City Hunter

[Drunk Monk]

City Hunter 

I confess that for such a massive manga/anime franchise, I don’t know very much about City Hunter beyond the Jackie Chan adaptation, and that’s probably the worst version ever because Jackie hams it up so much that it feels completely disconnected to its source material even without knowing it (it’s an amusing Jackie flick tho - I’m thinking now I need a rewatch).

The CH fandom says this new version is a complete miss but not knowing the lore, it was okay. It’s the creation story of Ryo (the titular investigator, crack shot & womanizer) and Hideyuki (his former partner’s daughter who was crushing on him in the original but is more of a frenemy here). Ryo is absurd - shallow, motivated by puppies (boobs), & mokkori (a word made up by this franchise which kinda means boner or masturbation). 

Ryo also a great fighter. The action is so anime/manga with plenty is special effects but it worked for me. It’s funny choreo, intentionally so. It has moments of sanguinosity, but mostly with splatter not gore (many exploding heads). The villains are solid and SPOILER ALERT an action sequence in a big cosplay event is amusing, particularly when the distressed damsel (a cosplayer named Milk known for her ‘meows’) is attacked by upskirt photo bugs and Ryo blocks them with his cosplay, a huge horse head emerging from his crotch).END SPOILER

What can I say? I was entertained by its goofiness. I even srsly lol-ed after the mokkori dance scene at a totally puerile gag. I think it just struck the right note with me at the right time. And I’m hard pressed to determine if others would like this - Greg won’t because he hates everything outside Ireland and the MCU. It might appeal to the yeti & cf, maybe tg too. As for KB I cannot say. D00M recommended just to see how poor my predictive powers are about all your opinions.