GUNSMITH CATS BURST VOLUME 5

"MINNIE-MAY'S SOUVENIRS" | "REHABILITATION" | "BECKY FARRAH"
"DRUG TRAFFICKING" | "ANYTHING BUT DRUGS" | "HAO SHIFU" | "LIFT THE BAN"
"I CAN'T BACK UP" | "150 MPH SHAKE!" | "PERCY" | "MISTY'S DETERMINATION"
"GOOD NIGHT" | "FINAL CHAPTER: FACES OF CHICAGO"
Presented by Kenichi Sonoda
Translation and Lettering: Studio Cutie

Forget everything I said last week about Goldie's name. I mean, except for the part where it should be "Goldie Musso". For whatever reason, in this volume she's identified by the original series' English spelling of "Goldie Musou", rather than the previous volume's "Goldy Musso".

Anyway... the final GUNSMITH CATS BURST book opens with May and Ken returning from their honeymoon in Japan, to find a glum Rally waiting. She tells them that Misty now lives with Goldie, and the group sets up a plan to figure out why. They know Goldie's new drug is called Dark Ball (an evolution of her "Powerball" drug from the original series), and suspect it has brainwashing capabilities similar to Goldie's older products. Becky gets Bean on board to procure a Dark Ball sample, and May brings the sample to her contact in Chinatown, Granny Hao.

But the only way Bean can get the Dark Ball is by agreeing to run drugs for one of Goldie's dealers, breaking his promise to Rally. Word of Bean's run is leaked to the police, and Detective Bacharach returns to action, ambushing Bean when he picks up the drugs and coercing him into a race to the state line. Bean, who actually enjoys his little back-and-forths with Bacharach, agrees.

I'm not sure when during the run of BURST Kenichi Sonoda decided he was ready to stop, but it seems pretty evident here that he's setting things up for a finale. Goldie vs. Rally, Bean vs. Bacharach -- major conflicts are coming to a head all at once, and the threads of both are intermingling. It's fun to see even if, as was the case with much of BURST, a lot of this feels like overly well-trodden ground for the series (more on that below).

Unfortunately, the promise of these converging storylines is let down by Sonoda's ultimate conclusion. While Bean is out racing Bacharach, Rally calls Misty and meets with her at a diner. There, Misty explains that she actually like living with Goldie, because Goldie treats her well. She contrasts this with her relationship with Rally, noting that she's been sexually and romantically attracted to Rally for years, but Rally never reciprocated -- unlike Goldie. So Rally and Misty part with their first and last kiss, as Misty returns to Goldie.

Meanwhile, Bean runs circles around Bacharach, wins the race, and calls Rally to inform her his promise not to run drugs is back in effect.

And... that's it. There's one final chapter, titled "Faces of Chicago", in which Sonoda has Goldie and Dennis reflect on all the various characters who have entered their orbit, and Sonoda ends it with a little "where are they now?" coda. There's no grand climax, not epic finale... just Rally and Misty gabbing about their relationship in a diner while Bean handles all the action.

The final three pages of BURST -- but I wasn't thinking when I stuck them together and botched the order.
Since these are meant to be read right to left, you should read the panels as follows: 4-3-2-1-8-7-6-5-11-10-9.

It's an odd way to end the series. I noted previously that it's totally valid for Bean to headline his own chapters in GUNSMITH CATS at this point -- he's become a major protagonist. But even so, it's not his series. GUNSMITH CATS, while it featured an ensemble cast, was never an ensemble series. It was always the adventures of Rally Vincent and friends. So to close things out with such little spotlight on Rally seems bizarre.

But then, BURST as a whole always felt odd from the very beginning. It started off strong enough -- though a bit repetitive of material we've seen before, the first story arc at least felt like classic GUNSMITH CATS. But subsequently, it more-or-less turned into RIDING BEAN, instead -- the majority of the action after that arc spotlighted Bean Bandit, aside from Rally's adventure in Goldie's mansion in volume 4. And while I don't object to that in general, it does feel as if Sonoda really wanted to be doing RIDING BEAN instead of GUNSMITH CATS all along. Perhaps he'd really said all there was to see with Rally by the end of the original series -- I mean, her character arc was basically finished when she defeated Goldie the first time and saved her dad.

Which of course begs the question, what was the point of GUNSMITH CATS BURST? I'm so curious that I've actually done some Googling on the subject, but I can't find anything in English to shed light on why Sonoda returned to the series years after giving it a pretty straightforward ending. Was it his own desire to do so? The uneven quality and lack of direction makes me think possibly not. Was it his editor's suggestion for something to do after he finished his post-GSC manga, CANNON GOD EXXAXXION? Did his publisher offer him a bunch of money to return to a proven series rather than move on to something new? The world may never know!

In the end, I suppose there's nothing necessarily wrong with GUNSMITH CATS. It just doesn't stand up to the quality of the original series. After the first arc, it really feels like Sonoda loses enthusiasm (except for when he can make Bean the star). BURST isn't bad, it's just not terribly good, either. It exists, though it doesn't seem to know why it exists. Some may call that a sin for a story, but I'd never go that far. I'm always happy to check in with old fictional friends having new adventures, even if those adventures don't live up to the standard set by the original run. But, that said, if I ever re-read GUNSMITH CATS again in my life, I think it's a fair bet that I'll stop at the end of the first series and leave BURST on the shelf.