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to the main page of Alyx's "Riding Bean"
Although the cast of characters in Riding Bean is few, they are all memorable. To this extent, I decided to also include a page of character information. I don't have stats or anything like that, but I do have background garnered from the anime (for the most part), manga, and various real-world sources. Combined together, I hope that this page proves informative to all of you... even those who enjoy watching and reading about the series as much as I do. Drop me a line and tell me what you think!
Riding Bean © Youmex.
Translation, Subtitles & Dubbing © AnimEigo.
All Rights Reserved.
yet remains a good person at heart. He seems to possess almost superhuman qualities: incredible strength, lightning fast reflexes, and nigh invincibility. Not even being run over by a car could stop this guy! His main "weapon of choice" seems to be his car (Batmobile eat your heart out!), but he also wields a large sheath knife which he appears to be rather adept in using. Whether or not he knows any street fighting, martial arts, etc. remains unclear, but he does seem to use an almost Drunk Fu style to disarm Semmerling after she shoots him in the forehead with a gun. When Misty snoops around his apartment in the GSC manga, several other interesting things are found: a file cabinet full of license plates for every state, including commercial government plates; an enormous armoire filled with knives, daggers, and swords of all shapes, sizes, and lengths (even a samurai sword!); and drawers upon drawers filled with folding knives. ALL of his clothing appears to be made of Kevlar, bulletproof material, and his jacket is made of moose leather, filled with cermaic plates, and a layer of chain mail. It was so heavy, in fact, that it broke Misty's foot when she accidentally knocked it off a shelf. Talk about packing some power!
Cats and appears to have based one of its two main characters on this Rally, even giving her the name "Rally Vincent" and making her a weapons expert. But back to Riding Bean. As just stated, Rally is an expert in weaponry and deadly shot with a gun, her own "weapon of choice." She works as Bean's partner, but does not appear to go out on courier runs with him regularly. It appears the relationship between Bean and Rally is only that of partners and friends, though who knows what might have developed if the supposed OAV series had been continued. She has the one (or at the least only one is shown) bedroom in the apartment while Bean sleeps out on the couch.
So we'll call her "Semmerling." Now who is she? Well, Semmerling is the main villain in this plot. She spends a good part of the beginning of the film disguising herself as various men (a thief hiring Bean for a run, a bodyguard to Chelsea Grimwood) with detailed masks and some sort of voice changing device. Just how this thing works I have no clue but it appears to be a small circular disk that is swallowed, allowed to catch in one's throat, and thus changes one's voice. The way to remove it is similar to one hacking up a hairball. In the story, Semmerling kidnaps Chelsea Grimwood, ransoms her for $2,000,000, and then captures Mr. Grimwood as well and tries to pass the blame off on Bean. The members of her little kidnapping ring, with Semmerling being the leader naturally, are a young girl by the name of Carrie and two men, the name of one being, I believe, Mack.
When questioned upon her relationship with Semmerling, she cheerfully answers, "She's my lover!" Semmerling, being much older, naturally plays the dominating role in their relationship with Carrie being the submissive, the younger girl even going so far as to refer to Semmerling as "Mistress" and begging for forgiveness when she upsets her. In the very beginning, she briefly disguises herself as Chelsea Grimwood in order to help try to get Bean fingered for the kidnapping. Other than this and babysitting a tied down Mr. Grimwood though, she doesn't do overly much throughout the story. She does try to be tough, but deep down, she really is just a little girl.
She spends most of the film unconscious after having apparently being drugged by one of the kidnappers. When she does awaken to find herself in the back of Bean's car (which is being shot at with everything from high power gun artillery to anti-tank rifles), she panics but is soon after calmed by Rally, who becomes almost maternal around her. One thing can be said for her though: She knows what she wants. When Bean and Rally stop at a gas station/50ish restaurant (girls in short skirts skating from car to car to pick up orders included!) and ask her if she'd like anything to eat, she boldly declares that she wants milk and strawberry ice cream (strawberry pudding, I believe, in the sub)... and then lapses back into shy silence.
Grimwood is more than willing to pay it, just so long as his daughter is returned safely to him. When he goes to make the trade of the money for his daughter, however, Semmerling kidnaps HIM, instead. Why exactly is not specified, nor where exactly he disappeared to near the end of the video when Bean chases Semmerling into the lower level of a parking garage, but we can only assume it's to gain more money. His concerns lie mainly for his daughter, but even the fact that an infamous "criminal" such as The Roadbuster is the one who was "taking care" of Chelsea doesn't seem to perturb him in the least. In fact, he gives the $2,000,000 to Bean instead! What a shame more politicians aren't like him...
and is determined to let nothing stop him. Despite this, he has been humiliated time and again for years by his failure to stop Bean. He even builds a Cobra GT 500 with 355 horse power and maximum torque of 58 kilos in an attempt to match Bean's car in the movie. This guy definitely needs to get some therapy to deal with his rage problems; he spends the majority of his filmtime in a fury and screaming at everyone. He even blows up with his boss. His unfortunate partner is a subdued young man named Dick, who has to put up with everything from being screamed at and knocked around to having chewed up food being spit in his face from Percy. Whatever they're paying that poor guy, it isn't enough.
