In episode 45 of the podcast, the Tom, Phoenix and Joey break down the Cowboy Bebop Netflix show and the deckbuilding board game Cowboy Bebop Space Serenade. Outside is Overrated is presented by Premier Health.
- 8:38 – Cowboy Bebop Live Action
- 1:13:27 – Tom Awesome’s Top 5 Most Interesting Females in Sci-Fi
- 1:31:51 – Dr. Chmiel Address Hydration
- 1:34:04 – Cowboy Bebop Space Serenade
Music courtesy of: http://www.bensound.com/royalty-free-music.
Cowboy Bebop Live Action Series
Cowboy Bebop follows a crew of bounty hunters scratching a living out of the edge of the universe. The crew jumps between planets capturing bounties, settling old scores and getting each other out of trouble. The original anime series debuted in 2001, with 26 twenty-minute episodes, the live action Netflix remake had 10 roughly 45-minute episodes.
Related: Outside is Overrated breaks down the Cowboy Bebop anime series is Episode 22 – Gateway to Anime.
The anime was episodic and unrelated between episodes. The live action show followed a mostly linear thread about Spike and Vicious. Many characters from the anime appear throughout the live action show. Anne and Gren rise to prominent roles, the hosts of Big Shot remain ancillary characters and the assorted bounties fromn the source material are relegated to minor cameos.
As a standalone show, Cowboy Bebop is an up-and-down experience. The first episode captures the look and feel of the anime. From there, it evolves into a tapestry of backstories broken by long and unfortunate looks at Vicious’s endeavors. While ample time is spent exploring Jet and Faye’s histories, the bulk of the screen time focuses on the Spike/Vicious/Julia love triangle. Unfortunately, that story arc is the weakest part of the series.
The soul of the anime series was the crew working together to overcome obstacles. While pursuing a more plot-driven path, the live action series fails to capture the magic of the source material. While a surprising climax left hope for better things to come in season two, the show was cancelled.
The Good
- There are some episodes. The pilot, in particular, is really well done.
- Some of the effects are really good, particularly in space.
The Bad
- Failed to capture the heart of the source material
- Not enough time spent in space
- Spike was an unlikeable character, constantly trying to manipulate everyone
- Faye was a one-trick pony, essentially a soldier from another era
- Shower bath shower
- Vicious was uninteresting and overused
- A major plot twist feels out of tune with the character involved
- No Radical Edward
The Verdict
Our podcast is more entertaining than the Cowboy Bebop live action series. Unfortunately, we cannot in good conscience recommend it to anyone. Diehard Bebop fans will hate the deviations from the source material. Those with no affinity for the source material will likely still find the show lacking in other ways. In the podcast we recommend Firefly or the The Expanse instead as better sci-fi alternatives.
Tom Awesome’s Review Score: 6.5
Cowboy Bebop Space Serenade
Cowboy Bebop Space Serenade is a four-player deckbuilding board game developed by Don’t Panic Games. Space Serenade was designed by Johan Benvenuto and Florian Sirieix and released in 2019. Players fill the shoes of one of four crew members, trying to prove they’re the best bounty hunter by building the biggest reputation. The game has a board game geek rating of 7.6.
Gameplay revolves around collecting resources, buying cards to improve your deck and capturing bounties. Each turn you have a hand of cards that generate a temporary resource (Woolongs), a permanent resource (fuel), as well as strength and clues for battling baddies. You can play your cards in any order, and once you have taken all the actions you desire, play passes to the next player.
The individual characters set Space Serenade apart from other deckbuilding games. Each player starts with the same starting deck, but four of the 10 cards are color-coded for their character. If you’re playing as Spike (not advised, please see below) your cards are blue. The purchasing area consists of five cards players can purchase on their turn. They are color-coded to different characters and can include a team ability. If you’re playing as Spike, you can purchase a Faye card with a Spike team ability. In future turns, if you play that card and any blue Spike card from your hand, you get the added team ability.
Using Special Abilities to Get an Edge
In addition to their custom decks, each character has two special abilities. The first ability can be used by any member of the crew in the same location. The second can only be used by the player controlling that character. If you’re foolish or unlucky enough to play as Spike, your first ability allows you to spend three fuel to draw a card. This helps you go beyond the standard hand size and do more with your turn.
Spike’s second ability allows the player to spend five fuel to buy a card from the purchasing area and put it on top of their deck. This allows you to stack the next turn in your favor. Typically when a card is purchased, it goes in your discard pile and gets shuffled in the next time your deck runs out.
Stealing the Show – Earning the Most Renown
The player who piles up the most renown wins the game. Action is divided across three planets: Earth, Mars and Ganymede. Each planet starts with an active bounty, and each bounty has a certain number of resistance and investigation tokens. If you spend strength or clues equal to the number printed on the card, you take a token. If all the tokens of either pile are claimed, the bounty is captured and each player with one of those tokens trades it in for a renown. If you claimed four of the tokens, they become four renown.
If you fight the character with strength, you also draw a wound card. Wounds can range from nothing happening, to being freely discarded when they come up in your deck to spending resources in order to remove the card. They are a significant hindrance and a strong disincentive to attack enemies outright.
When a bounty is captured, two new bounties are drawn from the bounty deck. Each bounty is tied to a specific planet. If the planet is open, the bounty moves there for the crew to pursue. If there is already a bounty at the planet, the fuel cost to travel there goes up by one. If the fuel cost is already at three and would go up again, the bounty escapes and all resistance and investigation tokens drawn from the bounty are discarded.
The Final Showdown
Once most of the bounty cards have been played, Vicious enters play for a final showdown. The players will either take down the antagonist or he will escape. Either way the game ends and the player with the most renown tokens wins.
Vicious is stronger than common bounties. Each resistance token you take from him makes you draw two wound cards. In addition, he has a separate movement deck. Each time he takes damage he moves to the corresponding planet. If the deck runs out, he escapes.
The Best Cowboy in the Galaxy
One of the main strengths of Cowboy Bebop Space Serenade is how well it captures the spirit of the source material. Each of the characters has a unique feel. Spike is geared towards fuel generation and physical combat. Faye towards generating Woolongs. Jet is a mix between fuel generation, clues and strength. Ed is geared towards clue generation.
In practice, the game is heavily skewed towards investigation. The wound cards are a major hindrance. Jet’s ability allows you to spend fuel to discard two wounds from your hand or discard pile, so they can mitigated by either playing as or following Jet around. Faye can build a powerful engine, but in our sessions it appeared she lacked the clue generation Ed was capable of. Faye’s abilities allow you to convert fuel to Woolongs. Ed’s allow you to swap fuel for clues.
From the games we played, it seems clues are the key to winning. In four games leading up to the podcast, Ed won three times.
The Good
- Captures the spirit of the source material
- Despite having multiple locations and currencies, the game is easy to pick up
- The unique characters and team abilities are a nice change from other deckbuilders
The Bad
- Balance issues
- Huge stack of cards to purchase make it hard to get the card you feel you need
- After four games, the bounty deck felt very stale
The Verdict
Cowboy Bebop Space Serenade is a fun semi-cooperative deckbuilder. The lack of variety in bounties and viable builds limit the replayability, but as a one-off game or a palate cleanser it is a lot of fun.
Tom Awesome’s Review Score: 7.5