>>2695
Ok, you've got me. I really do need to sit down and watch it.

It's interesting at first, but got too repetitive for me, it was not even formulaic, by City Hunter 2 they are almost repeating episodes.

>>2698
The more kino the better. City Hunter has a massive bulk of episodes, and throughout those there are more original or more serious ones, but I never found the series to be JUST padding.

>>2699
Talking only about the original one or through all series? For the first one I agree, but I gave up after 3.

>>2700
I would say 1 and 2 are both great and have iconic City Hunter music/moments, but I admit by 3 it is getting a bit drawn out and the intros and outros aren't as good and everything, despite still being kino and worth watching, feels more like imitation of the original than the original itself.

>>2695
How do you hunt a city?

>>2703
By taking out the trash and harassing women.

I decided to try the City Hunter 91 and it was an improvement over 3. I did feel it was more creative and may have even gone too far (maybe with the ghost episodes), but I prefer risk-taking over repetition. I think I will eventually watch Angel Heart as well.

>>2745
I've heard controversial opinions about Angel Heart. Some people like the more serious direction and others don't. I've yet to see/read it myself.

>>2695
this is a quintessential wap anime imo. Love to put this on in the background during parties and stuff, such an aesthetically perfect show.

Some redditor made this.
>durr reddit durr
Yeah, yeah, I know, but it's still kino.

>>2695
It's funny, I've been meaning to post in this thread for probably a year now but never had the time to do it, guess now's a good as ever.

I watched all of City Hunter back in 2023 and absolutely loved it. I honestly didn't expect I'd enjoy the generic bad guy of the week anime from the 80s so much but City Hunter really spoke to me. Ryo is such a fantastic character and one of my favourites with how he's fucking around for most of it until he becomes serious and saves the day and I just love characters like that. Kaori is pretty great too and I honestly never got tired of the jokes that everyone saw her as a man to the point Ryo gaslit new clients into thinking she's a transvestite. I do wish she was used more often in action scenes, City Hunter 3's OP has her doing shit I'd LOVE to see her do in the show. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y_NkRtvLwM. Hell, just make her have a hammer as an actual weapon instead of a gag and use it more, she doesn't have to girlboss the entire thing but taking out a bunch of bad guys before being caught and saved by Ryo would be nice.

Umibozu was just straight up based throughout, I loved his arc through all of City Hunter going from a rival of sorts to an ally and was a nice change of pace for an anime to ACTUALLY have a character like this settle down with someone who actually loves him (and I loved how Ryo basically called him a pedo constantly after this). As for the rest of the cast (Saeko, Reka, Miki and the rest of Cat's Eyes) they were fine but I feel they were either too one note or appeared kinda infrequently.

Some of my favourite episodes were the ones that tried to do something a bit different. Like the episode with the girl in the wheelchair who Ryo took to his place to protect her (and she wound up falling in love with him, sending him a letter asking if he was a lolicon afterwards and to wait for her), the Sarah episode with Kaori, hell, any Kaori centered episode was good, they really should've used her more. And the Umibozu Cafe episode was fucking fantastic, could easily be a stand alone episode. City Hunter 2 really did have some of the better episodes imo and I really hope they make some more City Hunter before the VA's pass on.

Another aspect that surprised me was how, randomly open and tolerant the show was (to an extent). Ryo hangs out in gay bars with cross dressers and transvestites, kisses and hugs men occasionally and the less said about the amount of children/teens that fall for him the better. While those were some pretty funny jokes of desperately trying to not seem like a pedo, it felt like it happened WAYYYYY too often.

The OST surprised me as well, I think I began getting more invested in the show once Midnight Lightning hit during episode 2's crescendo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN7q-Ytc1B4 and loved it when it happened again in episode 4. People go on about Footsteps but to me, THIS will always be the "Ryo gets serious" track to me. It always felt like it occurred during turnabouts as well which I love too.

>>3136
Very nice. I made pic related when it happened in the episode since I thought it was a pretty funny moment. Surprised Saeko could handle that stench though.

>>3170
I have this downloaded. I guess I should finally get around to watching it

Oh, the manga has a proper fan translation and there aren't that many chapters. Guess I'm reading it. Thanks for the rec.

I bought the first DVD set at local shop for cheap on a whim and that's when and ended up loving it also watch more online. Years later I found the other DVDs at other places, I wish I bought the Discotek Blu Rays when they came out but like always they're out of print now and cost insane on used market plus they slightly simplified the subs for some reason but ADV DVD master is rough as hell but anyways City Hunter rules.

>>2698
I watched it in 2020 with some friends and this is about how I feel. I enjoyed it, it was fun, but by the end I felt like I'd seen it all before. It was not instant top favourite like Ashita no Joe.

That said, the episode where Ryo shoots into an exhaust pipe to set the engine on fire is top 5 goofy gun nonsense in anime, and that includes Combattler V's "throw a pistol into the air, shoot the trigger of the pistol so it fires and cleanly grazes the mind-control chip off the victim's neck" shit. Worth it to see that.

I love the anime out there but I do wish there was one that faithfully adapted the manga. It could get surprisingly dark. Makimura's death and Ryo's revenge against the drug cartel actually spanned a whole arc in the manga and it could get pretty dark with Angel Dust junkie zombies being involved. Ryo even brutally kills people like in pic related and derided pleasure out of mentally torturing and killing scum like the guy who kidnapped, raped, and killed women.

Peak nostalgiabait
https://animethemes.moe/anime/city_hunter_movie_shinjuku_private_eyes/ED1-NCBD1080

>>3204
>discotek
I havent downloaded any anime in years, where can i watch this show?all the sites i knew from a decade ago have been purged or 404'd.

>>3222
>where can i watch this show?
all of it should be up on nyaa.si

>>3223
Thanks anon,i know i may sound like a retard but the last time i watched anime, i would just go to animetake and it pretty much had everything.

>>3170
>City Hunter 3's OP has her doing shit I'd LOVE to see her do in the show
Yeah, that great intro really set up something that never happened. Kind of odd how different it is from the other intros, with its narrative.

Although I don't agree that Kaori should've been using her hammer in actual fights. It belongs to the comedic sections of City Hunter, which are sharply, and loveably, divided from the serious ones. I think I can vaguely remember her trying to use it once and immediately gets dommed by a criminal, as a kind of meta joke about the hammer not actually being real. It also fits in with the hyper-masculinised men and hyper-feminised women of the 80s aesthetic. Kaori is the frail, innocent woman that needs to be saved by the strong, heroic man. In commercial American tv and film from the era this may have been vulgar and shallow, but it works in City Hunter.

>the less said about the amount of children/teens that fall for him the better. While those were some pretty funny jokes of desperately trying to not seem like a pedo, it felt like it happened WAYYYYY too often.
I think the same reason City Hunter could happily include gay people and transvestites was the same reason it could show Ryo lusting after teenage girls. It is completely without an agenda and is simply motivated by Hojo's objectivity and desire to create an entertaining world. Sometimes he uses the ridiculously masculine traits of transvestites for comic relief, another times he uses the passableness of a transvestite for comedic relief. I didn't see anything wrong with the many teen romance subplots; it is typical of Japanese culture and Ryo always ends up running away from them anyway.

>>3377
Yeah that's fair about Kaori. I was just trying to spitball some ideas here to make her more than what she is. She's a terrible shot with a gun from what I recall and the few times she does try and do things by herself other people have to help her and it's a real shame she can't have some moments to shine. Even a bit of luck could take her a long way with a few clients and that's pretty much all I wanted for her where she can handle herself but obviously gets overwhelmed and requires Ryo's help in the end especially near the end of the series.

As for the lolicon angle, I actually quite enjoyed those jokes. They were always pretty funny since everyone can understand *not* wanting to seem like a pedo and it's made even worse by the fact it's always the kids/teens initiating it and Ryo desperately trying to remedy the situation.

I also did find the use of gay and trans people to be surprising as well. Ryo frequents gay bars, dresses as a woman in a few episodes and jokingly convinces other people Kaori is a man much to her displeasure. It feels both progressive and mocking but I honestly liked that aspect of it. You never really knew what kind of angle each episode would take and it was always pretty funny.

I just finished watching the fourth series. City Hunter '91. I think it took a while to grow on me because my expectations were that Ryo would be a badass with a goofy side rather than a goofball with a badass side. I think the first series drags a bit compared to the follow up three, which I much preferred. Although it's episodic, they do show other sides to Ryo's character as it goes along and some of his backstory is fleshed out which is good. Kaori also takes quite a while to realise she's in love with him. There's also some soft continuity with occasional episode material and characters reoccurring.

The basic gag of Ryo reacting to mokkori babes and then getting the hammer never got old for me. I like the style of how women are drawn in this show. It's a bit odd that Kaori is mistaken for a boy in some episodes and then characters will call her pretty in others. Tomboyish sure, but she always comes across as cute and obviously a girl to me, and her seething over Ryo never gets annoying because her voice actress is very endearing (Kazue Ikura). I guess the "looks like a boy" thing is a bit of comedic exaggeration at her expense.

Ryo being played by Akira Kamiya is also interesting because for a character who looks so much like Kenshiro from Hokuto no Ken, it's fun for him to have the same voice actor yet give such a drastically different performance as befits such a drastically different personality. It shows his talent.

My one real complaint about this show is similar to my one real complaint about the Space Adventure Cobra TV show; it's that although there are characters who are near equals and times when he seems seriously in danger, there isn't really anyone who gives enough doubt about whether Ryo will prevail. No one ever really gets hyped up even when there's a two parter either. I get that it's not that sort of show, because it's episodic and more light hearted, but the moments when it gets serious are very good precisely because of the contrast. I liked the face off with Robert Harrison, and the one with Umibozu in the cemetary. I really feel like the show could have used a consistent rival, in a soft continuity way. Umibozu occasionally dips into that role but overall he's on too good terms with Ryo and Kaori. A character like Kenshiro from Hokuto no Ken may be overpowered on paper, but because it was serialized, his villains got to have some build up and although he usually dispatched them easily, the few times he got his ass kicked then seemed special. I think you could still accomplish that with episodic soft continuity as well. They even introduced some specific villain groups in parts but then they never came back again.

Really good show though. I'll probably check out the movies soon too.

>>4212
That's an interesting take, I always liked the laid back nature of it and how every new case was someone new for Ryo to go up against.

They do somewhat play with the idea of there being people better than Ryo in the show, Umibozu is his obvious equal and I vaguely remember that american but you are right in there being no real antagonist in the earlier parts (they do reveal one later on that's implied to have a connection to Ryo and Kaori iirc) but beyond that there's nothing.

Personally, I never minded because most episodes were entertaining enough. They do a good job of making plot points that have weak characters thrown into the mix that makes Ryo's job harder by them existing. Like I always have a soft spot for that two parter with the girl in the wheelchair since it's both sweet and also a VERY difficult person to try and protect but Ryo does it flawlessly (it also has a hilarious ending).

As for the movies, they're alright. None of them ever reach the heights of City Hunter 2 imo.

>I guess the "looks like a boy" thing is a bit of comedic exaggeration at her expense.
I still laugh at the amount of times Ryo just annoys her by telling everyone around them she's a guy and then her finding out and getting mad. It's so hilariously childish.