Hi everyone, hope all’s well!
I created an fanedit of the recent Netflix live action (LA) adaptation of Cowboy Bebop (CB). I’m first and foremost a huge fan of the original anime. I think the LA had major issues but underneath a lot of it was something with a lot of potential. Someone suggested I try this, so I decided to make a version of the show which I felt would be much more faithful to the themes and tone of the original which I loved – darker, less comedy, more tragedy, a primarily episodic (not serialized) action-noir-mystery with heart.
I’ve been fanediting on and off for close to ten years now, and came out of semi-retirement to tackle this project-- recutting extensively, rearranging scenes, rescoring parts, adding vfx to others. In the end, I didn’t want it to be a simple ‘just cut these out’. With almost 4 hours cut, I feel the end product of this edit is a more focused and fast paced edit. I wanted the narrative to make sense.
Again, I would not have bothered at all, a lot of times if there’s an adaptation I don’t like, I just ignore it and move on. But the Cowboy Bebop anime is one of the greatest shows of all time, and I wanted there to exist an alternate version of the LA in honor of my feelings for the original, so that the actual LA out there would Not be the only version that exists for me. Also coming after Steve Blum’s post yesterday, ok, I created a version of the show I enjoyed more personally.
Original LA runtime (with credits): ~457 minutes (7h 37min)
Recut fanedit runtime (with credits): ~234 minutes (3h 54 min)
Time Cut: 223 min (3h 43min)
There are over 250 changes from the LA (kept logs when editing). A brief overview of the major changes are:
-All 10 episodes are tightly focused and average around 20-25 minutes (the longest one is 30 mins and the shortest is 17 mins). Only the story that needed to be told is presented, with the highest impact at the end. All episodes are standalone other than episodes 9 and 10
-Spike Spiegel is never called Fearless, he is always called Spike by everyone in the show. We do not learn that he was ex-Syndicate until episode 6 when his past catches up with him, and the next time it becomes relevant is episode 9. Like the original, everything about his past is a mystery and the audience has to piece it together, like they did in the anime. The audience is intelligent, and does not need everything explained all the time.
-Many characters are completely removed: this includes the Iron Mink, the mechanic that Faye has a relationship with, Radical Ed, BDSM lady, all the syndicate captains, etc etc. Some characters are seen briefly for a few seconds in the background but have no lines, such as “Gren” (never called Gren). Others are drastically reduced to only the essentials, such as Ana, and Woody (who is only there to give intel on Pierrot in one brief scene, which I felt was necessary to make Pierrot more of a threat since in this edit we know literally nothing about him).
-Vicious appears briefly for under a minute in episode 2, and is not seen again until the finale. We never see Vicious’ actual face until the finale, he’s out of focus in his two other appearances. All overacting and cringe lines cut. Again like Pierrot, the less we see, the bigger the threat
-The ending with Julia shooting Spike is removed and altered to have Vicious throw Spike out the window. Julia is only actually seen in the dream/VR episode. She is never seen in person in the real world at all, period, other than in photographs. This was done for multiple reasons but primarily in keeping with the anime’s approach, where I felt Vicious was a shadow and Julia was a ghost. The Spike-Julia meet in the anime was perfect. In the LA it didn’t work, so instead this edit emphasizes that he fails to achieve his goal of meeting/saving her in the end.
-The entire Syndicate plotline is jettisoned. The Syndicate is a mysterious organization which we know almost nothing about in this edit. If done well (like in the original), it works. However, I feel the characters, plot, all felt like filler, and detracted from the episodic nature of the original too much. Yes this means an entire episode (the flashback episode 9, is almost totally removed other than one fight scene which I used as a succinct one-take flashback). The goal is to spend time with the core Bebop crew.
-Anything and everything cringey was cut completely (“blackmail”, “welcome to the ouch”, and many many many others). Whedon-y banter removed (although I did retain some back-and-forth where I felt it made us like the core crew more). Comedy fight moments removed. Combed through each episode several times to keep track of the comedy and made different versions to gradually cut down on the humor to a minimum, usually only in places I had no choice due to how the LA was set up. Had to balance cutting comedy with maintaining the show’s heart, giving the core cast just enough time together to get you to enjoy the relationship between Spike, Jet, Faye and Ein. which brings me to…
-Ein is no longer a robot dog. In the LA he is not seen in several episodes and is abandoned in episode 8. In this edit he appears in every episode, is never abandoned, and is not a machine.
-All the ‘f**k’s and juvenile cursing/phrases removed. Which brings me to…
-Faye… Along the lines of the direction I was going with above, Faye was the character cut down on the most. I wanted to make the character likeable, and there was enough there to salvage to make the videotape scene resonant.
-Changes to credits; every episode other than finale ends with ‘Real Folk Blues’; iron mink and mechanic photos removed from opening credits since they don’t appear in this cut; all episodes end with ‘see you space cowboy’ (other than VR, Faye’s cryo episode and finale).
-Tons of other cuts too numerous to list, including creating vfx shots and rescoring for consistency in the new edit
Cutting was not done for cutting’s sake. The primary focus was making sure narrative made sense. And the final narrative is about tragedy and failure. I was in the middle of the edit when it got cancelled, so scenes were altered to arrive at this mood and conclusion in the end. There are things I liked, especially Jet and Spike, so their relationship feels the same, while Faye is not immediately accepted into the fold. Episodes 2, 3 and 7 have a slightly more comedic feel to them (much like some of the anime episodes were comedic such as the mushroom episode), but this was mainly because the way those episodes were written and produced, there was no way around it, although the cringey bits are still cut.
I made this edit for myself as an exercise out of the love for the anime and is a passion project. If nothing else, it shows that the LA, if focused, had a lot of potential. I’ve had a lot of experience fanediting and had tools so figured why not. I feel I was able to produce an alternate experience out of the LA. This edit is not meant as hatred for people who actually like the LA, clearly I would not have spent this time making this if I thought the show could not be salvaged; and likewise, I would not even have bothered if I didn’t love the anime, though there are things that I can’t change because of how the show was shot which were different from the original. In my mind, this is one version of the show that could have been.
https://youtu.be/QzFPwfhW_i0
Detailed Cutlist
(Please note these are unaltered logs so forgive me for any crudeness, it was in the moment as I was editing)
Episode 1
Original runtime: 50 min (with US and international credits)
New edit runtime: 25 min (with US credits only)
Focuses on Spike and the bounty, streamlines everything, makes story as subtle as I could
Cutlist:
Cut entire opening gunfight at casino (moved to episode 4)
Open with Spike’s flashback montage before credits
Cut Tanaka references
Cut Spike saying “That sounded like you” joke.
Cut “unlike your arm” joke
Cut dramatic gun cocking scene outside New Tijuana bar – unnecessary
Cut “nothing but tequila” joke
Cut “cupcakes” line. Cringe.
Cut syndicate guy lifting his glasses, whistling comically and pointing
Cut “feels like I mainlined” line; it’s stupid
Cut henchman’s exposition lines, unnecessary
Cut entire returning tanaka to the issp hq sequence (since opening fight was cut)
Cut spike training (moved to episode 5) and cut jet complaining / whedon bantering
Cut some of jet’s “doll” lines
Cut “churro” joke
Cut the “pregnant” line. It was subtle in the anime, doesn’t need to be spelled out.
Cut blind guy and most of Spike walking around like an idiot with a tricorder.
Cut the bartender laughing at her own dumb joke about the syndicate
Cut Spikes discussion with 3 old guys (needless fanservice), although they are seen briefly because the pharmacy with Asimov is behind them
Cut Spike’s flashback
Cut “I was once in love” lines. Don’t need them.
Cut almost all of Faye’s lines other than her first line. Unfortunately there’s no way to completely cut her out of this episode but I minimized as much of the annoyance as I could.
Cut all references to “rich dad” we never hear about again
Cut Banter during fight
Cut almost all of Faye out during scene on bebop. In the LA, she just disappears from the hangar anyway, so in this version she’s left in the toilet (presumably they release her after the episode).
Cut jet’s second outburst about the doll
Cut Faye’s escape and all her subsequent scenes
Cut henchman needless dialogue during fight
Cut Katerina’s prolonged reaction to having belly shot, pretending to be pregnant
Recut fight scene to make it so that Asimov gets struck by stray henchman bullet instead of by Faye
Cut henchman’s “fearless” and “we killed you” line. Less obvious. ‘Fearless’ is a dumb name. Spike will never be referred to by this name in this whole edit.
Cut Spike’s expository quip before shooting lead henchman. More cold blooded, since this is essentially “syndicate” Spike. In this edit we won’t know that Spike was part of the syndicate until episode 6, all references to it are removed before then, including this exchange with the henchman
Re-edited chase start to make Spike going after them more consistent
Edited stingray out of shot of Katerina exiting dome, and moved a separate shot of stingray exiting to make flow more consistent
Cut Spike’s flashback AGAIN (I forgot how many times they did this). The audience is not dumb. We understand his motivation from the acting. Not unnecessary random flashbacks.
Couldn’t cut Spike’s dialogue because of the way the scenes were arranged, but in this version Katerina says nothing, just exchanges a glance with him before plowing forward.
Cut Vicious scene (re-edited and moved to episode 2).
Cut Julia out completely (she will not appear at all until episode 6, the VR episode, where I had no choice)
Ends with Spike in cockpit. Felt it was more powerful and emotionally resonant to end with Spike, since in this edit we started with Spike. Start and end echo each other. (Like poetry, it rhymes? Jk)
Changed end credits music to anime original and cut international credits (since I did not use international content)
Many other small cuts throughout
Episode 2
Original runtime: 39 min (with US credits and international credits)
New edit runtime: 17 min (with US credits only). Note some scenes are moved to later episodes which is why runtime is so low
Focuses on bounty only, cut everything about syndicate. Introduces Vicious very briefly (he is not seen again until much later). No plot points or scenes were cut out for the bounty itself, highlighting how little of each live-action episode was actually dedicated to the bounties.
Cutlist:
Started this episode with vicious introduction from Episode 1, although it is brief (roughly 1 min 10 sec), because there was no place else. Spike is not called Fearless. Cringey dialogue cut. We never see Vicious’ face, it’s edited out. Vfx transposed to lip sync Vicious to re-edited dialogue, face kept blurred in background. It’s going to be Vicious’ only appearance until episode 6 (where he is again blurred out and only comes for a few seconds). We won’t see Vicious’ actual face until the finale
During the Big Shot show, cut half of the comedy (it’s too much) and shortened bomber video
Cut most of the church banter
Cut bathroom fight scene (moved to episode 7)
Tank in this episode is weird because yoko kanno or the producers or whomever decided it would be fun to riff on the main theme. Because they were bored maybe? They did it in a few other episodes as well but all those have been changed back to the original. In this episode the opening beats bleeds into the church scene and was tough to remove so I just recut it as best I could back to the original theme.
Cut Spike concealing bloody collar, cut banter.
Cut Spike flying away to meet Ana (moved to episode 6)
Cut all of Ana’s bar. It’s distracting from the bounty in this episode
Cut all of vicious and julia in syndicate lair
Cut banter at construction site
Cut repeated silly “machine” joke
Cut the “bomb guy’s name is teddy” line. Obvious and silly. Left in the bit where jet questions spike being distracted
Cut more vicious and julia
In the bomber’s ship, cut most banter
Cut shot of baby lotion, replaced with a teddy bomb
Cut the long piece of dialogue where jet is suspicious of spike since it is irrelevant in this edit. Required flipping some shots to maintain character positions since they switch sides
Recut Jet’s lines when he steps on the mine
Cut most banter during Teddy’s entrance. Cut Teddy throwing a tantrum–the joke is repeated four times, all cut. Once is enough. Had to leave the dumb Ichabod line because of how this scene ends in the live action. No way to chop that part out based on how the scene and music was arranged
Cut Ana in her bar monitoring Vicious
Changed end credits music to anime original and cut international credits (since I did not use international content)
Many small cuts for pacing
Episode 3
Original runtime: 46 min (with US credits and international credits)
New edit runtime: 22 min (with US credits only)
Focuses on bounty only, cut out everything about syndicate, completely irrelevant in overall edit.
Cutlist:
Cut entire intro about syndicate
Replaced credits with original version of Tank from episode 1. Episode opens with credits
Cut down doll add and jet complaining repeatedly. We get it. He wants the doll
Cut fisting joke. I left Spike coaxing Jet to get the doll in (“wow that’s a lot of money Spike”, on the fence about it)
Absolutely cut Woodcock (the older lady) character, and with it the infamous ‘blackmail’ line. Unnecessary
Cut down banter on couch between spike and jet (like the dumb ‘say that again’ , ‘doc holliday’ joke). Don’t get me wrong banter is ok, but here it was all just incredibly cringe-worthy. I did leave in the ‘pretend I don’t know’ and ‘brothel’ line.
Cut brothel preview scene
Moved session title sequence up front
Cut line from old lady who recognizes bounty as a ‘killer’ after face scrambler glitches slightly. The writing is so idiotic it’s amazing.
Cut expository dialogue between Jet and Spike about Chalmers
Cut Hakim calling Spike a “f-ing cowboy”.
Changed music before Spike-Hakim fight so its not the spaghetti western one
CUt Jet slowly reacting to the doll being run over to keep the action fast paced. I kept the doll catching on fire, but maybe one joke too many? On the fence
Cut spike’s “I’m good”. One quip too many
The scene where he is hanging off the roof I left in. Found it to be weird in an ok way.
Added blur mask to the scene where he’s between the painted breasts. This was done in order to keep the show in line with the tone it was going for. This is the same reason I cut out a lot of the middle school cursing. Also I liked the surreal effect.
Cut that ridiculous Vicious scene of shooting the workers. I really am not sure why or how this scene was even in this series. Baffling. It’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen.
Cut Julia scene completely, obviously
Cut Jet trying to find another doll on the phone. I left spike with the destroyed doll in.
Cut sushi truck scene
Cut the S&M scene. Yeah I know this is how they find Hakim, but the scene is too ridiculous.
Trimmed references to mistress
Cut Hakim hitting himself comically. I get it with the S&M stuff, but it goes in the can
Cut some redundant dialogue.
Cut the “not our biggest haul ever”” line in. Again mixed feelings about this one, because I like some of the back and forth between Spike and Jet. I was ok with the joke, but it would be one joke too many in the episode then, and this one while the bounty was threatening to kill himself seemed like the most out of place one, left the tail end of it in
Corrected Dutch angle on cop
Cut down Spike yelling at cop calling him walrus face. Silly.
Cut down spike ranting about bounty, cut silly lines
Completely cut Spike and Vicious scene
Wanted to cut Jet’s family completely but that would leave episode hanging. Because of how the scene was intercut with Vicious I had to rearrange it. Cut some dialogue. The music is so hectic in the live-action, this was the best I could cut together.
Cut international credits (since I did not use international content)
Episode 4
Original runtime: 42 min (with US and international credits)
New edit runtime: 27 min (with US credits only)
Focuses on the bounty, minimized Faye plot, but added in the casino fight from Episode 1 in at the start, since it is essentially jet and spike’s last mission together before faye
Cutlist:
Opens with stripped down version of casino fight from episode 1. Cut all of main hijacker’s ranting, and edited to flow more organically, cut down most of the silly jokes. Cut the action to be faster paced. Cut the hijackers holding up old woman, and the standoff with the disruptor guy. Disruptor is now fired as part of the fight
Cut most of Faye’s scene with the cryo conman. There’s no way to completely remove this scene unfortunately, but I minimized it as much as possible to the essentials and removed as much cringe as possible
Trimmed dumb comedy bits during the eco-terrorist attack, cut faye’s lines. Changed silly music at start to more foreboding one from ep 6. Unfortunately could not change the silly music used during the transformation, which undermines the whole scene. However overall in this episode I made the eco-terrorists as serious as I could
Cut down the tree transformation. CGI was terrible
Cut scene of Faye chasing them
Added in scene of claiming Tanaka (hijacker) bounty from episode 1 at the station. This way Chalmers appears in the previous episode and in the next episode (since his role is important in the next one, I felt it was good to have a reminder of jet’s animosity towards him)
Cut diner banter between Spike and Jet about fake food and bidets. Cut any of Faye’s lines not directly related to plot
Cut some comedy bits out of eco-terrorists to make scene nore serious- considering what happens at end
Cut Faye’s lines about eating Ein, among other lines
Cut down some of the dialogue between Jet and Spike about whether to trust Faye
Cut Faye cursing during escape and Spike trying to translate it.
Cut down Faye’s lines with Ein
Cut Vicious and Julia
Cut down Faye searching tree. Avoided shots which show goo on her hand. Removed banter. Added vfx mask over jet’s face to remove dialogue, only word he says is spike
Cut banter and jokes at table. Originally had cut a lot more of Faye eating goofily, but that made the scene fly through too quickly, so edited it back in for pacing, removing all jokes.
Cut Ana and Julia
At the farm, cut out Faye’s jokes.
Cut down some Faye comedy fighting, getting kicked in the groin, etc. Heavy audio editing here to make fight more intense
Cut all of Faye talking in a fake voice while making silly faces. Her con-mother’s call is left intact with edits. All Faye’s dialogue cut
Faye doesn’t hesitate when she sees missile. Also doesn’t curse like a middle schooler. She actually says nothing at all in the cockpit, used reaction shots.
Cut Jet talking about bidets again
After Faye’s collision with missile, there is no melodramatic death fake-out, no spinning around, etc. Cut Spike’s line “she’s going to save us”
Cut eco-terrorist daughter laughing crazily
Cut down Faye pushing Ein off. Trimmed down ending with Faye and Spike, where she still continues making snarky comments in the live-action (now cut). Edited Spike to give her a reluctant welcome. Cut down Faye smiling
Changed end credits music to anime original and cut international credits (since I did not use international content)
Many small cuts for pacing
Episode 5
Original runtime: 45 min (with US and international credits)
New edit runtime: 26 min (with US credits only)
Tightly focuses on Jet’s mission only. The others, Spike and Faye, have nothing to do this episode, and their cringey banter in this episode was pure filler, so it’s all been cut. Obviously Vicious, Julia and syndicate all cut. I felt I could have cut more, but Jet’s betrayal had more impact when we see the rapport between the two.
Cutlist:
Moved Bebop team watching The Big Shot up to the front of the episode. Cut all of their banter before the show, it was too cringey, and Faye’s acting was terrible. The ‘shower-bath’ BS was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. Cut Spike’s “twins creep me out” line, cut down on them making dumb faces.
Moved Jet rummaging through evidence box up to the front, ahead of credits with some rearranging
Start with flashback, trimmed, intercut with Jet getting shot, and making the call to his partner. Originally I had cut this scene shorter but later left most of it intact, since the relationship between Jet and his partner is important to add weight to the conclusion later, and also highlights why Jet hates the syndicate so much.
Moved session title up to this point.
Cut all of Julia/Vicious throughout episode
Rest of whole episode focuses on Jet and Udai Taxim.
All of Spike and Faye’s scenes are Completely cut. This is Faye and Spike’s worst episode. Their banter here is mind-numbing. ‘Shower bath shower’ and the dumb rock-paper-scissors thing. Also Spike suddenly literally applauding her for being an amazing bounty hunter? We haven’t seen her do anything the whole series. Undeserved. All cut.
As a break from the Europa storyline, there’s one brief line of Faye and Ein left in, because we need to show some Ein (he has the same amount of screen time as Faye in this edit). Faye in this show is portrayed as a bro schlub chugging beer sadly, it’s hard to improve on it other than cutting down. She always makes that exaggerated “aaah” sound after drinking, isn’t that like a Seinfeld bit?
Shows Spike training (from Episode 1). Contrasts with Faye getting drunk.
Changed end credits music to anime original and cut international credits (since I did not use international content)
Episode 6
Original runtime: 42 min (with US and international credits)
New edit runtime: 33 min (with US credits only). Note that this includes around 8 extra minutes added back in from Episode 2.
An episode about dreams and flashbacks. Focuses on Spike meeting Julia in the VR world and the rescue. References to Ana are left in since the whole VR portion is pretty much a dream. We assume this is what inspires Spike to go find Ana after the VR section. This is the first episode where Spike is revealed to be former Syndicate. The mechanic character is deleted completely– (1) to keep this a streamlined Spike episode, (2) the character was shoehorned in, was one note, and was unlikeable. This meant cutting most of Faye out, there are one or two shots of her on the Bebop though.
Cutlist:
Open with bathroom fight scene from episode 2 as a pre-credits sequence. I couldn’t find another place for it which would be appropriate, and since this is an episode about Spike’s past catching up with him, including it here made an apt “Spike” episode.
Cut the mechanic scene opening the episode. Episode starts with spike looking at photo and throwing it away
Cut Julia flashback
Cut Jet’s bigfoot line
Cut Faye and gun scene
Replaced intro with the Ep 1 version
Cut Faye and mechanic scene. Absolutely horrible, cringey, unnecessary, shoehorned, not to mention the mechanic is a sexual predator and Faye acts like a f– moron throughout this episode. All cut. Only reason Faye remains in the edit (even though its probably less than ten seconds of screen time) is because she’s in the credits I guess.
Changed Julia calling Spike “Fearless” to “Spike”. Spike is never called Fearless in this edit
Cut down Julia’s terrible acting and cut most of her lines. Cut one of her lines about Spike meeting Ana in the VR replays since the scene order s rearranged in this edit
Vicious’ face is never shown clearly. (1) because it’s more mysterious, maintains threat ; (2) because he makes exaggerated cartoony faces throughout this episode
Cut Faye’s sex scene with mechanic. Its godawful.
Cut Julia’s terrible “You killed me” as well as some other lines in the hotel room, such as Spike desperately asking her to stay with him (redundant, already said earlier, makes him look weak)
Cut Spike’s third meeting with Julia on the street short as I could not excise the two “Fearless” effectively, even when overdubbing with “Spike” the lip sync was bad, music cut too abrupt, so shortened it. Julia’s acting was bad again, so not a big loss
When Jet returns to Bebop, added reaction shot of Faye from another episode (to show she is still in this episode)
Cut mechanic scenes on Jet’s rescue side. Faye is completely useless in the actual LA. Her big line is ‘Hey tell me how to help’. Completely excised
Considered cutting the whole spaghetti western shootout. Mixed feelings about it simply because that would leave no ending to the VR storyline, so I begrudgingly left it in albeit shortened significantly since it seems to be played for laughs
Cut all scenes of Faye and mechanic helping in the engine room, including the sprinkler stuff, etc. Because the random mechanic character had to go.
Chopped the whole scene with Julia being totally clueless and helpless, because its annoying and is not consistent with what they set up later. Minimized most shots of Julia being terrified.
Cropped mechanic out of mainframe scenes, added vfx staining to window to cut her out
Re-edited mainframe shutdown to remove the hairpin nonsense. Mainframe is shot to pieces in this version. It may not be perfect but I think it’s better than what was in the live action. I get the rail gun nonsense, setup and payoff, but when the setup sucks and the payoff is dumb, why bother.
Cut Spike flashback to Julia being a lounge singer while machine shutting down.
Cut Jet, mechanic and Faye celebrating
Cut reference to Jet wanting to rip off Ed’s fingers. Unnecessary
Moved Episode 2 Spike visiting Ana to this episode. Deleted Gren (since it’s not really Gren).
Cut down Ana’s entrance and some lines, trimmed scene significantly to remove comedy bits, quips and irrelevant lines. Originally I cut the scene of her kicking the two guys out, but reinserted it just to show that she’s no-nonsense, similar to Ana in the anime throwing the two kids out. Cut the Ana’s commandments line though. Cut detective’s “balls” joke.
I wanted to cut Spike getting slapped but unfortunately its the only time he calls her “Ana” and she says he “walked away from the syndicate”. No way to cut without making it look too awkward.
Added quick shot of VR encounter to tie it to this episode and the reason he’s spurred to visit Ana
Cut flashback to rose while Spike in front of photo. I left the line in about Julia being married to Vicious. Mixed feelings about this one. On the one hand I want to cut it because I don’t like the idea, on the other it makes Spike’s tragedy worse. Still on the fence.
Ends with Spike back on the bebop, looking at the photo and picks it up from the trash, mirrors beginning of episode (Like poetry, it rhymes? Jk)
Cut awful flashback of Spike to VR Vicious, too goofy. Replaced with brief sequence of Julia getting shot
Cut international credits (since I did not use international content)
Episode 7
Original runtime: 48 min (with US and international credits)
New edit runtime: 21 min (with US credits only)
Streamlined narrative to focus on Faye’s history and Jet’s relationship with daughter. I deleted the Iron Mink character, ludicrous and stupid. Re Faye and mother, I minimized the cringe as much as I was able to hopefully without damaging the character imo.
Cutlist:
Post-credits opens with Faye by river. The banter here completely is mindless, so minimized it. I didn’t cut it out completely because it was it showed Faye’s close relationship with the crew, establishing that premise before she lies to them re her mom. Cut all the cringe. Cut Spike chucking the fishing gear, out of character since he is usually cool. Yes he lost his temper in the original once, but not over fishing gear.
Cut down Faye’s interactions with mother by river. Cut porn out. Cut Faye’s comedy timing and pretending to smile before punching mother. Cut silly jokes out. Cut Faye’s dumbstruck expressions.
Session title moved up to this spot
Cut “everyone likes stories” and Faye making more silly faces
Cut Faye’s mom intro scene on bebop significantly. Redundant back and forth including most of cooking scene cut down a lot. Was extremely hard to make the dialogue flow smoothly here. Cut a lot of Faye’s reaction shots
Faye getting caught scene was pretty pathetic but I left most of it in, because it reiterates the plot a bit. Cut dumb lines though. Her acting was terrible, but it was the first “genuine” moment between the three, so whatever. Cut Spike’s “brain damage” line and his joke about suspicions undercutting the moment. Rewatching this segment, it now plays as completely serious.
Iron Mink character is completely excised. This was a comedy character and really out of place. The twist was dumb. The writers undercut what could have been a genuine redeeming moment for Faye with terrible humor (he kills a guy for hearing a safeword?). Character is literally a caricature.
When they land in Santo City, cut references to Iron Mink, cut the ring tracker, cut down comedy moments.
Goes without saying all of Vicious/Julia/Gren/Ana/Syndicate are cut
In bus cut some extra banter between Spike and Jet. I laughed at the ring joke but it was out of place and since Mink’s not a character in this, it’s cut
Cut entire valet scene
Faye and mother on road, cut some cringey lines but left most of emotional stuff in
Cut Spike’s references to Mink
Left Jet’s scene intact for the most part. Cut down slightly
Cut Faye’s mom referring to ship with keys
Faye and her “mother” have a decent enough goodbye scene at the warehouse before she finds the tape, and the last shot of that scene also shows them walking in separate directions after she chooses not to follow her mom (the shot was probably an accident in the LA, but I’ll use it)
Cut Faye getting her ship. We don’t need to see everything explained. Plus the scene is ruined by the Iron Mink in the foreground and Faye yelling “Bye Mom” while flipping her off
Cut from Faye finding tape, straight to bebop, then end. This way the last few minutes are all about Faye. Cut her cursing, and also cut the NCC1701 reference. Bebop is the furthest thing in the world from Star Trek; unless live action bebop is trying to reference the Picard show, in which case its apt
Minor cuts throughout
Changed end credits music to anime original and cut international credits (since I did not use international content)
Episode 8
Original runtime: 45 min (with US and international credits)
New edit runtime: 22 min (with US credits only)
This episode was pretty badly botched. Mad Pierrot was a mysterious force, he’s like a monster or ghost in the anime, with most of his story coming from secondhand sources. The LA as you know mixes him in as part of the Vicious storyline. In this edit, I completely streamline it to the three vs Pierrot. Removed all connection to the Vicious subplot, and Pierrot is now just some crazy mysterious force, like he was in the original. Made flashbacks less clear. Ein is no longer a projecting robot dog. Cut Jet’s rhyming stuff. All syndicate subplot removed. In the end its a more concise episode, working with what I had.
Cutlist:
Cut opening with Vicious and Pierrot being freed
Credits moved to front
Cut down banter during bowling, mainly Faye where she’s acting and talking like a little girl. That silly ‘family time’ line, I dunno.I hate it because its so stupid, but it is the only scene in the entire series which show them hanging out, and how Jet considers them his family. I dunno. It’s a dumb line, but I left it in. I’m on the fence about it.
Cut all of Faye’s lines during her bowl, re ‘bowling gods’, ‘be free’, ‘balls’, etc. Cut down Faye gasping comically during Spike’s roll
Kept the birthday scene minus the cursing
Cut Faye singing in alley, cut spike’s nachos line.
Cut Faye complaining about Ein, cut Spike’s wtf line.
Cut Pierrot’s Vicious line
Cut Pierrot waiting and quoting before shooting
CUtting down all of Faye’s joke lines before burn treatment. Also her loofah story. She’s written as incredibly incredibly annoying this episode. Don’t know what writers were thinking. She’s screaming throughout the scene about stupid shit, making it an absolute chore to edit this part. Also cut her sighing at being told by Jet to look after Spike while he goes to get intel. It’s like they went out of their way to make her unlikeable.
Originally had cut the Woodcock scene, but reinserted it to add more mystery to Pierrot. It’s brief, and just highlights that Pierrot is this unknown, unstoppable thing. Cut all cringe lines. Had to leave some ‘suspicion of Spike’ stuff in to set up Jet’s ‘who are you?’ the next episode. It’s short and is never brought up again this episode except hinted at when Jet assumes Spike is ex-military. I tried cutting the ‘suspicion’ stuff out but the way I edited the next episode makes Jet appear to be too abruptly suspicious of Spike without it.
Cut Jet asking Spike what Pierrot said to him. No way Spike would have seen that exchange through the fire and running. Also again with the suspicion. We dropped enough hints through previous episodes. No need to beat audience over head
Shortened Pierrot’s flashbacks to when he was a kid
Cut Faye’s people she’s angered list
Cut Ein being a robo-dog
I had to create a vfx mask here to make Pierrot appear behind Jet, and map out Ein from the shot.
Cut Pierrot knowing Spike’s name
Cut Faye’s comic lines, yell, reaction shots. It’s all played for laughs. Cut Faye yelling “From it’s eyes!” like George Costanza
Cut Pierrot in fairground. The less we see of him the better.
Cut the Blade Runner locations Jet spouts after asking Spike “Where he served”. its done so quickly there’s no room to breathe, and the references are distracting. Plus silence was more powerful in this scene.
Cut Faye saying “nutbucket” or whatever that was
Cut Faye and team getting rid of Ein. Crazy. This was the single worst decision the LA writers did. The scene of abandoned Ein is just horrible.
Cut the entire Syndicate bs
Cut entire scene Jet’s rhyming plan
Cut entire syndicate fight
Added scene of Bebop travelling to Earthland through gate
Cut down Jet’s second briefing to just the fist bump, just to show they were about to do it together.
Cut Faye’s reference about getting rid of Ein
Cut syndicate scene
During Pierrot fight, cut Spike cursing to himself. Also cut brief shot of him smiling to himself. He has no idea if this plan would work. In the original he was prepared to die at the park
Cut down some of the cartoonishly graphic flashbacks
The wide shot after Spike stabs in, added a slow pan in shot to avoid the comedy feel of the static shot
Cut Julia scene. Episode ends after Pierrot fight
Many small cuts throughout
Changed end credits music to anime original and cut international credits (since I did not use international content)
Episode 9
Original runtime: 51 min (with US and international credits)
New edit runtime: 19 min (with US credits only) –only one scene of episode 9 of LA is retained, the rest is from ep 10
The LA episode 9 was a flashback to Spike and Vicious’ syndicate days. This is absolutely unnecessary, and removes all the mystery of Spike’s past. The writers were almost doubling down on this. All of it is cut, and instead this edit focuses on Spike recovering after his fight with Pierrot (having a flashback of the one-take syndicate fight). This is the first time we learn that spike is a hitman when he confesses to jet. The episode ends when the pair are captured by Vicious. Faye no longer abandons them.
Cutlist:
Opens with a flashback of Spike killing rival gang in hideout, ends with him about to kill witness. Whether he shoots her or not is left ambiguous. Cursing is cut. This is the only scene I kept from the LA episode 9. The rest of the whole LA episode is unnecessary and completely removed.
Following cuts for Episode 10 of live action. Cut Vicious and Julia scene.
Opens with Spike in Earthland being rescued
Cut Faye’s line about “creepy as shit”. We get it. Cringey.
Cut from Jet/Faye in park to them on the ship trying to find him. This is so that Spike’s scene later can play as a single sequence without being broken up. Another reason, the way its set up in the LA, Spike suddenly wakes up in Ana’s bar, making us wonder “what the hell is going on? How did he get here?” , not a good thing. Staying with Jet pov, allows us to ask the question “where is spike?” along with him and faye, which is a much better question– instead of experiencing confusion, we experience concern; culminating with Jet saying he tracked Jet to a bar named Ana’s; only then do we cut to spike.
Inserted session 9 title here
Flashback to rose/Julia as spike recovers (from episode 1). Inserted brief shot of Katerina in space (thematically mirroring Julia)
Continue with Spike waking up in Ana’s bar. Cut Ana’s line “Gren brought you in”, because this is Not gren
Trimmed Gren’s appearance, blurred Gren out of some background shots, and Cut All of Gren’s lines –nothing interesting to say. Literally butting in on the conversation to say dumb shit. Even spike looks annoyed at “Gren” in the scene. Also noted in the LA when Ana says Gren brought Spike in, Spike doesn’t even bother thanking him.
Conversation re-edited to remove references to Ana betraying Spike etc. Also re-edited to make it unclear if Julia even knows if Spike is alive. In all likelihood, she thinks he is dead
Cut Gren and Faye banter. I left Spike lying about killing Pierrot in. I don’t understand really why he lied, but I thought it was interesting to highlight Spike as being untruthful ie unreliable at times. Also by cutting it, it would seem weird that the pair wouldn’t ask Spike about it. It’s a dumb answer but it’s all that’s there.
During confrontation, Cut Jet’s “who the f are you”, cut Gren’s silly lines (again, trying to undercut serious moments with comedy), Cut Jet referring to Spike as Fearless, cut Faye’s confused “what?” while making a funny face, cut Ana’s “Julia needs you” line
In the alleyway scene, cut “Fearless” reference. Re-edited scene sequence to cut Faye refusing to help them, cut the ‘carry that weight line’. Recut to make it so that Faye’s arguments have Jet reconsider his actions.
Cut all of Julia’s scenes. I’m just baffled by the writing and the direction they went, all over again.
Added title cards after Jet and Spike are captured, for a cliffhanger ending (which is what I think the actual LA should have done). I did think of adding “To Be Continued…” card. On the fence about this
Trims throughout for pacing
Changed end credits music to anime original and cut international credits (since I did not use international content)
Episode 10
Original runtime: 49 min (with US and international credits)
New edit runtime: 22 min (with US credits only)
The finale
Cutlist:
Opens with bebop credits, then starts in church
Cut Vicious’ “No kids” line to leave it a bit more ambiguous, using a shot of Spike’s reaction
Cut Vicious bickering about angels and Spike. Cut Vicious showing Spike the crypt. This just felt like a comedy bit. Left one line of Vicious which was meaningful in.
Cut Vicious ranting at Spike and asking to be loved, literally. Weakens him, cringey, terrible. In this edit, the little we see of Vicious, he is much more effective and a threat.
Cut Vicious doing the villain monologue explaining everything. Cut inconsistent edits in the LA. Trimmed Vicious making cartoony faces. Removed scenes of Vicious being scared
New edit of Faye’s ship arriving outside window by showing the lights outside
Removed Faye’s infamous cringe line ‘welcome to the ouch’. Terrible. Also edited down the dumbstruck look on her face. Cut shot of ‘Fearless’ nameplate being shot up.
After rescue, cut shot of Faye waiting proudly in ship. Makes no sense. Her friends are half dead.
Cut the exchange between them where Faye says she decided to come back for them last minute. In this edit she did not abandon them, likely they had a plan similar to before they fought Pierrot
I just had to say this here, left re-entering the church intact. Watching the whole “Rain” sequence just made me sad, at how good this could have been had it been properly written and produced. Loved that sequence, was similarly also my favorite part of the anime.
I cut some of the more dramatic samurai flute music
Cut Vicious making dumb faces
Changed end of the fight to Vicious shooting Spike out the window after grabbing the gun. The Julia twist is terrible. Just looking at it even from the point of view of the LA adaptation, it makes no sense for a lounge singer, who spends all of the show being bitter and confused, suddenly shooting both of them. It doesn’t work. Also, in the context of this edit, that would have been too jarring since it’s not built up. So I went for a more conventional yet more satisfying ending to me.
Added and modified montage of Spike falling. Added Vicious to broken window
Added red pupil tint to Spike to reference the original anime (hints that it may be artificial in this version too)
Cut Julia keeping Vicious prisoner.
Cut Radical Ed
Ends with Spike walking away in alley, added montage and post credits sequence
