Customer Reviews

Gunsmith Cats - Bulletproof

5 star:		(22)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

About five years ago, I had rented the VHS versions of Gunsmith Cats and really enjoyed the series. I just recently bought the DVD, and it is already one of my most prized items in my anime collection!!!

This may be a series created by the Japanese, but the portrayal of Chicago is VERY realistic - the atmosphere of the city has been captured almost flawlessly. But great detail is also afforded to the vast array of weapons, as well as to the main car of the series (a Shelby Cobra GT500). The attention to sound is spectacular, especially when the action sequences are played at a rather loud volume.

This is one of the best-constructed DVDs I have ever seen. The menus are easy to navigate, with animation sequences and related sounds attached to nearly every menu selection. Like many anime DVDs sold in North America, English audio and Japanese audio/English subtitles are available. The "Extras" section has a number of offerings, including a special "Making of" documentary (which itself should win awards) and a creditless opening sequence (which is also part of the "Making of" documentary).

Gunsmith Cats is certainly one of the best anime titles to have been brought across the Pacific. This is a prime choice for those new to anime, and an excellent upgrade for those who have previously seen only the videotape versions.

Gun Smith Cats finally arrives on DVD with a blast. If GSC was released by any other company than ADVision, they would treat it like a random volume of any old series. The menus would average, the extras would be all but nonexistent, and it just wouldn't look as damn good as this DVD does. ADVision always outdoes itself each time it releases a new DVD, whether it is part of an ongoing series or a small OVA series as in this case, and this is no exception. Gun Smith Cats is a three part OVA series based on the manga by the same name. Rally Vincent and Minnie May are two lethal female bounty hunters who run a gun shop on the side. Rally is a gun freak, and despite her innocent appearance, Minnie May is a master of explosives. The duo get blackmailed into helping ATF office William Collins shut down a gunrunning operation, and that's when the fun starts.

GSC is beautifully animated, with attention paid to every little detail. The original staff took two trips to Chicago to make sure every aspect was correctly drawn. Over 100 actual guns are accurately portrayed during these three episodes. Rally and Minnie May's car was drawn from an actual model driven around in a Hollywood studio. It's small details like this that add to the experience of watching these episodes. It actually feels like they take place in Chicago. ADVision wonderfully cast the voice actors for the English dubbed version, which is quite surprising. I actually enjoyed listening to the English language track just as much as to the Japanese track.

The DVD features are plentiful. There is a 20-minute long Making Of Gun Smith Cats feature, showing all the details that went into making these three episodes. There are also the three original trailers for the show that ADV ran on VHS tapes when they were originally released. ADV also threw in an image gallery and 6 trailers for other ADV titles on DVD. The menus are wonderfully animated by ADV. Unlike some companies, they don't just cut and paste a few seconds from the show and paste a very average menu on top of it. A lot of work was put into these menus, and it shows.

All I can say now is buy it, buy it, buy it! You won't be disappointed!

Gunsmith Cats, boiled down to its essentials, is girls, guns, and grenades. Based on the manga (comic) of the same name, Gunsmith Cats is set in a surprisingly realistic Chicago and features the bounty hunter/gunsmith Rally Vincent and her grenade-obsessed partner, May Hopkins. This disc, which contains all three episodes which were made, tells a complete (and violent) story involving gunrunners, the ATF (a federal law enforcement agency), and the ATF agent who coerces Rally and May into aiding the woefully-ineffective investigation.

The content is largely true to the comic, if you've read it; if not, it is extremely violent, with bullets, bombs, knives, grenades all joining in the mayhem. All of the action sequences are well done; unlike most shows, animated or not, the creators took some care to get the look and feel of the weapons right (as is shown in the included making of documentary on the disc). The car chases, too, show this level of care. Those who like action and don't mind it bloody will find a lot to like here. There is also enough humor sprinkled in to keep the violence from become monotonous. On the down side, the show does find the heroines frequently in their underwear without any real reason and some unnecessarily lingering shots pop up. There is also some incidental nudity on a computer monitor in two episodes (nothing significant, but it is there, for those who are concerned with such things).

Gunsmith Cats is exactly what you're looking for if you like the girls with guns genre. A three episode anime series with solid animation and great action sequences. It's something I like to watch when I need a break from other long winded series. Gunsmith Cats is short, sweet, and straight to the action. I love it!

ADV is one of the largest publishers of anime DVDs in this country-- so much that even though ADV stands for "AD Vision", I am convinced it now means "Anime Digital Video". However, most of the releases I've seen of theirs have very poor video quality-- very grainy, sometimes blurry, and in most cases no more episodes per disc than any other publisher will give you. Extras on their discs are usually few and far between.

With that in mind, the DVD of Gunsmith Cats is so amazingly good I can still hardly believe this is an ADV title. I haven't seen anything from them since which measures up to this-- from ADV or any other studio (with the exception of Buena Vista Home Video).

What's most immediately apparent about this DVD is the video quality-- it's absolutely stunning. This is so partly because the artwork in Gunsmith Cats is some of the most crisp, colorful, and well-defined in any anime of the past ten years, and partly because ADV seems to have acquired a very good transfer of the film. As anime goes, this is probably a better reference title than Princess Mononoke; the transfer in Mononoke is slightly better, yet the artwork here is more detailed, and so the quality of the transfer is more apparent.

A Japanese language track and an English dub are included. The dub is done by Industrial Smoke and Mirrors, ADV's own studio, and Gunsmith Cats is actually one of the best projects they've done (it was also one of the first). The acoustics for the voices are more accurate here than in some of ADV's other titles (namely Blue Seed), and the actual audio quality is on par with most other anime DVDs.

Unlike other ADV titles, Gunsmith Cats actually does include some worthwhile extras. For the blithering Otakus of this country, a completely worthless credit-less opening is included; more importantly, though, is the making-of feature which includes interviews with the original Japanese artists and voice cast. Making-of featurettes are commonplace among most mainstream DVDs, yet in the realm of anime DVDs they are an extreme rarity.

Gunsmith Cats can be thought of as a ninety-minute film divided into three sections. Originally, all three sections were shown on television at different times. They're all collected here into one volume to form something rare in the realm of anime DVDs-- a complete and self-contained feature, and a very good one at that. Take the first Lethal Weapon, tone down the humor, replace Riggs and Murtaugh with a couple of cute gun bunnies, and you pretty much have the essence of Gunsmith Cats-- a very well-produced anime styled after some of the best American action films.

For anime fans, this DVD is the ultimate reference piece. For everyone else, you may find Gunsmith Cats more entertaining than you were expecting. In any case, go ahead and pick this one up.

GUNSMITH CATS is a fantastic three-episode Anime series that will have you in fits of laughter one minute and breathless with suspense the next. It is a great rollercoaster ride.

The story concerns two street-savvy young women from Chicago; Rally Vincent and Minnie May Hopkins. Together they run the over-the-counter gun shop Gunsmith Cats and also are available for hire as crime-fighters.

This fantastic three-part series is a great and entertaining adventure. As the girls fight druglords and pimps, they end up being pursued by a lethal Russian hit-woman and in fear of their lives.

The voice of Rally Vincent is provided in the dubbed version by veteran Anime voice artist Amanda Winn, who has also dubbed for NEON GENESIS EVANGELION and SUKEBAN DEKA.

The DVD includes the original Japanese making-of documentary and various trailers and TV spots for the series.

I really enjoyed this one. There are a few points that i will deal with in turn.

First the animation. Character, car and gun animation are really well done. I know from the extras section that the animation team spent a great deal of time on gun detail. Mr Sonoda's attention to detail in this department is apparent eveywhere. The main characters themselves seem well developed and interesting, with the exception of Bill Collins. However it suits him since the writers obviously meant for him to be a bit of a jerk.

The sound is also very good. I cannot comment on the Dolby surround since i use earphones, but i was impressed.

The story and plot also deserve a mention. It is not too complex but is good enough to keep you busy. It was (like the manga) based on the old american cop shows of the 80's and 90's and it really has that feel to it. Plenty of action and even a car chase scene!

Lastly the dub and subtitles. The dub is decent and does not seem to do any damage to the story. There is one occasion where the dub takes liberties with the english language to make the lips match the words. Other than that it's okay. The subs seem ok. However there is one scene where Radinov speaks russian and the sub comes up in Japanese, on top of the english writing. It was a bit annoying.

All things considered i enjoyed this film very much. I can reccomend this to any anime fan as well as anyone who enjoys a good cop show.

"Bulletproof" is an excellent animated version of the Gunsmith Cats manga. While the storyline is original, ample homage is paid to signature bits from the manga. Big warehouse shootouts and intense car chases are staples of the manga, and both are represented here to strong effect. The series doesn't match the intensity of the printed page, in terms of action, violence, or sexual titillation, but viewers are unlikely to be disappointed. Readers of the anime will enjoy seeing the characters brought to life, and first-timers will find an excellent introduction to these characters.

The animation is well done, although the character designs seem to grow lazier and sloppier in the second and third episodes. Voice acting is decent, but the male detective character, unique to the animated version, is excessively irritating, especially in English. The English dub also throws in some unnecessarily suggestive moans where none exist in the original.

Despite these problems, the English dub may hold some appeal even for purists, since the series is set in Chicago. Watching obviously Japanese characters speak dubbed English can be distracting in other anime, but it's equally strange to watch characters in the U.S. speak Japanese.

Unusually strong set of extras for an anime DVD includes a cheaply-made yet informative making-of documentary.

Gunsmith Cats has been around for while, so one may automatically think at the top of their mind: "Oh no! It's so old! It may feel outdated watching now!" Have no fear! Gunsmith Cats settles the thirst of anyone to whom yearns for a solid anime series: new, creative, and intriguing. First off, unlike most Japanese anime series and manga, this series takes full place in the U.S. (Midwest/Chicago)and revolves around a full cast of American/English characters (sorry, but no Japanese characters with blonde hair or blue eyes here). Rally Vincent and Minnie May Hopkins are two nubile female owners of a gun shop, so when they're called in to do investigations regarding the recent murders from an unknown organization, they quickly leap into action, ready for battle. A three-part episode series (running approximately around 90 minutes or so total on dvd) Gunsmith Cats is an extremely impressive attempt from Kenichi Sonoda at recreating the surburban areas of Chicago (there are actually Amoco gas stations spotted in the series from time to time). Watching "Gunsmith Cats" may actually make a viewer forget that the series was actually done entirely in Japan. All in all however, Gunsmith Cats is a very in-debt (though rather violet and explicit at times) action-packed series that should be able to break any anime fan's (looking for something more than just Japanese characters with blonde hair and blue eyes similar to that of "Yu Gi Oh," or "Tenchi Muyo") thirst. Highly recommended.

If you like watching 70's type action shows, you would love this.Not only is the animation quality excellent, so is the music, sounds, and the locations are ACCURATE.If you decide to travel to Chicago, the places really DO exist.The thing is, the 2nd and 3rd episodes differ from the 1st.It's because the drawing style is different.Good storyline, plot is JUST like a regular action movie.I'm not one to spoil, so, "sayonara,minna*"

*minna-everyone