Miami Guns Volume 1 (DVD) - Anime Reviews


	Number of Episodes 4 Language Options English/Japanese/English Subtitles Extras - Translation Notes - Image Gallery - Original Japanese Trailers - Character Guides
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Miami Guns Volume 1 (DVD)

Spoiled rich girl Yao decides to join the Miami police force to enjoy car chases, gunfights and wanton destruction. The psychotic and not-too-bright girl is partnered with Lu Amano, the soft-spoken and sharp-tongued daughter of the police chief. Together the dirty duo clean up the streets of Miami and take on a mysterious crime syndicate known only as “The Organization”. Slapstick comedy, risqué action and outrageous fan service ensues! Featuring side splitting parodies of Japanese and American pop culture icons including professional wrestling, slasher flicks, shoot-em-up buddy cop movies, ninja movies, spaghetti westerns and even spoofs of popular anime titles.

Of all of the kinds of anime that are being brought over to North America, my favorite is comedy. Miami Guns is not just a really good comedy series, it is also an excellent parody of every sacred anime. (Evangelion, Akira, Cyborg 009, Mad Bull, and Initial D all get lampooned at one point or another.) The main characters play well off each other, Yao is over-the-top in every way possible and the ever-steady Lu provides the dry commentary that not only balances her partner but also gets in some of the best shots. Yao is the stereotypical rich girl, spoiled to fault, and as such could not be more removed from reality and lives only for action. Lu is the perfect officer, efficient, dedicated, and intelligent but that doesn’t mean she isn’t above a really snide comment at her partner’s expense.

Besides the four episodes on the disc, the Translation Notes have been included which will help not only novice otaku but veterans to decode the large number of puns and all sorts of stolen ideas. Just as valuable as the Vid-Notes that were included in Excel Saga I think.

Episode 01: The Miami Bank Robbery

You know that it’s going to be a bad day when your robbery attempt is foiled when every person in the lobby pulls a gun on you. What’s a villain to do? Take a baby hostage and start making demands. Good idea… until the police show up (who are frighteningly trigger happy I might add) as well as Yao who decides to join in to get a piece of the action. Things get weird when she offers herself as a hostage and begins to escalate the situation when it looks like it might be resolved peacefully. (Watch for Yao’s father who bears a suspicious resemblance to Gendo Ikari.)

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Episode 02: All About The Miami Guns!

An episode too screwed up for description. It’s a review episode… at episode 2. We get a back story into how Yao decides to join the Miami police force and another story about where she got her mauser pistol (which includes a great fictional story about how her mother was killed by Yao in a shooting accident).

Also included are exceptionally pointless stories about how Yao

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and Lu turned three of the most disturbing people into the best officers on the force (a deviant with a camera fetish becoming a premier sniper, a stalker becomes the best stake-out man, and a voodoo priest becomes a profiler and psychic). Ever more disturbing is the story around the young detective in love with Lu who is killed 3 times in less than 3 minutes.

Episode 03: Spy! Miami Girls School

A suspicious phone call to the police from the Miami Girls School (well named apparently) asking for help sends the police force into action. They respond by sending Yao and Lu into the school undercover to investigate. The school is a front for “The Organization” to train female soldiers (to stem the high number of nancy boys that the all male force has generated) for combat.

The final exam includes a gymnastics final that takes place on a paint-ball course but is summarily broken up by Yao who brings live ammo to the exercise.

Episode 04: Miami Mountain Pass GO GO GO!

Now for the brilliant Initial D rip-off! A racer has been running some of the best mountain pass racers off of the road and then covering them in tofu. All of the victims have been complaining of being haunted by a rabbit… and with the generally clueless police department they decide to send out Lu and Yao to tackle this case.

The highlight of this episode is the flawless duplication of the Initial D animation – the cel-shading for the close up of the drivers and the CG scenes of the cars. Watch for Yao’s car which borrows from both Spy Hunter and Inspector Gadget.

This first disc of Miami Guns certainly was all over the map, sometimes ecchi, sometimes parodying, always funny. An excellent opening to the series.

- Tazman

(December 5, 2004)

"We're doing "Death of a Salesman", but we're not allowed to show death at school, so for the end we just dance around with sparklers."

- Meg (The Family Guy)