Coyote Ragtime Show Highly recommended

Publisher
Broccoli Books
Writer
ufotable
Artist
Tartan Check
Country of origin
Japan
Year
2006

Coyote Ragtime Show Volume 2

By David Rasmussen
29th Dec 07

Welcome to the Planet Graceland. My, how time flies when you’re on a tight deadline!

The Planet Graceland. Neither founded by, discovered by, nor sung about in a song by the King (Elvis), Planet Graceland used to be this beautiful serene paradise… then people moved in and things went downhill from there. Just ask any Greenie about how bad people are for planets. Go on, ask!

It seems the planet Graceland has devolved into the butthole of the universe, a place where constant planetary civil war threatens to spill outwards into the very universe blighting world after world after world. Well, at least that’s the byline the Milky Way Federation is going with when they first justify their halfarsed handling of the Graceland problem (if they even bothered to do anything about it), then to justify why an entire planet must die.

Yes, as we roll from Volume 1 to 2 it seems the death sentence for the planet has not been commuted yet, the Federation still rolling towards the judgement that planet Graceland must be vaporized by a Photon Bomb in 7 days (now less than 7 days as time continues to count ever downwards).

So then, problem solved right? Not so fast.
Riddle me this, oh readers, what does the problems of universal order have to do with a felon named Mister, who WAS due for parole from prison in 10 days before his untimely “early release“ via prison break? Not much, except for the fact that 10 days is 3 days too late for Mister to handle certain business on the Planet Graceland (with his young responsibility in the form of one young Franca, the daughter of Pirate King Blues who once was rivals with Mister in the bad old days).

This “Pirate King” (isn’t that supposed to be “Space Pirate King”?) has (before his untimely “retirement”) stolen 10 billion space dollars and hid it on Planet Graceland. This is the “legacy” of the Pirate King to his daughter, and thus it falls on Mister’s hefty beefy shoulders to carry out the uncovering of the treasure for Franca. That is why his Coyotes have come to prison to break Mister out early, along the way becoming the target of one Madame Marciano and her 12 Sisters (each named for a month in the Gregorian calendar), whose “origin“ is told in part in this volume. And yes, by the end of the volume you should have a little more interest in her and her sisters after seeing abit of their “origin“.

Besides Marciano and her “sisters“, there‘s also the matter of the female detectives (one street smart and one rookie) also gunning for Mister (who‘ll catch up to him this volume) and the fact they start off the volume with Mister and Blues‘ old pal Swamp (a former pirate turned preacher) caught up in a little Mexican standoff with guns drawn. Yeah, as the days click down to the vaporization of Graceland things just seem to get worst.

Even if Mister and Swamp can get past their differences of opinion (about what is best for Franca and so forth) there is still the matter of getting to Graceland which is no easy feat as they have to get past Marciano and her “sisters“, as well as those two detectives I mentioned earlier.

Then, once we‘re all past that… and only 2 Days remain… then things will get interesting.

Now before I am jointly attacked by Coyote Ragtime Show fans let me just say this.
If I was just to judge the series by the manga I’d have to say that the series is… improved.
Yes, I said it, it’s improved.

After reading this volume I like what I see better now than I did before, so expect that to translate to a better score shortly for the series. It does it’s job, and if you are new to the franchise looking for a new sci-fi action drama to fill the gaps in your collection then Coyote Ragtime Show will fill that gap well in terms of the manga. Maybe it’s the whole thing between Mister and Swamp, the “origin” of Marciano and her “sisters”, the way this story is finally rolling to Graceland and time is running short, but something had really picked up my interest which was there last time, but not as strong as it is now.
I still don’t know about the anime, but if critics are any indication it should be just as fulfilling as the manga (and now I’m even feeling great about the manga after a slight rough start with Volume 1 and all).

Now that I’m excited over the title I’m looking forward to the third (and most likely final) Volume.
Now, as promised, the better score.

5 trips to Graceland out of 5, and look forward to what Volume 3 will bring in the near future. It will either cement the deal with our interest or drop us altogether like the MLB dropping interest in a freshly indicted Barry Bonds (allegedly). Stay tuned.

-- David Rasmussen 29th Dec 07