For some time, I've had a partially written review of the Coyote Ragtime Show floating in the ether of blog purgatory. A combination of school, and other distractions as well as a severe case of Apathy towards the show have kept it there.

Now Ubu Roi has forced the issue with a long thoughtful and justifiably merciless disquetation on The Coyote Ragtime Show.

The show is an animated 70s action flick containing all the absurdities that implies and rife with with elements from American, Japanese and Hong Kong flavors of that particular dish. The show is almost a stream of consciousness of random encounters and complications. Of course, many of the impossibilities (long conversations during a 6 story fall) are anime tropes as well, that they are noticed as such is a testament to the shows failure to engage the audience after the first episode...

And the first episode IS good.

Tough as nails detective Angelica Barnes has been given a license by the president of...the...er...galaxy or something...to bring back the super criminal known as MISTER. She has arrived on a backwater planet to check out a lead in the local maximum security prison.

She is met by Chelsea Muir (superbly voiced in the dub by Monica Rial) who is arguably the most likable character in the show. Ostensibly a detective, Chelsea was almost certainly either an affirmative action hire or was given a commission in the vain hope of a quid pro quo involving her ample bosom, for Chelsea is barely literate and exceedingly scatterbrained. She is not dumb, however. It is strongly implied in the English version that she is dyslexic. She is a brilliant mechanic and has an eidetic memory. Her knowledge base and skillets are eclectic and unsystematic but what she is good at she is very good at. She is also idealistic and principled, which on this corrupt world would likely have gotten her fired or worse if Angelica Barnes opinion of her hadn't shifted from contempt to admiration. (By the end of episode 1 she signs on as Barnes assistant...gopher...something).

The two arrive at the prison to investigate the possibility that MISTER is incarcerated there, for a DUI of all things, when..

Suddenly....loligoth paratroopers...12 of them!

 Ah yes, Madame Marciano's 12 sisters, ruthless female android (?) assassins, each equipped with a different example of 20th century gunpr0n and dressed in costumes exhibiting varying flavors of gothieness ranging from debutantes, to maids to punkers to.....chimney sweeps....

Yes boys and girls by combining gunpr0n and cosplay with murderous maidens of mayhem the producers were able to cover bases on at least 30 different fetishes in one villain team!

This should have been the best series ever!

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at 11:48 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 Chelsea is the ONLY reason I lasted as long as I did with the show.

I lasted 2-1/2 episodes.

Posted by: Wonderduck at Sun Dec 2 03:19:44 2007 (AW3EJ)

2 I blame Aug for ten episodes of my stupidity.

Posted by: ubu at Thu Dec 13 20:06:26 2007 (i3HGQ)

3 Perhaps a bit late now... But I stumbled across this looking for a picture of the sisters, and, well...

While I agree that the show was cheap, cliche fare (which I actually found very fun because I expected it to be cheesy and bad from the first episode) I disagree that Angelica's love for Mister was a sudden plot twist thrown in at the end. Maybe my judgement is skewed by a few lucky guesses from the first episode, but I saw that coming by episode two and she showed signs long before the finale that she had another motive than just justice for finding Mister.

That doesn't save it from being a fluff-fest filled to the brim with cheese, but I just can't hold that plot element against it.

Posted by: Koko at Thu Jul 24 12:03:33 2008 (33o/I)

4 Koko!

Wow!

We got visited by Koko!

Such August company! How are Betty, Bimbo and Fitz?

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sat Jul 26 19:10:32 2008 (V5zw/)

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