Damn, there's a lot to say about the first episode, and I feel like any of the comments I have for it will be generally applicable to the rest of the show. I'll list all the things in bullet points to avoid going off on a tangent. Firstly though, I'd like to mention that I'm fresh off the original anime (including the 2001 movie) as I finished watching them the day before writing this review, therefore I can confidently confirm that I'm not expressing anything based on nostalgia.
1. It seems like they are not attempting to do their own thing, but instead try to imitate the original anime in live-action. And the result is campy. Some other review mentioned it was more cartoony than the anime, although I'd argue the anime is not that cartoony at all apart from the fact that it's animated. Yes, the anime has typical visual hyperboles of its genre, but it still felt mature and serious enough both in its comedy and drama for it to feel, well, not cartoony. That's why even someone like me can enjoy, i.e. Someone in his early twenties. It's so camp because it lacks any editing flair, the dialogue either is out of place or delivered poorly, the casting for the side characters (e.g. The henchmen) are goofy etc. For instance, the flashback scenes with the rose are used with no subtlety because the show thinks the audience has a memory of a fish and the comprehension of an ostrich. And it has no sense of visual style that could've worked for the show - it seems like they took a note out of Zack Snyder's Army of the Dead for the bokeh. This is a shame because the production and set design in this show is great, but it's filmed so poorly with uninspired overly sharp, standard Netflix cinematography. There is potential and glimmers of quality, but it never reaches anything fully.
2. There is some bad green screen usage here, e.g. Katerina floating in space. All I'll say.
3. Believability: going back to the casting, I don't buy the relationship between Spike and Jet. I'm sorry John Cho, but you do look older than Mustafa Shakir's Jet (even though there is only a 4 year difference). In the anime, Jet was significantly older (I assume) and although not directly a father figure, he did function like one for Spike. Their dynamic worked because they went together like jigsaw puzzles. Jet would usually try to keep the hotheaded Spike in check with his deeper experience. But in the show it seems like they've just tried to capture the banter, which works okay. Also, Shakir's gruff voice for Jet sounds very forced. What works in the anime doesn't translate into the live-action, which is a golden rule one should consider for everything in the show and all else when it comes to translation of works from one medium to another.
4. The fight scenes are very lame, both in choreography and editing. Although a pretty decent casting and the best performance in the episode (which doesn't say much), I don't understand why Asimov's scene in the bar was shot in first person. Okay, I mean I understand why, but I don't understand the lack of effort. It's incredibly lazy and boring. Sure, it works to emphasise the effect of the Red Eye, but it's blah.
5. The slow motion shots between Spike and Katerina with the saxophone just don't work. It's cringeworthy. Bad translation. Bad, bad, bad.
6. Vicious is the most cartoony-looking character and that's not a good thing at all. Hopefully I'll take him seriously in later episodes.
7. The violence in this show lacks vulgarity. I'm not saying it needs to be on Tarantino levels (just using him as a threshold as he is the most well-known for portrayal of violence), but it lacks something. It's not offensive nor is it inoffensive. I'm not even sure if that makes sense, but it's just meh. It's uninteresting, I suppose.
8. It's not as snappy & flashy as the anime due to the episode length (50 minutes). This easily could've been worked out if there was more "plot" and story in the episode, but it follows the first episode of the anime ("Asteroid Blues") with some deviations (e.g. Introduction of Faye). So just imagine going from 20 to 50 minutes.
I could probably write more comments, and maybe will in the future for latter episodes, but these are some of the gripes I had with the show. Some positives are Faye's casting and performance, production and set design, and of course the music. I haven't heard anything *wow* yet besides the theme soundtrack (i.e. "Tank!"), but overall the music works.
I think it's important to mention that perhaps I would've enjoyed this episode more if I hadn't seen the anime. Because it's difficult to not criticise it in relation to the anime when watching every single scene. But even then, I'm not sure if it holds up independent of the anime.
Apologies if there are any spelling/grammar mistakes, just wrote this as a stream of consciousness without proofreading.
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