Based on a popular manga by Kenichi Sonoda, this three-part original animation video follows the adventures of two outrageous heroines: crack shot and part-time bounty hunter Rally Vincent and her blond sidekick, Minnie Ma... more »y Hopkins, who specializes in explosives. They operate a gun shop on an otherwise quiet Chicago side street and share a suburban house that resembles an arsenal. Bill Collins, an officer with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, draws the duo against their will into an investigation of a gunrunning ring. The operation begins with a simple stakeout but grows darker and more violent as Rally, Minnie May, and Bill take on Major Radinov, a former KGB agent turned freelance assassin, who insists on being paid in heroin. Radinov murders government agents, informants, and the chief of the Chicago ATF with steely indifference. She leads Rally and Minnie May in a high-speed car chase that gives new meaning to the term road rage, then plays a deadly game of cat and mouse in an old Beaux Arts building. Handsomely designed and skillfully executed, Gunsmith Cats is slick, fast-paced, and extremely violent. Director Takeshi Mori builds suspense and tension so effectively, he imbues the shootouts and stabbings with an impact many gorier anime series lack. Not rated; suitable for ages 16 and up for occasional profanity and explicit violence. --Charles Solomon« less
nogana_naishi | Calgary, Alberta Canada | 03/19/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"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!"
Explosion-packed entertainment
Steven Myers | SF Bay Area | 04/05/2001
(4 out of 5 stars)
"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)."
Girls, guns, girls, bombs, girls, cars, girls...
James M. Stafford III | Houston, TX USA | 10/20/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"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."
Solid Bit of Action Anime
Collector | USA | 02/15/2005
(5 out of 5 stars)
"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!"
The K-Daddy Anime DVD
nijhazer | Prattville, AL United States | 09/23/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"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."