Kenichi Sonoda is a creator who has made a name for himself in the projects he's worked on, and Riding Bean is his first major project. It sees him contributing to an OVA anime to an unprecedented degree. Sonoda wrote the script, did almost all of the designs, and storyboarded the entire show himself. To hear the man tell it, Riding Bean remains Sonoda's favorite work, and this new Blu-ray release from AnimEigo offers a fresh way for people to enjoy this cult classic.
As an anime, Riding Bean is a 45-minute OVA—an action-heavy love letter to American action and car chase films of the era, such as Bullitt, The Driver, and especially The Blues Brothers. Professional racer Bean Bandit and his partner Rally Vincent get caught up in a kidnapping plot that quickly devolves into a series of car chases and shootouts until the bad guys are blown up and they can speed past the police to their next adventure. The action movie formula is simple enough, its vitality brought to life by all the detail and effort put into it by its creators. The show takes place in Chicago, with the backgrounds and streets Sonoda based on every reference he could find (Google Street View wasn't available in 1989). All the cars are rendered with lovely mechanical detail (even Bean's custom, 100% fictional Buff), and of course, there's Sonoda's gun fandom that shines, with dozens of different guns appearing with distinct details over the show's short run. This was Sonoda's first chance to do anything he wanted, so he executed his vision in a style he loved at the time (and still does to this day).
Sonoda, however, is less fancy, as are the anime and the 80s in general. There are a few different scenes of fan service at the beginning, all of which are major signs that the kind of over-the-top 80s Beans that exist as an example exist. Any 80s OVA would wish it could have had the lavish changing room scene that Rally saw early on. Perhaps less par for the course is Sonoda's tendency to include relationships with annoyingly young-looking girls, exemplified in the creepy relationship between main antagonist Semmerling and the young Carrie. Semmerling is an entertainingly unique villain, especially for her time, and her treatment of Carrie seems to be intended to emphasize her evil, sickly side but still comes off as needlessly annoying at times. It also leads to some graphic sexual abuse scenes that should be a red flag for anyone who wants to avoid such content. Some of these elements would be revisited and re-explored in Gunsmith Cats, Sonoda's follow-up series to Dou Dou—arguably for better and worse. So if you're a fan of the latter material, it's at least interesting to check out some of the earlier stuff. The entire journey exists at Sonoda's discretion, and we're with him on all of it.
But for all its flaws in the formulaic construction and its quirky authorial charm, when Riding Bean gets going, it's actually quite compelling. Bean's Buff is a car that can't go more than a few minutes without some hair-raising stunts, getting a lot of mileage out of wild sideways wheelies, as well as emergency stop wheel blades that make the whole thing feel like some kind of rampaging speedster. The gunplay from other characters, especially Rally, is crisp, detailed, and fun to watch. The show's climactic battle in a parking garage remains an unmistakable classic, a sequence filled with ridiculous elements like a bulletproof headband and our protagonist punching a Mini Cooper. It's all brought to life by the brilliant animation from the team of skilled professionals. In particular, from the show's big car chase scene all the way through, the detail and beauty of the animation is absolutely stunning. Sonoda's love for the production process rubs off on the rest of the crew, and if Riding Bean's short runtime makes it feel like it's only half an action movie in some ways, the half we get is incredibly entertaining because that's what it is.
If the OVA itself was a labor of love for its creators, then so is this release from AnimEigo. Expectedly, the video has been cleaned up as much as possible for the HD Blu-ray process, and while there’s still a bit of frame-shaking, it all looks crisp and smooth. Seeing the Chicago backgrounds rendered beautifully in HD, and being able to pick out all the small, specific details about how things like guns are drawn, adds to the appeal of getting a work like this in this format. The audio is also crisp, with the distinctive gunshots and car sounds coming through alongside the show’s uniquely American-made soundtrack. The old English dub is also included, but it’s a hiccup in what was clearly an early effort, with uneven volume quality, old translation errors still present, and even lip-syncing issues. At least the dub is done, but it’s not the best way to experience the series. While the modernized subtitles for the Japanese version have some timing issues or stay on screen for too long, they're generally considered an effective translation. As a bonus, AnimEigo has included new German and Catalan dubs for this release.
AnimEigo has packed in a ton of other extras for this trip. The disc also includes the original trailers for the OVA, a new Blu-ray trailer, a new interview with Sonoda himself, along with an image gallery. It’s worth noting that the commentary tracks from AnimEigo’s previous Riding Bean release aren’t included on this release, as they were deemed exclusive to that version’s Kickstarter campaign. However, I have to give a shout-out to another bonus exclusive to this release: the new tagline on the cover proclaiming “Chicago only has room for ONE giant Bean!” Supposedly conceived by Coop Bicknell and Justin Sevakis at MediaOCD, I hope they know that this release earns at least half a point in this review for sheer genius.
Riding Bean feels like a labor of love on all fronts, from the way it reflects the passion of its creators to the polished production that goes into this release. The OVA itself may be above average, but the history and care behind it make it compelling. Riding Bean may not be for everyone, but for anyone who finds it appealing, this is a great way to own it.
