NOTE<\/strong>: While I\u2019m a firm believer that first impressions don\u2019t have to be lasting ones, and they most certainly don\u2019t have to be exclusive, I am a believer that they are important. As such, I\u2019m not going to focus on elements that don\u2019t enrich the first viewing if I can help it.<\/p>\n The original manga, which ran from 1991 – 1997 in \u201cAfternoon\u201d magazine, was spurred by Kodansha editors\u2019 interest in early illustrations of Rally and Minnie-May. He was asked to develop a concept for said characters and drew inspiration from the police drama Taiy\u014d ni Hoero!, gun action films such as the French Connection and the Blues Brothers and American TV shows such as Bewitched and the Fugitive.<\/p>\n The OVA, whose first episode was released in late 1995, was produced by OLM studies and directed by Takeshi Mori. The OVA features an original story, but has some references to the manga. The production crew made numerous trips to Chicago to scout locations and get some hands on research with real firearms. A Shelby Cobra GT500, the model Rally drives, was recorded in Hollywood.<\/p>\n One of the first things you\u2019ll notice when watching the opening is the limited color palette. That\u2019s not to say it\u2019s visually unappealing, It\u2019s quite the opposite. Kenichi Sonada is revered for his attention to detail. He\u2019s also a gun and car otaku to the core, so you know you were going to get highly detailed renditions of both in the manga. This is carried over into the anime opening.<\/p>\n A lot of manga is black and white. However, if we\u2019re honest with ourselves, that\u2019s mostly because of the paper and the white is actually just negative space. The opening selectively replaces some of that whiteness with solid colors, which adds some flair and highlights some important items in the scenes. The use of selective coloring, a small color palette and highly detailed renditions gives the opening the feeling of an animated manga – an animated Kenichi Sonada manga. And I wouldn\u2019t have it any other way.<\/p>\n Color scheme aside, there\u2019s a clear focus on a small handful of elements throughout. At any point in the opening you\u2019ll see some combination of the following: Minnie-May, Rally, firearms, grenades or one of three fast cars (likely a \u201867 Shelby Cobra GT500, \u201896 Viper and \u201868 Corvette C3). Whether it\u2019s explosions, gunfights, car chases or the charming main characters, the opening doesn\u2019t offer anything the anime or manga doesn\u2019t deliver.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a few moments in the opening that I think act as great primers for the characters and the series proper. There are multiple instances of the two main characters posing with their weapons of choice. They obviously aren\u2019t to be trifled with. However, the above two pictures do a good job of displaying that they aren\u2019t all business. They do have a playful, fun side despite their combat prowess – with Minnie-May providing a bit more of the sex appeal than Rally.<\/p>\n What the previous two images do for the characters, this segment does for the series itself. The image alludes to what the series is all about: action with a bite or two of cheesecake. Truthfully, they could\u2019ve ended the opening with this and it would\u2019ve been perfect (though the iconic jacket is good too).<\/p>\n All of this is capped off with the splendid opening theme itself. It\u2019s a jazzy tune that carries some energy, but is lighthearted and fun. There\u2019s no vocals to create any kind of narrative (it doesn\u2019t need one), but it\u2019s punctuated by the pull of an ignition pin and gun slide at the beginning and the roar of the Mustang on the tail end. It\u2019s a theme that serves its purpose well.<\/p>\n Openings are the wrapping for their respective anime. As such, an opening should convey something<\/em> representative of that. Whether it’s presenting themes of the show, providing characterization or just running a preview reel of upcoming events, I expect to walk away with some inkling of what to expect from the show. Baccano’s opening is a beautifully interconnected character roll call. Bleach’s first opening blends fashion and youthful rebelliousness with a supernatural conflict. FLCL doesn’t even have<\/em> an opening (but does have an ending), arriving unceremoniously and leaving all too soon like many a childhood. I think that’s a reasonably set bar.<\/p>\n Next time we’ll be taking a look at episode one.<\/p>\n Save<\/span><\/p>\n Save<\/span><\/p>\n Save<\/span><\/p>\n Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Retrospec: Gunsmith Cats Pt 1 Around these parts we believe in practicing what we preach. So what better time than after an article espousing the virtues of deeper analysis is there to do some deeper analysis of my own? In this series, I\u2019m taking a retrospective look at Gunsmith Cats, the three episode OVA based […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[8,17,9,183,6],"tags":[36,37,35],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/heartCutOut.gif","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7D5Jo-2j","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":518,"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143\/revisions\/518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Background<\/h3>\n
Opening<\/h3>\n
![\"rally\"](\"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/rally.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"heartCutOut\"](\"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/heartCutOut.gif\")
<\/p>\n![\"ActualCats\"](\"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/ActualCats.gif\")
<\/p>\n![\"logo\"](\"http:\/\/interwebadventurelog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/logo.gif\"){kind=logo}
<\/p>\nSo What Should We Take From This?<\/h2>\n