The anime "Cowboy Bebop" is an almost perfect series for me, but only almost. Because even the otherwise so stylish and profound sci-fi masterpiece has one problem: the female forms of Faye Valentine and other female characters are sometimes held in the face of the anime audience in a very clumsy way.
It doesn't bother me that the anime portrays Faye as an attractive woman who dresses very revealingly. That fits with her character and I can at least imagine that as a bounty hunter she also benefits a lot from presenting herself as a sex object in order to wrap men around her fingers and to get information or people that would otherwise be out of reach for her.
What bothers me, however, is that the camera plays along with this game and repeatedly forces the perspective of the Male Gaze, i.e. the instinct-driven gaze of its gaping male observer, on us as an audience.
Such a type of staging is unfortunately not uncommon in anime, and compared to some other genre representatives, there are comparatively few moments in "Cowboy Bebop" in which that happens.
I mean,I love cowboy bebop, but what is that, please? This shot is meant to show Faye's first-person view after she wakes up from her coma. She opens her eyes, and the first thing she sees is her gigantic breasts.
DassdieserBlickwinkelüberhauptnichtzurvorherigenEinstellungpasst,inderFayeflachaufdemRückenliegtunderstmaldenKopfsehrunnatürlichanhebenmüsste,umüberhaupteinesolcheSichtaufihrDekolletézubekommen,spieltefürdieMacherkeineRolle,esgingihnenwohleinzigundalleinumdiesexualisierteDarstellungeinerweiblichenFigur–undja,ichschreibehierbewusstMacher,weilessichbeidemStoryboard-Zeichner(TensaiOkamura)unddemRegisseurdieserFolge(KunihiroMori)ausschließlichumMännerhandelt.
Netflix treats FayeValentine with more respect
Netflix's "Cowboy Bebop" differs from the anime version in a number of ways, and while I don't really like the live-action adaptation overall, Daniella Pineda was one of the highlights for me because of her sheer enthusiasm for the game.
In contrast to Spike (JohnCho) and Jet (MustafaShakir), Faye is also the only one of the three main characters whose clothing differs significantly from the original - and I think that's a good thing. Because in the anime, it bothered me that Faye's main outfit seemed too impractical to fight with.
Here, too, the suspicion arises that the character was simply designed to be as sexy as possible, without regard to credibility. In contrast, the standard outfit of Fay in the Netflix version is much more robust and suitable for combat (see title picture above the article).
In general, the new edition talks about sex much more often than the anime, whether Spike and Jet make a trip to the strip club and question a dominatrix while she whips a customer, or Faye's pseudo-mother walks over corpses for an erotic role-playing game with her lover.
Ichweißnicht,wieichaufdieobengezeigtenAnime-Darstellungenreagierenwürde,wennicheineFrauwäre.AlsMannkannichnursagen,dassesechtnervt,wenneineSerie,diemicheinfachnurgutunterhaltensoll,ständigaufplumpeundoffensiveWeiseversucht,michsexuellzuerregen.DashatdannungefährdasNiveaueinesPop-Up-FenstersimInternet,daseinenmitversautenBrowserspielenoderSinglesausderNachbarschaftlockenwill.DassNetflixindieserHinsichteinenanderenWegeinschlägt,halteichfüreinelobenswerte,aberauchfürdieeinzigeVerbesserunggegenüberdemAnime.
The anime is better thoughTrotzmeinerdeutlichenKritikanderDarstellungvonFayeimOriginalhandeltessichdabeiumMeckernaufhohemNiveau.Dennerstenssindes(vonFayesOutfitmalabgesehen)nureinigevereinzelteMomente,diemichimAnimeabgeschreckthaben,undzweitenshatdasOriginalsonstfastgarkeineSchwächen,dafüraberjedeMengeStärken.FürmichistdieobenbeschriebeneProblematiknochlangekeinGrund,dieNetflix-SeriedemAnimevorzuziehen.DieNeuauflagehatschließlichihreganzeigenenProbleme,wieauchunserVideo-RedakteurSebastianfindet:
CowboyBebop: A Boring Netflix Disappointment(FILMSTARTS-Original)Sci-Fivs.Fantasy:"CowboyBebop"and"DasRadderZeit"Our colleagues from Moviepilot discuss in their podcast stream, spoiler-free, whether the Netflix sci-fi adaptation of "Cowboy Bebop" and the fantasy series "The Wheel of Time" on Amazon Prime Video, which is often called a possible "Game Of Thrones" replacement, are really the many expected highlights:
