Back to the Vaults: Gunsmith Cats OVA Review

More years ago than I care to remember, I watched an Anime Music Video that had a scene showing two girls angrily flipping off someone. As such, I made it my mission to find out what anime that scene came from. When I learned it was Gunsmith Cats OVA, I immediately picked up a copy to watch this three episode gem.

Note: I originally reviewed this on the Community Anime Review site back on June 12, 2008. I also did episode breakdowns that can be found here.

The Story, in Brief

Rally Vincent and her short partner May nab reported drug runner Jonathan Washington as part of a bounty. However, they learn from their informant, Becky, that Washington may not be what the government claimed. Meanwhile, Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) agent Bill Collins comes by the Gunsmith Cats store. He extorts them into helping the government with a gunrunning case.

Rally makes a deal with the still imprisoned Washington. She bails him out and goes to the warehouse to buy his weapons. Washington has Bill and demands Rally kill him. Instead, she starts a gun battle that results in Washington’s arrest. However, since Washington knows a great deal about who’s behind the gunrunning, Bill has him placed into a safe house. Bill tries to get Rally to help him, so he passes a watch and paper to May.

A former Soviet KGB agent Natasha, using a copy of Bill’s key card, assassinates Washington. Becky decodes what Bill provided them–a backdoor to a porn site that contained ledgers for arms transactions.  When Rally and May investigate a yacht club warehouse, gunrunners attempt to nab them. In the confusion, Natasha kidnaps May. However, May’s explosive expertise allows her to escape.

Meanwhile, ATF chief George Black works with Chicago mayoral candidate Edward Haints to push for more gun control. In reality, Natasha works for Haints. He wants Rally and May killed at his political rally to push this message. The girls agree to come to be thanked for their recent efforts. However, Natasha fails to kill them, leading to a desperate cat and mouse confrontation.

Original Story?

Folks can correct me in the comments if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that Gunsmith Cats OVA is not an adaptation of any manga story. Rather it is a unique story, spread over three, thirty-minute episodes. Not only that, but the series makes an excellent gateway into the franchise. One doesn’t need to have read the manga or know the characters there. Right out of the gate, we understand Rally and May’s relationship as friends and business partners. Not only that, Rally is the gun and car chick, while May is the explosive chick. More on that in a bit.

While this series does have some cameos from the manga (though not Bean Bandit), again, I never felt like really missed anything before. However, I will admit that I did want to know more about all of these characters and their backstories. But, the writing for this OVA series is good enough that it can get away with not telling the audience everything. Instead, it shows us all we need to know.

That and the gorgeous nature of the animation is probably why this short series is loved so much, even if it isn’t an adaptation of a manga story.

May and Rally

I really love May and Rally, thanks to how they are portrayed in Gunsmith Cats OVA. May can sometimes steal the show since she can be a bit mischievous. For example, when the ATF arranged for May and Rally’s nice, suburban home to be burgled, Rally went about things in a business like manner. However, May goes for the grenades and explosives, delighting in the idea of blowing up the burglars.

Another great moment came from when Natasha kidnapped May. I mean, what’s a little C4 to be used for if not to escape a kidnapping? Yes, what May did was really not realistic, but seeing the C4 on the back of the car to blow out the window made me chuckle at the unexpected aspect of the moment. And since Rally knows May so well, she was able to grab her.

I also liked how May and Rally disliked the government and the ATF. That was the moment where they flipped off the departing Bill, after he forced them to work for him. The chemistry between the two characters comes off well in the Japanese audio.

While this OVA does service May and Rally a few times, thankfully, it doesn’t go into the more sexual aspects that the source manga delves into.

Not Japan in Chicago

One of my issues with anime/manga titles set outside of Japan is that the writers just use the setting, then make everyone act like Japanese folks would. However, that is not the case with Gunsmith Cats OVA. While there were a relative few uses of Japanese honorifics to address folks, everything else felt very much like America. Indeed, I’ve read that the production team actually went to Chicago to get it right. That was MUCH appreciated.

I gotta say, this OVA looks gorgeous. The attention to detail is amazing, and in my opinion, looks better than modern day anime titles. When we see Rally’s Shelby Cobra GT500 racing through the streets of Chicago, it astonished me on how well this was animated. Not only that, but the roar of the engine supposedly came from a real GT500.

Gun Control Plot

When it comes to guns and such, I’ve seen Japan take an exaggerated view of how guns are in America. However, for Gunsmith Cats OVA, things are portrayed in a manner similar to what one would have seen from late 80s/early 90s Hollywood action films. That aside, it amused me that the series is set in Chicago, where today, gun violence is out of control despite having such strict gun control laws.

Nevertheless, what made this gun control plot interesting is how hiding behind ending gun violence was a cover to sell guns on the black market. There’s nothing preachy about the story, which is nice. The story simply depicts a corrupt politician and a corrupt head of the ATF. Frankly, as corrupt as I consider the government today, I can easily believe such a plot.

The only bad thing about this three episode series is that the third episode has to rapidly wrap up things. The first two episode nicely build up a mystery as to who’s running guns. Unfortunately, the last episode decides to kill the mystery fairly quickly. Thus episode 3 devolves into a mere action piece, which is still good. However, I would have liked Becky to have uncovered the corruption rather than the episode just say, “Hey, here are your villains.”

Finally, the conflict between Natasha and Rally was pretty cool, even if Natasha had some massive, cliched moments.

Final Thoughts and Conclusion

Let me wrap up my review with some final thoughts.

• I’m lead to understand that Sonoda-sensei meant for Rally to use the name “Larry”. I can understand why, but it would have been cringe in English. So I’m glad Rally was used in the West.
• Sadly, Gunsmith Cats OVA is out of print. AnimEigo did a crowd funded thing a couple of years ago. Irritatingly, this did NOT result in the series coming out to the general public. Today, I’m told that there’s a rights issue in Japan. Whether it is because the Japanese don’t want to license it, or because the rights are in limbo like the Dragonball franchise, I don’t know.

In the end, Gunsmith Cats OVA is a beautiful, short OVA series with a fun, action packed story.