This Week in Anime
Does Kenichi Sonoda's Riding Bean Hold Up?
by Jean-Karlo Lemus & Monique Thomas,
Kenichi Sonoda's iconic characters make up some of the biggest hits of the 80s and 90s, from Bubblegum Crisis to Gunsmith Cats. One character is the musclehead getaway driver Bean Bandit, the subject of a recent crowdfunding campaign for a new anime short, 30 years after he appeared in Riding Bean. Jean-Karlo and Nicky take a look at both iterations and evaluate how they hold up, warts and all.
Riding Bean is streaming on Amazon Prime and VRV
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network.
Spoiler Warning for discussion of the series ahead.
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@NickyEnchilada
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Jean-Karlo
Nicky, our time here at This Week In Anime has taken us to all kinds of places and shown us all kinds of people. The moon, subterranean sanctuaries, the distant future, a far-flung past inhabited by vampires, juvenile delinquents, himbos, and weird 5000-year-old crab-eating mummies. But this week, we're going to the most magical, wonderous place of them all:
Nicky, our time here at This Week In Anime has taken us to all kinds of places and shown us all kinds of people. The moon, subterranean sanctuaries, the distant future, a far-flung past inhabited by vampires, juvenile delinquents, himbos, and weird 5000-year-old crab-eating mummies. But this week, we're going to the most magical, wonderous place of them all:
Chicago, Illinois, circa 1989.
Nicky
Ah yes, a place only accessible in action movies I've only seen the boxes of sitting on the shelf of a Blockbuster Video store. But also somehow way more wild than half of what you listed.
Ah yes, a place only accessible in action movies I've only seen the boxes of sitting on the shelf of a Blockbuster Video store. But also somehow way more wild than half of what you listed.
This week, everyone better buckle up, because we're hitting the road. With the key in ignition, the wind in our hair, and the lights reflecting off some ridiculously large sunglasses. This is Riding Bean.
Folks know I'm a big fan of moldy old ephemera from the 90s (like how I'm always looking for excuses to bring up Tekkaman Blade), and the works of Kenichi Sonoda are no exception. Famed for his character designs for works in the 1980s like Gall Force, Otaku no Video, and the original Bubblegum Crisis, Sonoda also made his own manga. Way back when, one of the first things I did for ANN was a reader-submitted review of one of his old works, the Gunsmith Cats manga. Riding Bean is an OVA featuring Bean Bandit, the famed oversized courier that later appeared in Gunsmith Cats with the souped-up custom-designed car "The Buff" (based off of a Ford RS-200). Recently, Sonoda had hosted a crowdfunding campaign to get a new Riding Bean short animated, which was made available to us to watch. We decided to watch both it and the original Riding Bean.
Riding Bean was also originally a manga Sonoda worked on before creating Gunsmith Cats, but it got canned after just four chapters even though it was already approved to launch into a full series due to the magazine it was running getting canceled.
Now, there are some things about Sonoda we need to touch on before we can continue: Sonoda and his works were very popular in the US back in the early days of anime fandom (there's a cute cosplay skit from a convention where he was a guest that involved actual Dirty Pair cosplayers having to free him from some kidnappers). But he's something of a problematic fav; Sonoda really, really isn't afraid of drawing little girls in sexual situations. It's prevalent enough in Gunsmith Cats to where even though it's one of my favorite manga I can't really freely recommend it, and my quick excursion into his other works like Cannon God Exxaxion showed it wasn't any less present there. Also, psycho lesbians tend to turn up a lot. While I do miss his work I nevertheless have to give folks a big fat content warning, 'cuz this is stuff he brings up a ton.
There's also just a lot of general OVA anime edgy violence and nudity typical of the time. It's normally brief but some of it is gnarly. This is one of the LESS gross shots.
Sonoda came from the 1980s design school of ephemeral, stylized sexy ladies toting hyper-realistic military hardware (what up, Kaoru Shintani). He also really, really liked showing what happened to people's thumbs when Rally Vincent shot them off.
Also worth mentioning that currently only the dub of Riding Bean is available for streaming, and VRV didn't have any subtitle options at all. It is very much a dub of its time as this is an anime of its time.
For context's sake, we'll start with the 1989 original, Riding Bean. And it starts with... well, it sure starts alright.
We follow a pair of masked thieves gunning people down and dragging a naked woman around a mall, while their getaway driver pulls up outside just in time to whisk them away. And their getaway driver is none other than the Roadbuster himself, Bean Bandit!
Bean's got ice in his veins, driving skills to put Jason Statham's The Transporter to shame, and did I mention his custom car? It can drive sideways, features bulletproof windows, and a convenient gun port on the passenger-side door. Also, this being a movie set in Chicago, we start off with this loving tribute to the climax from The Blues Brothers.
We follow a pair of masked thieves gunning people down and dragging a naked woman around a mall, while their getaway driver pulls up outside just in time to whisk them away. And their getaway driver is none other than the Roadbuster himself, Bean Bandit!
Bean's got ice in his veins, driving skills to put Jason Statham's The Transporter to shame, and did I mention his custom car? It can drive sideways, features bulletproof windows, and a convenient gun port on the passenger-side door. Also, this being a movie set in Chicago, we start off with this loving tribute to the climax from The Blues Brothers.
Bean is a typical macho-head – he really only seems to care about his money and his car and little else. But I respect him for that. Plus, he seems to have some standards, if anything. He's a working man and he isn't cheap. From the get-go he looks damn cool, especially behind the wheel.
Bean Bandit really demonstrates Sonoda's brilliant character design, mostly owing to a unique silhouette. He's tall, built like an inverted Dorito, has a massive chin and feral teeth (VERY IMPORTANT), and a massive scar on his face. Every time I see him, I think "friend". Er. Even though he could snap anything like a twig. Guy's a beast.
Don't forget his huge eyebrows!! They're essential.
He's also very principled: even though the robbers he was helping didn't walk away with as much as they were expecting, they still had to fork out $45,000 for his services. (That's $104,336.13 in 2022 money.) He also swears off the robbers he's working with once its revealed to him that one of the accomplices was a child.
A child who took off her mask in the car only to later put on another disguise, only to reveal that that was ALSO a mask. Already, something is fishy.
But I was surprised at the level of detail with this kind of magic trick. You can really tell that Sonoda thought deeply about it and it shows in the animation.
But I was surprised at the level of detail with this kind of magic trick. You can really tell that Sonoda thought deeply about it and it shows in the animation.
Sonoda also thought deeply about the kind of underwear the female cast wears. He made sure to share his conclusions with the class.
This is Rally Vincent, Bean Bandit's classy gun-loving partner – not to be confused with Gunsmith Cats' Rally Vincent, a half-Indian bounty hunter who works out of Chicago and also loves guns and occasionally crosses paths with Bean. This Rally lives and works with Bean, although their relationship appears wholly professional.
This is Rally Vincent, Bean Bandit's classy gun-loving partner – not to be confused with Gunsmith Cats' Rally Vincent, a half-Indian bounty hunter who works out of Chicago and also loves guns and occasionally crosses paths with Bean. This Rally lives and works with Bean, although their relationship appears wholly professional.
At least she knows how to wake a dude up. Complete with some hot breakfast! (Because hitting him with a taser didn't do the trick.)
In spite of Bean's talents, business hasn't been going so hot for them. His steep fees make him fairly inaccessible as a getaway driver, and his standards eliminate a good chunk of the ne'er-do-wells that would hire him anyway. Rally and Bean are making more money per job than most do in a year, but between Bean's vehicle maintenance and Rally's gun love, that money most likely doesn't last long.
Also, Bean is so big of a dude he must burn 10,000 calories a day just by existing. In this first scene he eats a big chunk of meat, eggs, half a pineapple, a whole pot of coffee that he holds just like a regular mug. It can't be cheap to feed this man's diet!
We see him order lunch later on; guy goes for 30 spare ribs and an entire case of Budweiser. Also, fun fact from the Gunsmith Cats manga: Bean eats ribs, bone and all. We can even see the guy chomping on whole walnuts. He's hungry, he's feral, and he drives like a bat out of hell.
Anyways, Bean and Rally's complete breakfast is interrupted by a man at his door, carrying a little girl and saying that they had just escaped from some kidnappers, begging him to take a job! How convenient!
Meanwhile, we're also introduced to Percy, a police officer who apparently has had a long-standing rivalry with Bean Bandit. Percy leads a one-man war against Bean, the Zenigata to his Lupin, and the casualties include 74 police cars. Percy's gone so far as to get a Shelby Cobra GT 500 (which is also Gunsmith Cats' Rally's vehicle of choice) in the hopes of being able to chase down Bean. But Percy's chief takes him off the Bean case to handle a kidnapping. Heeeeey...
Percy is mostly comic relief but it's sometimes fun to watch him chew the scenery and grind his gears over the Roadbuster in the same way a principal gets angry over those damn kids. I thought he had one of the more "entertaining" dub voices, but his cheesy character leads into the more over-the-top style performance.
I also wanna point out a nice bit of anime-fantasy-land stuff. I don't know if a kidnapping would be a grunt-level case the way Percy behaves (it's my understanding that kidnappings are very serious federal offenses), but part of why his chief is so intent on getting Percy on the case is because the kidnapping involves the daughter of the rich Grimwood family, who... pay a lot in taxes. Rich people. Paying taxes. In the 1980s. Pull the other one, it plays Dire Straits.
Oh yeah, while the ADR on the dub ain't great and feels cheap, the music by David Garfield is absolutely top-notch and perfect for the time.
Being a Chicago-born musician, Garfield's soundtrack is phenomenal and very fitting for this series. Also, Bean himself might be named after one of Garfield's songs, "Bean Bandit Boogie" (which is featured in this OVA). The music has a bit of odd editing – many of the songs will end quite suddenly during a scene – but it's still an incredibly good touch.
Honestly, it's probably a good idea to check out the soundtrack on its own. I'm gonna be re-listening to some of these songs a few times on repeat after this because they're so catchy. But they also lend themselves well to the action. Anyways, returning to the plot, Bean is confronted by a guard named Morris Grey with the titular Chelsea Grimwood. At first, Bean is suspicious but Rally confirms her abduction via her tap on the police and they seal a deal. Besides, Bean has a soft spot for kids.
Unlike Morris, who has a lot of soft spots for bullets. Bean is just fine, because of course. He wears a custom bulletproof jacket he can just shrug into.
An unseen assailant assaults the group, further confirming Bean's desire to help Chelsea. But as it turns out, this is also a set-up: Morris isn't all he appears to be. For starters, he's not dead. For another, he's a she, and we've seen her before...
An unseen assailant assaults the group, further confirming Bean's desire to help Chelsea. But as it turns out, this is also a set-up: Morris isn't all he appears to be. For starters, he's not dead. For another, he's a she, and we've seen her before...
I mentioned some small animation details before (it's a bit hard to capture in screencaps) but the bit where Bean just stands up, straightens himself, and pops out the bullets like it's nothing is something you could only get with an attentive staff. Along with the other bit where our villainess pulls some strings out of her jacket to pop the rest of the trick bullet holes. Both have a lot of character!
The kid is alright because Bean managed to cover her with a chair. They don't know who did the shooting and don't particularly care because you don't exist as the Bean Bandit without making more than a few enemies. So Bean and Rally head off to the Grimwood mansion to drop her off.
The kid is alright because Bean managed to cover her with a chair. They don't know who did the shooting and don't particularly care because you don't exist as the Bean Bandit without making more than a few enemies. So Bean and Rally head off to the Grimwood mansion to drop her off.
The plot thickens when Percy gets some photos from Bean at the robbery at the night prior – as it turns out, the pint-sized accomplice was disguising themselves as Chelsea to implicate Bean in the kidnapping, and Percy took the bait.
Which basically means the whole mansion is just another trap so Bean can get caught. Meanwhile, the real kidnappers are holding Mr. Grimwood hostage. He gets served lunch by Carrie, the underling of Semmerling. At first I thought she was just petite but she's actually a kid, it seems. And what's more, she says her and Semmerling are lovers and willingly offers to do sexual favors for Mr. Dad despite his protests before Semmerling herself walks in the room and scolds her. It's hella uncomfortable!!
Semmerling... does a lot more than just "scold" Carrie. Remember when I said Sonoda had a thing for psycho lesbians? Yeah, somehow this isn't quite as bad as what Goldie got up to in Gunsmith Cats, but I still cringed to watch this. Why this was the well Sonoda kept coming back to, I'll never know. At any rate, Semmerling packs her accomplices and Mr. Grimwood up to get to the second location, while Bean takes Rally and Chelsea to Grimwood Manor.
Bean makes it through the House Gates but it's teeming with gunmen which means dropping off Chelsea is a no-go. None of the guards are willing to listen to him, and one of them commits the cardinal sin of insulting his beloved automobile. Bean hits his goddamn berserk button and crushes some walnuts so hard with his teeth that the force causes his sunglasses to fall off.
And then he runs over the dude who spat on his car sideways up a tree!
And then he runs over the dude who spat on his car sideways up a tree!
In a rare bit of restraint for the OVA, the guy isn't reduced to chunky red giblets – which, given the horsepower and the tires on The Buff, feels like should have been his true fate.
Percy also tries to catch Bean unawares, but Bean gets the drop on him (and nudges Percy's precious Cobra, for extra petty points), leaving the Chicago police to deal with the Grimwood's 20mm cannon.
Percy also tries to catch Bean unawares, but Bean gets the drop on him (and nudges Percy's precious Cobra, for extra petty points), leaving the Chicago police to deal with the Grimwood's 20mm cannon.
Watching Bean drive is always a treat though. It's very rare to get car animation this good anymore. Nowadays, it's all CG. You can tell by how everyone talks about gun and car models that Sonoda and probably most of the other artists from AIC and Artmic are just huge Otakus about this stuff.
Being an otaku used to mean you were really big on military hardware and trains and also managed to stumble your way into animation.
Anyway, in a twist of fate, Bean and Rally end up at the same rest stop as Semmerling and her crew. There's a nice bit where Bean's two non-car-related braincells manage to meet up and realize that that truck was the same one that got in the way of their getaway the night previous, leading to a nice chase between Bean's Buff and the truck.
It's a good chase. Bean catches a few grenades, Semmerling kills her passenger and uses his head to hold down the gas pedal. There's a song that's like "She's a bad baaad girl!" playing while she does it. The truck takes a dive off a dead end and Bean lets out his special breaks juuust in time. Just look at those sparks!
Once Bean knows he's been made out to be a stooge, he vows revenge on Semmerling and sets his sights on taking his revenge out on her. But on his way back to the city, he crosses Percy's sights and we get another fantastic chase, this one through the downtown streets of Chicago. Percy's at his most manic while he unloads on Bean every chance he gets, while the Roadbuster heads straight into a roadblock.
He eventually manages to shake him and chase down Semmerling into a car garage in hopes of nabbing her, Mr. Grimwood, and the two million dollars. Chelsea, who had previously woken up, is initially worried about what Bean might do to her dad but Rally sticks up for his character. With probs my fav line in the whole thing.
Ah yes, my favorite Netflix genre, "Movies with Heroic Things In Them".
Our hero, ladies and germs!
I just love the implication that Bean gets all his moves by copying film stunts. But man, Bean is mean on the road but he's a fuckin' monster in a fight close-up. I talked about his physique, but he's really strong enough to pierce a car with his bare hands and rip off the door!! Semmerling tries to put one between his eyes, so to speak, but hits him square in his anime-ass headband and guy is still moving! She then tries to run him over but, refusing to die, he lifts up the goddamn car.
A combination of Bean's ridiculous stamina and his bulletproof headband means Semmerling only manages to knock him mostly-unconscious when she shoots his forehead – Bean's dopey sleep-walking self still wants Semmerling's head on a platter. All she does by trying to ram him with a sedan is wake him back up.
For the record, Rally has plenty to do – she manages to dupe Semmerling's underling with the extra bullet in her chamber when he catches her and Chelsea and tries to disarm her.
For the record, Rally has plenty to do – she manages to dupe Semmerling's underling with the extra bullet in her chamber when he catches her and Chelsea and tries to disarm her.
Bean brawns his way through while Rally brain'd her way. Anyways, this leaves Semmerling in a bad spot. Bean closes in on her but Carrie tries to stop him. Semmerling used Carrie as leverage citing that she KNOWS Bean can't see a kid get hurt. Gasoline pours from the other cars and Semmerling shoots, grazing Carrie, but immolating herself in the blast.
Bean and Rally are able to reunite Chelsea with her father, and they're able to collect on what would have been Semmerling's ransom money for their trouble. Carrie tries to confront them, but it becomes clear to her she was just another victim in Semmerling's plot, and she ultimately relents. She just winds up in the back seat of their car while Rally and Bean plot their next move.
Even if they're thrill-seeking obsessed weirdos, it's nice to see that Bean and Rally have some good hearts in moments like this. I'd say overall Riding Bean is a pretty light-hearted action-filled romp. It's not deep but it's an entertaining 45 minutes that's fun to watch.
It's a good OVA and it doesn't waste any time. The editing is a bit abrupt, but it knows the kind of tone it's going for and it nails it. I consider Riding Bean and Gunsmith Cats to be good counterparts to Black Lagoon; where Black Lagoon is a Hong Kong bullet ballet along the lines of Hard Boiled or A Better Tomorrow, Riding Bean is a bit more like 24 Hours: a bit grittier and maybe even slightly poorer in taste, but it's a different kind of edgy and not one that's altogether bad.
It's also extremely unique to its time period of cinema and anime in both its influences and the circumstances of how it was made. For better or for worse. It's got a typically cheap audio dub, it's got a bunch of cool 80s' music, some real talent, and a bunch of other dated elements of sex and violence at mach speed. But that also makes me conclude that even if you had a lot of today's money you couldn't really recreate something like Riding Bean in today's anime landscape because it'd be hard to get the same kind of talent in order to express all the detail and character that make it unique and watchable. Which I think is true for most OVAs tbh.
And we can confirm that because we have the new Road Buster short that Sonoda and company were able to create via crowdfunding. To be succinct, it's a bit disappointing. Not that it's bad – not in the least – but because it's more like a very simple pilot than anything else; a bunch of disconnected scenes and references to the original Riding Bean OVA.
It's less than 12 minutes but it also opens up with Sonoda's WORST tendencies, front and center.
The short begins with introducing Minnie-May Hopkins from Gunsmith Cats into the series. Which further confuses things, because as mentioned earlier Gunsmith Cats has its own Rally Vincent that isn't the blond Rally Vincent. Also, in spite of her short statue, May insists she's an adult, which she confirms in the weirdest way. I didn't need to know the carpet matched the drapes, I really didn't. Also, it's not like May didn't lie about her age all the time in Gunsmith Cats
This wouldn't be so bad if May being brought into the fold came before even Bean's appearance. You could have started with anything, but Minnie-May was your priority.
This wouldn't be so bad if May being brought into the fold came before even Bean's appearance. You could have started with anything, but Minnie-May was your priority.
It's a problem for me because it's very obviously stated in a way of justifying a fetish in the same way your garbage DM tries to tell you that you have to walk through the piss-rain forest.
Also, remember when Nicky said most shows these days would use CG for the cars? Well, that's what the short does. Now, make no mistake, the short is stunningly animated and we'll never see a short that brings Sonoda's character designs to life so brilliantly, for better or worse. But it's a noticeable trend. Also, the short doesn't introduce any of the established characters well, so we just see Percy in his Cobra. Incidentally, I can tell Percy's Cobra isn't connected to Gunsmith Cats Rally's Cobra because the license plates are different – in a cheeky bit of nerdiness, Rally's license plates are BRD-529, just like Our Lady of Blessed Acceleration. Gotta give Sonoda credit, he goes hard on the Chicago lore.
But yes, this short does seem like an excuse for Sonoda to flex his fetishes. Besides muscle cars and fancy guns (peep Rally's CZ75 First Edition, a gun almost fetishistically drawn in Gunsmith Cats), the production was keen to ensure we can see Rally's bra through the gaps in her blouse buttons. I mean, at least they're drawn realistically big with her shirt behaving like actual shirts would when worn on a larger chest...?
But yes, this short does seem like an excuse for Sonoda to flex his fetishes. Besides muscle cars and fancy guns (peep Rally's CZ75 First Edition, a gun almost fetishistically drawn in Gunsmith Cats), the production was keen to ensure we can see Rally's bra through the gaps in her blouse buttons. I mean, at least they're drawn realistically big with her shirt behaving like actual shirts would when worn on a larger chest...?
Perhaps TMI but as a "Boob-haver" this is exactly why it's taken me months to find the perfect button down shirt and a good way to start feeling self-conscious as heck. Though, I was more focused on how much of what I think is the appeal of Sonoda's art failed to translate to the digital era. I wouldn't call it badly animated, but it deffo feels like it's lost some of it's charm by softening the faces for modern audiences.
Female characters become a bit more moe and Bean is more of a gorilla without some of the rugged sharpness that made him kinda handsome.
Female characters become a bit more moe and Bean is more of a gorilla without some of the rugged sharpness that made him kinda handsome.
But importantly, The Buff still has all the bells and whistles it had in the old OVA: Rally's little gun port and the sideways driving feature are still present!
There's a short chase on the highway where Bean stunts on Percy, but not much comes of it – we don't know what kicks off the chase and it only ends with Percy getting his Cobra puked on. And that's that.
There's a short chase on the highway where Bean stunts on Percy, but not much comes of it – we don't know what kicks off the chase and it only ends with Percy getting his Cobra puked on. And that's that.
Specific shooting car-hole was definitely the best touch; the cars in the chase are mostly just floating, but there's definitely some momentum to how guns are used. Also, the subs on this are a little off at rare occasions.
More important is Sonoda flexing his other fetishes. Gunsmith Cats informant Becky Farrah also gets brought into the fold, desperately needing a bathroom while she's undercover. Because we needed to see this woman wetting herself in fear.
She avoids having any accidents but unfortunately gets caught in enemy territory with her pants down because she forgot to lock the door. AND we get to listen to her tinkle in fear as this guy catches her bluff. I have no problem with literal toilet humor but this is a bit much.
Not the first time Sonoda has used incontinence as a plot point, and I feel kinda weird for being able to point that out.
I mentioned the piss-forest earlier for a reason. It's not hard to miss the piss-forest for the piss-trees when it comes to stuff like this. With the OVA I could write it off for being of its time or focus on the other aspects but pretty much half of this is juuust stuff like this. We get another scene of May and it was pretty much the worst time for anyone to walk into my room without knocking and having to explain that this is part of my job. (Sorry, Mom.)
Oh yeah, did you guys wanna see Minnie-May taking her panties off for some guy to distract him from the smoke bomb she was kicking at his feet? She does a cute little twirl and everything. Guys, wait, no, you don't get it, guys
When we finally see Bean, it's the very last clip. And sure, it's cool – some guy tries running Bean over and even snaps his neck, but all that does is make Bean stumble around like a zombie before setting his neck back while a car impotently tries to crash into him in what is certainly a mere nuisance for the slab of beef that is Bean Bandit. And that's it. We don't even see Bean take his revenge on the guy.
When we finally see Bean, it's the very last clip. And sure, it's cool – some guy tries running Bean over and even snaps his neck, but all that does is make Bean stumble around like a zombie before setting his neck back while a car impotently tries to crash into him in what is certainly a mere nuisance for the slab of beef that is Bean Bandit. And that's it. We don't even see Bean take his revenge on the guy.
You forgot that he also grabbed that guy by his balls. Which felt in character but is just another one for the pile of odd gross-humor. The whole short just feels very mean and bodily to the point where even the ever present "cool-factor" can't balance it. If it's even trying to do that!
It's really nice to see Sonoda's character designs again but this short was about the most unsatisfying way to do it. If it's supposed to be a vertical slice of a new potential series, it's not very appealing with the piss humor and Minnie-May shoving her pubes into people's faces. If it's a continuation of the old OVA, it's not very engaging because we don't have any real meat to what's going on, even if by Percy's count Bean's kill-total has been increased to 100 cop cars. And it's cool that they're mixing more of Gunsmith Cats back into Riding Bean, not so much so that it's mostly just Minnie-May when she was such a contemptible character. What's worse is how she gets so much more of the limelight compared to the titular character. So I'm not really sure what the point of all this was. Maybe it's for the best Sonoda owns his family's candy shop now?
Apparently, he made a new lemon flavor (the first in 115 years) and drew art for it
Weird to think that such an influential artist has a background for such a historically-important bit of candy, considering his family's shop goes back nineteen generations. But given the breadth of Sonoda's career I think it's okay if he just sticks to the candy. I really, really don't need to see more anime girls wetting themselves. Please. I'll pay you to stop.
I think even without the fetish stuff it's just hard for a modern series to capture the appeal of Sonoda's artstyle or even just nailing what makes that kind of fast-paced shooting and talking series fun without having the same amount of attention to detail. But I can also get the same enjoyment from watching other older series or OVAs and so I didn't think that Bean as a franchise is unique in what it does even if it was novel to cover something like this in the year 2022.
More than anything, it's tough to recommend Riding Bean. I enjoyed it, but it's a museum piece and it comes with so many caveats. Nicky said it best, track down David Garfield's OST and call it a day.
Even if you were craving something a little older, I think if anything it just reminded me that I should watch more Dirty Pair or whatever else is sitting on my laundry list of a backlog. Which is also why life is too short to linger on every reboot and franchise. Joyrides are fun but it's important to keep a hold on the wheel. Maybe turn up the tunes while you're at it? We can drive off. 'Til next time.
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