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Rating: 
Summary: Brazilian half-volume, manga half-sliced (rating: 87%)
Review: First some introduction to my situation. This would really be just a first impression because...
Here in South America we are STARTING to buy manga the way you find them in USA or Japan. Brazilian editorials are the biggest players in manga, but in an attempt to compete with comix, they split in two parts all the volumes for more frequent distribution and lower prices. Cowboy BeBop Manga has 3 three volumes? Here, they are 6.
I have the 3rd Brazilian half-volume (which would be the first half of the 2nd volume). When I saw it in the shop, I just didn't think twice like most other mangas, left it there as I thought so other could buy it and I could stay sleepless over the night. I bought this one impulsively. As a Cowboy BeBop fan, I saw myself excused.
I guess that, like half-volumes, my excuse got sliced half too.
The half-volume only had the first two chapters, and they kind of fell short in terms of deepness or entertainment, unlike the anime counterpart were I can hardly think of two or three bad sessions. "She's a Rainbow" and "Great Deceiver" aren't so well developed stories. They are good ideas and, with the proper work, they would've been great sessions for the anime series, but the magician didn't show up for the birthday. You know what I think now when I see that Hajime Yatate wrote the scripts? I think they thought Yutaka Naten would pick them up and develop them further, maybe trade some notes with the supervisor, Shinichiro Watanabe (director of the anime series, but you probably know that by now), to get the taste of the series. Once again, hope sliced half. Seemed like Shinichiro wasn't there to make it work.
Drawing was good overall, characters were well reproduced in general and props and ships were of excellent quality, but some things also left me somehow confused. Spike and Jet seemed like a poor excuse of needing to have defined lips, they're supposed to be more manly. That didn't made them look so good, so guess I prefer the anime orginal design. However, Ed, Ein, Faye, and background characters seem like a really nice one, the best portrays of the manga, although Faye's head sometimes seemed too thin. Now, the bad slice is...
The drawing style. You know, two of my anime favorites are "Cowboy BeBop" and "Patlabor, The Mobile Police". Why? A reason among the crowd was because they had their degree of realism on the face expressions, comic but realist. If someone got ashamed or startled, they would draw their faces as if most of the times. In this manga, some times this example was followed, while some other times drawing made it clear to you that generic manga expressions like "point-eyes", "rainbow-eyes", and "cheek-lines" don't work with the Cowboy BeBop characters most of the time, only with Ed (too bad she rarely appeared here). As a breakthrough series, Cowboy BeBop should have been more distant to the mainstream style which certainly didn't fit too well, as some scenes are even too chaotic this way. And please, the worst of all was the horrible work that was done with Rachel in "She's a Rainbow". The RIDICULOUS amount of cheek lines, excessive eyelash details (this goes for all women) and messed up hair was unbearable at some times, specially when she was nervous or scared.
Dialogues are a serious subject. The dialogues fit well into the characters (even Rachel that seemed too heroic and moralist in the "chasing the dream" theme, stealing some panels and protagonism), but the order and way of the baloons was sometimes hard to follow. As nervous as I can get, in some complicated points I sometimes felt like I needed to read a manual on how to read this manga. Baloons are for talking, but not only by people in the drawing, so stay sharp at the words and style of talking. Thought baloons could be for thinking or memories, so you have to set to mind that Rachel has a really mixed-up head, I recommend to read all consecutive thoughts first and then go on with the manga. Star-like baloons of "Great Deceiver" pointed for the introduction or conclusion of flashbacks, also. Really, it's not as bad as I say it, but you could use reading each chapter twice to get it 100%.
This was my first impression on the manga by reading those two chapters in the third half-volume. Needless to say, Cowboy BeBop has that "stand-alone" feature that I always enjoyed and appreciated because here in Paraguay you never know when things are coming, or if they will ever come again at all, so if you haven't started the series from the start or haven't bought the first volume of the manga, you can always be sure you will understand it anyway (myself, I started watching the series "on the run" from the end of the session#4 to the session#26, to later see sessions 1 to 4 completely, plus the sessions I missed from exams study).
I know that I may sound very harsh in some matters, but its just that as a fan I expected a masterpiece to collect and love, like my three Saint Seiya Episode G volumes (Brazilian full-volumes, this ones) that I bought in Brazil no matter the price. Now, that was obssesion, if you hear me right. But, you know, this is just a first impression, I think I got out of the line a bit (a bit I say!! yeah, right) by reading all those negative reviews. Maybe this weren't the correct first chapters to read, and therefore I hope other chapters awaiting my posession are better than this. Yet, this two don't fall too down, they are good once you get to know them.
Yeah, Cowboy BeBop Manga got sliced, but nobody said the bad part was the bigger. It's just bitter. As I heard on TV and I think it is true: "You can learn nothing from victories but a thousand things from defeats". So, Nanten, I'm sending you the thousand points on Friday! Just kidding...
Rating:
Summary: Great for all Bebop and Manga Fans
Review: In case you haven't noticed, one of the greatest animes ever, Cowboy Bebop had come out in manga form with all new stories. The second volume is very good and funny, while keeping the Cowboy Bebop spirit. This features, of course, Spike, Jet, Faye, Ed and Ein. It is read in true manga form, right to left which can be a problem if your not used to it. There are 5 stories in this edition, all are good in their own right. But the last one is most Bebop-like (featuring Spike, broke, and following a raven haired girl with an old guitar looking for a bounty. It has a twist at the end.). I suggest you at LEAST look at it, and I recommend buying it.Later Space Cowboy
Rating: 
Summary: Bang...
Review: the book delivers the exact thing the show does. Its great. Although the plot lines arent great in the book if you love the bebop than youl love thews stories
Rating: 
Summary: aswome
Review: This is the 2nd volume of the cowboy bebop manga series.this one has 5 stoies and very funny as well this one has all the main characters including ed and ine.its asome and i recomend it to all of you. it may be hard reading it right to left and if you seen cowboy bebop youll love this. see ya cow boy
Rating: 
Summary: AN INSULT TO BEBOP
Review: This second volume of the 1st Bebop manga series suffers from the same, if not worse, problems than book 1. This time around we have 5 bad stories instead of 4. "She's a Rainbow" is about a news reporter dying to get her first big break by following a group of bounty hunters around. Unfortunately, our Bebop crew is lucky when they have someone to hunt down to take them away from their empty stomachs and constant bickering with one another. Not exactly newsworthy. "Great Deceiver" is about Faye having to track down an old friend. The totally useless "Special Short" is about Jet catching a cold. Wow. "Thinking Bird Happy Song" involves Ed's interference with a hitman and a duel between old men's songbirds. "Like a Rolling Stone" showcases Spike as he enlists the aid of a cafe singer to find a bounty. What can I say, these stories were awful. Even the titles were a pale imitation of the anime. The whole book felt lifeless. They weren't funny or entertaining in the least. It's a real shame that this series exists. It's almost an insult to the creators of the show. These characters have so much appeal and had room for development. I'm not even going to bother reading the 3rd and last volume. I recommend you read the two volumes of the Shooting Star series which tells the story of the Bebop crew from a slightly what-if like perspective.
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