Just as melodramatic and over the top as volume one, but the FBI characters sort of take away from some of the zany fun. Tista's backstory is a bit over the top too and the melodrama and recovered memories are a bit much.

Tista is losing it. She has big, big issues with the assignments she is being given by the Society. And her interactions with Arty is breaking loose her past. She has become erratic and the Society has pulled her status and rank. Now she has one last chance to get back in their good graces. But is that what she wants? Read this volume to find out how and why Tista became Sister Militia.

Thanks Netgalley for the opportunity to read this title!

This was an interesting duology. I liked volume one and this volume was interesting as well. I liked that we got to explore more of Tista's background and her friends from when she was a kid. I wish there had been more volumes so that we could have explored more of the organization that she works for but, oh well. I liked this series enough that I would recommend it if you're looking for something short and entertaining to read.

I'm not quite sure what I was expecting to happen in the second novel of this series. While I enjoyed it, it was certainly not my favorite series I have read. I really liked how things were not always as the reader anticipated them to be, and how things happened that you couldn't quite see coming. It was vaguely predictable, but not in an inherently bad way. I liked Tista and I loved watching her character develop as the story progressed.

It’s so interesting to see how Tatsuya Endo has grown since his first serialization, Tista. Spy x Family is a household name nowadays, and he has a trademark style and narrative structure that’s apparent in his debut serial work. However, as much as this two-volume tale showcases Endo’s growth, it also highlights how much he needed to grow.

Tista Lone is struggling with finding herself. While she was born an assassin due to her special sight, it’s turning into a double-edged sword. Mentally fractured with the burden of her sins, she tries to balance her personal and work life. We also get a look into why she was adopted into the order of assassins, her powers awakened when she was a child. This volume dives into how bleak Tista’s world really is, and it highlights the lengths she is willing to go to find redemption.

I really want to like Tista as a series, but the final length of the whole tale leaves a lot to be desired. Everything speeds too quickly in this volume as it needs to wrap up the narrative but also go into backstory. I feel like this needed at least one more volume to finish some loose ends. However, the sniper scenes are great, and the use of stylistic gore amplifies the experience. However, this series doesn’t have enough to set it apart from its contemporaries (even in the late 2000s). It remains a historical time capsule for fans of Spy x Family and not much else.

Tista works well as a darker action series. The aspect that kept me interested though is Tista herself. Traumatized by who knows what in her past, she tries to keep herself together her hurt follows her around like a ghost, she keeps trying to connect with others in a more standard way, but her "work" won't let her. It's nice to see a series like this where the usually emotionless girl, indeed still has emotions, and she's struggling with them. It's compelling.

It was worth going through Tista vol. 2 just to observe Endo's art style prior to working on Spy x Family. I wasn't a fan of the story but I appreciate Endo's character design skills. I think the most amusing part to me is the author bonus at the end where Endo talks about a trip to New York when he went with someone to a "neighboring state" and joined a gun shooting tour. It's always interesting seeing non-Americans' reactions to American gun culture. I may not have liked Tista but at least that gun shooting tour he went on added to the artistic skillset for Spy x Family.