There are a couple of ways that I discover new anime to watch: from reading the manga, from reviews, from word-of-mouth, or from reputation. My introduction to Coyote Ragtime Show (CRS) was through a trailer, a passionately narrated 1-minute video that presented a very simple synopsis: an outlaw named Mister searches for money on a doomed planet while being hunted down by two women, both of them wanting him dead. CRS' premise was interesting by itself but how the narrator described this anime at the end of the trailer really grabbed my attention because it wasn't any anime; it was the "chilling, thrilling, killing, blood-spilling ride called Coyote Ragtime Show." What action lover wouldn't want to watch that?
As one might've guessed in the previous paragraph, Mister is the main character of Coyote Ragtime Show, a cigar-chomping space pirate with an unforgettably raspy voice, a confident old man with razor- sharp wits and vivid storytelling, and the charming captain of the ship Coyote with strategies galore, tons of aliases, and a loyalty to the people he cares about. Mister is famous in the criminal underworld for wrecking havoc on various planets simply because he feels like it but, beneath the gruff exterior, Mister has a heart of gold. To me, Mister is a huge factor in making this anime into what it is.
Enveloped in Coyote Ragtime Show is a complex cast of characters. The members of Mister's crew are Franca (the daughter of pirate legend Bruce with a voice (about 18 years old) older than her appearance (10-12 years) and an intriguing internal conflict about her self-worth), Katana (the light-hearted mechanic with a passion for food and a confidence that rivals Mister's), my favorite character Bishop (the laid-back co-pilot that's useless at pretty much everything and always finds an opportunity for a one-liner), and Swamp (a rare African-American character in anime, a chubby, mustached preacher who had a close friendship with Bruce and constantly bickers with Bishop). The Coyote crew does a great job at maintaining CRS' easygoing mood, along with the investigators chasing Mister: private eye Angelica Burns (a lover of food and a certain criminal) and her apprentice Chelsea, an illiterate young woman blessed with perfect memory (Her voice is the same one later used for May Chang in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood). Coyote Ragtime Show also has its share of villains, which include the Twelve Sisters, ruthless robotic girls named after the months of the year – for example, one's named January, the other Feburary and so on. There was one scene in episode 6 where October, November, and December are pursuing Mister in a crowded city and a building was supposedly "in their way" so they torpedoed the thing until it was nothing more than a collapsing mass of smoke and flames. The Twelve Sisters are led by the merciless Marciano, CRS' central villain, the cold-blooded killer that murdered Franca's dad and countless others with a disturbing lack of remorse. Marciano is the Frieza to Mister's Goku, the perfect counterpart to CRS' protagonist.
Although the opening for CRS doesn't really stand out, it still remains fairly engaging and it doesn't diminish the excellence of this show's soundtrack. Various electric guitar pieces perfectly complement the fast-paced intensity of CRS, and other instruments are thrown in there as well. A central theme, the only theme, in Coyote Ragtime Show is loyalty, sticking by your loved ones through thick and thin (There's even an episode titled "Never Change"). One of my favorite things about this anime is its closing theme, an excellent, pathos-fueled claymation sequence (The closing theme plays in Coyote Ragtime Show's final fight and, for me, it pulls heartstrings).
At the conclusion of this anime, there were several crucial plot holes that were never noticed. Why did Marciano kill Franca's dad? What happened to Franca's mom? Why did the Federation (the "righteous" people ruling the galaxy) and the rebels hate each other? Regardless, Coyote Ragtime Show is more than your average action anime. It's a consistently comedic show (Episodes 5 and 9 are CRS' funniest) and an attention-grabbing space-oriented drama full of emotional moments. When I first looked at this anime's title, I thought it was about a coyote that loves to dance in Wild West saloons. I now realize it's more than that.
