Gunsmith Cats (stylized in all caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kenichi Sonoda. It was published in Kodansha's manga magazine Monthly Afternoon from December 1990 to April 1997. It was followed by a sequel series, titled Gunsmith Cats Burst (stylized in all caps), published in Monthly Afternoon from July 2004 to September 2008 and including the same characters and situations.
The series describes the adventures of young women fighting crime in Chicago and across the Midwestern United States.
Main characters Rally Vincent is a gunshop owner by trade, Rally dabbles in bounty hunting to pay the bills. Her father was an Olympic-level marksman who taught Rally about firearms while running a gun store called Gunsmith Cat in Chicago. Her mother, who had wanted Rally to be a violinist, opposed everything to do with guns and eventually was murdered at the store by robbers when trying to file divorce papers on her husband. After her father disappeared to search for her mother's murderers, Rally took over the store as her own venture, and recruited Minnie May as an assistant. Upon making May a partner, the shop became known as "Gunsmith Cats".
A bit reserved when it comes to men, Rally feels most comfortable when discussing firearms. Although her age is 19, her records state that she is 21, the legal age to operate gun shops in Chicago. Her weapon of choice is a first version CZ-75 and she also carries a concealed pistol. Rally drives a blue 1967 model Shelby Mustang Cobra GT500 with white racing stripes, which she cherishes until its destruction in Gunsmith Cats Burst, when it is replaced by a heavily modified Mustang II Cobra. When quarreling with Rally, Minnie May implied that guns and cars were sex substitutes for the virginal Rally; there is arguably an erotic undertone to her fondness for guns and cars.
Rally's father is Indian and her mother was English. As a result, she has dark blue eyes, dusky skin, and dark hair. She is highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat, with great speed and physical agility, and is an expert but reckless driver. Although she does not always respect the letter of the law, she has a strong moral sense of right and wrong and is reluctant to kill unless absolutely necessary. An excellent marksman, she often targets her opponents' trigger fingers or crucial components of their guns in combat rather than going for a lethal shot. As a result, she has sometimes been hunted by criminals angry at their mutilation at her hands.
Rally also usually carries a .25 DuO (made by the same company as the CZ-75) with the trigger guard removed, mounted on a spring-loaded frame strapped to her arm for quick access in a tight spot. When her CZ-75 has been unavailable, she relies on a SIG P210, another very high quality weapon, and sometimes carries a back-up gun in an ankle holster. She keeps a precision rifle and shotgun in the trunk of her Shelby; these have included a Walther WA 2000 and a SIG 550 Sniper variant. Her first gun, given to her by her father, was an AR-7, a small .22 LR rifle that can be disassembled and the components stored inside the buttstock; she uses this from time to time. Other guns Rally owns and cherishes are a 1960 Colt .25 pocket model, a Beretta 84F, a Walther P38, a Parabellum P'08 (Luger), a Colt Lawman Mk.3 and a Browning Hi-Power. She has occasionally used other weapons, including a Glock 19 and an RG14 "Saturday night special" revolver when she was completely devoid of other weapons, and she is an expert shot with any firearm she has been shown using.
While Irene is her actual name, she chose the alias "Rally (or rather, Larry)" as a pseudonym and cover name to not clarify her gender and demoralize her clients. It was not clear from the Japanese whether Rally's name is intended to be "Irene" or "Eileen" but the official English translation uses Irene. In several European editions of the manga, most notably in the Italian one, it is "Aileen". Since L's and R's are mostly interchangeable in Japanese to English translations, the main character's name is often translated as Rally Vincent, and this has become the standard. However, at the 1993 Anime America convention Kenichi Sonoda, when asked a question about the character, started his answer with "It's Larry, not Rally." This is further backed up in the manga where in one scene she is receiving a fax from Becky (about Riff-Raff), and the note scrawled on it addresses her as Larry.
By the end of the series, as her team members and friends head off towards lighter ventures and greener pastures, Rally herself retires from Chicago's underworld and the bounty hunting scene, moving on with her life, yet still honing her marksmanship.
Minnie May is a self-styled "bomb specialist", May learned the trade from her boyfriend, Ken Takizawa. While only 17, her age was raised to 18 in the original English release since she is depicted performing explicit sexual acts; it was changed back in the Dark Horse revised edition.
May ran away from home at 13 for undisclosed reasons and was found by Ken. When Ken had to go underground for several years, she worked as a child prostitute at a brothel in Chinatown — even advancing into teaching other newcomers — before leaving and joining up with Rally to run the gun shop. Her time in the brothel is still a very touchy subject for her, though, and she prefers not to bring it up again, though she is quite proud of the skills she acquired there.
When action is called for, May carries a wide range of explosive weapons with her. She typically uses a self-modified grenade called a "May Special," a grenade with no materials to cause shrapnel. Perhaps even more impressive is her talent for disguises and acting; she has fooled Ken into thinking she was a boy for several months, blushed and wept on command, imitated the police chief's voice on the phone so well she fools one of his officers, and impersonated a child actress well enough to fool an entire film crew. Drives a Fiat 500 across both manga series.
May is tiny and young-appearing for her age, having taken growth-stunting herbal drugs in an effort to stay attractive to Ken (this plot element was modified in the English translation to a condition that she is taking drugs in an attempt to correct). She can pass for a child of ten or twelve and often takes advantage of this. She is very cute — "like Minnie Mouse," hence her nickname — with blonde hair and blue-green eyes.
May is generally cheerful and possesses a great "joie de vivre." She does have a temper, though, particularly if someone comes down hard on her lover and mentor Ken Takizawa, or if it is suggested that she may not be mature enough to handle a particular assignment.
By the end of Gunsmith Cats, May and Ken, married, settle down in a better part of Chicago, with their ties to the world of crime severed, and eventually have a son.
Bean Bandit Bean bandit is a tall, scar-faced tough-as-nails driver for hire known for his invulnerability. He is typically depicted wearing a steel-padded Kevlar-lined leather jacket, blue jeans and an armored headband. According to sources found in the Riding Bean OAV, his boots, jeans and shirts are all laminated with Kevlar, while his signature jacket is titanium mesh with Kevlar-laminated leather. According to the manga, the jacket is actually a combination of Moose Leather, chain-mail and ceramic plates.
Overall, he is an even better driver than Rally, capable of stunt-driver-level feats. He prefers American muscle cars of the 1970s and Fords in particular; a couple of his personal favorites being a modified 1970 Boss 302 Mustang and a supercharged 1971 Mach 1. However, he owns a whole garage full of famous muscle-car models and is often seen driving a 1968 Chevrolet Corvette C3 fitted with an ultra-rare LS-7.
Despite his impressive collection, he has further aspirations: in his signature story arc, he tells Rally about his desire to build his own car, "from the chassis on up", an original, designed to his specifications. At the time he had already paid a designer over three hundred thousand dollars, and it debuts in the eighth story arc. He dubs this monstrous gas-guzzler the 'Buff' (as in African Cape Buffalo). It is a blueprinted, supercharged 427 cubic-inch displacement engine(dyno'd at 500 BHP), with not only armor plating and bulletproof glass, but a reinforced frame, specifically designed to be bulletproof from the ground up-all but indestructible. It can drive sideways and has special air brakes and wheel spikes to aid in sudden stops. The Buff is very similar in design to the Ford RS200, a Group B rally car made in the 1980s. Considering Bean's preference for Fords throughout the series, the design similarities are very likely to be deliberate.
Bean insists on following his strict rules of engagement in all circumstances, and sticks to his word (and he expects his business partners to do the same). Although he doesn't shy away from violence, he prefers to remain neutral when he can and collect his hefty driving fees for almost any kind of job. He will work for criminals and legitimate interests alike as long as he is paid as agreed, although after a competition against Rally about a Kerasine delivery (see Goldie's entry) he has agreed not to deliver any more drugs. He will charge hefty penalties to employers who break his terms; his only Achilles heel is a protective instinct towards children and noncombatants.
Bean is huge and muscular, towering over most people. He can perform amazing feats of strength (like ripping the door off a car with one hand) and shrug off most injuries. Even a pistol shot to his armored headband will barely slow him down. He prefers knives to guns, and can throw a knife straight through a car windscreen with deadly accuracy. He has long black hair, darkish skin and brown eyes, and his race is not determined. However, in interviews, Sonoda has implied that Bean's amazing traits are a result of him being a mix of the strongest characteristics from many different races.
Bean Bandit is also the star of a 1989 original video animation and manga, written by Sonoda, called Riding Bean. In this separate story, Bean and a blonde Rally are partners and have a close, but professional, friendship.
At the end of Gunsmith Cats, his recent scuffle with Percy Bacharach, an aggressive and otherwise reckless officer with a long history with Bean, has him leaving the Chicago scene for a while, although he still keeps offering his services outside of the state of Illinois.
Becky Farrah "Becky the Nose" is Rally's main source of information on all the goings on in the Chicago underworld. While her fees are high and she can come across as money-grubbing, most if not all of her information is legitimate; she is also known for working in finding missing people. When she is not chasing after Rally for her payment, the two share a friendship that crosses business lines. Becky eventually withdraws from the Chicago underworld in the end and uses her scouting skills in investment and business, although her friends remind her when it borders on insider trading.
Becky wears glasses with a ponytail and is usually businesslike in appearance. She can be seen driving a BMW 2002 Turbo. Bought a BMW 3 Series Compact in Gunsmith Cats Burst after selling the 2002 to Misty.
Ken Takizawa A Japanese-American explosives expert by trade, he learned his craft through a combination of his connections to the Chicago underworld and on the set of Hollywood movies. He then taught Minnie May everything he knows. He and Minnie began a sexual relationship when she was 13 and he was about 30 years old. He also has multiple sclerosis, which affects his ability to handle sensitive explosives.
At the end of the series, he and May open up an anime and Japanese hobby store in Chicago after their honeymoon to Osaka, and have a son.