Cowboy Bebop: Shooting Star, Volume 2 - Cain Kuga, Hajime Yatate Well, I read the first volume, might as well read the second and final one, right? I did and it was... meh. It wasn't great. It wasn't bad. It was alright. Just like the first volume. I guess me being a huge fan of the anime series, I thought the manga was going to be just as epic. Unfortunately, it wasn't. It had its moments of being somewhat interesting... but that's as far as it goes. Throughout most of it, I was unimpressed by the Bebop crew's lack of adventures. However, that's not to say I didn't enjoy the manga at all. There were quite a few parts that I enjoyed. I was just expecting a lot more.

Cain Kuga's artstyle is not for me. I am not a fan. The characters just look completely different. If she was going to change the way they look so drastically, she might as well create an original manga, not something based off of an already existing piece of work. (I know this was published before the anime was released but it was created during the development of the anime so there's no excuse!) Spike doesn't look anything like himself. Neither does Ed! Faye looks a bit like herself... a bit... I think Jet is the only one that comes close to looking like his original self. Oh, and Ein looks... weird... Perhaps they should have gotten another artist to do the manga.

The story wasn't that bad... I enjoyed the part with the Chessmen. I actually grew attached to a few of them. (Queen was very pretty~ No, he's not a woman.) Another part of the story I liked was getting to see Scorpion again. In the first volume, I thought his story was very engaging! He was the only redeemable aspect to the entire manga and I was looking forward to seeing where Kuga was going to take it. Needless to say, I was disappointed. It was very anti-climatic and I wish I could say more but I try to avoid spoilers at all costs. Let's just say he went down... without a bang. DX Once again, he was one of the only things interesting about this manga and I was left... wanting more.

If you are curious, I guess you should give this manga a look. It's not a terrible read but you might feel a little empty once you get through it. This is not a manga I would recommend to people right off the bat. It's more something you read when you have nothing else to read... or you just want to see another side to Bebop. Check this out of the library first. Just in case it's not something you want to invest your money on.