The image is from Sunrise Entertainment.
In the last few years, the company has begun to focus on live-action adaptation of the popular Japanese animation program. Death Note, Fullmetal Alchemist, and Rurouni Kenshin are just a few of the films that have been released by the streaming service. Cowboy Bebop is considered to be one of the greatest anime ever made and will be receiving a live-action treatment.
The Cowboy Bebop series ended in 2001, but it is seeing a surge in popularity thanks to the new show. The popularity can be seen in the r/cowboybebop subreddit. Fans have been flocking to this community for nearly a decade to post their thoughts on Spike and his past, funny meme, cosplay pics, and fantastic fan art.
MarshallBanana said that he created the subreddit in 2012 and has been there for nine years. MarshallBanana became a fan of the series. Adult Swim and Toonami were two programming blocks on the Cartoon Network dedicated to airing mature shows. Cowboy Bebop was the first cartoon to air on Adult Swim.
One day after the first broadcast of Adult Swim, the show made its debut. It followed the adventures of Spike, Jett, and Faye, bounty hunters who travel the universe looking for their targets. It only had 26 episodes and a movie, but it still had a huge online following two decades after its release.
The community and the show it is based on have been able to connect with fans around the world. One of the subreddits own moderators is included. Alwaqas is from the Middle East and has been a fan of Cowboy Bebop since he was a kid. I was from the Middle East and the animation that I watched as a kid was very different from what is popular in the US. I had heard about Bebop before but never watched it, so I was hooked when it came up on TV.
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The show is able to attract an international audience because of its many influences. Alwaqas says that the unique way that Bebop blends genres while still being consistent lets it feel fresh to this day. The quality of animation is still unparalleled to this day, and it is still relevant. SonicFrost says that it has become necessary viewing for any prospective anime viewer.
The member count of r/cowboybebop is currently 225,000, but this was not always the case. The sub was barely stepping above 20,000 subs when it was dead at that point in the year. The numbers improved after some of the mod tried to revive the community.
It was dead at that point.
After I joined, we tried to give it some life again with some small redesign, a new series rewatch discussion, and creating our Discord server, which gave a new breath of life into the community. The community grew to 50,000 members in 2019. The growth of the community has been spurred by the series. He says that the fans will grow just off the back of the original show. The announcement of the live-action show has had a significant effect on our subreddit, and we are excited to see it breathe new life into it.
Some users of r/cowboybebop have different theories. NChamars believes that the show is popular, while No_ Mathematician2251 believes that the growth is due to the video essays on the internet. The series is gaining its spot in mainstream culture and has been getting more attention over the years. That is the reason why they want to create a live-action show.
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MarshallBanana_ is optimistic about the series but admits there has been some negative feedback. A good portion of the community has allowed for their more negative side to come out, as they feel very protective of the anime, and sometimes it makes me sad that more people aren't open-minded about the adaptation.
Critics were always going to criticize the show because it was a subject of controversy. The negative commentary has been disappointing for SonicFrost, but it hasn't been common on the subreddit. People who try to undermine and disqualify other people's joy are frustrating. Isn't that odd?
He wants to give this vocal minority and all of the users a place to debate each other. The hope is that both can find a voice on our platform, without resorting to tired insults and attacks on each other or on the cast and crew, who have poured their heart and soul into this thing.
It is a welcoming community.
MarshallBanana likes the conversations between users in the community. The Bebop_ community is filled with intelligent people. Fan art projects and cosplay are always worth watching. Alwaqas likes how welcoming the community is. It is a warm and welcoming community, but it has some people that are not nice, but I never felt so welcomed in the Bebop community.
More people will get to experience how welcoming this feeling is after the show debuts, as the subreddit will grow larger. The future of the community is something that MarshallBanana_ thinks will be discussed for a while. He has a few things in mind when that happens. My goal is to keep the community civil and peaceful, have good conversations, and hopefully get some AMAs with people who worked on both shows.
The other mod agreed with it. The show is expected to bring in new users. SonicFrost hopes that the series is good. It is possible that the opportunity to reignite this fandom has been given by the opportunity to show that a 'Netflix anime adaptation isn't a joke'.
