Anime: Coyote Ragtime Show 531312

If everything could have been has good as the first episode, it would have been without any doubt one of the best anime series of 2006.

Alas, but for the first episode which is really good (there are many ideas, it is well paced, the characters seem interesting, the music is at its peak), what follows is devoid of any imagination.
But for a rather good soundtrack and an average animation, there is nothing to save. The story (for any semblance of it) is not only bland, it is also devoid of why one watches a creative works: imagination. One goes from disappointment to disappointment.

In short, one may look, the first episode. It is sincerely a good episode, and forget everything that follows as it re you of how good the show may have been and how unimaginative it is.

When I was looking for a series to watch, I came across Coyote Ragtime Show. All of the promotional material showed something that hearkened back to classic sci-fi action adventure series such as Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, and Outlaw Star, and a lot of people who had seen it seemed to be making the same comparisons. With all that going for it, this series definitely drew in my interest.

Our story starts in the future, there are space outlaws called Coyotes who commit crimes but share a strong bond of friendship that a true Coyote wouldn’t betray. One of the most infamous Coyotes is Mister, who goes by many different aliases. Detective Angelica Burns has spent the last four years trying to track him down. She finally received an anonymous tip that Mister was at a prison and the desert planet of Sandvil. A loyal but clumsy assistant named Chelsea meets her on the planet to help her.

Right as Angelica and Chelsea arrives at the prison Mister is located at, Mister breaks out only 10 days from released with the help of his old partners Bishop and Katana. As he is escaping, an elite squad of android assassins show up sent by Madame Marciano to take out Mister. As Mister escapes, he seeks out Franca, the daughter of his best friend Pirate King “Blue” Bruce, as they seek out the treasure Blue left for Franca to inherit on a planet called Graceland, which is in a civil war and faces immanent destruction from the Milky Way Federation in a week.

Soon, the group of Coyote’s are chased by the Twelve Sisters who want to take out Mister and capture Franca along with Detective Angelica and her assistant, as she wants to take Mister into custody, as the time is running out to get the treasure.

With those comparisons and a plot like that, this series is setting some fairly high standards for itself, but is it anywhere as good as those series? Unfortunately, the series never reaches the heights of the influences that it’s taking from. But that’s not to say this series is bad by any stretch, and there is a lot to enjoy here.

The series comes with a large colorful cast of characters with varied and interesting designs, and while not all of them get a fleshed out backstory, they all get enough of a time in the spotlight, all being memorable in their own ways and it’s really easy to tell them all apart. And sure, there is a lull somewhere in the middle, but I imagine the series as a whole would be worse off if it tried to keep the action amped up to 11 the whole time.

Aesthetically, the series goes for a very rustic lived in world for it’s sci-fi settin, which helps this series to stand out from other stuff coming out around the same time. And I kinda wish more series used a rustic sci-fi setting, just in general. It feels like a highly underused setting.

While there isn’t too much to say about this series, it does stand on it’s own and a good time. Coyote Ragtime Show might not come close to being a classic like the shows that it’s been compared to, but much like those series, it’s not going for high class or arthouse, simply trying to be a fun space adventure, and with those intentions, it does succeed, and is worth watching for those looking to find something like the classics, even if itself is not a classic. Also, it’s OP is pretty catchy.

I was fortunate enough to be lent this series by a work mate recently. From the look of the box, I thought this show would be mindless nonsensical fun that would take itself too seriously and lose my initial good impression within the first five minutes. Luckily for me I was wrong about the latter. Yes this show was mindless and complete fluff - but it was enjoyable throughout as it avoided many pitfalls of its genre, mainly though - biting off more than it could chew. The show had a strict timeline and objective to reach, and did so in a cohesive if somehow shallow manner.

The animation was great throughout. The artwork was very well rendered, characters were beautifully drawn and animated. The costume design was inventive while relying mostly on Gothic Lolita fashion for the antagonists, the protagonists were mainly wearers of everyday fashion which were also well drawn but nowhere near as detailed. The backdrops were beautifully coloured and the setting was well thought out and executed - especially on the vehicles. One could say animation was the show's strong point.

I have to confess something about the sound here - it is that I viewed this series in the English dub. Nothing wrong with that per se, however I am only able to judge it on the merits of the American voice actors, and I'll also be looking at the soundtrack as it would be identical to that of the original. I have to say the American cast did an amazing job on this, Mister had a dominant voice, with sass and fun to it that you would attribute to a cowboy (perfect for his character if you ask me). Angelica had a fragile manner about her in the way she was portrayed while maintaining confidence and conviction - which was a great job from the voice actor. Most of the other cast were very well portrayed (Chelsea was the exception to me as she was a little flat and also a little cliched). I have to it it was Swamp who was my standout in the cast. He was hilarious and his bickering with Bishop was what made the show a hoot all the way through. I am unaware how close to the original script the English version of the show stayed faithful, but the Swamp character worked really well with the street smart dialog given in the English dub. The soundtrack was overall good though it did not have any standout tracks.

The characters themselves was overall very enjoyable though one could not really say that there was much development to them from start to finish. The cast as they were at the end were pretty much who they were at the beginning. The exceptions were Angelica, Chelsea, Mister and a few of the sisters who had a chance to shine throughout the series. The characters were effective in making this series a fun ride, though a little bit more development here and there would have made the cast less disposable in that they were quite cliched albeit fun all the way through. The story starts off with a prison break and follows the adventure of the fugitive in question and the rest of his team hunting down a treasure on a deadline as the planet that the treasure is hidden on is to be bombed within ten days. They are followed by a detective and her sidekick, while also having very powerful antagonists on their tail.
The story itself develops quite well, as one knows what the end point should be and the events leading to it make sense within the structure of the show and we actually get to that end point without it dragging along. It is not a very complex story, but it is well told for the most part. As one would expect from a show of this kind, the heroes walk away for crazy situations such as getting shot, bombed, stabbed etc and being fine within 5 minutes of that happening to them - and yes, that is unrealistic but logic does not really apply within the structure of the story so one can forgive this shortcoming as realism was never something the producers aimed for.

In general I really enjoyed watching Coyote Ragtime Show ( about as much as I like typing its title actually :D ), it was fun, not mentally challenging or demanding, thus a great way to relax on the weekend. The value for it is hard to assess as it would definitely be worth purchasing from a bargain bin but since it is so mindless - one does not feel the need to rewatch it. Overall, I would place it next to the likes of City Hunter (though not as original), Nadia (though not as complex), Golden Boy (though not as essential) so if those titles have appealed to you, chances are you will find something to like here.

Cowboys fighting goth lolis … in space! The series combines four different time periods in its setting:
- A Wild West flavor, in the way the characters dress and act during action scenes.
- A modern American big city flavor (New York, Las Vegas, Detroit) in the way people live and behave in their daily lives.
- A sci-fi flavor, like space stations, spaceships and some hi-tech gadgets, just to make the action scenes flashier.
- A Renaissance flavor, in the way the bad guys dress in goth-loli cloths and scheme in Machiavellian ways. It’s more like a Japanese fetish, but it is still based on some time period.

Basing its appeal on heavy-dude attitude, shooting showdowns, and pretty girls, it attempted to be like an average American action movie, but was quickly forgotten. Something that didn’t seem possible at first since it was animated by Ufotable (good production values) and was pandering the west (easy fame farming). Unfortunately that never happened, since there was close to no ment from what I and it came out in 2006, a period that was brimming with high quality anime. A mindless action flick with little promotion stood no chance.

Anyways, if you like heavy-dude cowboys, cool trendy men, cyborg chicks dressed as goth lolitas, guys outrunning bullets and surviving grenade explosions while ing-by stunts get hit in a flash, this is your abode. If you want something more than rule of cool, don’t even bother.
- The series is full of cheesy one-liners. There are some good dialogues here and there but you will feel that most characters hardly say more than two dozen words. In fact, some have none (they never talk, despite being there the whole time).
- The story is nothing more than an excuse for cool battles and cheesy drama. All events feel forced and convenient. Just in the first episode, an entire army of prison guards shoots pointlessly at the bad guys and gets killed like flies. The hero breaks a smile, gets a rocket launcher (although he is a prisoner!), defeats one bad guy for fun, exchanges some lame one-liners and proceeds into summoning a pack of alien beasts to wreck the prison and escape without even breaking a sweat. Expect something similar on almost every episode. There are some cases where the good guys are in a pinch, but there is always some out of place solution to get away.
- It’s only 12 episodes and has a typical linear plot, becoming mostly predictable. Some events may take you by surprise and some flashbacks may give you an unexpected sad side to the story. But in the end, it’s a bunch of Rambo-like dudes who seem to always survive, no matter the situation.
- Too many characters, too little driving force. Almost all characters are there just for flavor and have no character development or even a background. For instance, there are 13 evil women in the story, all of which have a different demeanor. But they are just a collection of harem anime archetypes (a shy one, a perky one, a butchy one, etc.) and don’t actually do anything differently or individually. So, there is effectively only ONE bad guy in the story. Something similar is happening to the good guys, who are essentially just variations of Mister, and the two police officers who are just a serious one and a giggly one, doing the same stuff.

As for enjoyment, the first 2 episodes and the last one had some very nice battles. Totally fake but cool nonetheless. The rest of the episodes are overall boring. In all it’s just a Hollywood imitator with some Japanese overtones (goth-loli) you won’t for too long.