The GSC OVA centres around Rally and May, of course, who are assisted by their informant, Becky. The Cats' policeman friend Roy makes a token appearance in the third chapter, but the OVA blatantly lacks Misty and Bean.
Bean would have fit perfectly into the story presented, and Misty, well, she actually lives with the Cats, so why is their household reduced to two people? Unfortunately, I can't find any source to indicate when Misty came into the manga, and it is probable that this was written before that.
This is as far as my problems with the conversion and the OVA go. The rest is smooth sailing.
The first place where they went right is with the casting. All of the voices fit the characters perfectly, bringing them to life. It's almost as if they'd had those voices all along.
Michiko Neya provides a strong, serious Rally who also has a soft side.
Araki Kae provides the world with the perfect Minnie May. Seriously. From now on, when you envisage perfection, you should see Araki Kae as Minnie May Hopkins. This marriage of seiyuu to character is so full of kawaii, I'm afraid that the world just might explode with all of the joy provided.
Hisakawa Aya plays the wonderfully hard put upon Becky with great skill. The constant yelling, the satisfaction in her voice; who could resist?
For a long time after Gunsmith Cats, Aya constantly invited Kae and Neya onto her radio show for them to talk and produce GSC radio drama- a friendship similar to that of Hayashibara Megumi and Mitsuishi Kotono.
With a cast of such high standings, how could they go wrong? They couldn't. The voice work in this series is extremely well done. Soumi Yoko turns in a good performance as Radinov, as well- and I suspect that it's difficult to speak Japanese with a Russian accent.
None of the cast do a good job of sounding American, but I don't particularly care. GSC is a delight to listen to anyway. A particularly enjoyable juxtaposition in my opinion is the Japanese dialogue partnered with the American cop show music. This just adds to the experience that is GSC.
If you wish to detract from the experience that is GSC, watch the dub. It is inferior in every conceivable way. Please, stay away from it.
The art direction involved in GSC is nothing short of amazing. The dedication that went into getting everything just right about Chicago, the guns and the Shelby Cobra is admirable.
Gunsmith Cats: Chapter Zero, the documentary that accompanies the DVD shows the processes involved in getting the OVA to be perfect. A large creative team went to Chicago, researched the gun scene that intrigues the Japanese so much (at one store, the camera lingers on a sign next to a gun reading "Rent me!"), visited the police and did some general location scouting.
Hitoshi Doi, somewhat of an internet celebrity for his intense devotion to seiyuu, says that he was there himself. If anyone does see him when they watch it, please tell me.
The only problem with the art direction is that as of the third episode, the character designs are switched from that of Sonada Kenichi to Matsubara Tokuhiro. Matsubara's designs aren't bad by any stretch- but they aren't Sonada's, and I like consistency.
The story of GSC is never dull. Layers are continually added to the plot as it progresses. More mystery is presented. People may like to pretend that GSC is all just a bunch of shallow action with no plot, but the action comprises a tiny portion of a program which to me appears to be all about plot building. At any rate, I found it to be intriguing and was always interested in what was happening.
What starts as a simple bounty on the head of a gun runner progressively gets deeper and more dangerous for the Cats. Jonathan Washington, a gun runner, has a bounty on his head. He skipped bail so that he could sell enough guns to pay for it (yes, it's a novel idea- commit more of your crime to get you out of jail for committing the crime). The ATF (bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms) blackmails the Cats into getting Washington out again as they feel that the ring runs deeper than it first appears to be. Rally and May begrudgingly accept and somehow manage to rope Becky into their troubles.
That is the basic set up behind GSC. More happens, the story moves ahead rapidly, but I am loathe to spoil the fun here. Because that's exactly what GSC is; fun. Three different kinds of fun, in fact. It was designed so that each of the chapters would present a different style of action. Chapter One is gunfighting. Chapter Two is car driving. Chapter Three is a one on one game of cat and mouse.
GSC is strengthened by the characters. Rally, May and Becky are a trio of delights. Bill Collins, the pathetic ATF agent written specially for the OVA, is a likable bumbling fool who doesn't seem to have any sense of subtlety. And Radinov practically steals the show with her red and green hair, her bullet proof coat and her knife gun.
Simply put, GSC is great.
In Gunsmith Cats we have an enjoyable OVA adaptation of a popular manga series.
It's not vastly challenging anime, but it is enjoyable none the less.
Home.