KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 17 — Fans of iconic Japanese anime Cowboy Bebop know all too well that the bounty hunter trio, Spike Spiegel, Faye Valentine and Jet Black, would be nothing without the brilliant data dog Ein.
In the Netflix live-action adaptation, the intelligent pooch is played by two corgis, Charlie and Harry, that turned out to be a workout for actors who had to lug them around during takes.
“Danielle is the Ein expert, she did most of the literal heavy lifting,” John Cho told Malay Mail.
Daniella Pineda, who plays Faye, shared the most scenes with the dogs and the 34-year-old said lifting the heavy canines kept her in shape.
“It’s almost like the dog was trying to deliberately be heavy — a lot of treats for that dog — the dog weighed 35 pounds (15kg) maybe?
“It’s not an exaggeration, imagine take after take after take holding that cute little 35-pound dog and doing little dances and spins.
“I mean the butt looks like a loaf of bread; how can you hate a thing like that?” she said.
Cho, Pineda and Mustafa Shakir take on the roles of Spike, Faye and Jet respectively in the anticipated Netflix adaptation of the popular sci-fi neo-noir that first aired in 1998.
Set in 2071, Cowboy Bebop tells the story of a ragtag crew of bounty hunters who chase down the galaxy’s most dangerous criminals for the right price.
To play Spike, Cho grew out his hair which he admitted was difficult to maintain on set.
“The hair was a constant issue — it was just a lot and it wanted to do its own thing, it would not listen to me, it was very disobedient.
“After I got the hair plugs, I felt ready,” the Harold & Kumar actor joked.
Stepping into the shoes of some of anime’s most beloved characters, it was important for Pineda to get the blueprint of Faye right but also have the freedom to make the character her own.
“I put pressure on myself for anything that I do and that was the case for Cowboy Bebop,” she said.
“I want her to be someone who was fun to watch so I just had fun playing her.”
Shakir, who loves the Japanese original, said if there was any pressure, it served them well.
“I felt a lot of honour and reverence for the material and that was shared with everyone collectively.
“The cast, the costume department; everything supported my creation and interpretation of Jet Black — it was a good situation,” he said.
Bringing the anime to life was a ‘terrifying’ undertaking
For showrunner Andre Nemec, adapting one of the greatest animated television series of all time was a “terrifying” experience.
He told Malay Mail the fear of not doing the original anime justice resulted in great inspiration.
“It’s a terrifying idea but it inspired me and everyone who worked on it all really felt the same thing, like this is hallowed ground upon which we walk.
“We must live in the spirit of Cowboy Bebop,” said Nemec, who was approached to create the live-action series in 2017.
He believes die-hard fans of the original will love the Netflix version, saying that the new series was built around Cowboy Bebop fans from every writer and editor to department heads and personal assistants who worked on the show.
“Die-hard fans of the anime will watch our show and they will find something that they are absolutely one hundred percent in agreement with and they will find some things that they are not in agreement with.
“But I think no one will find things that they are completely out of agreement with,” Nemec said.
Nemec, who has written screenplays for films such as Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, was mesmerised by the Japanese version first through the music before watching the anime.
“There was this beautiful poetry in the storytelling.
“There were these beautiful iconic, archetypal characters in this very classic story structure at times in heightened emotion, in great moments of comedy and being sucker punched every now and again by a real deep character moment.
“There was a real beauty to it, so I was in awe,” the 49-year-old said.
Given that the anime presented a multicultural version of the future, diversity was a no-brainer in the casting process.
“It’s quite beautiful and really ahead of its time for the late ‘90s.
“So to some degree in the casting process, it really wasn’t so much a question of like ‘Do we do this?’ it was a question of it just fell into place in all of the right ways,” Nemec said,
Cowboy Bebop begins streaming on Netflix from 19 Nov at 4:01pm.
