Gun Smith Cats — three CAV LaserDiscs, VPLV-70576~70578 — released by VAP between March and late 1996. ¥5,800 per volume. Thirty minutes per disc. One episode per disc. Three episodes total. Each package includes a gatefold jacket, a printed booklet, and a set of prop currency bills — the Gunsmith Cash — featuring series-original artwork at denominations that differ across all three volumes.
Rally Vincent is a half-Indian, half-American licensed bounty hunter who runs a gun shop on Chicago's North Side with her partner Minnie May Hopkins — Rally handles firearms, Minnie May handles explosives. An ATF agent blackmails them into a sting operation. A Russian assassin called Natasha Radinov surfaces. Three OVA episodes, Kenichi Sonoda's manga as source material. The production team flew to Chicago to photograph actual streets and buildings; those reference photographs became the backgrounds. When a character chambers a round, the procedure is correct for that specific weapon. The chapter stops on these CAV discs are named after the guns. “BERETTA M929.” “WALTHER PPK.” “CZ75.” “SHELBY COBRA G.T.500.” The disc is organized like Sonoda's own reference catalog.
What VAP built around these three episodes was not standard home video packaging. Each volume's booklet is its own designed artifact — Volume 1's as a fake Chicago Times newspaper dated November 1, 1995 (the episode's broadcast date); Volume 2's as a villain dossier titled “the message from hard incidents” alongside a firearms technical reference called “Hard Shots,” two pages of character settei paired with actual gun diagrams and measurements; Volume 3's opening on a still-life photograph of physical props — a real folding knife branded Gun Smith Cats, a cap, a spiral notebook, polaroid snapshots from the episode. Not illustration. Objects. And closing with “ガン・スミス・キャッツ シリーズ完結によせて” — on the completion of the Gun Smith Cats series. A formal goodbye from the production team.
Chicago, Licensed and Armed
Rally Vincent and Minnie May Hopkins run a licensed gun shop in Chicago and moonlight as bounty hunters. The premise sounds like a premise. It's more than that. Kenichi Sonoda spent years researching American firearms culture for the manga — not tropes, but specifics: which model, which caliber, which reload procedure. The OVA inherited that discipline. The production team traveled to Chicago and documented the real city; those photographs are the backgrounds you see on screen. When Rally draws her CZ75, the way she carries it and clears it is accurate. The chapter stops on these CAV discs list the guns by full model designation. Chapter 4: “WALTHER PPK.” Chapter 12: “RALLY'S COLLECTION (STEYR AUG / FN MINI MI & MORE).” The LaserDisc's table of contents is Sonoda's armory.
Vol. 1 jacket back — VPLV-70576, ¥5,800, 30 MIN., CAV, NTSC. Chapter track listing names each stop after the weapons and vehicles featured in the episode.
Vol. 1 booklet — 'Chicago Times Special Issue,' dated November 1, 1995. The episode's broadcast date. Formatted as a newspaper front section with headlines, stills, and character profiles.
Vol. 1 booklet — Story/Cast/Staff spread with character portraits. Studio Ghibli is credited for in-betweening and photography on Episodes 1 and 2. Director: Takeshi Mori. Character design: Norihiro Matsubara, based on Kenichi Sonoda's original designs.
The Production Roster
The OVA was produced by OLM with Kodansha, TBS, and VAP. The subcontractor list is remarkable for a three-episode release: Studio 4°C and GONZO handled in-betweening alongside Group TAC, Ashi Productions, and Ajiado. Telecom Animation Film painted backgrounds from the Chicago location reference. The photography credits for Episodes 1 and 2 — the optical compositing work that determines how the cels look on film — go to Studio Ghibli. The jazz score is by American drummer Peter Erskine. For a domestic OVA about Chicago bounty hunters, the production drew on an unusually broad talent pool, and the staff spread in each volume's booklet records it without editorializing.
Vol. 1 booklet — 'ATFは悪の犯罪組織か？' (Is ATF an evil criminal organization?). Background art spreads, production stills, and the tagline: '100% PURE SEXY.' Booklet design by the production team.
The Gunsmith Cash
Every volume includes a folded insert printed to look like American currency — bills labeled 'THE GUNSMITH CASH,' denominated in dollars, featuring series-original artwork engraved in the style of intaglio printing. Volume 1: $50, $100, and $1,000 bills, with the gun shop illustrated on the smaller denominations. Volume 2: $2, $5, and $20, with Rally's Shelby Mustang on the hundred. Volume 3: $1, $10, and $500, with character portraits replacing the statesmen. Each set is different. The denominations climb toward the series finale. The reverse side of the insert is a response card addressed to Kodansha's multimedia division — a purchase survey and a 'Driving License Application' asking for your name and address, presumably for franchise mailing lists. The currency is prop money for a Chicago that doesn't exist. The survey is asking for your credentials to live there.
Vol. 1 Gunsmith Cash insert — $50, $100, and $1,000 denominations. Original artwork engraved in intaglio style. Gun shop illustrated on the $50. Unique to Vol. 1; each volume issued its own denomination set.
Vol. 1 insert reverse — reader survey and 'Driving License Application' return postcard addressed to Kodansha Multimedia Division. Purchase method, acquisition route, and whether the buyer is also a 'DROPPER ZERO' (the series' ATF contact character) fan.
Vol. 2 Gunsmith Cash insert — $2, $5, and $20 denominations, with Rally's Shelby Mustang and grenade imagery. Different illustration subjects from Vol. 1.
Vol. 2 jacket front — VPLV-70577. Russian assassin Natasha Radinov (Bloody Pierce) dominates the foreground; Rally, Minnie May, and the Shelby Mustang behind. Chapter 2: Swing High!
Vol. 2 jacket back — VPLV-70577, ¥5,800, CAV, NTSC. Chapter tracks include 'MERCEDES BENZ 5000' and 'SHELBY COBRA G.T.500 vs. MERCEDES BENZ 5000' — the episode's car chase named in the chapter index.
Vol. 2 booklet — 'the message from hard incidents.' Radinov dossier spread with episode stills arranged as polaroid photographs. Tagline: 'SHE HAS COME TO KILL A BETRAYER.' Booklet formatted as an ATF case file.
Hard Shots
Volume 2's booklet includes a two-page spread titled 'Hard Shots — CATALOG.' On the left: full-figure settei of Rally and Minnie May in operational gear, with character annotation notes. On the right: twelve firearms illustrated in technical profile — multiple viewing angles, dimensional callouts, model identifications. Beretta 92F. Walther PPK. Steyr AUG. CZ75. These are not stylized anime weapon drawings. They are reference drawings in the idiom of an actual gunsmith's catalog. Sonoda's research made explicit as packaging. The LD buyer received both the episode that features these weapons and a printed reference sheet they could lay next to the disc to verify the accuracy of what they just watched.
Vol. 2 booklet — 'Hard Shots CATALOG.' Character settei (left) paired with technical firearms reference drawings (right): multiple angles, model identifications, dimensional annotation. Twelve weapons documented.
Vol. 2 booklet — Cast and Staff spread. Bottom panel: advance advertisement for Vol. 3, Chapter 3: High Speed Edge, listing release date and catalog number VPLV-70578.
Vol. 2 insert reverse — response card and driving license application. The Vol. 2 survey asks whether the buyer also purchased 'IMAGINAL/LDSC FILE VOLUME ONE,' indicating companion merchandise was in production alongside the LD release.
Vol. 3 jacket front — VPLV-70578. Rally in close-up, CZ75 raised. Warm amber background, no supporting cast. Chapter 3: High Speed Edge. The series' final volume.
Vol. 3 jacket back — playing card motif, full cast and staff listing. ¥5,800. CAV, NTSC. Chapter tracks include 'BLOODY PIERCE,' 'ATF... find out,' and 'FOR A SAFE USA.'
For the Memorial Day
Volume 3's booklet opens with a photograph. Not an illustration — a photograph of objects arranged on a dark surface: a folding knife with 'GUN SMITH CATS' etched on the blade, a branded cap with the series logo, a spiral notebook, three polaroid snapshots showing scenes from Episode 3. The caption reads: 'For the memorial day... Edge.' It's the most quietly considered thing in the packaging across all three volumes. The series has three episodes; this is the last one. The production team chose to mark the end with actual objects, as if to say: these things existed, this production happened, here is evidence that persists outside the disc.
Vol. 3 booklet opening — 'For the memorial day... Edge.' Photograph of physical props: a branded folding knife, a Gun Smith Cats cap, a notebook, and polaroid snapshots from Episode 3. Still-life photography, not illustration.
Vol. 3 Gunsmith Cash insert — $1, $10, and $500 denominations. Character portrait engravings. The $500 bill features Natasha Radinov — the series antagonist — on the largest denomination of the final volume.
Vol. 3 insert reverse — response card for 'ガン・スミス・キャップ' (Gun Smith Cap) merchandise. Application deadline: October 1996. Address: VAP Video Division, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo.
Vol. 3 booklet — Cast and Staff spread with episode thumbnails. Full production credit listing, including Ghibli in-betweening/photography for Episodes 1–2, Peter Erskine music credit, ADV Films English adaptation credits.
I Must Stand Up By Myself
The Vol. 3 staff spread lists the full credit tree across all three episodes — OLM, Kodansha, TBS, VAP, the subcontract studios, the ADV Films English cast. The English dub credits appear here in the Japanese domestic release: Amanda Winn Lee directed and voiced Rally; Tiffany Grant voiced Becky. An American production was already underway by the time these discs were pressed. The chapter stop named 'I MUST AND UP BY MYSELF' — drawn from a lyric in the closing theme — appears on the back cover track listing as if it's a gun. It isn't. It's the last chapter of the last episode. The disc treats it the same way.
Vol. 3 booklet closing spread — 'ガン・スミス・キャッツ シリーズ完結によせて' (On the Completion of the Gun Smith Cats Series). Minnie May character settei in blue ink. Farewell messages from director Takeshi Mori and the production staff.
The AnimEigo 2019 Blu-ray is a genuine restoration — HDR color grading, Japanese and English audio, clean transfers from source elements. It funded its Kickstarter in five hours, which tells you something about how many people had been waiting for a proper release of a three-episode OVA from 1995.
The Gunsmith Cash does not come with it. Neither does the Chicago Times. The "Hard Shots" firearms reference is not included. These were packaging materials. They existed for the domestic Japanese LD buyer across 1996 and, once that market moved on, for no one else.
The AnimEigo release is a better version of the video. The LD release came with a fake newspaper, a firearms technical manual, prop currency in three denominations per volume, and a farewell letter from the production staff. VAP packaged a three-episode OVA like a case file from Rally's gun shop.
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