Running time: 25 minutes
Number of episodes: 26
Vintage: 2005-07-04 to 2005-12-26
Age rating: Teenagers (May contain bloody violence, bad language, nudity)
Genres: Adventure, Drama, Mecha, Science Fiction, Shounen
Animation Production: AIC A.S.T.A.
Production: AIC A.S.T.A., GUN SWORD Partners
Source: Anime News Network
The Good: Appealing art style and designs for most characters.
The Bad: It’s a big mix of tiny ideas that don’t amount to a simple and deeper meaning.
Status: Dropped
My impressions and review:
If there is anything I realize most it’s that I am not an anime director and what I believe is the responsibility and duty of a director is probably a far-cry from the real deal. However, my humble experience of watching lots of high profile anime give my words a bit of heft as a passive receptor of the experience that a director is trying to convey. Most should be able to agree that simplicity and cohesion can be an asset in strong anime storytelling. There’s no need to bloat the presentation of an anime just for the sake of it, much less attribute creativity as an amount but rather an abstract unmeasurable force in a work of fiction.
So what am I trying to say? Well… it’s anime like GUNxSWORD that really makes the weight of the aforementioned words worth their value in gold. Making good anime can be a little like making good soup. There’s ingredients that go into it that make it special in its own way. Even the order that the ingredients are added in can change the way the soup tastes. All of these careful decisions are what make the best soup, and likewise, the best anime. So what kind of soup is GUNxSWORD? Well, it’s not really soup, it’s more like a boiling thick goop with a strong odor and a distasteful texture.
There are so many things in GUNxSWORD that the meaning and purpose of the show is lost. Take for instance the main character. He’s apathetic and hides a dark past. This is fine, as long as the revealing nature of his personality later on is cool enough. However, moving on we have a little girl tagging along because she’s looking for her brother. I can’t dock points off for that, but think about how many other anime tie purpose and objective together by having two or more characters look for the same perpetrator of separate crimes.
Now think of the name, GUNxSWORD. You’d think the anime is about… I dunno… guns and swords maybe? Maybe. Well surprisingly there are guns, but the main character doesn’t have one — other people do. Instead, the main character has a sword that can bend like wire. Wait, there’s more. Mecha. Gotta have mecha, or rather, “armor” that falls from the sky. It heals you too. Yep. Believe.
The inspiration for most of the artwork is largely at fault for the creative flaws in storytelling. Artwork is an anime’s calling card and largely the reason why many people are fans. However, there needs to be meat on the bones that is the artwork or that foundation is just for show and there’s little substance behind it. For instance, why go all the way and create a town with Mexico as the inspiration and go as far as use everything you can think of about about Mexico such as Tequila, El Dorado, ponchos, and have the characters say “Gracias” for no good reason. Is the fucking town in Mexico? No. So why the hell does everything look so Mexican? Who the hell said that was creative and original? Mexico fucking exists, it’s a country and they don’t fight with Power Ranger mecha. Can you believe the mecha even have the typical red, blue, green, yellow, pink colors and are shaped like fucking animals — what the fuck!?
My criticisms are a huge stretch, I’m aware of that, but it really pisses me off when creativity is thought as the amount of meaningless details borrowed from other cultures and jammed into an anime. In simple terms, the show tries to be Trigun without the magic of Trigun, which is the twisted cowboy setting. GUNxSWORD has no meaningful foundation and thus dangles on thin air of pointless scenery changes and ambiguity while following some dark arch enemy. Once they find this evildoer it will probably be the only spot in the anime where a decent attempt at storytelling will occur. It’s terrible when high production values go into art and animation but nobody cares about delivering a meaningful punch with the story. It’s sad indeed. A competent Trigun clone shouldn’t be that hard to create.
I can’t wait long enough for this anime to show me the goods, so in my honest opinion it deserves to be dropped. I can’t be bothered to find out if they find the man with the claw hand and know what he did to Van or what’s up with Wendy’s brother.
I can understand all the points that you are making about the show, but as I have seen the show and found that the ending was worth the wait. Anyway I finding Gun Sword an enjoyable rid, though I can see the flaws in the show that you are mentioning. If you ever want to watch some Gun Sword in the future after dropping it I suggest watching episode 24, as I found this episode very good.
I actually went back and tried to watch episodes 23 and 24. To be honest, it’s scary how close I came to guessing the plot. The end of the anime is without a doubt all about mecha and Van’s role is surprisingly less than I thought. Episode 24 in particular tried to be a melodrama with a touch of sadness and despair leading up to the eventual good side prevailing. However, it’s hard to like it when there are anime that do melodrama much better. Plus, those annoying Mexican mecha played a big part of it so I zoned out.
I’m even more firm now in my assertion that GUNxSWORD isn’t good enough to be considered a top tier anime. It can be watched but it doesn’t stick in your head like the best do.
Gun x Sword is pretty huge disappointment, especially due to the fact that Goro Taniguchi was the director here, a director I respect quite a lot due to Planetes (which you seem to admire as well) and Infinite Ryvius. So to see that this show was so banal was definitely a huge let down.
If you haven’t seen Infinite Ryvius however, I reccomend you check it out, it was his first major work and is excellent. Extremely well told drama and interesting science fiction setting. Think of it as Lord of the flies in space.
That’s very interesting, I never noticed that Goro Taniguchi directed this POS. It’s kind of depressing that not that many directors are consistent in quality.
I haven’t seen Infinite Ryvius yet so I’ll make a note to do so soon. If it’s anywhere near as good as Planetes was, I’m sure I’ll like it.
I liked it when I first watched it, but I hadn’t seen much then. Since then I’ve watched a lot of other mecha’s(RahXephon, Gunbuster/Diebuster, Escaflowne, Gundam 08thMS/SEED/SEED.D, Eureka SeveN, Blue Gender etc.) this show really is a POS. Ah well.
Okay, well unlike most of you, I liked the anime. Sure you can talk about all these things like plot and character development when you get into an anime or whatever but the bottom line for me is – It captivates me. The action scenes were predictable, but good, and Van is a character whose limits and background are shrouded in mystery. I don’t wanna sound like a rebel but hey, this was good. Sure, slightly cheesy, sold itself away when it went to the el dora five or w/e that was. This anime is mroe psychological than meets the eye.
I agree with the person above me, well im not a light headed idiot of cliche inhuman POS, but i like this anime, especially since this is one of the shows that i have seen which has full of devotion in how the protagonist projects it. The principles of the main enemy gets to my mind a little when he said that, everyone is always there inside our hearts once they have passed away, well if i was Ray, i could have pulled his eyes out… I liked it because for me it has shown a great impact even though many cliche events was presented. Well that’s for my point of view.
“Wake up, Dann.”
I’m back. If you look at now, there is no more originality in this world. There will come a point that, revisions will be made, and no more uniqueness among ideas. Sad fact of the generations today… The later generations might have better ideas but can’t give off their best because of others showing it first or ahead of them. Anyway, ito ay para sa chuy…
Like the person above me, I did like this anime, and I’m also not the kind of guy to just smash something into pieces of… Well I tried to justify it because even I felt something depressing during the early parts.
This is what you get when you make a parody of sorts and try to make it serious.
I’d say many who watched this stopped after they saw Dann…
The story ended well, sure the protagonist is single minded and so is Ray, but think a bit more about it and… What?? whatever, that’s the point. Just watch it without focusing much on the aims of Van and go along, you’ll do fine.
I’ts hard to think of all the elses, so there. Anyway, ito naman ay para sa bayan ko!
This anime was solid. I watched the complete series 2 times in a row and yes there are some goofy parts, but unrelenting pursuit of vengeance is awesome. Also the conclusion was somewhat satisfying in that it was simple in a certain way that made the journey worth while. Van was a cool character, Wendy was sometimes a stretch, but over all I give it about a 6 to 7 out of 10.