Riding Bean Genre: Action Comedy Shouryu's Overall Score:  7.0

Reviewer: Shouryu
Type of Review: General

Hardcore fans of Kenichi Sonoda’s Gunsmith Cats manga will be familiar with the character of Bean Bandit. What not every fan may be able to tell you is that the character of Bean was created many years before Gunsmith Cats was written. The Youmex production of Riding Bean is a short animated feature written by Sonoda, showcasing the ace courier in a brief adventure that is rife with guns, cars, wrecks, chases, and yuri themes. Sounds more and more like Gunsmith Cats, one would tend to think, and they would not be too far from the mark. However, although Rally Vincent is present, she is a very different character than the Vincent presented in Gunsmith Cats; while many of the elements are the same, Riding Bean is not Gunsmith Cats.

The principal character, Bean Bandit, will deliver whatever you ask for, no matter the danger, but for a price. He and his partner, a blonde, lingerie-wearing sharp-shooter named Rally Vincent, make their living in the courier business and have fun avoiding the Chicago police, whom Bean always outdrives (resulting in an ungodly number of wrecked cruisers…I am told this is an homage to Sonoda’s favorite American film, The Blues Brothers). Bean and Rally’s latest job has landed them in deeper hot water, as a double cross has them framed for kidnapping. Now the job has been changed: rather than delivering cargo, they have to keep their cargo (and themselves) alive while chasing down the real kidnappers who are making off with $2,000,000 that the pair plan to make theirs.

Whereas part of the charm of Gunsmith Cats comes from Sonoda’s exquisite attention to detail concerning firearms and vehicles, Riding Bean simply tells as decent story and cranks the fun factor up to eleven. There is also an element of fascination (as a fan of Gunsmith Cats) in seeing how different the Bean and Rally of 1989 are from their 1992 counterparts. Despite being very different (especially in Rally’s case), the characters are still charming and enjoyable to watch.

The animation is typical Youmex fare, but of the lower quality production that is on par with the early Bubblegum Crisis 2032 OAVs (another Sonoda work). Having been produced by AnimEigo in the early 90’s, the English voice acting is severely lacking. Some of the voices are those used in BGC 2032/2033, but the DVD does not credit the English actors at all, and the lack of quality is most likely from having only one episode to work with a character, rather than eight. The music, like that of Gunsmith Cats, is jazz influenced, but is not at GSC’s caliber (no pun intended).

Riding Bean is not top notch anime, but it still is a worthwhile work. It is cut from the same cloth as other joyride animes like Gunsmith Cats, Fatal Fury, and Phantom Quest Corp. There’s no epic saga, just a ton of entertainment that’ll bring a smile to your face.