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Gunsmith Cats

A continuing manga series by Sonoda Kenichi, character and mecha desgner for the original Bubblegum Crisis OVAs and Riding Bean, gets a fun, but brief, anime treatment in the three-episode OVA Gunsmith Cats. Few of the antagonists from the books appear in the anime -- apart from a humourous link in a weapons warehouse when we're shown a certain artificial arm belonging to a favorite villain in the first few books -- but many of the good guys are here.

Story Intro

Rally Vincent, a Chicago-area gunsmith, and her explosives-fanatic partner, "Minnie" May Hopkins, speed their way across the Chicago streets after bounties and criminals. They're joined on occasion (and in this anime series) by a computer-savvy and money-hungry informant, Becky, and the police chief, Roy.

For the most part, this is a story that hasn't appeared in the books (at least as far as I've followed them in the Dark Horse Comics reprint collections). An ATF agent hires Rally and May to go after a gun-runner, who winds up giving them information about another case involving the ATF. Before long, however, this new informant is killed by an ex-KGB hit-woman, whose next targets are our heroes, Rally, May, and the ATF agent.

Other Notes

The books can be used almost as a manual of guns and cars, and the anime keeps that detail going well (without the many footnotes of further details). Streets and images of Chicago are well done also; a lot of research was put into this with visits to real gun shops and police precincts, as well as the skyline and various landmarks. It's nice to see anime with famous non-Tokyo landmarks now and then. Sounds of the actual items were used as well, which makes me drool over the Shelby Cobra a bit more than the books did.

Also included are stunts the likes of which only Jackie Chan or John Woo setup in live-action features.

Gunsmith Cats
Distributed by A.D. Vision Inc.

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