Cowboy Bebop

I'm probably not going to make many friends when I say this, but my favourite anime studio has to be Sunrise, way ahead of Gainax, Gonzo and the rest. Escaflowne, Gundam, Outlaw Star and many other series have come from this pool of artists, and they usually create some manga to accompany the anime release. Such is the case with Cowboy Bebop.
The story behind Cowboy Bebop must be known to nearly everyone who looks at this site, but, just in case. It's about a group of four bounty hunters, and a dog, who share a ship, and are generally a help or a hindrance to each other on their missions. By and large they succeed, but cause so much damage they get nothing, or fail in some poetic manner, or just have a general caper, or a mixture of all three. The scenario is just a foundation for their various episodic adventures, and the characters are very clearly defined, some may say stereotypically, but it's the right mix. You have an older man, who feels fatherly to the other hunters, you have the young cool male with a mysterious past, you have the sex-bomb who can't be trusted, and you have a young girl who is a computer whiz. When read like that it sounds so cliched, but the episodes are played out so well in the anime that you never quite analyse it in that way. Does that hold true for the manga?
Yutaka Nanten, who was involved with the anime, handles the artwork here, and it shows, with the visuals staying true to the TV series. In the static shots, the dialogue scenes, establishing frames, you could quite easily picture yourself in the anime. Seeing that it does try to be a faithful adaptation that's not a bad thing, but you do think it could have been pushed a bit further rather than just playing safe. The major problem occurs in the action sequences. A big positive for the anime is that it shows kinetics in fights and chases is a very balletic manor, with the point of view floating around, with as much movement as what's going on in the frame. I know that's not easy in manga, but what we are given here is two types of framing, static and static with go-faster lines all over it. Nanten alternates between the two with no middle ground, creating a very uneven pacing in the action based stories. Overall it's not really excellent, but I wouldn't say it was very poor either, just uninspiringly bog-standard average.
The story side is dealt with by Hajime Yatate, the same guy who did the story work for the anime. I say guy, but Hajime is actually a pseudonym for a pool of writers who work at Sunrise, and have come up with many of the other series produced by the studio. Shinichiro Watanabe, the director for the series, also cooperated with the writing. Again, the manga is comfortable wallowing in it's own security, with no boundaries really pushed. There are some funny stories, but nothing that gets close to Mushroom Samba in the anime series. No further light is shed on Spike Spiegel's dark history. There is no appearance for Vicious, one the best bad guys ever drawn on a cel. You can almost read this series as a collection of episodes never made, but then, not one of them jumps into my memory the way the anime episodes do. Also, the opportunity to create a story arc over a few episodes is eschewed for more of the same standalone riffs that Bebop fans are used to.
This is so difficult to call. From what you have read above you would say that I'm comparing too much to the anime and not letting the manga have a chance. I would argue converse to that. The only reason why I can't let rip at the manga is because I really love the anime. If this were a manga series, totally unconnected to any form of anime, I would have thrown away the first book after reading it and not bought more, bottom line. Only reason why I didn't is because it's a comfortable read for a Cowboy Bebop fan, because it fits so nicely into that universe, but I don't want to short change any neutral readers. If you like Cowboy Bebop definitely give this a try. If you hate Cowboy Bebop, or have never seen it, this really is a waste of money, and shouldn't be bothered with. It's a shame Sunrise have decided to play safe in these three volumes, rather than really push the envelope.
'Cowboy Bebop' was first published in 1999 in Japan. Tokyopop started publishing an English translation in 2002. It numbers only 3 volumes, with all of them currently available.
6/10