Anime mashup series#
What makes Space Dandy such a standout series is that each episode deconstructs a different genre as Dandy and his team explore contrasting planets. Space Dandy is also helmed by Cowboy Bebop’s Shinichiro Watanabe and it almost feels like a more playful and meta remake of his ’90s anime. Space Dandy is an absurdist anime assault on the senses that follows around a “dandy guy in space.” Dandy and his atypical crew that consists of a cute robot and a feline alien are a down on their luck team of bounty hunters that immediately bring the crew of the Bebop to mind. These worlds, both in look and tone, feel incredibly similar.
The end result is such a wholly original vision and its ability to take big genre swings to create something special is just like how Cowboy Bebop remixes science fiction in so many ways. Ford’s performance is perfect, but Blade Runner excels due to how it melds together sci-fi with film noir and the detective genre.
Harrison Ford plays Deckard, a bounty hunter who must hunt down four renegade Replicants. Firefly throws a lot of bold concepts at the audience and its episodic adventures feel a lot like some of the Bebop’s clumsier missions, but at the core of both of these series is the strong makeshift bonds of family that these misfit outlaws build together.īlade Runner is a definitive piece of cinema that helped redefine what the future could look like and its presentation of a gritty, neon-soaked, urban dystopia has become the foundation for countless other pieces of science fiction. Malcolm Reynolds and the rest of the Serenity’s crew draw many parallels to Cowboy Bebop’s cast of characters where everyone is as swarthy and unpolished as they are heroic. Firefly feels both futuristic and lost in the past, and there’s such elegant world-building that’s present. Joss Whedon’s genre mashup quickly became a cult hit due to its radical mix of science fiction and western staples and a deeply entertaining collection of crewmates. Fireflyįor those who are hungry for a very surface level translation of what Cowboy Bebop brings to the table, then look no further than the short-lived sci-fi series Firefly and its follow-up film, Serenity.
Anime mashup tv#
Fans can’t go wrong with either the original anime Cowboy Bebop or it’s new live-action reimagining, but there’s also tons of other TV shows, films, and anime series that conjure a comparable atmosphere and will appease audiences until the crew of the Bebop is ready for their next bounty. Netflix’s new live-action take on the anime classic explores its universe in unique ways that should satisfy fans of the original, complete newcomers, and those who just appreciate loving experiments in genre storytelling. Much like the indelible crew of the Bebop, this series plays by its own rules and is thoroughly impossible to define. All of these cultural reference points are held together with an electric jazz score that’s as unpredictable as the series’ stories. Cowboy Bebop’s space setting allows the series to embrace sci-fi archetypes, but the anime is a delirious stew of ingredients that means that riffs on westerns, film noir, and even the horror genre are all fair game. Cowboy Bebop is a science fiction series that focuses on a misfit crew of bounty hunters who travel the galaxy to make a big score and survive their own neuroses. However, there are certain emblematic series, like Shinichiro Watanabe’s Cowboy Bebop, that are able to transcend the medium and become pillars of pop culture that are adored by mainstream crowds.