Bean Bandit

As a fan of Sonoda's work from Gunsmith Cats to Riding Bean, hearing that a new OVA was in the works was great and I was steadily waiting for it to release over the years, but unfortunately what we got was quite a disappointment.

It's not bad, far from it actually. From what we got, it seems like a perfect modern interpretation of Riding Bean. Fast muscle cars, realistic depictions of firearms and hot girls. That's Riding Bean to a tee and this OVA is pretty damn accurate to the manga/anime. Evening adding a few aspects from Gunsmith Cats (such as May and Becky who ... weren't in the original Riding Bean from what I recall). It even has some unique references to his previous work (such as Becky making the same face Rally does when she's in the restroom).

Sounds great, right? Well, the key words "what we got" should tip you off that it's unfinished. I'm assuming it was an issue with money and that's a real shame because for the 7 minutes of animation we did get it's actually quite fun, there's action and SOME dialogue between characters and even that weird Sonoda charm.

Story - 3/10
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Basically nonexistent, it's there I guess but that's it. You could argue that an anime like this doesn't really *need* a story beyond an item to deliver, but for what we get it's basically nothing., a bunch of characters talking and some action and...that's it. Hell, the credits are half the length of the animation and that's to thank all the kickstarter backers.

Art - 7/10
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It's good, what I expect from anime these days. It's nice to see Sonoda's 80's designs in a modern style and nothing looks off or bad in my opinion. The CG on the cars (I think) is noticeable *slightly* but it doesn't detract from the anime, and the guns look great and accurate.

Sound - 8/10
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The BEST part of the OVA. It's on point and sounds fantastic, really hope there's an OST release of all these tracks because so far this is something people should watch for alone. Seriously, I was jamming to what I was hearing during the only car chase and the ending credits, even re-listening to it while writing this review.

Characters - 6/10
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While we do not get any time to really get to know any of the characters, you can feel a lot of charisma from Bean himself, and get a small idea how other characters are. Rally being the partner, May being the new recruit, Becky the information gatherer and Percy the detective attempting to arrest Bean. However, I already know how these characters should be and act from his previous work so even what I'm saying here may not be carried across well in the OVA.

Overall - 6/10
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Even then, I'm being quite generous. There's around 7 minutes of actual animation, and then 4 minutes of credits, ending on a cliffhanger and we don't even know what the main plot is. I still enjoyed what I watched with the only disappointing part being how short it is and the cliffhanger. It'd be like watching Terminator 2 from the arcade to the canal chase and ending it there, you got a pretty great scene but that's it and it desperately leaves you wanting more.

Final Thoughts:
Just watch it because it's not bad by any means, just incomplete. If you like Riding Bean/Gunsmith Cats (hell,if you're fan of action of any kind), give this a watch since it's pretty short (for better and for worse) and can be completed in no time.

This is essentially just 7 minutes of out of context action scenes (which aren't really all that memorable to begin with), where the characters aren't being used to their fullest potential, especially Percy, where he only appears in a single scene. For a short called "Bean Bandit", May takes the spotlight in the majority of the runtime for some reason, although i gotta admit that the music and animation aren't half bad. Other bad aspect is the cliffhanger ending, one which i doubt will ever be resolved.

Overrall, a disappointing ride, while i do think that Gunsmith Cats/Riding Bean has a lot of potential for a ... revival(especially if it were a adaptation of the manga arcs), this isn't it. If you want more Kenichi Sonoda, just rewatch Gunsmith Cats and Riding Bean.

This was a passion project by the author Sonoda Kenichi, funded on kickstarter in 2018 (with the incredibly low funding goal of 15 million yen). The project fell under multiple delays, and ended up with the incredibly short runtime of 11 minutes (7 minutes excluding credits). The final outcome serves better as advertisement for the manga, and possibly as test footage for a future film or series set in the Riding Bean universe (although nothing like this has ever been expressed formally to my understanding).

Bean Bandit follows the cast from the Riding Bean manga, and introduces May Hopkins and Becky Farrah as some may ... know from Gun Smith Cats, another of Sonoda Kenichi's works, through the common character of Rally Vincent who appears as a main character in both manga, albeit as a slightly different character between them.

The short film itself has stunning visuals, an amazing soundtrack, as well as great character acting and voice acting, but ultimately fails to make great use out of its short runtime. For those already in love with the characters of Riding Bean and/or Gunsmith Cats this short film is 7 minutes of great fanservice and delight, only soured by its short runtime and lack of any plot or cohesion. For those not already familiar with the works, Bean Bandit serves as a taste of what the manga(s) and possible future works are like, with no greater plot to speak of.

I would personally be very sad if this was what I'd received as a funder, but as I got it 6 years too late, I can instead only appreciate the hard work and passion seemingly put into the project, and can only pray for a future installment of this quality with a dozen more script revisions.

Sonoda's style has been translated well to cleaner, modern sensibilities. It's very refreshing to see. The sound design is nice as well: sometimes if you close your eyes you will imagine you are watching a better anime. Unfortunately you are not watching a better anime, you are watching Bean Bandit (2021).

It's easy to blame the runtime, but plenty of shorts - professional or otherwise - manage to tell tight, compelling narratives in a similar amount of time. Unfortunately, this desperately needed to be run through a few script revisions to trim the fat and focus on the core concept. A tiny bit of setup, a ... high intensity car chase / gunfight, and then a dramatic standoff that ends on a cliffhanger could've been a great way to pitch a full series. Instead we get boring vomit, pee, and loli jokes that take up about half of the runtime, married to uninspired, weightless action. All Bean Bandit himself even does is kick someone in the balls and get run over. Thrilling.

It seems likely that this OVA fell into the trap of setting an "enticingly low" funding goal (15 million yen), with the hopes that it would convince people to pledge, hopefully build up a bit of traction, and then exceed the goal a few times over to end up on a reasonable budget. Instead it just about grabbed 130% of the initial goal and, rather than taking the humbling and just delivering something decent, we got a short that somehow can't even make somebody getting hit by a car feel impactful. Don't waste your time.