If there is one thing you can say about CITY HUNTER, it's that you know what you are going to get when you watch one of these videos. They are always full of action, drama, comedy and Joe's socially deviant behavior. And this latest video, CITY HUNTER: SECRET SERVICE, is no exception.

For those of you new to the series, CITY HUNTER follows the adventures of Joe Saeba (a.k.a. City Hunter) as he takes on the job of bodyguard for those who are young, beautiful and female. He resides in Tokyo, and the only way to get in contact with him is to write 'XYZ' on a message board inside the Shinjuku subway station. Joe is aided in his endeavors by his partner Kaori, who spends most of her time bashing Joe over the head with a giant mallet because of his sexually depraved perversity toward women. Joe is also occasionally helped out by his friend Falcon (who looks like an extra from G.I. JOE but who has always reminded me of a bald Hagar from the FINAL FIGHT video game series.)

In this latest outing of the world famous City Hunter, Joe is hired by James McGuire, a presidential candidate from a third world nation—not to protect him but to protect his long lost daughter, Anna Shinjo, who turns out to be a secret service agent assigned to protect McGuire while he is visiting Japan. Things get complicated for the City Hunter as someone within McGuire's entourage is a traitor, and the only clues that can lead to Anna's aggressors lie in McGuire's dark past as a revolutionary. Will Joe be able to uncover the traitor and protect Anna? Will he be able to avoid Kaori long enough so that he can score some nookie with the bevy of babes surrounding him? You'll just have to watch to find out.

I am by no means a CITY HUNTER fan. I've seen two other CITY HUNTER videos, CITY HUNTER: THE MOTION PICTURE and CITY HUNTER: .357 MAGNUM, and though I thought they were alright, the dialogue for them was just bad. The goofiness and corniness of some of the lines was too much for me, and even though SECRET SERVICE suffers from some of the same ills that the other two do, it wasn't as bad. Sure, the corny dialogue was there but it wasn't as jarring as it was in the other videos. Actually, some of the dialogue was pretty good—some of it could even be considered witty.

Another aspect of CITY HUNTER that I never really like is Joe's "antics." Basically, Joe sexually harasses women and never gets punished for it. Sure, his antics are sometimes funny, and he always gets bashed over the head with a mallet by Kaori before consummating anything, but if his advances were done in a real-life setting he would be arrested and thrown in jail. Kids, don't try this stuff at home. Do not emulate the City Hunter. He is not an appropriate role model.

The dub for SECRET SERVICE wasn't that bad. From what it had to work with, and for what it is trying to do, it was acceptable. Martin Blacker plays a pretty good City Hunter, but he isn't as good as the original Japanese voice actor, Akira Kamiya. And one thing I did find somewhat interesting about the dub was that only one of the characters from this fictional third world nation, which seems to be based in South America, had an accent.

The animation was also fairly good. SECRET SERVICE was originally one of the CITY HUNTER TV specials that were released after the TV series ended. So, for something that was made for television, the animation was good. The only real comment I have to make on it is that the clothes are really dated. Even though this particular TV special was originally released in the mid-nineties ('95 or '96), the clothes look as if they came from the eighties.

Overall, I thought SECRET SERVICE was one of CITY HUNTER's better outings. Of course, it had the corny dialogue, sappy dramatic scenes and goofy action sequences, but it also had a fairly good plot. Even though McGuire's traitor was fairly easy to spot, there was a nice twist toward the end that kept things interesting. Also, it was nice to see Joe protecting somebody who was not a musician or a dancer. And, if one entire CITY HUNTER adventure wasn't enough for you, at the very end there is a short CITY HUNTER episode that for some reason wasn't dubbed.

I think the best way to view a CITY HUNTER video is to not take it too seriously. It's goofy, silly and sometimes illegal, but if you can stomach that, then CITY HUNTER isn't too bad. Plus, it's nice to watch something every once and a while where you don't have to think too much.