Coyote Ragtime Show Volume One: Fox Trot
Hawkeye
In the future, there are colonized planets with giant sand worms, high-tech machinery, and space ships, even a Criminal’s Guild. But even with all the new gadgets and affiliations, the government is still in control. So, when the planet Graceland rebels against the government, they decide there’s only one way to respond, and that is with a giant bomb to blow up the entire planet.
With only 7 days till Graceland explodes into millions of pieces, a notorious misfit known only by the name of “Mister” decides it’s time to break out of jail, where he’s been laying low with a false identity for about a year. Of course, his actions draw the attention of a government investigator who has been hot on his trail for years. But that isn’t his only problem. The Criminal’s Guild has also taken an interest in him, and sends the 12 sisters, a group of deadly android assassins, to collect him. What could Mister know that was so important? Nothing less then the location of the deceased pirate king’s greatest treasure. Getting it won’t be easy with the 12 Sisters and the investigator on his trail, let alone with 7 days to get to the treasure and past all its security measures. Knowing he can’t do it alone, he bands together with the daughter of the pirate king himself, an ace pilot, an old partner, and a top notch strategist. It’s going to take all they’ve got to pull this mission off.
There’s plot twists, mysteries, and action. Add that to the deep and compelling characters, and I really couldn’t ask for anything more from the story. It’s original and excellently paced. I suppose I could be picky and say that I want a little romance thrown into the mix, but the series is still young and there’s plenty of opportunity for it in the later episodes.
The art and animation dropped my jaw. The characters weren’t your standard generic design, they had personality. It’s not often that you see a huge grizzled old guy as one of the main characters in an anime. The animation itself was easily cutting-edge, the fights were fluid, and the space ship chases outstanding. The attention to detail in everything from the backgrounds to the characters was remarkable.
As far as sound went, I would absolutely buy the soundtrack to this show, and normally I only pay attention to the opening and closing songs. But this show was different, the jazz mixed with j-pop feel of the music made the series feel hipper and cooler. The voice acting was also spot on, and I couldn’t imagine anyone doing a better job or fitting the characters’ personalities better. There was one disappointment, and that was the lack of extras. I would have killed for some commentary or a few interviews, even voice acting auditions would have been awesome. The only real extra they had on the disc was a production artwork gallery.
I was more then a little hesitant about watching this anime. After all, the back description just made it sound awful. You know how parents will sometimes try to sound cool when talking to their kids? The back cover description was like that, it was painful. But all the anticipation for how horrible it was going to be made the surprise of how excellent it actually was even better. I loved this anime, and everything about it. I was blown away by the animation and character design, enthralled by the music, and absolutely stunned by the creativity of the plot. In one volume, this show has become one of my all-time favorites.
Entertainment: 10
Yes that’s right I gave it a solid 10 and there’s nothing you can do about it.
Technical: 8
It could have been a 10 too if they’d given me some decent extras.
Overall: 9.5
DVD Features: Episodes 1-4, English 5.1, Japanese 5.1 with English Subtitles
DVD Extras: Production Artwork Gallery, Clean Opening/Closing Animations
