The SOJ Library

What are the City Hunter anime movies?

Five theatrical films across thirty-four years, and the last two brought the original team back.

The films run the whole life of the franchise. The first, .357 Magnum (June 17, 1989), is named for Ryo’s Colt Python. A year later came a theatrical double bill: Bay City Wars and Million Dollar Conspiracy, both released August 25, 1990. Between and after them, television carried three specials: The Secret Service (January 5, 1996), Goodbye My Sweetheart (April 25, 1997) and Death of the Vicious Criminal Ryo Saeba (April 23, 1999).

Then, silence, for twenty years. It broke in 2019 with Shinjuku Private Eyes (February 8, 2019): Sunrise and director Kodama returning to a present-day Shinjuku, with a crossover wink, the Kisugi sisters of Hojo’s Cat’s Eye walking into the film as themselves.

The fifth film, Angel Dust (September 8, 2023), takes its title from the drug at the centre of the manga’s opening story, the franchise coming home to its first case for what may be its last theatrical case.