Customer Reviews

Coyote Ragtime Show: Complete Box Set

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's been several weeks since I watched this anime and I still can't believe how disappointed I am to have spent several hours watching a series that started on a great premise, which was a game of cat and mouse between two female detectives and a renowned space-pirate called Mister, but then became, as the episodes went on, a total failure.

Now I know this comment seems rude, when you consider this series' excellent visuals, whether in its color palettes, its character designs, its 3d compositing, and also in its animation as the animators experiment with their timing to produce some excellent intervals and takes, even going to animate, on certain episodes, their characters' mouths according to their dialogues and their syllables. Also, the studio responsible for all these great visuals, named Ufotable, once again present to us their excellent visual trademark in their end credits, as the characters are animated in stop-motion instead of the usual cell animation. In the end, this studio really knows how to make some great animation.

However, I wish that their writing staff had given the same quality to their scripts for I think they did a horrible mistake when they decided to go from the two detectives (Angelica and Chelsea) point-of-view to Mister's and his crew. Unlike Angelica and Chelsea, whose adventures in the first episode were great, Mister and his mates were uninteresting and incredibly stupid. Just like the reviewer E. Lacerna "Nicknamesbeststupid", I felt Mister and his friends were trying too much to be like Cowboy Bebop when they did not even had the talent or the intelligence Spike and his friends had.

Not only that, this anime had a storyline, which could have fitted over a few episodes, that the writers dragged on over twelve episodes. The whole series!
Instead of getting a condensed, but exciting adventure from Mister's jail break to the planet Graceland in just three or four episodes, the writers decided to show us the most boring details, which is Mister trying to get all his crewmates while bragging on about his ridiculous and naive ideals about the Coyote life, which seemed to me like a childish and naive vision on a pirate life without even considering the truthful and dangerous risks someone has to take when doing that kind of job. Not only that, the writers forced us to witness the other characters situations, whether it is Madame Marciano and her conflicts with her Criminal Guild, or Bruce Dochley's robbery during the fourth episode which was as a total waste of time that didn't even bring anything to the story.

Personally, I believe the writers should have completed their Graceland storyline in at least three or four episodes. So that after that, they could have showed us more adventures between Mister and his friends, while being pursued by Angelica Burns, but also living the consequences of their robbery on Graceland, not only with Lady Marciano's girls, after what they did to their mother in the finale, but also from the other political leaders with whom they got involved with. Also, if I had been one of the writer's, I would have tried to found another reason for Angelica Burns to pursuit Mister instead of the ridiculous reason she gives to her colleague Chelsea in the eleventh episode.

In the end, what started on as a great series in its first episode became, thanks to some incredible lack of seriousness in its writing, a disappointing Anime to its viewers, and a story that insults its very own characters, whom I believed never got to show their full potentials.

I'll start by saying that I watched this anime on a whim. I hadn't heard much about it, and what I did hear about it didn't make it seem worth the time. I finaly got the opportunity to check it out, and boy am I glad. Coyote Ragtime show is a serious action anime. It's like Oceans Eleven meets Cowboy Bebop meets Point Break. There is action every single step of the way. There are only 12 episodes in the series but they feel like they are an hour long each because so much happens in one episode. The story mainly focuses on a bandit named Mister and his quest to find the treasure of his long time friend.

The twist of the story is that he is a bandit seeking treasure, but this treasure he is after is really the inheritance that was left behind for the daughter of his late friend that whom was left to his care. Throughout the story you get to see that there is honor amongst these theives and that they value the bonds they share over the loot that they steal.

The anime artwork is excellent, and for the most part the characters have been portrayed very well. The plot is what makes coyote ragtime worth watching. In this anime you don't have the typical cop chase scenario. In this one it's a gang of bandits running from an overly obsessive federal agent, and a mad woman with her army of soldiers and android assasins. It's not so much a 12 episode gun chase seen, when you get to look at each character and the relationships they have with one another. My only problem with the anime is that it doesn't show much the motives behind the villian "Mother". She commands an endless army of troopers and android assasins, but you know little about where she came from or why she is doing what she does. She really is a mystery to the end. That was the biggest issue I had with the anime. Other than that it was a great series to watch. Mostly the Coyote gang get into impossible situations and your always asking yourself "how are they going to overcome this" as you sit through all 12 episodes. I really reccomend this if your looking for a good action anime. It's short, but for the action and story its well worth it!

Let's start off by saying that the first episode of this show was absolutely brilliant. It had everything: an engaging setting, intriguing plot, intelligent (if slightly gluttonous) protagonist, spunky sidekick, and killer robot maids. The animation was wonderfully done, and the story's pace was smooth and quick. By the time the first episode ended, I was SALIVATING for more.

... and then, I watched the second episode. Everything fell apart after that.

The worst mistake the show made, in my opinion, was switching protagonists from the space detective Angelica to the space pirate/bandit/whatever Mister. If they had stuck with the former, then the show would have stayed in the wonderful sort of cat-and-mouse chase that the first episode pulled off so well. It would have been like a Lupin III, but in space. Instead, we get a show whose main cast (Mister and his band of merry cayote-outlaws) spending the entire series trying WAY too hard to be the Cowboy Bebop gang. After the brilliant first episode, the cast stops being smart, the plotlines veer off to somewhere between "irritatingly cliche" and "boring as hell," and the villains just get plain irksome.

If you have the money to spare, I suppose this set is worth it just to watch the great first episode, as well as seeing the Twelve Sisters in action. It's quite unfortunate, since it showed so much promise in the beginning.

"Bullets, Blades, Bombs, Beauty, Boobs," is what reads on the backside of the box set. Anything that has to resort to this viciously tacky form of marketing has to be bad. And worse yet it's false advertisement, the series isn't nearly as lewd as that presents it to be, not in the least. I can't recall any of the women showing so much as cleavage.

The discs are each stored in their own case; similar to the slim, inexpensive cases you see used on illegal reproductions of copyrighted material. Most of Funimation's box sets include these, and I've personally no problem with that, but not much thought was put into the layout of this particular box set, as there clearly has been in the layout of other Funimation box sets.

At most the series offers a good time; good animation and several action sequences. There is no quality in its foundation, framework or contents (i.e. background, plot, characters). I enjoyed the recount of the legendary "Pirate King", but even it, like the rest of the series felt like a brief summary. It cut right to the chase and as a result lacked depth.

Genre: Action, Adventure, Science Fiction

Theme: Space, Pirates, Treasure Hunting, Girls with Guns

Contains All 12 Episodes

If you've seen Outlaw star than you'll probably like this series as well short as it was. The series follows the adventure of a group of pirates known as Coyotes. The characters are Mister(An old time space pirate known throughout the galaxy for pulling off amazing capers), Franca Dockley(The young daughter of the most famous pirate who was known as Pirate King Bruce but was betrayed and killed by someone he knew), Katana(The Coyote's pilot and technician), Bishop(An intelligent hacker), and along the way the coyote's team up with another friend of Pirate King Bruce Swamp Gordon(A former pirate now turned angelic preacher). Also in the series you have two females one a federal agent and her naive helper trying to track down and arrest the coyotes, and than you have the main villain Madame Marciano who has a dark past with Mister and has a horrendous amount of hate for Mister and was the one who killed Pirate King Bruce. What also gave the series a lot of action were the twelve android sisters who are named after the months of the year as well who have unwavering devotion and loyalty to their "Mother Marciano". The series is mostly about trying to find the money that the pirate king stole from the galaxy bank and trying to get to it first, of course there are a few side story-plots as well but you'll probably won't really care to much for those as you're going to be more interested in the confrontation between Mister and Madame Marciano. The video is clear and sharp which you expect for recent animes and the voice cast for the Japanese/English cast did a superb job. The series is only twelve episodes and for the price a little iffy but if you like sci-fi action animes this one won't disappoint....