The title is indicative of the exuberance of this production. ‘Hey guys – what’s awesome? Eh? Guns, yup. Swords? Yeah, they’re cool, too. I know, let’s put BOTH of them in the title – and then add in some giant robots for good measure!’ Well, sounds like a fun ride to me. And so it was, if nothing more.
Van in an antihero who looks like Spike Spiegel cosplaying as vampire hunter D. His personality is also somewhere between the two, being both taciturn and a little bit goofy while also a very skilled fighter. Yup, he uses a sword that is also a gun, something like FF8’s gunblades…except more flexible and more capable of calling down...a giant mecha from space!!! Oh yes. Called Dann. Van’s Dann. Yus, there’s very much a specific audience for this, and there’s not a whiff of irony about GunXSword.
Van is on a quest for revenge, and on his search for the man with the claw who killed his beloved on their wedding day (for reasons that were never explained) he meets young Wendy, who is searching for her brother. After a series of episodic encounters, defeating baddies or helping the needy and getting several allies on the way, he finds the claw man, defeats his henchmen and foils his plan to destroy the world.
Silly, silly pulp, as you can tell. But for a few episodes, it seems like GunXSword is going to be something more interesting. For a while, it seems like the Claw Man is genuinely benevolent, that perhaps he had a good reason for doing what he did to Van, and that our hero, being driven by nothing more than a thirst for vengeance, might actually be in the wrong. That would be a novelty – a main character who is actually morally wrong, and a bad guy who is in fact right. In fact, this is not the case, and we soon see that while the baddie is a surprisingly kind, gentle man, he’s also a nutcase who not only kills easily (and, by his reaction, accidentally), but wants to return the world to nothingness, or destroy the concept of space and time, or enter the consciousness of every living person, or SOMETHING. It seemed to change every episode – indeed, it would have been hilarious parody, if it were parody. But it’s done straight-faced (so much the better for me, who might use that interesting situation myself one day), and therein lies most of its appeal.
Because it doesn’t matter that GunXSword’s story is crap, or that there’s a whole episode of the most embarrassing fanservice you’re ever likely to see. It’s got great stock characters (the cute naïve girl, the hopeless boy, the genki dancing girl, the prodigious little twins, the redeemed ex-prostitute etc) as well as some ideas just silly enough to work (like the five old men in an 80s-sentai-style giant robot, past-it both in the world of the anime and in reality). Van has appealing character quirks (he has to cover every meal with as much sauce as he can, before yelling about how spicy it is). The art is nice, the music is cool and some of the transient emotional scenes are, while entirely superficial, at least ephemerally touching. Loads of fun.
It will never be anyone’s favourite anime, nor would it win over anyone who doesn’t think much of animation. But for embracing daft fanservice clichés and having some great action scenes and cute girls, I won’t hesitate to say I very much enjoyed GunXSword.
(originally written 17.12.06)
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