Gunsmith Cats - Chicago Crime Never Looked so Cute

Chapter 1 --- Chapter 2 --- Chapter 3



Since my interest anime interest began in early 1997 due to AnimeFan in GameFan magazine, one of the title reviewed was the final Gunsmith Cats chapter. It seemed to be pretty unique since it was set in my favorite big city. Unfortunately, SunCoast was putting "must be 18 years old to purchase, ID required" stickers on almost every video tape, I had to wait until they restocked these videos to buy them. When February 1998 came around, I had only one month till I was 18, but all that waiting became unnecessary when A.D.V. films put all the episodes on one tape. Finally, those guys correctly packaged an anime and sold it at a fair price.

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Now I have the whole series. Probably, the most interesting thing about it is how accurately portrays the "Windy City" from its L Trains to the sky line, the interstate highway to the the soda cans, Min Mei Hopkins is wearing a shirt of my favorite baseball team (and that isn't the Sox), and the blues soundtrack which is pretty cool. Its got a lot of action, but I feel its still more of a comedy kind of like any Schwartzineger action film between T2 and Eraser. The biggest flaw with the series is that it tries to hard to create scandals and conspiracies that hurt the series as it goes a long.

If you want a comedy, you may want to buy the first 3 Files of Burn-Up W instead, but the comedy is a lot more ridiculus, so if you want something more down to earth this is it. Also the action in GSC and conspiracies are delivered better than Burn-Up W did. When it comes to these series your going to have to give something to get something, but either way you'll still get chicks with guns.

Neutral Zone

Rally Vincent and May Hopkins operate a gun shop called Gunsmith Cats, but on the side they do some bounty hunting. There most recent job was to capture drug runner, Jonathan Washington. A day or so after the arrest, ATF agent Bill Collins tells the two that Washington is a gun runner, and that the ATF needs the girls for a sting operation that won't pay. Not like they have a choice since Rally doesn't have the necessary license to run the shop, and Mei can be charged with numerous illegal explosive counts.

I know there isn't much length to the summary, but a good half hour episode on TV shouldn't have too much. This is the best episode of the series because it is able to stay focused on the main conflict, and doesn't sacrifice anything to do so. The comedy is great, you're amazed at the authentisity of the setting, and the dubbing is pretty good. I can't really think of anything wrong with the episode except that it may try to hard to tell the viewer to focus on Rally. Probably the best single episode I've seen in a series with the possible exception of Neon Genesis Evangelion episodes 19 and 20.

Swing High

Washington has been assasinated by a Russian hit women who uses Collins ID to get into the safe house that the victim was being held in. I guess you'd call it a last request when Washington tells the girls to deliver his "Rolex" watch to his "daughter" at a her "address". When the two find out that the rolex, daughter, and address are fake, Becky cracks a the code formed by these to lead them to a list of gun warehouses. The two girls go to shut down one of the operations, but they don't know that they are next on the Russian's hit list.

This is not the summary you want for 30 min. of TV. The episode couldn't make good transitions to the next plot twist, and these transitions don't allow for any charater development to occur. There is less comedy, but still some great bits, and the action sequences are superbly done. Its not a bad follow up, but it could have been done a lot better.

High Speed Edge

The hit woman's identity is revealed to be former KGB agent Natasia Radinov, and she is considered to be more of a T-800 than woman. Of course she died in the car chase, right? The ATF is prepared to close this case despite that the key players are still at large which includes Radinov who just loves to inflict damage on Rally's Cobra. On the plus side, the cats are going to be rewarded for their assistance in the case by a state representative and Chicago mayor canidate who is trying to keep guns off our streets, but this is going to occur at a public ceremony and being out in the public eye may not be the right place for our heroines.

The plot is structured a little better than the last episode, but sacrifices the comedy that makes the series what it is. The action isn't as lively concentrating on suspence, so these scenes are kind of disappointing. Its noneventful ending seals it fate to be the weakest episode in the series. Now I've seen worse anime episodes and finales, but this is a disappointment despite every technical part of the animation and sound is great.

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