Kenichi Sonoda's Gunsmith Cats: Bulletproof is the sort of video that is perhaps more interesting to discuss than to actually watch. On the surface, it's only a very routine shoot-em-up, with a few one-liners and some obsessively detailed draftsmanship of guns and cars; a time-filler but nothing more. On a deeper level, the dissatisfaction one gets from the film can lead to thoughts about the nature of film adaptations of popular manga series, and whether some manga series should be adapted to animation at all.
Unlike most Japanese fiction, Bulletproof takes place in the United States, and to a certain extent, Gunsmith Cats captures the look of Chicago. The skyline is impressively duplicated, and there's an eye for the smaller details of city life such as the reliance on fast food like pizza and takeout Chinese. On a deeper level, this pseudo-America falls apart to anyone who's actually spent more than a week in the country. As with Harlem Beat and certain installments of Golgo 13, there's a complete lack of insight into the American psyche. The fast cars and flashy guns that one can see in popular American movies are certainly well represented; but political and social issues are grossly distorted. At the heart of Bulletproof is a plot about an American politican who is publicly in favor of gun control laws but privately involved in gunrunning. The film fails to realize how strong the NRA is in the States and how unlikely it would be that a politican would base an entire campaign on gun control. Furthermore, it ignores what the true scandals of American politics are, namely the exploitation of ethnic and sexual issues for political gain. In short, Bulletproof may look American, but it doesn't feel American at all. This isn't really Chicago (or Los Angeles or New York or any large American Metropolis). This is Tokyo in disguise.
Another problem with the film concerns character motivation and development. In the manga, the seedy side of human nature is rarely overlooked. The Gunsmith Cats manga is relentless in its insistance on a Pulp Fiction-like world view, and is decidedly adult in nature. Sonoda's writing is frequently compared to Quentin Tarantino by fans, and the manga lives up to that comparision with its references to drug culture, twisted relationships, and prostitution. The anime doesn't touch this at all and as a result Rally Smith and May Hopkins (the film's protagonists) are basically cute anime girls with a penchant for blowing things up. One's serious, one is fruity, and both start to recall the adventures of Kei and Yuri in The Dirty Pair.
The difference is that the Dirty Pair live in the future, have access to hi-tech weapons, and cause destruction on a laughably grand scale. Rally and May live in the Chicago of the 1990s and use handguns and grenades, neither weapon being particulaly amusing. The supporting characters are barely fleshed out and lack the weird twists that make the supporting cast of the manga so interesting.
Furthermore, Kei and Yuri are characters that thrive in the setting of animated films. Their gadgetry and adventures can only exist within the framework of animation. Rally and May, on the other hand, really aren't that different from the average protagonists of a TV crime drama. In fact, Bulletproof is the type of film that could have just as easily been a live-action feature. It doesn't take advantage of the fluid nature of animation, save for the freeflowing and truly stunning title sequence. In this respect, it's like Bakshi's rotoscoped Fire and Ice, which when stripped of its animation was really just a run-of-the-mill sword-and-sorcery movie. There's nothing in the Gunsmith Cats manga which requires animation, so why bother adapting the series to film? Perhaps this is the reason why Rally and May have not returned to the screen despite a popular manga series.
A.D. Vision, the American distributor of Bulletproof deserve both praise and scolding. On the plus side, Bulletproof is a compilation of three thirty-minute OAV episodes, which makes it a very good value for the money. More distributors should follow this path, instead of the skimpy one-or-two episode collections of Ranma and Sailor Moon. On the negative side,there are several issues that should be addressed. Since the episodes are compiled, it is very annoying to have to sit through three identical end credits, and while the opening animation is a treat, the theme music is exceptionally irritating. The voice acting, too, leaves a lot to be desired. This isn't the worst voice acting to grace a dub, but that says more about the dreadful state of dubbed anime than it does about the merits of the voice acting cast. At its best, the dubbing is mediocre.
Bulletproof, despite its many flaws, is still a decent time-killer. It's competantly scripted and directed, and features good production values. Furthermore, unlike many anime, this isn't a thinly veiled commercial to get you to buy a video game or other merchandise. If you enjoy the Lethal Weapon genre, you will probably enjoy sections of this film. However, this isn't the kind of anime that will win any new fans to the world of animation and it never pushes the artistic envelope.
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