Shooting Star Bebop: Cowboy Bebop
Cowboy Bebop: Shooting Star

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1,2 3, let's jam?

Cowboy Bebop is one of the most groundbreaking franchises out there. With a wonderful mixture of action, comedy, and good music. Bebop has traversed through many of fans hearts, online arguments, and "Best of all time" lists. Since there is only an anime, and a full feature movie. Some fans are undoubtedly wanting a little bit more of the Bebop goodness. So does the Cowboy Bebop style translate better in manga format? Shooting Star sort of does.....

Shooting Star is mostly a reboot. All of the characters get re-introduced to each other, however this time around things are different. In terms of art, ... and writing that is. The art style is pretty good. Spike looks like Spike. Jet looks like Jet. And Faye looks...... older for some reason. Well the artist did say that she usually draws men more often than women. That could be why Faye looks like a Cruella Deville cosplaying milf in this. It's not a problem over how she looks, it's just strange seeing her differently. The backgrounds are also pretty good. Sometimes the panels seem confusing, and jarring. However that is not what usually goes on through out.

Edward gets a little bit too overused in this manga series. That's sort of fine because she was only a supporting character in the Bebop series, and she didn't have much to do. However this manga goes a little overboard with the Edward boat. Even making her the main focus of the plot while Spike, and the others get shoved into supporting roles. This wouldn't be much of a pain if this was for only one chapter. However that is not the case. It is known why Edward is the main cheese this time around. Mostly because of the fan surveys that were made during its release in Japan (The fans were obviously nuts, so it's somehow their fault).

Characteristics of all of the characters have been tweaked in Shooting Stars. Spike is annoyed at everything more than ever, while Faye is way more sneaky. There is also a new character introduced in Shooting Stars by the name of Scorpion. Scorpion isn't exactly the greatest villain of all time, but his facial expressions are truly menacing. Unfortunately for Shooting Stars, the series ends abruptly. Even before the big finale, it all comes crashing down due to not being that popular in the first place.

On A Personal Note: Shooting Stars was okay. It was not as memorable as Bebop the anime, but it did have its moments. I do not hate Edward at all. It is just that there was a bit too much of her in this manga. She isn't even her goofy self in Shooting Stars. I guess that could be why I wasn't that into this manga. Would I recommend this to any new fans out there? Hell no. If you're new to the series, and you somehow stumbled upon my review. I highly recommend that you watch the entire series, AND the feature film. Then think about reading Shooting Stars. Trust me. It is a midnight snack for fans, and nothing else. It's something to chew on after you have finished Bebop as a whole.

At your own discretion, you can give this a try. But if you didn't ever watch the original anime, then you have really missed out.

I'm a big fan of the Cowboy Bebop anime series, I've seen it numerous times. It's a classic for sure so I thought I'd check out the manga adaptation.

Story 4/10
First thing is that this manga is a reboot and has different storylines for all the characters. Which wouldn't be a bad thing if the manga actually had a story at all. The anime was mostly episodic but had the main plotline of Spike, Julia and Vicious. This manga tries to do something similar to that with the Scorpion storyline but falls very short. I didn't find the story very interesting and was often bored.

Art 8/10
The ... best part about this series was the artwork. It had nice shoujo artwork. The characters were stylised in the artist's own style which was nice.

Character 5/10
The characters don't really stand out from each other. Spike isn't the cool guy he was in the anime, Ed is annoying instead of funny like she was in the anime, Jet isn't the cranky cool guy and Faye is hardly in it. I don't remember what the antagonists were like since they barely mattered.

Enjoyment 4/10
I often got bored. The manga just didn't feel like Cowboy Bebop. It felt like a generic space story with a Cowboy Bebop skin. Of course, with no audio, it doesn't have that awesome musical punch that the series did. Maybe Cowboy Bebop just isn't mean to be a manga.

Overall 6/10
I give it a boost for the art, which was cute and nice shoujo art. Otherwise, this is a forgettable title. Which is a shame.