Bean first made his first appearance in his own OVA production, Riding Bean, back in 1989. In this incarnation, he had one Rally Vincent as his partner, who bears almost no resemblance to the GSC leading lady, but the Gunsmith Cats version of Bean is almost identical to his previous self, only with more depth to his character. He's still a big, tough, hard-driving action hero, and is not only my favourite character in the stories, but also one of my all-time greats.

  When we initially meet Bean in the comics, he's just a getaway driver for hire to anyone with the cash. His willingness to work for anyone automatically makes him a bad guy by association in Rally's book, but small hints begin to creep in that, despite his employment record, he's not all bad. Things come to a head when gang queen Goldie is snatched out of Rally's grasp by Bean. Rally, having gone through hell thanks to Goldie and her mind-altering drug kerasine, challenges Bean to a bet, chronicled in the Riding Bean story arc, whereby if she can stop him closing a deal - something no-one has ever done before - he will never deliver drugs for anyone again.

  Rally does win, in the end - not only the bet, but also Bean's grudging respect. While he recognises her genius with weapons, and shares her addiction to musclecars, he is always frustrated by what he sees as hiding behind the law when it suits her. Bean always plays it straight - he knows what kind of people he works for, and simply views it as a case of someone's going to take their money, so it might as well be him. Opportunistic? Hey, a guy's gotta make a living, y'know? Bean's morals aren't as rigid as Rally's, but he does regard some things as wrong, no matter how you look at it. Everything else is a grey area.

  One thing Bean is absolutely hardline about is people picking on children. He'll go out of his way to protect them, and those he catches in the act he hits that little bit harder. Another is cheaters. Anyone who trys to cheat him, cross him, steal from him or generally screw him around gets the full force of his anger - Entire gangs have met their end after trying to turn things to their advantage. If he offers you his dealbreaker payoff charge of $100k, you should probably take it...

  Bean's tough-guy image is an absolute. There's a hint throughout the series that he views Rally as something like a friend, but keeps her and her compatriots at arms length. You definitely see him stretching his normal ethos (to do the job he's paid for, no more, no less) on more than one occasion to aid them. Theirs is a strange relationship - not quite enemies, not quite friends, just people who regularly find themselves, by design or coincidence, in the same place at the same time.

  "The Roadbuster" doesn't walk into dangerous situations with only his charm and instincts to protect him, even though both are evident on most of the occasions we meet him. Bean's legendary indestructability is partly down to his massive, almost superhuman physique, and partly down to his tailoring. He's never without his bulletproof bandanna, or that jacket. This mithril-esque item of clothing contains ceramic plates, several layers of kevlar, and the toughest leather known to man. While he occasionally wears a lesser version that lacks the plating, the full Beanwear takes an assault rifle loaded with FMJ rounds to beat. It's also heavy as hell - Misty drops it on her foot, and breaks at least one bone. Interestingly, Radinov wears a similarly bolstered trenchcoat in the GSC anime, though Bean himself is absent.

  An indisputable fact about Bean is that this boy can drive. More than a match for Rally at her best, Bean can handle a car in a manner befitting someone known as the best of the best in wheelman circles. He owns several classic muscle machines, and has an affinity for both Mustangs and Corvettes across several generations. All his cars are modified in some way - if only to lower the seat far enough for him to get his barnet under the roof. Bean is very obviously a horsepower junkie, and loves the kick that can only be provided by a tuned V8. A big one. It's not for show, though - When Bean wants to get across the country, he doesn't want to hang around. His freeway runs can easily see the wrong side of a ton-seventy when needs must.

  What Bean really wants is his own car. Designed to his specifications from the ground up. He eventually gets his wish, at an estimated cost of a cool million (dollars, remember), in the Buff. It's a welcome sight - he had the same machine in the OVA - and very, very cool. Battleship armour on the body, a monster 'Vette engine, and a four-wheel-steering system that allows it to travel sideways, all brought to a halt with air braking flaps and tarmac-ripping wheel spikes.

  Strangely, Bean is one of the few characters in GSC who doesn't use firearms (even Becky has a semi-auto handgun), preferring blades. He's damn good with them, though, and certainly doesn't have a handicap in a fight. By the time someone's wasted a clip of ammo discovering the properties of his jacket, he can have a throwing knife through something vital. Bean is in the kind of business where such skills are a survival requirement.

  Kenichi Sonoda has remarked that Bean is the character he most identifies with, and I can dig that. He represents the ultimate tough guy. The definitive man's man, fuelled by beer and barbecue ribs in equally vast quantities, and described by May as "a gorilla in a flak jacket". Interestingly, he's the only male character we see butt-freakin-nekkid, and judging by Rally's reaction, those cars of his aren't compensating for anything.

  Bean is concentrated cool, and you can't help but love him. One question remains, though: While his distinctive x-shaped facial scar (normally concealed by his omnipresent Ray-Bans) is said to have been caused by an engine block blowing up on him, no-one has yet answered "What the hell kinda name is Bean Bandit?". The most likely explaination I can think of is that it's in part reference to Burt Reynold's bootlegging good ol' boy in Smokey and the Bandit, and part homage to Joaquin Arnett's drag race team The Bean Bandits, who've been going damn fast since the early '50s. I'd love to hear a definite answer from Sonoda on this one.

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