Gunsmith Cats: Kidnapped

Rating:
Summary: GSC plateaus
Review: After consistently upping the ante with each successive volume for at least the past four books, Gunsmith Cats hits its inevitable plateau with Kidnapped. From The Return of Gray through Bean Bandit, each story seemed to raise the stakes and broaden in scope, getting bigger than the story that preceded it. An impressive feat, to be sure, but sooner or later, it would have to peak.

Kidnapped finds the series doing just that. It's not a drop in quality, but for the first time since Misfire, the story fails to build to a higher level than the story before it. Despite being of equal length, Kidnapped feels smaller, focusing on a missing child in Chicago. The villains are not particularly fearsome, given what Rally has been up against in the past.

Even so, perhaps the series needed a chance to catch its breath after the breakneck pace of the last four volumes. The simpler story leaves room for Sonoda to introduce themes of family and father/daughter relationships that finally starts to let us into Rally's motivations, and will set the tone for the last three books.

Sonoda still has some clever tricks up his sleeve for the action sequences, involving the use of car chases on snowy terrain, a HumVee, and a very close call for Rally. Another stunt, the re-appearance of a signature driving trick from Bonnie & Clyde, is fun to see again, but suggests that Sonoda may be starting to run dry of impressive barely-plausible car-chase scenarios.

While the action is beginning to slacken from the level of, say, Bean Bandit, it remains impressive, and the increase in character development makes up for it and keeps the story interesting. If you've come this far in the series, it's worth it to keep reading with Kidnapped. If you're new to the series, there are more impressive volumes you could start with; on the other hand, if you've never read Gunsmith Cats before, or have only seen the anime, Kidnapped is likely to wow you anyway.

Rating:
Summary: good good very good
Review: this was a great book.
perfect for fans of Rally and Minnie May