City Hunter: Series Review (1987)
Animation Production: Sunrise
Released by: ADV Films
Episodes: 51
By Kage

Songs

OP1: City Hunter~ai yo kienaide (Kahoru Kohiruimaki) [Eps. 1-26]
ED: GET WILD (TM NETWORK)
OP2: Go Go Heaven (Yoshiyuki Oshawa) [Eps. 27-51]
IN: Footsteps (Momoko Kitadai) [Ryo's Theme]
IN: Want Your Love (Momoko Kitadai) [Another song that plays alot]

Introduction

After years and years of holding my fingers in my ears and ignoring all good things i've heard about City Hunter, I finally folded recently and scooped up the first two years of City Hunter by ADV. Notoriously, I'm not an anime fan. Besides that, I hardly have time to watch anything more than a 90-minute movie. So after telling friends that I dropped some large bills on 20...TWENTY DVDs (Episodes 1-114) they thought I'd completely lost my mind. Even I was skeptical. I just bought 114 episodes of a TV series I know little about and really have had no interest in. What possessed me? Well, Last year I got bored and started digging out my old Jackie Chan VCDs. I found one i'd never seen...City Hunter. I saw the movie and ended up immediately purchasing two versions of it on DVD [Word to the wise, kids. Buy the Deltamac/FortuneStar DVD and do NOT bother getting the domestic US DVD].

Ryo Saeba, beit Jackie Chan's version, had inspired me. Well, watching the film over and over again just wasn't doing it for me (infact, I was kinda getting tired of hearing them call him "Mang-Boh"). And so I ordered the first year of the anime. On a whim, I ordered the second year also (from what I hear the second set of City Hunter 2 is pretty scarce). Having finished the first year in a week, I'd imagine thats an accomplishment on my part. Alas, i've been put to work now. And so our review begins...

Mokkori!!!!

The anime is an adaptation of the popular manga [1985-1991] by Tsukasa Hojo. The series follows a "sweeper" for hire named Ryo Saeba and his faithful assistant Hideyuki Makimura. Early in the series Makimura is gunned down by members of the Lodos Mafia. His dying wish is for Ryo to take care of his sister, Kaori. Kaori quickly becomes Ryo's assistant and guardian of the women of Shinjuku to Ryo's perverted ways. When she isn't slamming Ryo down with gigantic hammers that appear seemingly out of thin air, she arranges work for Ryo by checking the message board at the Shinjuku Police Station for any messages labeled "XYZ". The two regularly take jobs alone, though sometimes they help out the frightening and freakishly large Umibouzu or the sexy detective Saeko Nogami. Ryo has seperate histories with both characters. While Saeko usually seeks Ryo's help when there are no other options, Umibouzu is occasionally Ryo's enemy if they get hired to do opposing jobs (an example would be one episode where Umibouzu was hired by a woman to be killed while Ryo was hired as a bodyguard). There have been occasions though when even Umibouzu had enlisted Ryo for help.

Though it may sound serious, there are certainly a few good laughs per episode. Ryo's constant silliness, people mistaking Kaori for a guy (and more notoriously Ryo playing along with it by introducing Kaori as his brother "Kaoru"), Umibouzu and his inexplicable fear of kittens, etc. Legendary VA Akira Kamiya lending his voice as Ryo helps the comedic effect greatly! The series plays out basically in a way that it's one job per episode. The first two-parter doesn't occur until episode 27!

The best episodes of the series tend to be the ones where...

-Ryo has a personal score to settle
-Saeko needs Ryo's help
-Umibouzu is involved
-Ryo does a job for free [primarily an early episode where he helps a
man clear his name so that he can be reunited with his child or another
early episode where he helps an ill lady doctor avenge her boyfriend's
death--easily my favorite episodes!]

The animation during the series is very good. It's very rare that footage is played more than once. Off the top of my head, I can only think of two occassions and both were very early in the series. The only thing that kind of urked me is that some of the action plays out a little too slow, such a Ryo drawing his gun. But as it moves along, it gets quicker.

DVD Set Up

The entire first year is divided up into two boxed sets, five discs per set. ADV did a nice job putting these box sets together. With only very very minor gripes, I'm very satisfied with what I have! It is most certainly the best way to get the series, as costly as it may be. Don't waste your time with crap HK discs. I personally haven't, but if history has taught me anything, they're most likely bad transfers from LD with little to none work put into them. Not to mention, they're not much cheaper... ALSO: The question has come up, are the ADV sets uncut? As far as i've noticed, they are. Since there is limited nudity in these sets and no noticeable edits/hacks/cuts.

City Hunter Collection One
- 26 episodes
- Menu featuring the first OP song, "City Hunter~ai yo kienaide"
- Production Sketches
- Opening and Closing Videos without text
- Trailers to the City Hunter Movies, Specials, and OVAs
- ADV Trailers
- Japanese Audio with removable English Subtitles
- MONO sound mix (but very clear and nice sounding)

City Hunter Collection Two
- 25 episodes
- Menu featuring the ED song, "GET WILD"
- Opening and Closing videos without text
- Trailer for City Hunter (with hidden City Hunter 2 trailer)
- ADV Trailers
- Japanese Audio with removable English Subtitles
- MONO sound mix (as clear as the previous set)

Final Thoughts

The series was very smooth and fun to watch. Ryo Saeba is a character that you just can't hate. I highly recommend this series. Even if it's only the first box set. I'm sure there are stories and characters that will grab your attention. So check this series out!

Kage