Gunsmith Cats

A good example of the Japanese, Absorbing American TV of the 70's and 80's and beaming it back at Americans, With that definite Japanese twist.

If you enjoy action car shows like "Knight Rider"?, Then the corny loose plot, Weak Supporting cast and excessive explosions shouldn't bother you much.

However, I feel It should have been edited as one movie length story, Rather than 3 separate episodes, As the episodes aren't really that strong on their own? This is great 'Beer and Curry' light entertainment, Some nice Eye candy for a lazy afternoon and the fact that the show's creator, Does actually try to draw detail is a plus too.

For the original audience, it was probably a look into America-- though not neccesarilly accurate with everything. Excellent animation-- especially the driving scenes and gun battles. Clever all the way around.

Looking at it with the Clinton years and the BATF, it becomes rather ironic: The heroine is a gun store owner while the villains were the head of the ATF and an anti-gun politician. If made in America, it would be labelled "right-wing propaganda."

Gunsmith Cats the OAV is based on Sonoda Kenichi's manga series, but is even better. Rally Vincent has a penchant for guns; her partner Minnie May Hopkins takes a liking to bombs. Rally runs a gun store and is approached by the ATF to cooperate with them on a sting. After being blackmailed into it because of a lack of a gun license, Rally and May get involved in a government conspiracy and pursued by a Russian assassin (who is, in my opinion, one of the greatest anime characters ever). The animation is not the greatest but well done, the voice actors are excellent (featuring Araki Kae in her only good role), the plot is engaging (though the ending wasn't stellar), the characters are very believable, and the music compliments the series perfectly. If you like action series or good anime, this is a must.

I checked the DVD out of our library thinking it was for my 8 year old daughter. We watched the trailers (which she liked!) and I quickly realized it wasn't for kids. Since it was laying around, I peeked at one of the 25 minute episodes and got hooked. Interested how each episode gets one sexy "sneak peek" of one of the girls. I loved the art work. I just wish they had been more careful on picking the English voices for them. They didn't match the sexy but macho cute looks and actually sounded kind of tacky.

Given this entire thing runs for just three episodes that are all a little under 30 minutes each, watching Gunsmith Cats in one sitting basically makes it a movie. However you want to judge it, it's pretty fun, following two young women who own a gun shop and get caught up in a dramatic scheme to take down an illegal gun running.

The miniseries/film keeps the tone light throughout, it's pretty breezy and has some good action, and I think I also have to give it props for not being quite as sleazy as it could've been (PG sleaze, really. "Pgleaze"?)

It's a fun and lesser-known piece of anime from the 1990s, and it made for an enjoyable watch.