ガンスミス キャッツ / Gunsmith Cats

The original DVD artwork.

 Background.

Gunsmith Cats (ガンスミス キャッツ) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kenichi Sonoda. It was published in Kodansha's seinen manga magazine Monthly Afternoon from 1991 to 1997 and was followed between 2004 and 2008 by a sequel series Gunsmith Cats Burst which included the same characters and situations. The series describes the adventures of young women fighting crime in Chicago.  

Nineteen-year-old Irene "Rally" Vincent operates the titular "Gunsmith Cats" gun shop but also works as a bounty hunter, which is the impetus behind many of the stories. She is assisted in both activities by her housemate, former prostitute "Minnie" May Hopkins. Rally is an expert combat shooter and marksman with just about every firearm in existence, as well as a brilliant driver. May is an explosives expert, knowing the inner workings of and many uses of all manner of explosive devices. Teenage ex-burglar and lock-picker Misty Brown later joins the team and there is also Becky Farrah, a top, if expensive, source of information on underworld activity.

Bounty hunting has of course led Rally to make many enemies, most notably Gray, the leader of gangsters whose use of armaments, including bombs, have likened them to terrorists; and Goldie Musou, a leading figure in the Mafia who uses drugs to manipulate people to the point that they can be brainwashed into killing their nearest and dearest. Bean Bandit, a man who specializes in delivering illegal goods, often features as an alternate ally or enemy—depending on the behavior of his clients, most of whom are being hunted by Rally. 

 

 

Attention to detail.

Shelby Mustang GT500 just because.

OVAs.

A three-part anime adaptation was created. This adaptation is an original story for the characters but includes several references to the manga storyline. The character of Becky is given an increased role compared to the manga.

Produced by OLM and directed by Takeshi Mori and Kazuya Murata in 1995. The anime was based on the homonym manga series written and illustrated by the above mentioned Kenichi Sonoda. After leaving anime production company Artmic to work as a comic artist, Sonoda presented some of his story concepts and illustrations to Kodansha. These did not impress the editors but an illustration of two girls caught the attention of one of them, who suggested Sonoda develop a concept for it. Sonoda stated in an interview that the drawing was the genesis for the series. At the time Sonoda did not have any plans for the illustration but decided to expand his Riding Bean concept into a developed story. Due to licensing issues, Sonoda was originally unable to use the Riding Bean concept or character around the time he was creating Gunsmith Cats. However, during the run of the series the rights were returned to him and he added Bean Bandit into the series. 

Although Sonoda was a fan of the Japanese police drama series Taiyo ni Hoero!, he decided the show did not fit his preferred Western style. The story is influenced by American gun-action movies such as The French Connection and The Blues Brothers. Sonoda chose the Shelby Cobra GT500 as Rally's car after realizing that the cars in driving movies from the 70s were often Ford Mustangs. He researched the various models and selected the GT500 because it was the most powerful rather than any attraction to the car itself. When drawing guns, Sonoda would use a combination of magazines and his own replicas. Character names were taken from American TV shows such as Bewitched and The Fugitive. The character of Minnie-May was the result of a compromise between Sonoda and the publisher. 

Ladies with guns.

Product placement.

Review.

 

Gunsmith Cats almost entirely revolves around 3 very American clichés: the fascination for guns, Muscle cars (1967 Mustang GT), and big breasted women. While it's true the Japanese have been somehow infatuated with American pop culture, this OVAs serve as the ultimate example of that. They really tried as hard as they could to pay homage to all these things they love from the USA.Now, whether that is a good or a bad thing, I'll leave it up to you.

 

Our heroes are 2 chicks that illegally sell guns in "gun free" Chicago in order to combat oppressive gun control laws. They are also bounty hunters, because hired guns are better than a police force. The depiction of Chicago is as accurate and realistic as it gets. However, you can't skip the fact everyone now speaks perfect Japanese. Maybe this story takes place in a different timeline where either Americans speak Japanese as their native language, or they finally started learning different languages to get a wider view of the world's rich cultures. Selecting the English audio track in your DVD/Blu-Ray will obviously render this comment worthless.

GTFO Mustang!

Driving skills.

Pursuing that "we love America in Japan" the OVAs put our ladies against stereotypical enemies America would have.  For instance, Natasha Radinov, a Russian spy that seems modeled after a Soviet Union communist extremist. Moreover "her" surname should be "Radinova" suggesting she's a Lesbian stereotype that may seem of poor taste today. What happens next are plenty of ridiculous car chases and shootouts. Continuing with the Japanese fascination with American pop culture,these OVAs may or may not remind you of The Dukes of Hazzard, car chase wise only because, there are no Daisy Dukes or Dodge Chargers. Neither will you find any of the nudity, and sexual innuendo from the original Manga. Another weak point in my book.

 

Music wise it comes as no surprise the soundtrack is made to emulate all those 70s action TV shows and films with cars, detectives and spies. Jazz, funk, disco, R&B are all there to get Cowboy Bebop as jealous as fuck.

This as far as Fanservice will get here.

Pages from the limited edition book included in the blu ray set.

 

Overall, Gunsmith Cats could have been a much more faithful to the source adaptation but instead producers chose to make it a standard made for TV show.Not having every original character, and all the spice they added to the Manga, makes this 3 part OVA a forgettable experience. Even though, the show does have its fans (the Blu Ray box set in different editions proves it) I think Aika, and Shin Cutie Honey, are more faithful to the source material and not afraid of showing a little T&A and sexual innuendo here and there.

And there you have it fellow connoisseurs, Gunsmith Cats! Make sure you read the Manga to get the missing potential the OVA didn't have.

  Here's the original 1995 trailer:

 

 

Here's the opening in full HD as taken from the Blu Ray: