Coyote Ragtime Show, Volume 1 - Anime Kakumei

"animated with great care and surprisingly stunning visuals"

If there’s one thing we love as much as the hero saving the day, we all love to see the “honorable” outlaw pull one over on us. Lupin III taught us that it’s ok to love the rascal who does bad things, as long as he’s charming while he does it. Good people doing bad things for good causes, or even bad people doing bad things for the hell of it. We love to see it. Like Lupin III, Coyote Ragtime Show revolves around a cast of rascals who do bad things for the hell of it while making it look good. Unlike the Monkey Punch classic, it doesn’t quite have the panache nor the character to really succeed. Luckily, it’s production values save the hell out of it.

Studio: ADV Films
Genre: Action
Format: DVD
Length: 100 mins.
MSRP: $29.98

Features:
* English/Japanese 5.1
* Production Artwork
* Clean Opening/Closing

Originally airing in 2006 and directed by Takuya Nonaka, Coyote Ragtime Show revolves around an outlaw named Mister. A long time friend of the legendary Pirate King Bruce, Mister is on a personal mission to make sure that Bruce’s vast treasure is passed on to his daughter, Franca. He only has to evade Madame Marciano, head of the Criminal Guild and the woman responsible for the death of Bruce. She uses her personal army of gothic loli cosplaying killer androids to hunt him down across the galaxy as he races towards the planet Graceland. A planet embroiled in civil war and is scheduled to be destroyed entirely by the Milky Way Federation. He’s got seven days before the planet goes boom to avoid the androids, get to the planet, and solve Bruce’s riddle to attain the treasure.

I don’t know about you, but I was sold at “personal army of gothic loli cosplaying killer androids.” I’m sure if that was on the cover of the DVD, more people would have gave this series a chance.

CRS starts right out in a big way with a huge prison break episode that introduces the show’s only real stand out character, the sexy, smart, and metabolicly gifted (this woman can EAT), Federation investigator Angelica Burns. She is on a personal quest to track down Mister and thinks she has found the prison he’s located at. Before she can finally nab him, the prison comes under siege with a bomb threat locking the facility down. Then the brown stuff really hits the fan when Madame Marciano’s “12 Sisters” assassin squad shows up to shoot up ths place looking for Burn’s target. Like a true outlaw, Mister escapes amidst the chaos, setting out to pick up Franca and persue the treasure.

The show is full of such action set pieces. animated with great care and surprisingly stunning visuals. Bullets tear up the screen in a beautiful display across land and air as Marciano hunts down Mister and his crew aboard the spaceship slyly named, Coyote. The show looks great with sleek, attractive female designs, intricate settings, and all sorts of objects that look fantastic when they explode. Unfortunately, the action slows down, the characters start talking, and we’re all of sudden happy this show attained such a high production budget.

The characters that make up CRS are all pretty much one dimensional cutouts that really don’t do anything to make you want to like them. Mister is a guy who does bad things, but has a good heart. The honorable outlaw. One of those slick, lovable rascals whose only real stand out trait is the fact he’s actually a main character in a show that’s is in his mid-fourties. I guess you have the give the guy points for that. He’s just kind of there otherwise. Sadly, not the guy that Angelica somewhat admirably describes in the first episode.

His crew consists of “the genius” Bishop, “the mechanic” Katana, and a bit later, “the rival” Swamp. A pirate turned preacher with a stylin’ afro. He picks up Franca who fills in the role of “spunky girl” who thinks Mister is just using her for the treasure when it’s clearly obvious he just wants to hand it over to her. Making the probable ending to the series, academic. I could always be wrong though. Finally, there’s the “12 Sisters” group of killer androids, all named after their own month and all with their own special fetish so the fans have someone to latch on to. I personally like July; the always smiling, katana wielding badass of the group. Also my birth month. The creators knew what was up.

The show’s story is pretty basic “find the treasure” fare that serves well enough to move the show along. When everything is blowing up, there’s really not much of a need for an overly intricate plot. Plus, we’re dealing with Pirates here. It’s just their job to hunt down treasure right? While the show is light on anything that can be measured as substantial, it does have it’s moments. The best is the episode “Days Gone By.” It details Bruce’s biggest heist ever; stealing ten billion right under the nose of the biggest bank in the Milky Way (naturally, the bank itself takes up an entire planet). The episode plays out like a ridiculous Mission Impossible homage that’s full of plotholes, but still manages to entertain with charm. It’s just unfortunate that the best episodes thus far feature characters that are either secondary, or dead.

I can’t call Coyote Ragtime Show a bad show, nor can I call it a good show yet. what I will call it is entertaining. The show is easy on the eyes with slick visuals and attractive designs with action that is nearly non-stop. Sadly, the characters, with the exception of Angelica, are almost cardboard cutouts of a specific type that do nothing to help themselves break out of the mold. But then you throw in the goth loli killer androids (it will never get old saying that) that show up every episode to blow stuff up and are amusing in the fact that they just are so out of place. In the end, you are left with a show that somehow manages to be entertaining in spite of itself.

I think I’ll stick with it. At the very least, it’s eye candy.

Posted on Tuesday, September 18, 2007 (Archive on Thursday, October 18, 2007)