Gunsmith Cats
Official Blurb:
"GIRLS, GUNS AND GRENADES...IT'S A LETHAL COMBINATION!
"Gunsmith Cats, A.D. Vision UK's debut title is the latest offering
from esteemed Japanese animator, Kenichi Sonoda. Amongst Anime fans, Sonoda
is considered the master of pacy, racy action and super slick graphics -
his characters are true life contemporary figures with realistic personalities
and some knockout lines. Gunsmith Cats sees all the essential Sonoda
ingredients in glorious excess; powerful bitchin'babes, fast and furious
action, suffocating suspense, big cars and even bigger guns - Animation
like you have never seen it before!
"Synopsis
"Rally Vincent, gun expert and buxom bounty hunter combined and precocious
wild-child side-kick Minnie-May Hopkins are the Gunsmith Cats and
they make Cagney and Lacey look positively Neanderthal. This nubile and
nimble pair are ready to take on Chicago city's diciest and most dangerous
criminals provided the price is right. The cats find themselves in deep
and dodgy waters when they are forced to infiltrate a gun-running operation.
Can the genius gunsters overcome the powerful opposition that heavily outnumbers
them? Find out in Gunsmith Cats! Also includes bonus documentary
- The making of Gunsmith Cats".
Creator: Kenichi Sonoda
Director: Takeshi Mori
Screenplay: Atsuji Kaneko
Character Design: Kenichi Sonoda
Copyright: Kenichi Sonoda/Kodansha/VAP/TBS
Language Format: Japanese Language, English Subtitles/English Dubbed
Running time: 70 mins
Certificate: 15
Catalogue no: VHSGS/001E / VHSGS/001D
Price: £12.99
Release Date: 6 June 1996
Review:
You see, there's these two women, OK?, and they've got access to all this
hardware (as in weapons, not computers), OK?, and everywhere they go there's,
like, massive mayhem and destruction with concomitant loss of live, and
they're called Kei and Yuri, and the anime/manga or whatever is called Dirty
Pair and essentially, apart from minutiae like the location, I couldn't
tell the difference between Dirty Pair and Gunsmith Cats and
although GC is very professionally done, it's, like, totally uninteresting
and just so expensive at £12.99 for ONE 30 minute anime, and, OK, so
they put a documentary on the rest of the tape, but, really, who wants to
see a documentary when all we really want is anime, anime and more anime!
Not recommended, but you probably guessed that, didn't you? [MS]
Comments from usenet:
Gene Howard Jones Jr.:
Gunsmith Cats looks great, and sounds great. Sonoda really went all out
with this OVA series. Almost all of the sounds, from the gunshots to the roar
of the Shelby Cobra GT are authentic. I think the storyline is fine. You really
should check out the manga (if you havn't already) before you buy the video,
though. That way, you have a good background of the characters. That should
help you appreciate the story better.
Phil Yff:
Gunsmith Cats is one of the great new series coming out. I thought the
plot of the first episode was quite good. In the manga, the plots get very
complex and I expect the same to happen with the anime. Many anime
series open up with a light tone and then introduce serious emotional
dilemmas later on. I expect the same to happen with Gunsmith Cats.
That's not to say the plot of the first episode was inconsequential. It did a
very good job of introducing Rally and Minnie May and showing the
contrast in their personalities. There is plenty of action and the
background information is provided in the context of the plot.
A purist might demand that the first episode of the anime should be the
same as that of the manga--that's the episode where Rally in deference to
Minnie May saving the day changes the name of her establishment from
Gunsmith Cat to Gunsmith Cats. (That's why the final 's' on the sign is
amateurishly nailed on at the end.) Although I liked the episode, I agree
with the producer's decision to start the anime in mid-stream with some
good action and catch up on the background info as necessary.