Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Gunsmith Cats

Gunsmith Cats; Animated action comedy series, Japan, 1995; D: Takeshi Mori, S: Michiko Neya, Kae Araki, Aya Hisakawa, Hochu Otsuka, Daisuke Gori

Chicago. They are everything but harmless girls: Rally, a specialist for guns, and May, a blond bomb lover, are owners of a local gun store. Their "modest" life ends miserably when police detective Bill puts them under pressure in order to help him catch some smugglers. In a very dangerous attempt in a storehouse, Rally and Bill manage to catch the gang thanks to the police back up, but the case isn't closed: the Chief of police is involved in the affair, who gets killed by Russian female assassin Ladinov. She then goes after Gunsmith Cats, but they know how to defend themselves, killing her in a building.

3 episodes of the OVA adapted from a manga by Kenichi Sonoda, "Gun Smith Cats" are vastly made but excellently animated and presented adventures. The story is the weak spot since it's just reduced to quick, albeit fun mainstream action, while it's flow isn't convincing. However, the lazy lives of heroines Rally and May who are as sweet as much as they are dangerous, captured some over human vibe in their anime genre. Though they are arms freaks, they actually live restrained lives, many despise them so they occasionally say: "We have to be strong if we want to survive here", while director Takeshi Mori lets himself enchant them with wonderful personality. They are optimistic and cheerful, in embarrassing situations they react headstrong (after detective Bill blackmails them into helping him on his case and leaves their store, they "greet" him with their middle fingers behind his back) whereas it's hard to find such characters outside Japan that have such a charm it can't be followed. One of the "lighter" and simpler animes of the 90s, "Gunsmith Cats" are a super-fast cult product without deeper ambitions, an amusing 'guilty pleasure' full of stupid jokes (for instance, Rally banishes burglars from her house in her undergarment, but is afterwards ashamed when Bill spots her like that) while the heroines are simply irresistibly cute.


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