Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop Live-Action Series Needs Some Damn Colour

Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop Live-Action Series Needs Some Damn Colour

Since dropping the first official trailer in late September, Netflix has tweeted a few side-by-side comparisons of Cowboy Bebop, showing how the upcoming live-action adaptation compares to the original anime series. One takeaway of mine? It looks promising. The other takeaway? It really needs some colour.

Read More: Netflix’s Live-Action Cowboy Bebop Intro Is Good

Take, for instance, this scene below. From the anime’s ninth episode, “Jamming With Edward,” the titular ship, the Bebop, lands on a body of water on Earth. What the anime depicts is a vibrant mass of blue as the industrial brown of the ship breaks the water’s gorgeous surface, creating a cascade of striking waves. The live-action adaptation has a similar scene, but everything is brown: the ship, the water, the buildings in the background, even the sky! The whole thing looks flat, lacking the anime’s eye-catching colour palette.

This isn’t the only drab-looking scene either. The Cowboy Bebop Twitter account shared a couple more comparison clips that further highlight just how colourless the live-action adaptation appears to be. But the one that strikes me is the one below from the fifth episode, “Ballad of Fallen Angels.” It sees Spike Spiegel and major antagonist Vicious fighting in a church, their figures illuminated by a big, beautiful stained glass window behind them. What’s actually an evocative scene due to the religious iconography and shot composition is rendered rather emotionless, again because of the flat colours.

I’m not the only one who thinks the live-action adaptation needs colour. Copious replies to the side-by-side comparisons are from series fans wondering just what the hell happened to all the colours, not just the blue. Some have even taken it upon themselves to “colour correct” parts of these clips.

Read More: Cowboy Bebop’s Original Japanese Voice Cast Returns To Dub Netflix Series

It remains to be seen whether the live-action series will strike the original anime’s familiar vibe, but the colours I’m seeing don’t instill too much confidence insofar as how the thing looks. And that’s important for Cowboy Bebop — it was a looker, with a rich colour palette and impressive visuals for the late ‘90s. We’ll see when the 10-episode series hits Netflix on November 19.

 


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