Cowboy Bebop

This isn't the Cowboy Bebop I've known and loved since it went live in the United States over two decades ago. The characters have the same names, but only two have similar faces - Spike in particular is changed in ways I find less appealing than the original design - and the personalities are different enough to feel uncanny while still being similar enough to feel familiar yet wrong.

This, apparently, is an alternate-origin version of Cowboy Bebop where the hows and whys of the Bebop crew coming together have been changed along with most of their backstories. I can understand the appeal of AUs, so long as they maintain the essence of the original material. But this didn't. Much like the Netflix version, instead of just putting a little spin on the characters it completely changes them to the point only the names are the same.

Faye is no longer an amnesiac con woman but rather some pity-poor-her syndicate woman or whatever. Ed is no longer a loveable and quirky genius but rather an obnoxious, spoiled brat who put her allies at serious risk just to get her way. Jet and Spike are a little closer to their original selves, but just off enough to feel a bit awkward.

It's basically just a ripoff instead of a spinoff - a mediocre and confusing fanfic which doesn't suit the source material one bit. There were a couple of entertaining moments, but more often than not I was either annoyed or bored. Were it a fanfic, I'd have clicked off instead of skim-reading.

And to top it all off, the art isn't particularly appealing, either. Every page seems to have a hideous 'chibi' moment or two, destroying what may have otherwise been a generally acceptable aesthetic. I mean, imagine if the "Ed...ward..." scene in Fullmetal Alchemist (if you know, you know, and also hate me now) were done in chibi style. Imagine if a laugh track played over the "leaf in the wind" scene of Serenity (ditto). Or imagine if the moment Scar let go of Mufasa's paw in Lion King cut to a chibi-fied Simba with exaggeratedly large mouth yelling swear words (you all know and now even I hate me). If you can picture any or all of those examples, you now understand why the art style of this manga does not at all work for the overall tone of Cowboy Bebop.

In the end, there's a little "behind the story" mini-comic from the artist which says something about them being bad at drawing spaceships and overwhelmed by all the data they had to use as character research and getting nearly free reign on the comic. Apparently, that's why it's nothing like the anime and "anime is anime, this is manga." No way, you don't say! All that does is convince me that Sunrise picked the wrong person to hand this project to, someone who recognizes their work is so far off-base that they have to jump in and make excuses instead of letting it stand on its own.

This was a waste of my time, and I refuse to do to myself what I did with the live action. I won't be forcing myself to continue with this spinoff just to 'see how it goes,' but rather I shall be tossing in the towel and going to watch some of my favourite episodes of the anime as a palette cleanser.