GRENADIER
Wow! Look at the size of her guns! I mean gun!
Review by: Craig "Ten Ring" Norris
Length: 12 episodes
Genre: Action
Watched: 1-12, subbed
Anyone who knows me knows that wherever there are hot chicks and guns in the same place, I'll be there, too. This is the main reason why the prospect of watching this series straight through appealed to me so much. However, my excitement quickly gave way to the thought that maybe a hot chick with a gun was the *only* thing this series had to offer.
Plot synopsis: In an era of civil unrest, guns and swords clash on countless battlefields. Amidst the chaos of war, one woman, Rushuna Tendo, uses her mastery of firearms to encourage peace, believing that the surest path to victory is to take away an opponent's will to fight. But not everyone agrees with her methods, as a price is placed on her head by the Empress. With the help of the samurai Yajiro and the balloon sculptor Mikan, Rushuna heads to the capitol to find out why the woman who taught her everything she holds dear now wants her dead.
Artwork: Aside from a couple of reused action sequences and a few swooshing-line backgrounds, very few corners were cut in the animation. Some of the backgrounds were particularly impressive in terms of ornateness and color, especially the brothel in episode 5, which looks better than any Orlando resort I have ever seen. Character designs are unique but not flashy. For a short series that was not an OAV, the animation was a lot better than I thought it would be.
Music: The soundtrack for this series is about average, with most of the care having gone to the opening and ending tracks, both of which are respectable. The music really doesn't add or subtract too much from the onscreen action, and is almost always overshadowed by the intensity of the fight scenes. The nondescript melodies, which are an eclectic mix of mediums from techno to latin guitar, easily slip in and out unnoticed to provide a small amount of support, but really don't hold their own as worthwhile additions to anyone's soundtrack collection.
Characters: I believe that the biggest thing holding this anime back is the lack of complexity in the characters. Even those that have personal issues have them resolved predictably and anticlimactically by way of Rushuna's overarching philosophy, almost as if no one were allowed to think differently. Rushuna herself is too cut-and-dried as a character. She possesses no self doubt at all, despite the fact that it's basically her against the world, which makes her credibility as a protagonist waver slightly. Speaking of credibility, her abilities with a firearm are too farfetched to consider feasible. And this is coming from someone who has seen Rally Vincent, Vash the Stampede, and Brandon Heat in action. Her reloading technique especially left me shaking my head saying, "Oh, puh-leez!" You'll say the same thing when you see it for yourself, I'm sure. Yajiro is a samurai who sees the validity of Rushuna's philosophy when she puts it to use in saving his life. He is often taken aback by Rushuna's unabashed personality. Mikan is the daughter of balloon artists who were killed by bandits, but her thoughts of revenge are pushed to the wayside when she meets Rushuna. Mikan shows little respect to Yajiro, whom she teases incessantly. She was adopted by Tokai, a woman who used to be an elite fighter for the Empress, but retired due to illness. She now runs a brothel, employing many women who have similarly lost family members and have nowhere else to go. Her entrepreneurial endeavors are also due to Rushuna's philosophy, which was also taught to her by the Empress; what better way to dispel a fighting spirit than with a good roll in the hay? The main villain, known only as Clown, gains allies through false promises of power, and believes in the exact opposite things Rushuna does. He attempts to gain total control by encouraging neighboring lands to fight one another. For a 12 episode series, the characters aren't developed nearly as much as they should be, and their flatness makes them largely unentertaining.
Plot: The plot mirrors Trigun in almost every possible respect, and wasn't done nearly as well. The raw materials have the makings of a truly engrossing plot, but given the shortness of the series, it wasn't explored to its fullest potential. While there wasn't a copious amount of filler, there really wasn't room for any, and overall content suffers from its presence. Dialogue and major confrontations are predictable and somewhat corny. Maybe if the series were a bit longer it could have been fleshed out satisfactorily and given more character, plot, and setting history, but it's not, and it wasn't.
CHICKS!: I saw one screencap of this series and I was sold on Rushuna! Busty women with large handguns are one of my biggest turn-ons (as anyone who has read my review of Noir or Cowboy Bebop has probably figured out by now). Her innocence and affinity for bathing is also a major plus. And her top is totally loaded. No, seriously, she keeps all her bullets between her breasts. Not surprising, considering there's enough room there for an M-1 Abrams. Her preferred method of robbing her enemy of his will to fight is by clasping him tightly to her delicious bosom. This further proves my long-standing theory: big breasts bring peace. Tokai is a healthy dose of eye candy as well, made all the sweeter by her current profession. Yes she is a well-oiled killing machine, but it seems as though she is not above showing some lucky guy a good time if it makes him stop fighting. Mikan is quite the pepper pot, but she is sadly underage. Sadly because her proficiency with balloons holds the possibility for some intensely interesting erotic situations, considering she can make just about anything with them (including a more voluptuous version of herself). It's a good thing I had Rushuna to lust over, otherwise this series would have held my interest even less.
Overall: The concept of this anime has been done before, with much more success. If you've seen other anime with heroes who have sublime mastery of weapons and idealistic visions of peace, this series is sure to be a disappointment. When taken at face value it's moderately entertaining, but is inferior to a large number of contemporary series. Unless you're totally captivated by Rushuna's chest (like me), you won't find much in this anime that sets it above the rest.
IN A NUTSHELL
+ Good animation
+ Rushuna's Boobs of Peace
- Flat characters
- Not enough back story
- Trigun did it better
Rating: 6.5/10
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