There's no denying that Netflix's Cowboy Bebop had a reverence for the original, but that reverence didn't translate to a good understanding of what made the anime so special. While it has all the trappings of Cowboy Bebop, the Netflix series deviated in one key area that left the series feeling hollow in a way its inspiration never did.

Watching even just the first episode of the live action series, it's easy to notice that something just isn't quite right about the way the series is presenting itself. At times, it feels like Bebop, with the original music being reused, or the faithful recreation of the opening title sequence, but for the most part, there's a sense that something is incomplete. The first episode actually makes for an excellent point of comparison because it's very similar in both series, but the differences that stand out can help to identify what the live action series is doing wrong.

Netflix's Cowboy Bebop is Missing a Key Element

The Series Shies Away from Social Commentary That Defined the Original

One thing that makes the Cowboy Bebop anime so relatable and understandable is its willingness to criticize the social order seen in the series. Elements of class discrimination are common in the anime, and there's a feeling of hopelessness that runs through many of the characters in the series. Even for good people in a bad situation, their fates are already written by the very world that they live in. Cowboy Bebop has a cyberpunk-style world in many ways, with powerful mega-corps dominating the entire solar system, leaving nowhere to escape to.

The Netflix series pays some lip service to this idea right off the bat, by having its first villain, Tanaka, complain about these very issues as the first lines of dialog spoken in the series. However, despite the good points Tanaka is making, the series immediately makes him look like no more than a violent lunatic, reveling in the destruction and power that crime is bringing him. Tanaka's gang don't even seem to have an actual goal in their violence, as they're already transferring the money that they're stealing. He's just violent for the sake of being violent.

The Tanaka segment is original to the Netflix series, and doesn't come from the anime at all. It's designed to introduce Spike as a character, first and foremost, establishing his nonchalant attitude as well as his skill in a fight. It does an okay job at that, but it's a terrible introduction to the world of Cowboy Bebop. The anime is far more sympathetic to most of the bounty heads than this is, causing many of the episodes to have a bittersweet tinge to them. Tanaka isn't a good person in a bad situation; he's just a generic bad guy, and it's far less interesting to see him taken down as a result.

Netflix's Changes Also Hurt the Messages of the Series

Changes to Characters Undermine the Original's Social Commentary

There's one major change in the first episode that really underlines this point, and that is the background of Katerina Solensan. In the anime, Katerina is a poor woman who is married to Asimov and dreams of a better life on Mars; all she's ever wanted is to live peacefully in a safe and comfortable place. In the Netflix series, Katerina is altered to be the daughter of a corporate billionaire, Ellis Montgomery, who merely ran off with her no-good boyfriend in hopes of starting a new life outside her father's control. It may seem like a subtle distinction, but it actually substantially changes the story.

This change to Katerina's character erases her previous motive entirely. In the anime, for example, Katerina has never been to Mars, and thinks of it as a paradise. Everything will be okay if they can just make it to Mars, and it's immediately apparent what a hopeless dream this truly is. That's why Spike takes pity on her in the first place; he can relate to wanting to run away and start a new life somewhere. In the Netflix series, Katerina has been there before, although seemingly as a child, making it less of an imagined paradise for her.

Trying to escape her father's influence is a much less relatable motive for Spike, so it makes less sense for him to be so invested in her safety, especially to the point of fighting Faye. Then there's Asimov himself, who is much the same across both series, right up until the end. In the anime, Asimov is too pumped up on Bloody Eye to consider their situation, and Katerina, realizing how hopeless it has become, has to kill him herself. In the Netflix series, Katerina effectively gives up on life when she could've surrendered because Asimov is already dead.

Cowboy Bebop Needs These Social Critiques to Succeed

The Series' Social Commentary is a Key Part of Its Identity

This kind of social critique isn't exclusive to the first episode--it's a key, recurring element of Cowboy Bebop, a part of the series' identity. By removing and downplaying these ideas, the stories lose some of their punch. Katerina's fate is still tragic in the live action series, sure, but it's far less tragic than the series of events in the anime. Her tragic situation, a dreamer stuck in a world of crime, helps to set the tone for the entire series, and changing it so casually actually has a huge impact on how the series comes across to viewers.

The Netflix series being so much less sympathetic to the bounty heads harms the series' themes and tone, removing the more complex idea of crime as a tool of last resort by those in desperate situations and making it more of a generic bad guy sort of thing. It even subverts some of the world-building done by these characters, making Bebop's world seem less dystopian than it truly is. Netflix's Cowboy Bebop rings hollow for these reasons, and that's why it fails to live up to the original.