Suffice it to say, he had a very tough time watching Netflix’s doomed adaptation of the hit ’90s anime.
Shinichiro Watanabe is responsible for making the coolest anime of all time—so cool, in fact, it’s been regularly airing on Adult Swim for the last two decades, and is still being watched. It’s a testament to how great Cowboy Bebop is that it still enraptures audiences all these years later—something Netflix’s live-action adaptation decidedly did not achieve. And Watanabe was definitely not enraptured by it either.
In an excellent interview spanning the director’s lengthy career, Forbes asked Watanabe what he thought of the Netflix version starring John Cho, Daniella Pineda, and Mustafa Shakir. He didn’t have much to say, but he also didn’t mince words: “For the new Netflix live-action adaptation, they sent me a video to review and check.
