Hey guys! Today I am going to talk about one of my famorite manga/anime of all time, and it is called City Hunter. It is a well known anime from the 1980s. It is absolutely not to be mistaken for the Korean drama City Hunter that was released in 2011. The anime City Hunter from the 80s was such a success that a movie (with Jackie Chan playing in it) was released in 1993. Also a French movie adaptation will be released next year, so I will also talk about it. So let’s begin!
I- What is City Hunter?
Ryo Saeba is an exceptional private investigator that is very feared among criminals in the country (and even in the entire world). He works on cases, often very dangerous cases with his teammate, Hideyuki Makimura. One day, a client asks them to investigate a very well known criminal mafia involved with drug dealing, women trafficking etc … Hideyuki sets an appointment with the Boss of the organization who asks him to work for him. Hideyuki of course refuses it and unfortunately won’t make it alive. Right before he dies, he asks Ryo to take care of his sister, Kaori Makimura. Ryo, who knows how dangerous his life and his job can be asks Kaori to leave and gives her lots of money. Kaori does not want to and surprisingly asks Rio to become her teammate. After a lot of hesitation Ryo accepts and this marks the beginning of a very long and ambiguous relationship between the two.
II- The characters
1) Ryo Saeba
Ryo is an orphan who lost his parents in a plane crash in the middle of a war zone in Central America. He himself survived the plane crash and was found very quickly by some rebels who taught him how to fight, , how to survive, how to do stealth mission, how to use weapons etc … Eventually, he became an exceptional warrior. When the war was over, he went to the United States where he found a mentor who taught him how to be a private investigator. That, with his exceptional combat abilities made him very feared and well known among criminals. He worked on a lot of cases and missions that sometimes took him around the world. He then decided to go back to his native country Japan, to work as a private investigator. This is wear he found Hideyuki Makimura, and they decided to build that private investigator business working together. Ryo does not usually talk about his past eventhough he is quite social and does not like to reflect on all the terrible things he had to go through as a child/teenager.
Ryo is exceptional at combat. His earing is extremely good and he can tell if somebody is about to use his gun within a radius of 660 feet just by the sound that is made by the gun hammer. This also helps Ryo to detect if there is a hidden bomb in the area as he can carefully identify a ticking clock sound from a bomb in the middle of high noise. His favorite gun is the colt python. On top of that he is very athletic and can jump quite far or run. He is also excellent at close combat and regularly knocks thugs off with his punches or kicks.
Ryo is obsessed with women. He really is. He is not at all afraid to go ask out any random beautiful woman that he meets in the street. He requests to only work for beautiful women on his cases. He sometimes ends up sleeping with them. He can be quite a creep/voyeur as well and won’t hesitate to spy women or his clients when they are taking a shower. He also likes to collect women panties and bra. He regularly goes to cabaret, nightclubs with lots of women to spend all of his money earned from a case.
Ryo secretely loves Kaori and he deeply cares for her but he doesn’t want to show/tell her that because he thinks his job is too dangerous for him to have a stable life/family. So with Kaori, he will regularly pretend as if he does not care about her and that she is just a co-worker, when in reality it is quite different. You can have more information about the characters on this website.
2) Kaori Makimura
She is the little sister of Hideyuki Makimura. She has a very good heart and deeply cares for her loved ones. She can be quite jealous as well and will regularly beat the crap out of Ryo whenever he would get too close to another woman. She has short hair and can be quite a bit of a tomboy sometimes. She does not wear dresses or squirts often, nor does she wear any makeup and Ryo would regularly tease her about that.
She can be quite clumsy at combat, but believe or not her clumsiness actually saved many clients numerous times. Despite the fact that she constantly argues with Ryo, deep down they really trust each other and that is why they can work extremely well as a team. Contrarily to Ryo who likes to waste all the money they earn, Kaori is very careful with money and regularly manages their income.
3) Saeko Nogami
She works for the police and is the hottie of the anime. She regularly manipulates men because she is quite smart and hot. She does that to Ryo quite often during the manga. She would have him help her on an important case while promising him some good time afterwards which almost never happens. Not a lot is known about her love life in the anime and it is safe to assume that she is single. In fact, she regularly goes out with rich men as an undercover for a job or just for fun.
She is quite good at combat, and this for many reasons. First, she is a hot woman and regularly uses that to distract her opponents. She is very agile and uses both knife and guns. She usually, hides her knives around her thigh, which makes her very unpredictable for her opponent as well. She is very good at driving and can drive sport cars quite well, which makes her terrific when it comes to chase a criminal. She can fly helicopters as well. To sum up, she is quite versatile and that is one of the reasons why she is so good at her job. She likes to wear expensive and nice clothes and likes expensive stuffs in general. For instance, she owns a sport car. Despite the fact that she uses Ryo quite often, she remains a loyal friend to him. She has a sister called Reika Nogami, who happens to be quite hot and manipulative as well.
4) Umibozu
Interestingly, he used to be Ryo’s ennemy as they fought against each other during a war. He became one of his best friend afterwards. Umibozu is quite huge and tall and his skin is quite tan. He wears very dark sunglasses because he has some issues with his vision due to something that happened during a previous combat. Despite the fact that he looks like an intimidating bad guy, he is actually quite afraid and allergic to cats and extremely shy with women. In fact, whenever he is interested in a woman, he usually goes to Ryo for help and advice.
Umibozu has the strength of a superhuman, so needless to say that he is pretty much unbeatable in fist fight. He uses heavy duty weapons, such as a hand cannon. He is also an independent detective and when he is not working on a case, he is usually working at the coffee shop that he owns. He uses the coffee shop quite often as an undercover place as well. He has a very good reputation as a detective and is extremely feared among criminals and gangs due to his past.
III – Soundtrack
I find City Hunter soundtrack quite amazing. It is like a combination of Japanese and American themes/music from the 80s. So there is a lot of Pop, Jazz, Piano and Electronic. For instance, “Midnight Rain” is quite a popular song from the anime. To me, that song is quite representative of the relationship between Ryo and Kaori. A relationship sometimes unpredictable and full of fights but sincere love between both. In terms of genre I would say that it is a mixture between pop and rock. Another song named “Atsuku Naretera” represents to me the atmosphere in the anime whenever, Ryo would finish solving a case and would want to hang out with Kaori. The song “Paradise Alley” is quite soothing and relaxing. It is a Jazz based song. Finally, the song “Give me Your Love Tonight” is an absolute beauty and clearly reminds of some American music from the 80s. I really liked that song. You can find some of the soundtrack here
If you are a fan of Japanese and American music from the 80s City Hunter is definitely the anime for you.
IV- Story and episodes
Some episodes can be quite dark, some others can be quite happy. When you look at City Hunter in general you realize that Ryo and Kaori live in a quite dark environment. Many times they were quite close to be killed and in the anime it sometimes feels like both of them will never find true peace/normal life ever. It is actually well reflected in “Angel Heart” which originally was intended to be the next part of City Hunter. In Angel Heart, Kaori is dead but her heart was transplanted into another woman. So her “soul and mind” lives in her. This is quite sad, as little before she died Ryo actually proposed to her. Some City Hunter fans (especially in Europe) do not like Angel Heart, as to them it does not have quite the same atmosphere. To be fair, Angel Heart is even darker than City Hunter.
Despite the fact that City Hunter can be quite dark there are quite a few filler episodes which can be quite happy. Also, Ryo and Kaori’s sense of humor make the anime quite funny actually. More info on Angel Heart can be found here
V- Upcoming City Hunter movie
Next year, there will be a new City Hunter movie which will be a French adaptation called “Nicky Larson” (because that is how the anime is called in French). It will be directed by Phillipe Lacheau. Also, Pamela Anderson will play in that movie! Phillipe Lacheau is originally a fan of City Hunter as well so I think that he will make a lot of effort so that the movie can be representative of the anime. However, I think that they will still run into a lot of difficulties, as they are trying to make a City Hunter movie in a European/Western based environment with Western actors. I am quite excited to watch the movie actually as I know he will really do his best. The movie is planned to be released on February 6th 2019 in France. A short clip about the movie was released and I think that it has already surprised some fans, who were clearly expecting way worse. More info on this here
Conclusion
City Hunter is still one of my favorite anime. I love the atmosphere and the sense of humor that it has. It might not be as known as Dragon Ball Z may be but to me it is still a major manga/anime from the 80’s era. Thank you for reading this post and I will talk to you guys very soon! :)
Pictures
Picture 1 was taken from https://goo.gl/xY4NxW
Picture 2, 4,5 and 6 were taken from https://goo.gl/2K3d1V
Picture 3 was taken from https://goo.gl/7kPD1P
Picture 7 was taken from https://goo.gl/dmQm7u
Picture 8 was taken from https://goo.gl/j8CZWF
Picture 9 was taken from https://goo.gl/5zuPBW
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