Bruce Von Stiers

There is a new bad guy in town. He is known only as the Professor. It is up to Joe Saeba and his associates to find out who this guy is and stop his evil plan. That is the plot in the new anime title from ADV Films called City Hunter: The Motion Picture. I just recently got a chance to look at the DVD version of this film.

Joe is one of those guys who is good looking and tough. But he has severe bouts of silliness and horniness. He is always looking for some action, be it with a client or a complete stranger. He is reined in, somewhat, by his partner, Karori Makimura. She uses whatever means necessary to keep Joe’s libido in place and his mind on the case and not on nookie.

The two have a new client. Her name is Amy and she is looking for her long lost brother. The guy apparently took off one time and never came back. Now Amy is sure he is reaching out to her. She hires Joe and Karori to find her brother for her. There is an attempt on Amy’s life and now they have to protect her as well as trying to find the brother.

In the mean time, things are heating up for the cops. The Professor is up to something big, the cops just don’t know what it is yet.

Through a series of events, we find out that the Professor is Amy’s long lost brother. He is trying to eliminate all of the ties to his past. And he has a big scheme going that will make him billions of yen richer.

The main cop chasing the Professor is Sandra Nogami, a top notch investigator and daughter of the Chief. She will stop at nothing to bring down the Professor. Another secondary player in the film is Falcon, another operative who helps out Joe and Karori from time to time. He is big, bad, great with a machine gun and flies a mean helicopter.

One of the things to note about this film is that the English Language version changed a couple of the characters names. The Japanese version has Saeba’s first name as Ryo. It also has Falcon as Umbozou. Other characters have slightly different names as well.

I realize that most of what the City Hunter character is about is raging hormones, but that aspect gets old quick. If it was treated with a little more tact and less of an anime plot device, the show would have been a lot better.

The animation wasn’t too bad in the film. Some of the locations were well drawn, especially Amy’s dorm room and Falcon’s bar. The dubbing was all right and seemed to have translated well from the Japanese.

Aside from the little libido side trips, there is plenty of action in the film. Joe is deadly with a gun and his fists. As they go after the Professor, Joe and Karori put their skills to the test.

There are a few extras that were thrown in on the DVD. Clean Opening and Closing scenes were added so that you can view them without the credits. There are a few original Japanese TV commercials for the film. Bios of Joe, Karori, Falcon and Sandra Nogami are listed as well. And, of course, there are trailers for several other ADV Films titles.

City Hunter: The Motion Picture has plenty of action and adventure. It has some violence and profanity so it wouldn’t be viewable for younger children. In fact, the film has a 15+ Suggested rating. It was an alright film, but Joe’s horniness could have been a small sidebar and not such a major part of the story.

City Hunter: The Motion Picture should be available now. Ask for it at your local retailer. You might also want to check out the ADV Films web site at www.advfilms.com.