Director of the 'Cowboy Bebop' Anime Says He Turned Off Live-Action Adaptation After Watching One Scene

Shinichirō Watanabe, director of the Cowboy Bebop anime series, slammed its live-action Netflix adaptation, which only had one season.

It looks like original Cowboy Bebop director Shinichirō Watanabe was in support of those protesting its live-action adaption. Over one year after the Netflix show was cancelled after a 10-episode inaugural season, Watanabe spoke to Forbes, telling the publication that he stopped watching the show after one scene because it wasn't true to the anime version.

“For the new Netflix live-action adaptation, they sent me a video to review and check,” Watanabe said. “It started with a scene in a casino, which made it very tough for me to continue. I stopped there and so only saw that opening scene.”

He continued, “It was clearly not ‘Cowboy Bebop’ and I realized at that point that if I wasn’t involved, it would not be ‘Cowboy Bebop.’ I felt that maybe I should have done this. Although the value of the original anime is somehow far higher now.”

Netflix's remake starred John Cho as lead Spike Spiegel aka "Fearless;" Mustafa Shakir as Jet Black and Daniella Pineda as Faye Valentine. Anime fans were outraged at the show, developed by Christopher Yost, resulting in the remake being cut for one season after three weeks of streaming. Last March, Cho told The Hollywood Reporter that he was "shocked" about Cowboy Bebop's cancellation.

“I was very warmed by the response [to the show],” Cho said. “I wish I could have contacted everybody and gotten hugs. I’m mystified a little bit about how you can connect with people that you don’t know doing your work, but I won’t question it. I will value it and treasure it. I’m just really deeply appreciative that anyone would care. It’s stunning to me…It was very shocking and I was bummed.”