Miami Guns Vol-2 (2000)
Animation Production: Kodansha/Toho
Released by: AN Entertainment
Official Website: Miami Guns
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

After being completely blown away by the first Miami Guns DVD I was ecstatic about the series; it was one of the most fun anime series I’ve seen in a while. The humor, parodies, crazy characters, and exciting action just made for the type of experience that only good anime can bring about.

To say I was looking forward to checking out Vol-2 of Miami Guns would be a huge understatement. Hopeful that the show would continue to build on the great stories from episodes one through four, I thought things would only get better (at least that’s what I was hoping for) and sure enough they did!

Story

"The unusual is the usual for Miami City's most notorious policewoman pair. When a killer starts sending cowboys to the great rodeo in the sky, Yao & Lu strap on their six-guns and visit Miami Western Village to lay down the law. The mayhem continues when a practical joker with a psychotic sense of humor hides time bombs throughout the city, forcing Yao into a pro-wrestling match of explosive proportions to uncover the perpetrator's plan. And finally, when her father cuts off her allowance, Yao reverts to feral basics by becoming a savage and primal jungle girl. It'll take some female bonding and a whole bunch of bananas to bring Yao back to society! " -- Official Miami Guns Website

Review

Volume two of AN Entertainment’s release of Miami Guns contains episodes 5 through 7 in the series. These include:

Episode 5: The Gunman With a Little Alligator
There is a killer lose in the Miami Desert and she/he is sending bounty hunters left and right back home in body bags. As Yao and Lu arrived to a Western town in the desert someone is killed and now everyone is a suspect! This time however, the girls are joined by a mysterious new ally, Julio Peacemaker, a young man with a small alligator for a sidekick who claims to be a rookie bounty hunter. Can our heroines trust him?

Episode 6: Watermelon Bomb!
A mad bomber has hidden several bombs across Miami! With the help of Bruce Tsuji an indestructible bomb expert our heroic duo travel across town in a desperate race to recover the bombs, but things don't go as planned and Yao ends up in the ring fighting Watermelon Man for the wrestling federation title, one million Miami dollars, and the future of the city!

Episode 7: Princess Nokemono
After destroying part of police headquarters Yao is fired from the Miami Police Department and has her allowance and privileges cut off by her dad. As she begins confronting a new way of life that is devoid of the luxuries she is used to, she begins to revert to a primate state, driven only by her desire for food. Will she be able to return to society and get her allowance back!?

Loved it! Loved it! Loved it! Miami Guns only gets better with each of these episodes! Heck, they even threw in a great Kamen Rider Amazon reference! As a golden age tokusatsu fan that just made my day!

Starting with episode five I knew I was in for something interesting as our heroines make their way through the Miami desert. While I knew that the producers had taken some liberties with the location of the show, this just threw me for a complete loop! There are deserts in Miami? This just added to the overall sense of craziness that exists and perpetuates throughout the Miami Guns universe.

However, it is episode 6 that really makes this a must-own DVD. The entire premise of the story is that a mad bomber has planted several watermelon-shaped bombs throughout Miami and our heroes scramble in a mad dash to recover each and every one of them. This results in some hilarious moments such as Yao day dreaming of how she will save the city with her valiant actions or the wrestling match which had me laughing out loud for the entire duration of its run. Seeing the Watermelon man add extremely dramatic and hardcore in public only to see him sit back and wonder if he's created a wrestler persona that's morally wrong is hilarious. The references to Ashita no Joe and Star of Giant are great!

The aptly title "Princess Nokemono" I thought was second only to the sixth story in terms of sheer entertainment value. Seeing Yao revert from her normal persona into a more primitive stage that only seeks the basic elements for survival such as food and shelter, was great. Fans of Evangelion I'm sure will enjoy all the slight throwbacks to that popular show. I was surprised to see some Matrix references pop up too.

Overall these episodes felt more solid and well put together than the ones in the first DVD. Aside from the jokes, puns, and parodies the stories proved to be more interesting and in many ways helped move the characters more in the development scale, albeit not a terrible lot. Episode seven in particular stood out in that it showed us that outside of the exuberant behavior and eccentricities of the cast they do care for each other, in this case particularly for Yao after she is fired and ends up in the woods. While most of the time everyone at the police department gives her a hard time, especially the chief, here we can clearly see that they have developed a bond and are now worried about her safety.

Hopefully this type of character development will continue as the series progresses and take everyone to new places as the story unfolds and reveals whatever it is that seems to be operating behind the scenes in Miami.

The production quality for these episode was consistent with that of the previous DVD. The animation is smooth, and there is a great range of colors used throughout. This time out the writers and animators seemed to throw a lot more "fan service" out there for viewers to catch.

The music background was a continuation of what we heard in the first four episodes. Again, I continued to enjoy the opening theme song quite a bit. The BGM was adequate, and made some scenes more energy-filled and fun, but there were no particularly memorable pieces used. The voice acting in both the English and Japanese audio tracks continued to impress with solid performances across the board.

The overall quality of the DVD package as with volume one is deserving of several accolades. Extras in the DVD included an image gallery, original Japanese trailers, a character guide, trailers for other AN Entertainment releases, and cultural notes for each episode with handy links to scenes being referred to (I love this feature!). Inside the DVD box is a color insert with a handy print copy of the cultural notes included within the DVD.

The video transfer as before is perfect, with no noticeable defects or color issues. The audio in both the English and Japanese dubbed tracks came across beautifully and very clearly with no noticeable issues.

Final Thoughts

I've completely fallen for this series! As soon as episode seven was over I just wanted to go right into the next DVD. If that's not indicative of how fun Miami Guns is, I'm not sure what is. This one comes very highly recommended for all anime fans straight from the Japan Hero anime labs.

Jeffrey Couto