genre: action / comedy / drama

Meet Rally Vincent: sharp dresser, drives a mint-condition Shelby Cobra, and -- she likes guns. Her sidekick, 'Minnie' May Hopkins, likes things that go 'boom!' Along with their business partner, Becky Farrah (who likes things that go, 'kaching!'), they run a gun smith shop, and a bounty-hunter service on the side.

Throw in Sonada Kenichi's distinctive character designs and penchant for detailed cars, and an animation studio that does quality work, and you get a lot of action, stunning animation and some fun as well. Based on a very popular manga series by well-known artist, Sonada Kenichi.

Parental Guidance Advised - Strangely enough, the guns are portrayed with incredible accuracy, but the actual violence in the first episode is pure "A-Team"; that is to say, the bad guys get shot, but they are invariably only "wounded," and usually not too badly. I find this unrealistic portrayal of the effects of firearms (not to mention hand grenades) irritating, and even somewhat offensive. Parents might prefer anime that show firearm effects realistically (if at all), so their children would learn that people who get shot often die, and that it's usually not a good thing. In the second episode, a murderous KGB agent kills six ATF agents.

Parents may wish to know that Rally and May carry concealed weapons ALL THE TIME. Rally has a permit for her pistol, but May carries an assortment of blasting caps, plastique explosive, and grenades in an incredibly unsafe manner that would spread any real-life imitator over a couple of city blocks at the first bump in the road. No nudity, but lots of scenes involving a scantilly clad Rally Vincent.

• Episode 1: The Neutral Zone

• Gunsmith Cats encyclopædia entry
• Gunsmith Cats trivia questions