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Coyote Ragtime Show: Superficial entertainment primed for mass consumption

Coyote Ragtime Show is everything I expected it to be. This first episode is generic, “cute” and painfully uninspiring. I’m sick of seeing cute girls dressed up in colourful, frilly dresses jumping around wielding impossible strength. It’s so formulaic, cold and calculated; you can imagine the money men sitting around in their leather boardrooms, smoking cigars and laughing their asses off, after all, their global formula is so simple even an idiot could work it out.
If you enjoyed Gun X Sword, no doubt you’ll enjoy Coyote Ragtime Show. Fans of camp anime like Kiddy Grade, Burst Angel and even Madlax, this show is aimed at you. There is fun to be had, but honestly, I’ve already seen this anime 5 or 6 times and no longer do I have will the will to sit through such emotionally bereft, superficial entertainment. One for the masses, please enjoy your BigMac with extra helpings of killer-maid-lolis. Yawn.

13 replies on “Coyote Ragtime Show: Superficial entertainment primed for mass consumption”

I suppose that’s anime for you. If you’re looking for mentally-stimulating deeper stuff, you shouldn’t be watching cartoons. After all, that’s what anime is, with the occasional adult-targeted one.
It’s the hollywood formula applied to anime now.

Dunno, I rather enjoyed this, except for the shameless fanservice (I’m so damn sick of lolis), but even that was quite fun to heckle. Of course it’s nothing particularly exciting, and I’ll most probably drop it when something more interesting (=Kemonozume) joins those I’m already watching.

Dunno, I loved the first episode of this show. Of course, I watched it in ultra-funny parody subs, do that might have improved the experience quite a bit.
>>I’m so damn sick of lolis
Haha yeah, you can’t really get away from them in anime.

@tj han:
"If you’re looking for mentally-stimulating deeper stuff, you shouldn’t be watching cartoons."
I’m sorry mate, but that’s just bang wrong. Paranoia Agent, Monster, Mushishi to name but a few in recent years. And I enjoy action anime- Black Lagoon is brilliant; I just hate being pandered to in such a cynical way, and CRS has a check list of things it needed to get covered. It lacks spirit and attitude and comes across as essentially bland. I can see how some may enjoy it as purely mindless fun, but like I said in the review, I’ve already seen this all before in other anime. Where’s the spark?

I haven’t seen this yet (later today most likely), but to a certain extent, anime is <i>the</i> place to be for cliches and archetypes. Moreso than Hollywood or American network TV I’d say.
But to a certain extent, I think that’s what a lot of us enjoy. Sure, it’s always nice to see something get twisted on it’s ear, and certain things can get played out when it’s done over and over with no break… but shit, I think most of us have some favourite characters in a series which are practically identicle to a character in another series you might have watched a year or even just a season ago–or even currently.
We’re just suckers I guess.
I should really have fashioned this topic into some sort of proper editorial but that’s far too much work, so I’ll just toss it in the bowels of your comment section incomplete and you can figure out what I’m tryna say 🙂

Just to add: you can’t underrate the values of a good piece of gratuitous popcorn series. But these too have their own standards and nuances that need to be measured up against.
It’s the difference between a, say Michael Bay’s "The Rock" or a Jean Claude Van Damme direct-to-video bonanza.

This would be a good back up *brain wipe series* to watch after watching something seriously messed up. (potentally latter part of NHK ni youkuso for example)
As for the show, it is pretty silly with the gothloli paradrop, but I can’t say I didn’t enjoy it. I guess after a year of ero-moe/romance/shoujo i’m more tolerant of silly action.
—————————–
Formula (genre) exists because formula WORKS. As long as one doesn’t overdoes on it, its fine really. Some of the most enjoyable works of fiction are application of beauty and originality within a formulaic framework. Given a truely original work with no formulaic elements, no viewers outside analyatical art students could understand it anyways.
The enjoyability of the most anime depends on the previous experience of the viewer and I don’t think it is fair to judge anime with such rules. It should be judged from its own merits (hard I know). If this is the first show of the genre you’ve seen, how would have it compared with other ones?

Okay, I just watched this show (okay 5 hours ago) and I think you may have pegged this one wrong Bateszi. I could be completely wrong, but this episode felt so much like the first episode of Futakoi Alternative (and it’s not just for the skydiving sequence) which was completely ridiculous popcorn also. But after the first episode, they started pulling out some really well-told pathos fueled episodes, mixed in with far less of the over-the-top (until the end when it just went batshit crazy).
It’s just a hunch right now, but personally, I wouldn’t write this off as being such a simple show quite yet. And even if I’m wrong, there’s NO WAY that this can sink to the mediocre depths of Gun X Sword. (the first episode has already shown more nuance, excitement, and better directing than I’ve seen in 23 episodes of that series combined)

@Crayotic Rockwell
The moment the maids dived in from the sky was the moment this show lost me. I got the point it was intentionally over the top and yet (like I’ve outlined above), it just didn’t strike me as particularly funny or entertaining. I love Black Lagoon because it has that kinda "fuck you" punk attitude, but CRS felt limp and fan pandering in comparison. It’s like the director is winking at otaku through out that whole maid invasion, "their so adorable and yet they kill, how cool"- Elfen Lied already did that, and better, too.
The characterisation seemed a lot like Gun X Sword to me. The care-free personalities with dark pasts, the young girl/comic relief sidekick etc.
If you enjoyed it, fair enough. I wasn’t absolutely loathing it, but I’ve given up on handing clearly mediocre anime the benefit of doubt. I see no ambition in CRS, it aspires to nothing.
@Stephen Wang
You make a good point about cinematic formula. I should have said there is being formulaic and then there is being formulaic to the point of complete and utter boredom and predictability. In terms of maths, CRS is like 1 + 1 = 2, but I’m more looking for 2(10-7)-4 = 2.
"The enjoyability of the most anime depends on the previous experience of the viewer and I don’t think it is fair to judge anime with such rules."
I think I’m allowed a little leeway here, after all, this is a blog. If I were writing about CRS from the perspective of a commercial publication, obviously I’d tone down the hyperbole a bit. Yet still, I don’t see this as being a particularly worthy anime- it is mediocre at best and if you’re new to anime, there are far better shows to check out first.

Have you actually seen GunXSword past episode 4? It’s really good, and if you enjoyed Black Lagoon I’m sure you’d enjoy it too. It’s the old book/cover debate again, on the surface it seems americanised, but it develops into a really good series, give it a chance.

"CRS is like 1 + 1 = 2, but I’m more looking for 2(10-7)-4 = 2."
😀 I meant to say this earlier, then it slipped my mind – watch Utena, if you haven’t done it already. That fits to the 2(10-7)-4=2 formula to a T, and it has the best symbolic system I’ve seen in anime, so it definitely mentally-stimulating. (Too bad people often write it down as silly/weird because it doesn’t spoon-feed the audience the information…)

"Have you actually seen GunXSword past episode 4?"
I think I gave up after the Power Rangers spoof. By that point, I was bitterly disappointed in Gun X Sword. Goro Taniguchi is one of my favourite anime directors (PlanetES, Infinite Ryvius and to a point, SCRYED) but I just couldn’t stomach the soulless mediocrity of Gun X Sword. I may give it another chance, but not yet.
kuromitsu – I haven’t seen Utena yet. It looked a bit girly but given your taste in anime, this one will be on my list now for sure 🙂

I almost gave up after the first 4 episodes as well, frankly, they were rubbish. But it definitely gets better.

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