I liked the anime for Coyote Ragtime Show immediately. Right from the first moments…the energy, the devil-may-care pirates in space, the absurd levels of violence, and Angelica’s obsession with eating, totally did it for me.

If only, I thought, there was an evil, psychotic older woman with a uniform fixation and twelve goth-loli assassin android “daughters.” ^_^

(Seriously, I was watching an episode with some Yuricon staffers and my only comment was, “I like this series quite a bit. When you see Madame Marciano, you’ll instantly know why.” And so they did.)

Let’s back up. CRS was a short 12-episode series about space pirates, aka “coyotes.” Coyotes are assumed to have a serious code of honor and an inner nobility, which puts this story strongly in the realm of fiction. ^_^ Our pirate ships are spaceships; Han Solo would be impressed with the mean piloting skills we see. And the government is, if not entirely corrupt, then just plain dumb. Typical SF space pirate fare.

Our main players are:

Angelica – good, smart, attractive female cop who has a crush on

Mister – smart, noble, attractive older guy coyote

Madame Marciano – smart, evil, psychotic underworld leader who’s in it for the violence, power and money

The rest of the cast are the people arrayed around these three. Mister is the protagonist, so in a sense everyone is arrayed around him, but these three represent the three warring forces of the series – the coyotes, the authorities, the criminals (who are different from coyotes in that they appear to have become *successful* at crime and are living lives of luxury, instead of living hand to mouth in filth and poverty.)

The main plot is full of action and fun and goofy – all very enjoyable. I particularly enjoyed when Madame Marciano and her 12 assassin android daughters (each named after a month of the year) destroyed the Guild of Underworld Baddies, because they weren’t being evil enough. I think I fell in love with her right then.

But the one thing that was lacking from the anime (which has been licensed for US release, I”m glad to say) was the “L” part of Madame Marciano’s EPL(Evil Psychotic Lesbian) character – in other words, there was not too much Yuri in the anime.

There was a “thing” building between May’s disembodied android head and Angelica, which many Japanese fans saw as Yuri. I think it was probably just respect, but there’s a definite vibe, yes, on May’s part which can be read as pinging the old Yuri-dar. Even if she does spend a large portion of the series as a disembodied head…

But more importantly for us, in the manga we get a glimpse of Madame’s other use for her beloved androids…other than slaughtering people violently, that is. Clearly Madame favors the Goth-Loli look…and she likes her women as violent as I do. April, the leader of the 12 “sisters”, is also Mommy’s personal favorite, if you get my drift. (It’s the manga to which I’ve linked the picture and title above for that reason. When the licensed version of the anime is available in the US, you can be sure I’ll link to that as well.)

Is it meaningful that it’s April and May who are the Yuriest? I have no idea. All I know is that just about the time I was whining that Madame Marciano would be my perfect women if only she had a taste for women, I learned that she does.

Madame Marciano is my perfect woman. ^_^

And Coyote Ragtime Show is a great, goofy comic book of an anime, fun for the whole family…assuming your family is like mine.  (You know, thinking about it, my Dad would love this show…)

Ratings:

Art – 7
Story – 8
Character – 9
Yuri – 2 anime, 4 manga
Service – Considering the possibilities, the service rating is a surprisingly low 2.
Erica – 9 – Madame hits just about every major fetish I have, except one.

Overall – 8

It’s got all the qualities of a classic adventure series. Unless you’re a strictly shoujo fan, definitely worth a look!