Gunsmith Cats (1995)
Animation Production:Kodansha, VAP, TBS
Released by: ADV Films
Official Website: ADV’s Gunsmith Cats Page
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

Finally!

At long last I’ve gotten the opportunity to see the infamous Gunsmith Cats OVA. This is one of those series I have been meaning to check out for quite some time, but never got around to doing until now.

Based on the popular manga by Kenichi Sonoda this OVA has enjoyed a great deal of popularity amongst fans of anime, manga, and Sonoda's work. After seeing it first hand I can understand all the positive comments and reviews I’ve read about it since it was first released domestically.

Story

“They’re here! Chicago’s most lethal ladies have finally made it to DVD. Join the pistol-packing Rally Vincent and her partner, grenade happy Minnie May Hopkins, as they infiltrate a gun running operation at the “suggestion” of the ATF. Burn up the highway in Rally’s Shelby GT-500 as she chases a psychopathic Russian assassin who’s kidnapped Minnie. And then watch the bullets fly in a duel to the death with a cache of illegal weapons as the prize.” --- ADV’s Gunsmith Cats Page

Review

The series starts with bounty hunters Rally Vincent and Minnie May Hopkins successfully catching John Washington, who is wanted on some outstanding criminal charges. Following his capture we find our heroines at work inside the Gunsmith Cats weapon shop/gunsmith, where they are asked by a member of the ATF for assistance in an investigation involving the man they just captured. It seems like that is part of a bigger scheme than initially thought.

At first unwilling to help the ATF, but then agreeing to it after being promised licenses to some illegal weapons stored in their shop, our heroines set out on an action packed adventure as they try to uncover the mastermind behind a huge illegal weapons scam in Chicago.

The setup for the story in this OVA is fairly simple, relying mostly on the classic police corruption plot, a long running staple of cinema. While the story itself is not very unique and obviously pulls a lot of inspiration from American cop shows/movies, the execution is well done and gives Gunsmith Cats a surprising level of character & visual appeal.

From the very get-go this was a fun anime to watch, the characters were full of personality, the light jazzy music liven things up quite a bit, and the shootouts and car chases heightened the story with high-energy scenes. For all intents and purposes Gunsmith Cats does everything right, which doesn’t surprise me much since its very apparent that a lot of love and care went into the creation of these three OVA’s.

This is most apparent in the level of detail and attention that went into bringing Chicago to life in anime form and the realistic depiction and handling of all the weapons and vehicles used throughout each of the three chapters in the story. It was very interesting to see and hear the people behind the anime talk about this and the process that they went through to achieve this level of realism on the bonus behind-the-scenes video that is included on the DVD. I wish more domestic releases included this type of bonus material as it proved quite insightful.

The quality of the animation here is not surprisingly very, very good and features some great hand-drawn artwork. I especially loved the character designs by Sonoda, who is probably my third favorite Character Designer in anime (Haruhiko Mikimoto takes top honors in my book). The overall color palette used to depict Chicago and the characters in the Gunsmith Cats world is very bright and colorful, which as I have mentioned many times before in other reviews is something I enjoy much and prefer over the more popular darker-toned shows.

The music soundtrack leans towards a cool jazzy sound, which fits perfectly with the overall feel of the show. The opening piece is particularly nice and really helped get me hooked from the moment the DVD started. The voice acting in both dubs was also up to task and really made the characters, especially our heroines,come to life.

The DVD package for Gunsmith Cats is a good one. It comes with all three episodes, which include:

Episode 1 - “Neutral Zone”
Episode 2 - “Swing High”
Episode 3 - “High Speed Edge”

Extras include a clean copy of the opening, trailers for each of the episodes, and most importantly a “Making of Gunsmith Cats” special, which is worth the price of admission on its own. I know I said this above, but I really wish more anime DVD releases included material like this.

Final Thoughts

A can’t miss anime! That’s how I can best sum up Gunsmith Cats, which managed to live up to the great amount of hype that preceded it here at Japan Hero headquarters. It’s not groundbreaking by any means, but it certainly is a fun watch, worthy of being added to anyone’s anime collection.

Good Stuff!!

Jeffrey Couto