|
|
Home
|
R2 DVD Reviews
|
|
Written by maehara
|
|
Sunday, 22 July 2007 17:00 |
 Fate – or at the very least Marciano – seems determined to keep Mister from ever reaching Graceland, but no matter what obstacles are put in their way, Mister and the crew of the Coyote aren’t about to give up without a fight...
5 - Never Change
Another volume of Coyote Ragtime Show, and Mister and co are on the trail of Bruce’s billions. Under normal circumstances, it would take the Coyote 21 days to reach Graceland from their current location - by which time, if the Federation government goes through with its plans to drop their photonic bomb, the planet will be doing a fairly good imitation of Alderaan, so it's time to look for Plan B. That takes the shape of the space station Big Pink, home to a warp gate that will allow them to cut a chunk off the travel time - but with that route being their only shortcut it's likely that Marciano will be waiting for them. Angelica, meanwhile, has been holding the head of one of the Twelve Sisters captive, and she’s been quite co-operative in filling Angelica in with what she knows about Marciano's and Mister's plans – meaning Mister’s got another problem on his tail...
6 - Fierce Fight
With Mister, Marciano and Angelica all converging on the Graceland Gate, Big Pink's about to become a warzone - and with Mister, Franca and Bishop caught outside the ship when the Twelve Sisters arrive, they're the ones at the disadvantage when the shooting begins. Angelica's not about to let a little firefight get in the way of her obsession with catching Mister, though, and continues her efforts to get her hands on him, while at least one of the Sisters has a personal issue to take up with Mister...
7 - Marciano, the Traitor
The Coyote passes through the warpgate in one piece - just - but there are two problems: first, Mister's injuries are worse than they first appeared and need immediate treatment, and with no painkillers or anaesthetics on board it's not going to be a pleasant experience for him; and second, the gate they just came through wasn't the one for Graceland - and with Marciano's heavy weaponry having destroyed the gate behind them, they've now got no way of reaching Graceland in time. So much for Plan B. Marciano, meanwhile, now has Franca's pendant, and heads for Graceland in search of Bruce's treasure - but soon runs into some problems with her former Guild colleagues. Mister still has options, though: they may not be able to reach Graceland ahead of the scheduled detonation of the photonic bomb, but what if they can somehow delay the bomb - or the ship it's being carried on..?
8 - The Road to Gigabanks
72 hours until the scheduled dropping of the photonic bomb on Graceland - Marciano's already there (and has dealt admirably with the threat of her former Guild colleagues), Angelica's on her way in a rather rickety borrowed shuttle, and Mister's still trying to locate the ship carrying the bomb - if he can't find it, his plan to buy them more time is dead before it starts. With the Liberation movement on Graceland having agreed to last-minute peace talks, it looks like Mister may get his delay without having to do anything - but on this mission, fate would never deal him such an easy hand...
This volume starts off slowly enough, with Mister working out how best to get to Graceland within the time that he’s got, and without drawing himself to Marciano’s attention. There’s some curious little scheming that goes on as part of the attempt to get the Coyote into Big Pink that should raise a few grinds, but all told it has to be said that episode 5 isn’t the most exciting piece of anime you’ll ever seen. Don’t get me started on the space station names, either – between Big Pink, Pretty Red and a few others, I have serious worries about what the writer was smoking when they were thought up.
Coyote Ragtime’s at its best when it lets loose with the action scenes, and that’s exactly what we get with episode 6, which is dominated by an impressive battle between Mister and Marciano inside the warpgate station. It really looks the part, with plenty of high-speed animation and some great little set pieces, and it’ll leave the adrenalin pumping so much you’ll forget there’s meant to be a story under there somewhere. I certainly did. As with all good battles, the balance of power shifts back and forth throughout, with both sides taking their casualties on the chin and both coming out at the end of the episode with their own minor victories to take into the next part of the story – although with Marciano and the 12 Sisters probably ahead on points.
As the disc goes on, both Mister and Marciano encounter their own fair share of problems in reaching their goals – for Mister, the problem is simply reaching Graceland in time (and thanks to Marciano’s efforts that’s looking increasingly impossible, leaving Mister looking for a Plan C), while for Marciano it’s her former colleagues from the Criminal Guild that pose the greatest danger. The two groups don’t actually meet during the second half of the disc, as they’re trying to work out their own problems – the pace of the story slows down dramatically here, and the series loses a little of its appeal with that, as the more sedate planning and character-based scenes are definitely the weaker side of the equation.
You may well be wondering where Angelica and Chelsea have disappeared to in all this. Good question. They do appear here and there, but they almost feel as though they’ve been bolted on as an afterthought. Given how the first episode of the series focussed so heavily on Angelica, you would have though she’d turn out to be one of the major characters, but strangely that doesn’t seem to be the case. With the pace of events being set mainly by Marciano, Angelica’s left chasing behind, both figuratively and literally – and while she does in one scene manage to finally catch up with Mister, their meeting is so short and almost irrelevant that you wonder why the scene was even included. The answer comes when you see Angelica’s reaction when she finally meets her quarry, and you realise that it’s maybe not just a sense of justice that’s been driving her for the years she’s been chasing Mister – there’s something else there as well.
The downside of all this is that there’s still a lack of depth to the series – that’s not something that hugely bothers me, as this is really an eye-candy series that you can veg out to, but that won’t appeal to everyone and it’s always best to flag these things up.
Coyote Ragtime Show works best when you treat it as an escape and a diversion from the real world – as something to watch when you want to unwind, it’s hard to beat, and when it concentrates on the action and Marciano and Mister go head to head it can get truly spectacular. If you’re looking for something more thoughtful or serious, this isn’t it – but the show knows what it’s trying to do, and does it very well.
|
|
