Search - Coyote Ragtime Show, Vol. 1 - Fox Trot on DVD

Highly recommended

Kyle Lanclos | California | 01/07/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Even if ADV only did half of the job that the fan-subbing crowd did with this show, it will still be worth watching. Are you a fan of shows like Cowboy Bebop, Trigun, and Black Lagoon? Coyote Ragtime Show is the latest series in that vein, and as such, is well worth your time. If you're considering this as a purchase for a younger audience, you may want to rent this DVD or a DVD from one of the shows I mentioned above in order to get a feel for the character and content of Coyote Ragtime. If I had to take a stab at where it would fit on the MPAA ratings scale, I'd suggest PG-13.

As always, please enjoy your anime responsibly-- use subtitles. Manufacturers will not be held responsible for health problems resulting from watching anime in a dubbed format."

Ragtime, Bebop, I Know What You're Thinking

Keith A. Jones | Philadelphia PA | 03/23/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"First of all things I'd like to explain exactly what Coyote Ragtime Show is all about and then I'll get into the comparisons. Plain and simple this anime is about a bunch of Space fugitives searching for a very specific treasure of 10 billion space dollars. This treasure also happens to involve a little girl with the key to it all hanging on her neck. Her late father Pirate King Bruce was killed in front of her by a crazy woman named Madam Marciano who of course wants the money. Marciano leads a group of relentless cyborg young girls called the 12 sisters that will do anything for her. The past now brings us to the present to a man named Mister who was Bruce's buddy and now the guardian of his daughter Franka.

Mister has a number of people looking for him but the biggest is no doubt Marciano and the second being Angelica Burns. Burns is a private investigator from "The Milky Way Federation", she's pretty ticked but you can't blame her she's been chasing mister for the past four years and has now cornered him in prison. The first episode of Coyote Ragtime is great, truly amazing and surprising but sort of gets predictable as it goes on. The thing though is that Mister is in prison but has to get out before Marciano comes in with her crazy cyborgs. This anime also involves a long laundry list of characters. A couple of them are strong and the others not really cutting it.

Now if you know your music history you know that just like Bebop Ragtime is also considered fine music. Ragtime was not as popular though everybody must have heard a Scott Joplin piece once or twice. I have to thank Cowboy Bebop for opening more of the world to the beautiful Bebop cause Charlie Parker needs to be known. This is where Coyote Ragtime messes up, as soon as you hear the title you automatically think this show will bite off of the amazing classic Cowboy Bebop. Though this anime has nowhere near the quality of C.B it is almost nothing like it. If anything the story will remind you of One Piece because of all the pirate themes. Yeah the whole space thing is similar but not quite the same.

This anime has beautiful animation and the story has potential to go somewhere but it has one major problem. There are too many characters and not enough definitive ones. The story has some good guys and some bad guys but it doesn't have that one character that you love or has a great presence. One example is the large number of the 12 sisters, do you really need all those cyborgs. In a few years when this series is said and done I don't think anyone will really remember any of these guys. If the question of who is the best anime villain or hero comes up nobody in here will be mentioned. Mister actually almost has the makings of a great character but it doesn't really seem like he'll develope. At the end of the day this series has A+ animation, C+ writing, and D character development which to me gives it a 3 star start and look first volume that's worth watching."

RAIDERS OF GRACELAND

Sesho | Pasadena, TX USA | 03/04/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Detective Angelica Burns has tracked an infamous criminal named "Mister" to a godforsaken desert planet right out of the novel Dune called Sandville. There's even giant sandworms that move around beneath the surface, but instead of being attracted to sound, they are repelled by it. The ironic thing is that Mister is currently in a high security prison, but Angelica doesn't know his true identity. So the process of finding him among all the inmates is going to take a while. But time is running out because she has a nasty suspicion that Mister's friends are planning on breaking him out. She's not the only one wanting to get her hands on Mister. Marciano, an operative for the Criminal Guild, has sent her "Twelve Sisters", twelve android assassins, whose maid uniforms and cute appearance belie the fact that they are heartless killers, are also sent to the prison to find Mister. What seems to be driving all this action is the fact that Mister knows the location of an enormous treasure on the planet Graceland. A planet which is due to be annihilated by the government within a week.

Coyote Ragtime has a pretty big cast of characters but the writers were able to give most of them distinct personalities on this first volume. This is probably the first and biggest hurdle an ensemble type show has to get over. Fortunately, Coyote passes with flying colors. To me, the feel of the show is very much like the original Star Wars film that came out in 1977: an adventurous romp with a memorable group of characters. The comraderie of each group really shines. It also reminds me of a cross between Cowboy Bebop and a less serious Eureka Seven. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that there was good chemistry among the voice actors while they were recording this. Everything just flows so well. The animation is also first rate and equals anything on film. Check this series out if you like action, a big cast, and comedy.

Extras:
Pretty thin. Production Art, Clean Opening/Closing Animations. As usual with most of the recent ADV releases, there are no inserts within the DVD case."