City Hunter
|
|
City Hunter was a popular Japanese anime and manga franchise in the 1980s and 90s. It followed the exploits of Ryo Saeba and Kaori Makimura who together made up City Hunter, a covert, independent group who can be hired for missions like bodyguarding and private investigation.
The story is an action-adventure comedy and was wildly popular in Japan and France.
Main characters
Ryo Saeba (冴羽 獠 Saeba Ryō) - The protagonist of City Hunter. Ryo is an expert shot (his weapon of choice is the Colt Python .357 Magnum), an expert martial artist and an expert driver(his car is Mini). He has a past that is mysterious, even to him. He knows only that he survived a plane crash in Central America as a young boy, grew up as a guerrilla, eventually moving to the U.S. and then Shinjuku in Tokyo, Japan. Ryo is also an incredibly lecherous pervert, but he only loves one woman, the only one who can keep him in check.
Kaori Makimura (槇村 香 Makimura Kaori) - The other half of City Hunter, Ryo's partner. With her short hair and tomboyish tendencies, she is often mistaken for a guy. She carries assorted weapons, but isn't as skilled as Ryo with them. She does manage to easily wield a large hammer of varying weights (usually 100 or 250 tons) to beat Ryo over the head with from time to time, when he falls out of line or lets his lecherous tendencies get the best of him. Also loves Ryo, but is unable to tell him so.
The City Hunter franchise
The City Hunter manga, created by Tsukasa Hojo, ran for eight years in Shueisha's Shonen Jump from 1985 to 1992, producing some 35 books. In 1987, City Hunter was turned into an anime series that ran for four seasons for 140 episodes, finally ending in 1991. In 1989, the City Hunter anime movie was created, City Hunter: Ai to Shukumei no Magnum (A Magnum of Love and Destiny). In 1990, two separate OAVs were created: Bay City Wars and Hyakuman Dollar no Inbo (Plot of $1,000,000). In 1992, a live action City Hunter movie was created, starring Jackie Chan as Ryo and Joey Wong as Kaori. Finally, after the TV run ended, several City Hunter TV specials were created, The Secret Service in 1995, Goodbye My Sweetheart in 1997 and CH Special 99' - City Hunter Special Urgent Live: The End of Ryo Saeba in 1999.
All 140 of the television episodes, the movie, the two OAVs and two of the TV specials were released in North America on DVD by ADV Films. The final special, CH Special 99' - City Hunter Special Urgent Live: The End of Ryo Saeba, hadn't yet been released at the time of ADV's original license to all of the City Hunter anime up to that point, and thus this special currently remains unlicensed in the U.S.
The City Hunter manga was published in North America in English by Raijin Comics. Many early stories were released, but since Raijin went defunct there is no sign of the series being completed any time soon.
External links
- City Hunter fan site (http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Gulf/9874/) (in English)
- City Hunter - Angelus City (http://accityhunter.free.fr/) (in French)id:City Hunter
eo:City Hunter fr:City Hunter it:City Hunter ja:シティーハンター zh:城市猎人
Categories: Anime | Manga