What If a Canon Film Was an Anime? | Gunsmith Cats RTFM Part 1

From 1995 to 1996, three episodes of an Original Video Animation or OVA were released animating an original story set in the world of Gunsmith Cats. The original manga created by Kenichi Sonata (who some anime fans may know for doing character art/designs for Bubblegum Crisis) ran from 1991 to 1997 with a continuation Gunsmith Cats Burst running from 2004 to 2008. Despite it's quality the OVA and manga have remained relatively obscure to modern anime fans and hopefully this video will help to change that. Join me as I discuss the merits of the OVA and stay tuned for part 2 when we'll dive into everything from the comic that was left out.
Kenichi Sonata at Anime America 1993 Room Party
Part 1
• Anime America 1993 Don...
Part 2
• Anime America 1993 Don...
Most of the music in this video is from a Gunsmith Cats Soundtrack which is not from the OVA but I believe from a radio drama for the series and it can be found here:
• Gunsmith Cats (For Rad...
If you enjoy me barely posting you can find me on Twitter (or X or whatever, if I haven't given up calling it the Sears Tower after 14 years I'm not gonna stop saying Twitter any time soon). tselfhatingweeb

[@krypticunlimited6925]

This OVA is geuinely my favorite dub ever. Something about the voices of the main 3 characters specifically adds so much charm and likability to the characters

[@Proninski]

Oh hey peak KZbinr is back with my favorite OVA, no less!

[@jonmcgee6987]

Gunsmith Cats was the 2nd manga series I started reading. I think Sorcerer Hunters was the first. I bought the OVA after getting hooked on Bubblegum Crisis( 2nd favorite all time anime). Copies of the Revised edition 4 volume omnibus and the follow up series Gunsmith Cats Burst. Are still on my Manga's only book shelf . It was a really good series to read.

[@j.m.3600]

Based

[@lkea4049]

Awesome video dude. Glad to see you back. Gunsmith Cats was a show I remember watching years ago. I was surprised to see you post a video about it. I feel like watching it again now. 😅

[@The4thSnake]

Also, congrats on the marriage and the baby.

[@TheSelfHatingWeeb]

Thanks!

[@Iamacardinalfan]

So, when this show came out. A friend of mine and I really, REALLY loved the music to it. We traced our way to emails with the composer Peter Erskine. And he said to us back then. I'm glad you guys love the music. But I doubt it will ever be released. And that's a shame, I'd get the soundtrack in a heartbeat. Your video was really good. And it is a great show!

[@Iamacardinalfan]

My only issue with the entire animated series was. The third episode looked rushed. The style had changed, and wasn't nearly as crisp as the first two episodes.

[@henryro7439]

Ah yes, the anime that ignited my thirst to buy a GT500 (If only I had a disposable income ;-; ). Great video, I never made the connection between the anime and The Blues Brothers, and honestly, I thought this video was from somebody with a subscription count in the 100,000's until I scrolled down. Subscribed.

[@mytoxicbabeela9167]

If It Weren't For That AMV And OVA I Wouldn't Discover This Gem

[@hiddendiz7612]

Gunsmith Cats was my first grown folks anime. I first watched it during Starz's ADV anime block in the 00s which put me on to Blue Seed and Blood The Last Vampire. I didn't realize how grown GSC really was until I read the manga in college. Your video is probably the only one of a woeful few that really captures why I fell in love with it. Being a Chicago anime fan, watching an anime that looked and moved like Blues Brothers capped off with a soundtrack that could have been played on WNUA 95.5. Also just noticed in this video that they drink diet POP. Sonata and co. really missed not one detail of the area.

[@chunkysaurus785]

Just finished watching the OVA, holy crap that was incredible

[@vampyreberry]

I just found this channel. "Subscribed".

[@james22022]

Honestly blown away by the production value of this video, it's up there with a lot of the bigger anime youtubers for me. Very well made and I'm glad it came up on my feed. Also happy to finally have a name to the show I've seen so many gifs of. Keep up the great work if you're able to despite how busy life keeps ya.

[@TheSelfHatingWeeb]

Thank you! I always do the best I can to make my videos something I would watch, whether they get 60 views or 60k. Funnily enough, I actually first discovered GSC because of a gif I saw of the home invasion scene. Glad to know I'm in good company on that.

[@themercer4972]

If any anime could capture an 80s film, this would be it.

[@JimMorrisonsBathtub]

I'm not even an anime fan but I love guns and action movies and Gunsmith Cats kicks ass. I'd love to read the comic if I knew where to find it in Japanese (because I'd rather read it in its original language since I know Japanese). Great review of an underrated show. I definitely agree with you about the setting. I've never been to Chicago except for a surprise 19 hour layover at O'Hare Airport right after I finished my infantry training in the army (retrospectively I wish I had taken the time to walk around the city for a bit but I didn't know that was something you could do) but I always love when works of fiction focus on specific details of the city they're set in especially when it's something like a cartoon where they have to go out of their way to make it more like the actual city. I'm from New England and I always get a kick out of seeing something set in Boston or New Hampshire and I recognize a place I know in real life.

[@cpuwizard9225]

You maybe could have caught a cab or bus to the lake shore or navy pier if you really wanted to. Or the Art Center or Field Museum if indoors is your thing. I got a kick out of this OVA because I was a kid in Chicago during the 90s and seeing the place detailed so well, down to the Bowtie emblems on the Astro vans and the Caprice Classics in CPD livery was just a huge nostalgia blast.

[@user-ManofStyle1]

Thank you for the great video

[@The4thSnake]

Wait, Rally's file says she's from the UK?

[@TheSelfHatingWeeb]

It lists it as her nationality. Rally was born Irene Vincent and she is of mixed descent with her father being Indian and her mother being British. We see flashbacks to her childhood in the manga but it's not clear if she was born/grew up in the UK or USA (although I'm fairly certain it says somewhere that she is American). I think the file here might be referencing her race/nationality being British (her father was likely British Indian since she would have been born in '72 if she's 19 in 1991 meaning her dad was likely born before India gained independence from Britain). My read is that she's racially "British" but is American.

[@The4thSnake]

@@TheSelfHatingWeebNeat.

[@deltasquad2oo618]

I’d love to see a revamp using the same style just a longer version with more episodes I don’t know how you’d do it, hell the way AI is now I don’t see why It wouldn’t work

[@scottjackson8771]

This was the first anime I ever bought

[@cpuwizard9225]

Beretta has a loaded chamber indicator which was well detailed in the scene where Rally picks it up off the counter. IF you can feel the weight of one 115gr 9mm cartridge in an otherwise empty 92 series, I will be extremely impressed. Otherwise you look for the little bit of red on the case extractor indicating that it is clipped around the rim of a cartridge that is inside the chamber.

[@TheSelfHatingWeeb]

I replied to a similar critique in a different comment but yes you are totally right. I didn't know about the red indicator because I am a dumb no guns who doesn't handle firearms.

[@cpuwizard9225]

@@TheSelfHatingWeeb whether you want to have guns or not the fact that you showed you're willing to learn about things you don't like makes you a better person than most. In other news, hi fellow Illinoisan, from one who escaped to Iowa.

[@necrosteel5013]

3:10 a flashbang straight to the face is non-lethal.. Thought that definitely doesn't look like one despite doing exactly what a flashbang does.

[@KMakoENVtuber]

If I had the means, I’d sell my body and soul for mappa/IG/Mashouse to adapt the Gunsmith Cats manga into a series.

[@TheSelfHatingWeeb]

A worthy cause. I could same the same for the other two series I've RTFM'd so far honestly. I'll never get my full Negima adaptation...

[@johnyboy5154]

Yo? How you doing?

[@TheSelfHatingWeeb]

Doing well overall. Life has been busy in a good way, but that's made it hard to work on videos. Happy to be able to get this one finished and out.

[@johnyboy5154]

Oh nice, I feel that

[@MarkJohnson-ro1ed]

Rally can tell that the firearm is loaded because that firearm has a load indicator (the red tang) on the slide, and she can tell that the revolver has loose parts because of the sound. Both these points are mentioned in by Rally in the scene. Less than 5 minutes in and you've done a half assed job! Thumbs down from me.

[@TheSelfHatingWeeb]

I have a pretty limited knowledge regarding guns so I didn't actually know that the load indicator was a thing. Rally never says anything about the load indicator, she just comments that he left a bullet in the chamber so I mistakenly made the assumption she could only have been judging from the weight. Clearly the load indicator makes more sense and is the focus of that shot, so if you know what a load indicator is the shot communicates that very effectively. The "sounds like" comment on the loose parts is part of the English dub, however the original Japanese just has Rally saying it "seems" or "appears" loose, using the word "mitai". I've watched the dub in the past but during scripting I was going from the subbed version which used "looks" (at least in the version I have on hand). So the first is an honest mistake based on not knowing guns and the scene assuming you know what the indicator is and the second is something added in the dub and different from the original dialog (albeit a reasonable extrapolation on the original line). I don't know if I would necessarily call that half-assing it, but I guess that's a matter of opinion.