So yeah, it’s time for the second shot at City Hunter. This time, well it feels like a conventional sort of action movie, 45 minutes long. But one that comes with a much more unique set up and premise compared to the last one where everyone is given a bit more time to shine. Well, for the most part. In my mind, it feels like the creators of this movie watched Die Hard and wanted to create their own version of it with their own anime characters. Nothing wrong with that though considering that the characters in this series were gunslingers and it just naturally kind of follows through with the tone and style that this anime film wanted to create for itself. It’s cool stuff.
The one thing that a person needs to know is some of the relationships between the characters, because this one feels like you should know who is related to who. This is why I am glad that I did watch Million Dollar Conspiracy before this one. The entire City Hunter gang was invited to show up to the opening party for a new resort hotel controlled by a super computer. Only Kaori, Ryou’s partner, and Miki, Ijuuin’s partner, showed up. Which is a lucky thing because the hotel, after some bits of comedy, was over taken by terrorists. Why? To launch a nuclear attack on the USA, of course. Does it make sense? No. Does it have to? Also no.
So the conceit of this film, which is a lot of fun, is City Hunter Ryo and his friend Ijuuin defeating the terrorists that took over the hotel and are planning this launch. There is also a girl in the mix, the terrorists daughter, who Ryo kind of hits on before Ijuuin letting her go. Or the mysterious Saeko Nogami stopping the CIA from interfering with Ryo and Injuuin’s work. So some bad comedy that I don’t enjoy, but there is more goofy comedy in this film anyway. Like Kaori hiding food under a table before the terrorists came in and then Ryo showing up later to eat the food and casually mention how the hotel guest should go a specific route of escaping because of the terrorism that he and Ijuuin had to fight.
What is even funnier is how Ryo didn’t even have to be in the film at all. There is some off handed nature of him being an interrupter of everything going on because no one invited him. Supposedly, he was supposed to be at the opening party of the resort, but he forgot for some reason. Does anyone know the reason why? Does the reason really matter? It’s a good bit of comedy that I just can’t help but enjoy when it’s used in the right context. In this manner it is. Ijuuin makes fun of Ryo for not committing throughout the film. Really is putting the almost useless protagonist shtick into motion and I think it’s a good one when it’s used correctly. For the most part it is until he shows up at the end and is scolded again after the final conflict.
On a visual level this film is completely gorgeous. Some many cool shot locations, so many bits of cool action all over the place, and an equal amount of time is spent with well timed comedy gags. The character designs and locations are all great and the animation is very simply cut or put together, but also very fluid. It’s fun. That is what I have to say about it because of the unique scenario that so many characters are put into. Some really fun car shoot outs and on the street gun warfare. Just a lot to enjoy. There are good quiet and softer moments where there is no action do exist too, but then it goes back into all action, so the film is very well paced for what it wants to do.
City Hunter: Bay City Wars is a short little thing that does make me want to check out more of City Hunter stuff. I do not know if I will ever check out the series because its way too long and I would have to be very dedicated to a place where I could have watched other things instead. There are more films for me to check out and enjoy and I think that I will do that at some point. Really glad I did this shonen jump movie thing and decided to go with City Hunter. I do admit that some of the reasons why I did watch these is because they are free, but I wanted that taste of City Hunter anyway. Leaving hungry in this specific case is a good thing. What a good little film.
Mechanical Anime Reviews 