ガンスミスキャッツ

GUNSMITH CATS

OVA

STATUS
COMPLETE
EPISODES
3
RELEASE
September 1, 1996
LENGTH
29 min

DESCRIPTION

Rally Vincent knows her weapons well, while her partner Minne May Hopkins loves to play with explosives. The pair run a gun-shop illegally and one day Bill Collins of the ATF, blackmails Rally and Minnie May into working for the ATF. Little do they know, that they are getting involved in a mission larger than they could imagine.

(Source: Anime News Network)

CAST

Rally Vincent
Michiko Neya
Minnie May
Kae Araki
Becky Farrah
Aya Hisakawa
Nastasha Radinov
Youko Soumi
Bill Collins
Houchuu Ootsuka
Roy Coleman
Ikuya Sawaki
Jonathan Washington
Brett Weaver
Grey
Kenichi Ono
George Black
Daisuke Gouri
Haints Jyouin-giin
Seizou Katou
Cathy
Akiko Hiramatsu
Jody
Toranori Yoshikawa
Keikan
Youhei Tadano
Kate
Allison Keith-Shipp

Episodes (3)

Episodes are being prepared. Check back soon.

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REVIEWS

Wilza
83/100
Girls + Cars + Guns = Fun
This review is spoiler free.

I’m just gonna be upfront here: if you like pulp crime Gunsmith Cats is for you. Gunsmiths Cats is guns, cars, girls and explosions. If that sounds awesome (it is), then watch it. If I doesn’t, well, I don’t know what to tell ya…

Gunsmith Cats is pure pulp. At no moment does it take itself seriously, try to lay out a complex web, or delve deeply into the character’s complexities. Everything is perfectly written to exude this pulp feeling. The first bad guy we meet is called Jonathan Washington. The chief of police is called George Black. Yes, they sound dumb as hell. Yes, it’s awesome anyway.

The short little series is set in Chicago. Or, at least, what Chicago looks like to Japanese people – a fantastic establishing shot shows an ad of a business man and two kids that reads “I AM AN AMERICAN.” Chicagoan’s might disagree, but I think it nails the look of Chicago, if one that is sometimes slightly ridiculous. The iconic train lines of The Loop, the drawbridges, the grey skyscrapers. Perfect.
####_Like it or not, this is how America looks to the rest of us._
Our two main characters: Rally Vincent, the gun-wielding, mustang-driving badass, and Minnie May, the klutzy explosives expert who’s signature is a grenade with a lipstick kiss on it. The rest of our line up hits all the marks for a perfect crime set up, inducing the dodgy cop, Bill Collins, who blackmails our heroines into helping him with a bust.
####_"There's nothing to eat!"_
After that, you’re in for 90 minutes of crime, shooting and driving. There’s nothing more you could ask for. It’s so often spectacularly cliche, the plots twists and turns are so familiar it’s funny. And that’s exactly what this show is trying to be. This is what pulp is. It’s genius.

And on top of that, it looks and sounds fantastic. The animation is slick. Lots of attention has been paid to make the guns and cars look good. And Rally always follows correct gun safety. The work done on driving animation was remarkable. It’s hard to get driving looking as smooth as it does without CGI and yet it’s got a cracking car chase. The sound design was awesome. Apparently they even recorded audio of an actual Shelby Cobra GT-500 (Rally’s car). I believe it, the car sounded like music to my ears.
####_Even the number plate is awesome._
Negatives? I can't think of any. My only complaint is that there isn’t more. Gunsmith Cats is so much fun. I discovered this ages ago but put off watching this for a long time – don't be like me! It's 90 minutes! Just watch it!
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graze
60/100
A fun and stylish OVA series but ultimately a lesser entry of the girls-with-guns subgenre
This was good, but not really as good as I wanted it to be.

At first sight of the cool and stylish OP I thought whoa - this walked so Cowboy Bebop could run! Like Bebop, Gunsmith Cats takes a western influence and has main characters that operate alongside yet just outside the law. Episode 2 even has the concept of an action sequence driven by music. But with generic music and good-but-not-great editing, this didn't quite pull it off, whereas it became Bebop's signature.

Regarding the western influence, this was quite a faithful recreation of the crime/freelance investigator/internal affairs corruption that I've seen A LOT from Hollywood at this point. I think something would really have to work hard for me to find it distinctive and interesting. For example, scifi series like Bebop, The Big O and Bubblegum Crisis do very well to take those American/Hollywood influences and transform them into an interesting direction with a unique setting. But Gunsmith Cats is tied to the real world and a real America, by choice. Perhaps it's a sense of realism that doesn't really appeal to me.

I was hoping for more kickass girls-with-guns and this did deliver with likeable leads, stylish and playful character design, attention to detail with several chic outfits and a great supporting cast of women characters... elements that I love and look for from the 'girls-with-guns' subgenre. But something was a bit off. I think the writing wasn't quite there; May was cute but needed a character arc of her own and Rally was a bit too sensible and mostly irritable about the incompetence around her. There was also a bit too much male gaze with our leads in various states of undress/humiliation at least once an episode. Bubblegum Crisis and Dirty Pair are better examples of depicting heroines with more depth and dignity. To note, Kenichi Sonodo, that character designer of Bubblegum Crisis is the original creator of Gunsmith Cats, which I think is what lead me to want to watch this originally. And he definitely didn't disappoint with the character design.

Because of the American setting I tried the English dub, which was fine but I really didn't like May's voice actor so I switched back the the Japanese dub. But after hearing the English dub I realised just how young May's character was meant to be... she wasn't just petite, she's juvenile!

On a more personal note the depiction of gun culture, especially in ep 1, made me a bit uncomfortable which surprised me as I hadn't really felt that way about guns on screen before. Maybe it was the sense of realism, the uncritical, casual tone and depiction of guns as a source of independence for the female leads, through their gunsmith expertise and business.

Overall this is a very stylish, well-executed series that delivers a fun tale of crime and corruption but ultimately, its a lesser entry in the girls-with-guns subgenre.

You can comment on my review here
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