Gunsmith Cats: Revised Edition

by Kenichi Sonoda

Rated: 18+

List price: $16.95

464 pages

A series of omnibus updated re-releases in Japan was the perfect excuse for Dark Horse to revive this in-house favorite. It has been five years since the last Gunsmith Cats release, and the shift from monthly to TPB is natural and welcome.

The Gunsmith Cats are the 19-year-old pistol-packing Rally Vincent and her self-proclaimed bomb and gernade specialist, Minnie-May. Rally owns a gun shop in Chicago, and Minnie Mae works behind the counter. Rally moonlights as a bounty hunter, but naturally, it's her side business that carries the bulk of the story. Each chapter stands alone, but connects chronologically and naturally.

If the older and wiser Rally is the brains AND the brawn, where does Minnie-Mae come in? We find out in the second chapter, and why this book has an 18+ rating.

Gunsmith Cats is a throwback to some of the violent, mature, and funny comics of the 80s. (Think "Beverly Hills Cop" meets The Dirty Pair in manga form.) The spicy mix of action, humor and sexuality may be too much for some readers. Seeing Minnie-Mae in some very compromising positions in order to nap a perp might be either liberating or shocking. (It's the situations, not the visuals that are explicit, to be sure.) Gunsmith Cats is over-the-top, but not gratuitious.

With the abundance of OEL manga around these days, its fun to read a Japanese manga set in the US. Despite its location, this is 100%  Japanese, and is fuel to the fire for those (like me) that believe manga comes from Japan.

The higher than usual price is more than justified by the page count, and my only complaint would be that it might be too many pages for some fans to handle dexterously.

For fans of racy action and humor, Gunsmith Cats should be a nostaligic hit, though it may be too mature for some.

8.5