City Hunter: .357 Magnum

"I've never met anyone quite so perverted!" is Nina's first impression of Joe. But after seeing him rescue her grandfather, who was being held at gunpoint, she marvels "He's so different than he was before--what kind of man is he?". That's a pretty typical reaction a woman would have after meeting Joe Saeba, who's half peeping tom and half super-cool troubleshooter. His trademarks are his .357 Magnum and his surprisingly modest red sub-compact car. His female partner Kaori plays a larger role than usual in this TV movie, as a number of curious people wonder why She and Joe haven't become romantically involved. Of course HER trademark is the two-ton mallet which she uses on Joe when he makes uncalled for advances on their beautiful clients! There's more than the usual amount of hammer-play this time around, and you might think it would get old fast, but it kept me laughing (maybe Kaori is just jealous that someone else might take Joe away from her).

The plot works well. The body-count remains surprisingly low until the climax, when Joe and his friend (sort of) "The Falcon" blast their way into the hideout of the people who were behind the airport assasination. A good deal of gratuitous violence ensues, leaving a bad taste in my mouth. I agree with anime critic Pete Harcoff, who said "The only thing which bothered me about the action was the ubiquitous 'Stormtrooper effect'. Most of the disposable baddies are supposedly part of a special forces unit, yet have the skill of a drunken fruit fly". No doubt the message we were supposed to get was that Joe and Falcon are so good that even elite troops cannot hold a candle to them, but it would be just as easy to explain the results by saying that what are considered "elite" troops in East Galieria would be sent back to repeat basic training in any other army! Fortunately, afterwards everything wraps up nicely with a clever twist at the end.

I originally watched the dubbed version, in which the name "Joe" is substituted for "Ryo", and the word "Nookie" replaces "Mokkori" (I read that the Japanese distributors of City Hunter actually encourage this sort of localization, in order to boost sales abroad) . Hearing the principal charachters speaking in English seemed strange at first, but before long I got used to it. According to a City Hunter website, this is in fact the only CH "movie" that was actually made as such--all others were originally OVAs or TV specials. I've finally seen the subbed version as well, and even though I already knew about the critical plot twist, this struck me as a pretty slick and clever movie; if only a serious fight with a couple of respectable opponents had ben substituted for the mayhem near the end! If you are a fan of the City Hunter genre (and probably even if this represents your introduction to it) chances are you will come away feeling quite satisfied.