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Written by maehara
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Wednesday, 18 June 2008 16:00 |
 Coyote Ragtime Show. Sounds like a musical or something, but then so did Cowboy Bebop, with which it maybe has a little in common. The only series from the good folks at ufotable to get a UK outing (a real shame, as they're one of those studios I automatically associate with "damn good series"), CRS sees the elusive Mister on the trail of a proverbial pot of gold - all the while pursued by Investigator Angelica Barnes, and a gang of lethal androids led by Criminal Guild member Marciano...
For some reason I have a Paul Simon song stuck in my head. "I'm going to Graceland, Graceland..." Moving quickly onwards, what we have here is a simple treasure hunt: young orphan Franca has the map to her dead father's secret stash on Graceland, her guardian and criminal-of-legend Mister has the desire to find it, and ace investigator Angelica has the desire to stop him. Add in the small matter of the imminent destruction of Graceland, the planet on which the target stash has been hidden (7 days and counting), and the race is on.
On the "good" side (in quote marks as Mister is very much the antihero who youre meant to want to win) we have Angelica, the obsessed investigator who's devoted years of her life to trying to bring Mister to justice - although quite what for is never fully explained. Beautiful, smart and determined - what's not to like? By the end of episode one she's also gained a sidekick in the form of Chelsea Moore, who for the most part is as thick as two short planks but has an impressive chest (apparently) and an equally impressive ability to remember the details of obscure criminal cases, which comes in handy more than once. She's almost Tenchi Muyo's Mihoshi reborn in a lot of ways, only even more adorable.
The "bad" side are Mister, his assistants Katana and Bishop (who like a good fight when it comes their way), and Franca. Mister's known all along that Franca knew the location of her father's horde, but until hearinf about Graceland's imminent destruction had been happy to wait until she was willing to divulge the location voluntarily. What a guy. There's a certain quarrelsome husband / wife vibe going on between them, which could be considered a bit strange considering how young Franca looks, but they do make a good comedy duo at times.
But there's a third side to the contest - the Criminal Guild, as represented by Marciano and her Twelve Sisters, a lethal band of fighting androids, who has past connections of her own to Franca's father and wants his treasure for herself. She's mean and moody, and with her androids being experts at the art of wreaking havoc, they're great to watch for the adrenaline value.
After bringing Mister together with the rest of his associates, the series moves on to explaining how Pirate King Bruce (Franca's father) came into possession of his stash its a story thats a little far-fetched, but there's an interest in seeing what happened from the point of view of knowing what the gang are now after, along with the little detail that Bruce stashed his loot in a replica of the bank vault he originally stole it from - that's going to make life difficult for Mister and the others when they get there.
A lot of the series is a pure joy to watch, with plenty of high-speed action and a lot of fun to be had watching the interactions of the characters. Angelica and Chelsea are a bit short-changed, as the main interest is in Mister & co trying to keep a safe distance ahead of Marciano's Twelve Sisters, but they're on the periphery for most of the series and get their role to play eventually.
For all the good it does along the way, though, CRS begins to come a little unstuck towards the end. As the three main parties in the series all finally converge on Graceland to find what theyre looking for, we get four episodes that, however long they're meant to take in real time, feel like they last forever, as a number of distractions are thrown in the way of the main quest and Angelica's storyline is dealt with.
Coyote Ragtime's strength isn't plot you get bang for your buck, literally, from the on-screen action (always very nicely animated and choreographed), and the banter between the gang on board the Coyote. The series falls flat by removing a lot of the opportunities for that for the final episodes Mister and his gang are split up, with only a little aggravation between Swamp and Bishop on the character interaction front; while moving the action down to Gracelands surface neatly kills most of the ship-based action. Instead, you get a few decent scenes around the Jupiter (the ship allegedly carrying the photonic bomb to be used to destroy the planet) courtesy of the Twelve Sisters, with the rest of the story spent digging around caves looking for the Gigabanks. Add in an ending thats best described as anti-climactic, and I was left wondering, Is that it!?.
Im a glass-half-full kinda guy, and the good of the series for me outweighs the bad. There are some genuinely unexpected plot twists thrown in along the way here that have a noticeable effect on how the folks on the ground have to go about their search, and there are some great character moments, particularly for Angelica as she finally gets Mister where she wants him and has to decide what to do next; for Franca, who finds an unexpected surprise stashed away with her fathers horde; and for Marciano, who gets to go out in an appropriately dramatic way. Some of those scenes could even be described as touching, which maybe wouldnt be what you were expecting from a series like this. It also has to be said that, while individually most of the characters in Coyote Ragtime play to stereotype, the way they interact with each other has been one of the shows highlights. Its a definite case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts, and that makes it well worth a look.
For episode summaries and screenshots, check out our reviews of the individual discs:
» Volume 1: Fox Trot
» Volume 2: Cliffhanger
» Volume 3: Fall from Graceland
ADV UK announced in late July that this release has been cancelled, presumably due to the transfer of the rights to a number of ADV's titles to FUNimation (see this news article). The review's kept in place for completeness.
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