Last year I looked at Kenichi Sonoda's popular GUNSMITH CATS manga series as released here in the United States by Dark Horse Comics. That was the original run, which spanned 1991 through 1997. But, after taking several years off to work on other projects, Sonoda revived the series in 2004 for five years of further adventures. GUNSMITH CATS BURST was also released by Dark Horse in the U.S. not long after it concluded publication in Japan (indeed, there may even have been some overlap between the Japanese series ending and the American editions starting, though I'm not certain).
Unlike the original GUNSMITH CATS, which I'd read a number of times when I started my review project last year, I've only read BURST once, a volume at a time, as it was released by Dark Horse in the United States circa 2007 - 2010. So while I remembered a great deal of the original series' plot, this next round will practically new to me, as I recall very little about it.
Where I covered the original series in eight posts, each looking at half a volume of the huge GUNSMITH CATS REVISED EDITION books, this will be a shorter project. BURST didn't last as long as GSC, and was released in five normal-sized manga volumes -- so for this project we'll just cover one book a week for a total of five weeks, taking us into February.
Stand by, because we begin... one week from today!
Available on Amazon: Volume 1 | Volume 2 | Volume 3 | Volume 4 | Volume 5
Since I haven't read this one, how far in until I get creeped out by something supposedly "sexy"? TUNE IN TO FIND OUT!
ReplyDeleteWell, maybe I shouldn't spoil it for you, but there's actually not nearly as much creepy stuff in BURST as there was in the original series! Which isn't to say there's none, but this round of stories is (comparatively) way tamer than what came previously.
Deleteokies.. no idea if this is going to get a reply or not XD but on the off chance it does...
ReplyDeleteJust what is "Burst" in relation to the original 4 volumes? is it a continuation? or just a re-work of sorts?
I remember watching the 3-shot anime of Gunsmith cats decades ago, and only recently started looking into Anime again and stumbled across the 4-run Gunsmith Manga books, and the 5-run Burst books.... wondering if i should just get them all or only the origional 4.
Hello! Thanks for the comment. To answer your question -- GUNSMITH CATS BURST is a sequel to the original series. The original GUNSMITH CATS was serialized in the 90s and released as several manga volumes around that time as well. Years later, in the 00s, Kenich Sonoda returned to the series for a new serialized sequel.
ReplyDeleteI can't speak for how it went in Japan, but in the U.S., around the time BURST was being published new, Dark Horse re-released the entire original series in four extra-length "Revised Edition" volumes (featuring slight dialogue tweaks and less censorship than the versions originally published here previously), which are the four books you'll find for sale nowadays. The five BURST volumes were soon released as well, collecting the entire sequel series in books that matched the Revised Editions.
So to make a long story short (too late), the entire GUNSMITH CATS saga consists of the four "Revised Edition" books, followed by the five BURST books.
I had the same first exposure to the series as you did, by the way -- somewhere around 1999 or 2000, Sci-Fi Channel aired an anime marathon for some holiday or another, and I caught the three GSC episodes there. I liked it so much that I sought out the manga -- which at the time was still being published in monthly comic book format by Dark Horse!
(I was surprised that the main male lead of the anime, an ATF agent, isn't in the manga at all. He seemed like a major character in the show!)
It fascinates me to this day that this series, which by all measures must have been successful due to how long it ran, has only ever had a 3-episode OVA as far as screen versions go. It's cool that the OVA is an original story, but it seems strange that a straight adaptation of the manga has never happened.
As far as what to read... the original run (the first four books) are really good, albeit with the inclusion of some questionable fetishes on the part of the author. BURST is fun, but feels totally unnecessary, almost like an afterthought. I wouldn't discourage you from reading it, but be aware that it's not really on the same level, storywise, as the original run.
Ahh ok, Thanks for the Reply and the info! :D
Delete