NoaIzumiAnime Review: Riding Bean
April 1st 2009 22:39
Need a quick getaway from a bank heist? Need some merchandise delivered fast without those peaky authorities poking their noses in? Just call Bean Bandit, the best driver in Chicago. He’ll handle it, guaranteed --- for a price. Be sure to bring enough cash, and don’t ever, ever, EVER, double-cross him.
This was where it all began. First released in 1989, Riding Bean focuses on a familiar character from Gunsmith Cats, but predates both the Gunsmith Cats manga and the OVA. You might call it the equivalent of an unaired pilot episode, and GSC fans will want to see it just for that. Bean is instantly recognizable as Chicago’s greatest get-away driver with a soft spot for kids. Rally Vincent is here too, but as Bean’s partner, and a blonde, although her skill with guns is as great as her later incarnation’s. Fans will also recognize the “Buff”, Bean’s custom-made race car.
However, if you’ve seen or read Gunsmith Cats first, which you probably have, you may find Riding Bean disappointing (at least I did). It’s not that it’s bad. The action is pretty good, including the two or three car chases that include lots of police and an obsessed detective named Percy. But the car chase from Gunsmith Cats: Bulletproof is still better than any of them.
Character development isn’t great, but you don’t expect much from a forty-minute OVA, so, no biggie. Bean and Rally are the classic criminals-with-a-code-of- honor.
The story is on the mediocre side. It’s fairly intricate, with Bean providing getaway services for a couple of bank robbers which turns out to be a set-up for an elaborate frame-up job. But when Bean and Rally track down the woman that framed them, they’re only able to find her through an incredibly lucky coincidence, and an error on the framer’s part that doesn’t mesh with her earlier meticulous planning, although the creators do attempt to explain that as simple over-confidence. The dialogue is kinda flat, too.
The subplot with Percy is there mainly for comedy. The detective is the equivalent of Zenigata to Bean’s Lupin, and if the story had been made into a series (which the creators were reportedly hoping for), we would have seen more of him. Which would have been nice, had it happened. Percy is definitely on the cartoonish side, but even Zenigata had his moments, and a further exploration of his character might have been interesting. Actually, that happened in Gunsmith Cats Burst, which resurrects Percy as Bean’s nemesis and gives him a decidedly darker tint. I still prefer Roy Coleman from Gunsmith Cats.
Looking at Riding Bean, it has all the elements needed to be a good, fun forty minutes. But in practice, it just winds up not quite living up to its potential.
Geeking out: The chase scenes ending with wrecked police cars are at least partially inspired by similar scenes in The Blues Brothers.
Extras: Original trailer, image gallery
Summary: Not bad, with a solid main character, and recommended for action fans, but suffers from the inevitable comparison to Gunsmith Cats. Grade: B
Age rating: 15 and up. Nudity, fan service, bloody violence, an implied lesbian relationship with an underage girl.
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