the audience, rather than owning the setting. The anime certainly winks at the audience - just watch ‘Mushroom…

do anime fans really clamor for live-action versions of their favorite shows?

Obviously I haven’t seen the show yet, but this review did a good job articulating what felt ‘off’ to me from the trailer and promos - it’s that the show feels the need to *explain* itself. Just from lines like ‘Welcome to the Bebop’ or ‘Hey! The bounty is this way!’ 

I mean, 20 years after the .com ‘bust’ we live in a world 1000x MORE dominated by the internet than we were at the time.   I certainly hope the NFT craze doesn’t play out like that

I agree that NFT’s are stupid and I refuse to accept the idea that they hold any real value. Honestly, they infuriate me. But whenever someone cites the environmental impact, it always feels to me like people who spend all day on their computers (all of us) accusing OTHER people who run their computers all day of…

If there’s one thing the AV Club believes, it’s that jokes are just jokes and people shouldn’t get too worked up about them