OVA
Description
Percy Bacharach, commonly known as Lieutenant Percy Bacharach, is a supporting character in the 1989 anime Riding Bean. He is a lieutenant in the Chicago Police Department, depicted as an American man of middle age with blonde hair and blue eyes. His defining trait is a deep personal grudge against Bean Bandit, the freelance courier at the center of the story. Percy has made it his personal mission to see Bean thrown in jail, and his animosity is rooted primarily in the consequences of Bean's work: Bean's reckless high-speed courier business frequently results in police cruisers being wrecked during pursuits, and Percy treats this as a direct insult to the law and to his own department.
As a police officer, Percy is persistent, prideful, and deeply invested in proving himself against Bean. He is motivated not just by a sense of duty but by the personal frustration of seeing his officers outmatched on the road. During the Grimwood kidnapping case, in which Bean and his partner Rally Vincent are framed as the kidnappers, Percy sees an opportunity to finally catch his quarry. To level the field, he obtains a 1967 Ford Mustang Shelby Cobra 500, a high-performance muscle car that is close to a match for Bean's custom Ford RS-200, known as the Buff. His decision to bring such a vehicle into police work shows that he understands ordinary patrol cars are insufficient and that he is willing to take unusual measures to accomplish his goal.
Percy's role in the story is that of the chief law-enforcement presence pursuing the main characters. He stands in opposition to Bean and Rally throughout the chase, even though the audience knows they have been framed and are not the real kidnappers. His pursuit adds pressure to the protagonists and reinforces Bean's reputation as a driver most of the police cannot handle. His key relationship is with Bean, who serves as both his professional target and his personal obsession. Bean's repeated escapes fuel Percy's determination and make their encounters feel like a rivalry rather than an ordinary police hunt.
In later material connected to the franchise, specifically the Gunsmith Cats Burst manga, Percy's character undergoes notable development. There he is portrayed as having become obsessively fixated on Bean, and his goal shifts from arresting Bean to actually killing him. His methods also become far more extreme and ethically compromised. He gains financial backing from a local crime lord who was badly hurt by Bean, purchases a 1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1, and hires armed mercenaries with rocket launchers to ambush Bean during an illegal road race. This later version of the character shows how a once-professional pursuit can decay into a personal vendetta, with Percy willing to associate with criminals and use lethal force to settle his score.
Percy's notable abilities center on his investigative and operational work as a lieutenant, as well as his driving. He is capable of organizing police responses and leading high-stakes pursuits, and his choice of a powerful muscle car demonstrates that he can match Bean's skills behind the wheel better than most of his colleagues. His greatest strengths are his tenacity and refusal to give up, but those same qualities lead him down an increasingly dark path. Within the anime itself, he stands as the most prominent face of the law trying to bring Bean to justice, and his fixation gives the film's chase sequences an added layer of personal conflict.
As a police officer, Percy is persistent, prideful, and deeply invested in proving himself against Bean. He is motivated not just by a sense of duty but by the personal frustration of seeing his officers outmatched on the road. During the Grimwood kidnapping case, in which Bean and his partner Rally Vincent are framed as the kidnappers, Percy sees an opportunity to finally catch his quarry. To level the field, he obtains a 1967 Ford Mustang Shelby Cobra 500, a high-performance muscle car that is close to a match for Bean's custom Ford RS-200, known as the Buff. His decision to bring such a vehicle into police work shows that he understands ordinary patrol cars are insufficient and that he is willing to take unusual measures to accomplish his goal.
Percy's role in the story is that of the chief law-enforcement presence pursuing the main characters. He stands in opposition to Bean and Rally throughout the chase, even though the audience knows they have been framed and are not the real kidnappers. His pursuit adds pressure to the protagonists and reinforces Bean's reputation as a driver most of the police cannot handle. His key relationship is with Bean, who serves as both his professional target and his personal obsession. Bean's repeated escapes fuel Percy's determination and make their encounters feel like a rivalry rather than an ordinary police hunt.
In later material connected to the franchise, specifically the Gunsmith Cats Burst manga, Percy's character undergoes notable development. There he is portrayed as having become obsessively fixated on Bean, and his goal shifts from arresting Bean to actually killing him. His methods also become far more extreme and ethically compromised. He gains financial backing from a local crime lord who was badly hurt by Bean, purchases a 1971 Ford Mustang Mach 1, and hires armed mercenaries with rocket launchers to ambush Bean during an illegal road race. This later version of the character shows how a once-professional pursuit can decay into a personal vendetta, with Percy willing to associate with criminals and use lethal force to settle his score.
Percy's notable abilities center on his investigative and operational work as a lieutenant, as well as his driving. He is capable of organizing police responses and leading high-stakes pursuits, and his choice of a powerful muscle car demonstrates that he can match Bean's skills behind the wheel better than most of his colleagues. His greatest strengths are his tenacity and refusal to give up, but those same qualities lead him down an increasingly dark path. Within the anime itself, he stands as the most prominent face of the law trying to bring Bean to justice, and his fixation gives the film's chase sequences an added layer of personal conflict.