Tag: Kenichi Sonoda

Look Out Chicago! Sorting Out All The Latest Gunsmith Cats and Riding Bean News

Fans of 90s anime will be thrilled to learn there’s rereleases of two of Kenichi Sonoda’s most recognised classics, Riding Bean and Gunsmith Cats! And we have the details on what’s offered on print and video!

Gunsmith Cats Omnibus Volume 1Dark Horse Comics & AnimEigo
Release Date: Feb, 2025

The Gunsmith Cats are coming back in an omnibus collection from Dark Horse Manga! For newcomers, what’s offered is sure to please. Past editions are long out of print, and as much as I’d love to see brand-new stories happen, it’s not looking likely. Everything depends on what creator Kenichi Sonoda wants to do, especially following his attempts to reboot Bean Bandit / Riding Bean.

But for his most beloved series starring two bounty hunters, this edition collects:

  • Gunsmith Cats Revised Edition vol. 1 (2007) [entire volume]
  • Gunsmith Cats Revised Edition vol. 2 (2007) [p. 1-134]

or the equivelent of:

  • Gunsmith Cats vol. 1: Bonnie & Clyde (1996)
  • Gunsmith Cats vol. 2: Misfire (1997)
  • Gunsmith Cats vol. 3: The Return of Gray (1998)

The release date for Gunsmith Cats Omnibus Volume 2 has not been announced, but it’s safe to assume that it will be next year or later in 2025.

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Is Live Action Bubblegum Crisis Vapourware?

My guess is that we have too many similar movies where realizing Bubblegum Crisis is just not not viable

Bubblegum Crisis

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

The time is right for a Bubblegum Crisis live-action film. The digital special effects needed to pull off such a tale is at a state where people in power armour suits look believable and the robots they are supposed to fight–cyborgs (known as Boomers in the lore)–can look terrifyingly real. Alita: Battle Angel is the perfect example. But where is it?

Since the early part of this decade, nothing has materialized. IGN’s article stated, “Production houses from Singapore, Japan, Australia, Canada, China and the UK will work together on the $30m movie, with a 2012 release planned.” Many years have passed since then, and perhaps the reason nothing has happened is that either the technology is not quite there or they could not find the right performers to play the seminal characters of Sylia Stingray, Priss Asagiri, Linna Yamazaki, and Nene Romanova.

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Riding Bean is Mounting a Comeback on Kickstarter!

Riding BeanBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Fans of Kenichi Sonoda has been asking him for years if there will ever be a Riding Bean sequel and at long last, he’s off to the races to make it happen through crowdfunding. The Kickstarter page shows he is at the halfway point.

To make a full-length original animation video or movie cost a lot of money. To make a short is not beyond reason. His goal is to produce a five minute piece. Should support skyrocket they will give value back to the fans by extending the length of the work. A 24-minute production is not beyond reason, but to hire the talent and get back the cast to voice this production will require time and perhaps investment by other folks within the industry.

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Gunsmith Cats Purrs on Kickstarter!

Riding BeanBy Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Just in case fans of older anime have not heard, Gunsmith Cats (GSC) is getting a video upgrade. No, we are not talking about 4K, but the Kickstarter crowd funding project for the ultimate Blu-ray edition started a few weeks ago, and it exceeded the goal, at the time of writing, by three times! My expectation is that it will hit a multiple of five by the campaign’s end.

This work was first published in Kodansha’s Afternoon (from 1991 to 1997), and translated by Studio Proteus for Dark Horse Comics for an international release. Its success meant omnibus collections. Following the sequel, Burst (2004 to 2008) continued the adventures. The anime was released in 1995. While it was not as verbose as the printed material, completists enjoyed this complementary work.

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Character Designer & Manga Artist Kenichi Sonoda Announced for Sakura-Con!

kenichisonoda_photoBy James Robert Shaw (The Wind up Geek)

One of anime’s biggest names is coming to the Seattle and will be found at Sakura-Con 2017, the Pacific Northwest’s largest anime convention. Celebrating 20 years, it is only fitting character designer, writer, and manga artist Kenichi Sonoda will be one of this year’s guests.

Sonoda’s career started in the mid-80’s at studio Artmic, where he became a character designer for some of Artmic’s best titles such as Bubblegum Crisis (where he produced the original look of the Knight Sabers team), Riding Bean, and the Gall Force series. Sonoda was also designer on long-time fan favourites Otaku no Video and the super-deformed special Scramble Wars: Tsuppashire! Genom Trophy Rally.

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The Vintage Tempest’s Emerald City Comic Con Journal 2014

I am not fast enough to run around like Speedy Gonzales and absorb the fun Emerald City Comic Con offers all in one go. Comics, cinema and ‘toons are my life — to spend a good part of the con getting to meet my favourite artists, creators and television/movie stars spanning decades meant doing a lot of prioritizing.

Riding BeanBy Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

To get my nerd on depends on when I have time to drain my thoughts out and process them like Dumbledore in front of his Pensieve. With Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle, Washington, the experience is mind-blowing. I started going to this show in 2012 and I knew I had to make attending an annual pilgrimage — or rather a tradition! When this event has grown to have its events and exhibits housed in three buildings and multiple floors, just what can one guy do?

I am not fast enough to run around like Speedy Gonzales and absorb all the fun this convention offers in one go. Comics, cinema and ‘toons are my life — to spend a good part of the con getting to meet my favourite artists, creators and television/movie stars spanning decades meant doing a lot of prioritizing. Looking for back-issues of Marvels, DC’s and Independents were the furthest things from my mind. In fact, two-thirds of my time was spent in the main Exhibit Hall gleaming little tidbits of information about what’s coming in comic or cartoon land. Yes, a Fall of Cthulhu Omnibus collection is coming (hopefully by the end of the year), and the next Transformers cartoon will focus on the antics of Bumblebee.

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