NoaIzumiManga Review: Gunsmith Cats Burst
March 31st 2009 21:34
They’re back! Rally, Minnie-May, Becky, and Bean Bandit have returned to the pages of manga in a whole new series. Rally goes up against the mob for a million-dollar payday, and Bean has to deal with an old adversary who’s out for blood.
The long-awaited sequel to Gunsmith Cats is here! Everybody is back in the follow-up to the classic manga. Structurally, the second series is similar to the first, starting with a few short stories, then moving into an involved story arc that sees Rally after a mafia accountant and her beloved GT500 Cobra in jeopardy.
Unlike the first series, this one focuses on Bean Bandit as much as it does Rally. Almost the whole second volume deals with the story of him being double-crossed by a ruthless client and then finding an old nemesis on his tail. Inspector Percy from Detroit (a character from the OVA Riding Bean) has a beef with Bean from way back for his constant escapes from the law, during which several police cars, and Percy’s pride, were turned into wreckage. The inspector has tracked Bean to Chicago and now wants Bean’s head. Percy is fun enough in an over-the-top kind of way, and is certainly a determined bastard, but he just does not make a credible opponent for Bean. He provides some comic relief, but he’s a little too ruthless to be a credible comic character either (at one point he threatens an informant’s family; in another scene he hires Palestinian terrorists to kill Bean with an RPG). And the afro he wears for the road race in Volume 3 just makes him look ridiculous.
Bean himself is great to watch as usual, but his promotion to co-main character is another minor weakness of Burst. He’s super-cool and unbeatable in the action scenes, but he’s just not as compelling of a character as Rally or May. I’ve heard it said that a character is most interesting when he’s at his most vulnerable, and while we’ve seen both Rally and May on the verge of defeat, we’ve never seen Been in a situation like that (although the volume “Bean Bandit” from the original series did come close). And more importantly, we can’t even imagine him in a situation like that, because he’s just too powerful. And even though he’s not completely emotionless, we could never see him getting weepy or distraught over anything, because he’s just not that type of person. Bean Bandit will never be a fully dimensional character like Rally or May, because he’s not completely human.
That all being said, GSC Burst is a worthy successor to the original. It has the shoot-outs and car chases that made the original impossible to put down, and, as a bonus, includes several little snippets on guns and gun use. As with the original, reading Burst is like taking a course in firearms and muscle cars. It’s good to know that Sonoda-san has not given up his obsessions.
Gunsmith Cats Burst wrapped up in Japan recently and spans the equivalent of six volumes. The first three volumes have been translated into English by Dark Horse Comics, and I just heard that after a looong hiatus, the fourth volume is going to hit U.S. shelves in a few months (Yaaaayyyy!), hopefully soon to be followed by the fifth and sixth.
Geeking out: Readers of the original GSC will notice that the sign over Rally’s gun shop has been changed. And does Percy remind anyone else of Hosuke Kano, the genius/resistance leader/dirty old man of Cannon God Exaxxion (another of Sonoda’s works)?
Great moments: Rally’s reaction at the end of the first major story arc is priceless. The look on her face tells the reader that she hasn’t just lost a piece of equipment, she’s lost a member of her family.
Summary: Not quite as good as the original, but still a great follow-up in every regard. Grade: A minus.
Age rating: 16 and up. Very similar to Gunsmith Cats in this department, with fan service, nudity, and violence.
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