is a 1989

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

original video animation , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...

following the exploits of courier-for-hire Bean Bandit and his partner, gunwoman Rally Vincent. A manga was also published in the Japanese magazine that was left unfinished (due to the closure of the magazine) after its fourth chapter. The manga is included in the final volume of the Revised Edition of the ''

Gunsmith Cats is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kenichi Sonoda. It was published in Kodansha's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''Monthly Afternoon'' from 1991 to 1997 and was followed between 2004 and 2008 by a sequel series ''Gunsmith Cats ...

'' manga.

Plot

The anime follows one day in the life of Bean Bandit and Rally Vincent, as they find that they have been framed for the kidnapping of Chelsea Grimwood, the daughter of Mr. Grimwood, President of the Grimwood Company/Grimwood Conglomerate. However, it is Semmerling, by way of various disguises, tricks, and manipulations, who is the real kidnapper — and the real target is Mr. Grimwood himself. While the police are in hot pursuit of Bean and Rally, along with Chelsea in tow, Semmerling and her helper Carrie plan to make a secret getaway with Mr. Grimwood as hostage.

Cast

Production

Only one episode of ''Riding Bean'' was produced and the planned series was never made, due, it is said, to a falling out between writer

Kenichi Sonoda is a Japanese manga artist and animation character designer. Professional career Born in Kumamoto, Kumamoto Prefecture, Sonoda moved to Tokyo in 1984, at the age of 21, and began work at Artmic, an anime studio. During this time, he worked on '' ...

and

Toshiba EMI , formerly , was one of Japan's leading music companies. It became a wholly owned subsidiary of British music company EMI Group Ltd. on June 30, 2007, after Toshiba sold off its previous 45% stake. Its CEO and president was Kazuhiko Koike. Whe ...

. Sonoda then went on to create the

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

comic series ''

''. In this series Rally Vincent was the star, but she was now dark-haired (as opposed to blond in the anime), of

Asian Indian Indian Americans or Indo-Americans are citizens of the United States with ancestry from India. The United States Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with Native Americans, who have also historically been referred to ...

descent and a

bounty hunter A bounty hunter is a private agent working for bail bonds who captures fugitives or criminals for a commission or bounty. The occupation, officially known as bail enforcement agent, or fugitive recovery agent, has traditionally operated outsid ...

. Bean Bandit was a regular character, again as a freelance mob driver. Sonoda stated that the character was a "guy I can identify with much more personally" as compared to the female heroines.Interview with Kenichi Sonoda included in ''Gunsmith Cats'' volume 1, published by Dark Horse comics, October 1996 He and Rally were not partners, and in fact their relationship varied from ally to enemy depending on the circumstances. Rally's signature car in ''Gunsmith Cats'' was the 1967

Shelby Mustang GT500 The Shelby Mustang is a high-performance variant of the Ford Mustang built by Shelby American from 1965 to 1967 and by the Ford Motor Company from 1968 to 1970. In 2005, Ford revived the Shelby nameplate for a high-performance model of the fi ...

used by Percy in the anime. Percy himself appeared in the series ''Gunsmith Cats Burst'', depicted as being in obsessive pursuit of Bean Bandit, with his aim being not to arrest but to actually kill the rogue driver. Goldie Musou, a character psychologically similar to Semmerling (albeit drawn as a taller woman with a more butch demeanor), also appeared in ''Gunsmith Cats'' as a powerful

Mafia "Mafia" is an informal term that is used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the original “Mafia”, the Sicilian Mafia and Italian Mafia. The central activity of such an organization would be the arbitration of d ...

queen and Rally Vincent's nemesis.

Media

AnimEigo AnimEigo is an American entertainment company that licenses and distributes anime, samurai films and Japanese cinema. Founded in 1988 by Robert Woodhead and Roe R. Adams III, the company was one of the first in North America dedicated to licensi ...

originally released the ''Riding Bean'' OVA on VHS in 1990 in Japanese with English

subtitles Subtitles and captions are lines of dialogue or other text displayed at the bottom of the screen in films, television programs, video games or other visual media. They can be transcriptions of the screenplay, translations of it, or informati ...

. It was also one of their first releases along with

Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01 is a 1987 original video animation produced by AIC, Soeishinsha and Pony Canyon and directed and conceptualized by Shinji Aramaki. It has been licensed in the United States by AnimEigo. The plot centers on a mechanic who comes across the MADO ...

. AnimEigo later produced an English dub of the OVA in 1993, and was released to VHS and Laserdisc early that year. AnimEigo also released the OVA on DVD on March 26, 2002 in a single disc release with Japanese and English language tracks and English subtitles.

Bandai Visual was a Japanese anime, film production, and distribution enterprise, established by Bandai and a subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings. They focused mainly in international distribution of anime properties in North America. Most of the anime and ...

released the OVA on

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...

on November 21, 2008 in Japan. The principal characters also made cameo appearances in the super-deformed ARTMIC special titled '' Scramble Wars''. A CD soundtrack was released by Artmic records featuring BGMs (background music tracks) and vocal tracks from the OVA. Songs included "Runnin' the Road," "King of the Road," and "Road Buster" by

Phil Perry Philip Eugene Perry (born January 12, 1952) is an American R&B singer, songwriter, musician and a former member of the soul group, The Montclairs, from 1971 to 1975. He was also known for performing the opening song to Disney’s sitcom, ''Goof ...

and "Bad Girl" by Andrea Robinson. Robert Woodhead, founder of AnimEigo, ran a

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

campaign that ended on April 5, 2016, and raised in excess of US$130,000 (the initial goal was US$30,000) for the 2017 limited-edition Blu-ray release called a "High Octane Edition".Riding Bean High Octane Edition Anime Blu-ray
/ref> They used the same uncompressed HD transfer as the Japanese BD release, but using a BD50 instead of BD25 for a higher bitrate. It contains both the original Japanese soundtrack and the English dub, plus English subtitles in multicolor, greyscale and SDH variants. The disc are not region-coded.

References

External links

* {{Anime International Company 1980s action thriller films 1989 anime OVAs Action anime and manga Anime International Company 1980s chase films Animated films about automobiles Films set in the United States Films set in Chicago Gunsmith Cats Japanese action thriller films Japanese adult animated films Adult animated comedy films 1980s Japanese films