Riding Bean

Riding Bean
ライディング・ビーン
Genre Action, Comedy
Original video animation
Directed by Yasuo Hasegawa
Studio AIC, Artmic
Released February 22, 1989
Runtime 48 minutes
Manga
Written by Kenichi Sonoda
Magazine Monthly Comics Noisy
Original run 1988 – 1989
Volumes 4 chapters

Riding Bean (ライディング・ビーン) is an anime original video animation following the exploits of courier-for-hire Bean Bandit and his partner, gunwoman Rally Vincent.

There was also a manga published in the Japanese magazine Monthly Comic Noizy (月刊コミックノイズィ Gekkan Komikku Noizui) that was left unfinished (due to the cancellation of the magazine) after its fourth chapter. The manga is included in the final volume of the Revised Edition of the 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, who is 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.

Voice actors

Connection to Gunsmith Cats

Only one episode of Riding Bean was produced and the planned series was never made due, it is said, to a fallout between writer Kenichi Sonoda and Toshiba EMI.

Sonoda then went on to create the manga comic series Gunsmith Cats. In this series Rally Vincent was the star, but she was now dark-haired (as opposed to blond in the anime), of Asian Indian descent and a bounty hunter. Bean Bandit was a regular character, again as a freelance mob driver, Sonoda stating that he is a "guy I can identify with much more personally" as compared to the female heroines.[1] He and Rally were not partners, 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 used by Percy in the anime.

Percy himself appeared in the series Gunsmith Cats Burst in which he is depicted as being in obsessive pursuit of Bean Bandit, 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 Queen and Rally Vincent's nemesis.

Media

Animeigo released the Riding Bean OVA on DVD on March 26, 2002 in a single disc release with Japanese and English language tracks with English subtitles. Bandai Visual released the OVA on Blu-ray 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," & "Road Buster" by Phil Perry and "Bad Girl" by Andrea Robinson.

Robert Woodhead, founder of AnimEigo ran a Kickstarter Campaign that ended on April 5th 2016 raising in excess of $US130,000 (initial goal was for $US30,000). The limited-edition Blu-Ray release will be a "High Octane Edition". They will be using the same uncompressed HD transfer as the recent Japanese release, but using a BD50 instead of BD25 for a higher bitrate. It will contain both the original Japanese soundtrack and the English dub, plus English subtitles in multicolor, greyscale and SDH variants. The disc will not be region-coded. [2]

References

  1. ↑ Interview with Kenichi Sonoda included in Gunsmith Cats volume 1, published by Dark Horse comics, October 1996
  2. ↑ https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/madoverlord/riding-bean-high-octane-edition-anime-blu-ray/description
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