Reviews

Apr 28, 2008
This large, classic series consists of the adventures of Saeba Ryo, a sweeper or hired gun and his partner Kaori. Throughout the 140 episodes that make up the 4 seasons there are mainly 1-3 episode stories that intertwine very nicely. Also 3 movies that came out during the series' release and 3 specials that aired later. This anime is considered Action/Comedy but it has a lot of the entertainment value that you get from a Super Power type anime due to Ryo's implausible skill.

Saeba Ryo is not only an absolutely perfect marksman but by nature will hit on every beautiful woman he sees, which is the origin of many of his jobs. Kaori, Ryo's female partner in business will often straighten him out with something heavy, like a 10 ton hammer to the head. He tries to keep a rule of only accepting female clients so this is often necessary. At whim he will go from a super marksman to hitting on any woman that comes within view. He uses a .357 magnum to get himself out of all the trouble these jobs lead him and his friends into. His skill with the gun is to the point of(but not limited to) shooting through the exact same hole in a target 12 times, in a duel with another professional drawing and reloading faster than they can even draw and shooting out 4 wheels on a car that's driving behind him all through the same hole in the rear windshield while only looking through the mirror. His marksmanship is quite literally super human.

The combination of action and comedy is perfect and very addicting. Throughout the anime he takes endless numbers of jobs, all original and without getting redundant. From catching a killer that uses hypnosis to make their target commit suicide to stopping a hacker from accessing missile silos. There are a lot of rocket launchers, grenades, plastic explosives and nitroglycerin in this anime =). There are quite a few side characters, around 7-8. All of which are very well done and significant.

The animation is very good for its time(1987-1991) in my opinion. The animation doesn't make this anime as much as the story, action and comedy, but the animation is good all the same.

As for music, is is overall very good, especially the opening, endings and theme song. I especially like the 1st opening and S2 2nd ending songs among others. The background music and sound effects are also very good.

I can say for sure that this anime does not degrade as you get to higher episodes, it only gets better, which is somewhat uncommon for a 100+ ep series. The Movies and OVAs don't lower in quality compared to the series itself either. They fit perfectly with the series at the points that you are supposed to watch them at and it just makes it that much better. Altogether this anime is a must watch, one of the best Shounen animes and very addictive.

If you like this anime I suggest watching Angel Heart, as it is a semi-continuation of many of the City Hunter characters.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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