P.A. Works’ original anime Appare-Ranman is colorful, bursting with creativity, and absolutely deserves more attention than it got. In the late 1800s, passionate but socially awkward teen genius Appare accidentally strands himself and his strait-laced samurai chaperone Kosame across the sea in California, where the very first Trans-America Wild Race is about to begin. Hoping to use the prize money to return home, they build an experimental car and join the race along with several more eclectic characters who will become either their best friends or their worst enemies as they speed across the Wild West.

Many people who were excited about this anime in the spring forgot about it after a pandemic-induced hiatus pushed most of its episodes into Summer 2020, but if you’re one of them, we urge you to give it another shot. This love letter to classic Westerns is just so much fun to watch that it would be a shame to let it slip through the sands of time.

This article was written for Honey’s Anime, so please read it on their site.