Animisery – A Blog About Living Miserably with Anime (Among Other Things)

What is it?

As according to Wikipedia, Gun Sword (the x is apparently silent and nonexistent, huh) is the child of director Goro Taniguchi of Code Geass renown and writer Hideyuki Kurata, writer of perennial classic Oreimo. As noted in the aforementioned Wikipedia, Gun Sword seemingly takes a lot of elements from other franchises including Voltron, Read or Die, and the Will Smith movie Independence Day. I will certainly vouch that Gun Sword does replicate the experience of watching Independence Day because after finishing the show, I felt like I wasted some time that could’ve been better spent elsewhere.

What’s it about?

Although this child dresses in western cowboy clothes, Gun Sword is definitively not a western and is a mecha in hiding waiting for you to drop your guard so it can pounce and explain its patented version of mechanical pseudo science to you. The story is centered around “tuxedo” wearing Van I Don’t Have a Last Name and his quest to get revenge on the man who killed his wife, The Claw. He eventually finds his court ordered and legally obligated annoying side kick in Wendy, who is struggling to figure out what her bangs are doing, and they set out with a dream in their hearts and vengeance on their breath because Wendy also wants to find her brother but his name is Michael so I don’t know. Maybe she should’ve just looked at the local Target or something with a name like that. Van isn’t just equipped with a hybrid Vash the Stampede-Spike Spiegel cosplay that he couldn’t commit to and a minor with a grating voice, of course. Van can summon a freaking mech from a weirdly convenient space station that just spits out mechanical death not unlike how I spit on people by accident when I get too excited to talk about anime crap. The mech (or Armor as they’re called on Van’s planet Endless Illusion) named Dann is equipped with larger than life swords and is piloted in seemingly the style of a G Gundam mech where the pilot implements their actions in their chosen fighting style to some degree but usually Van is just seen sitting looking all cool like the popular girls are watching. It’s a neat premise for sure. It’s just a shame that Gun Sword fumbles the ball more than a quarterback with no fingers.

Is it good though?

If you are blessed with reading comprehension skills then you will probably assume that I’m down on Gun Sword with my passive aggressive comments to no one in particular. Here’s the thing: Gun Sword has every capacity in the world to have been something worth celebrating to me. The mechs may not be remarkable to look at in my opinion but the weight and visual flair of some of Van’s more intense fights (like his bouts with members of the antagonistic group Original Seven) exude competency with great mechanical flair and interesting mech fight choreography. The characters themselves have very lively designs that almost toe the line of being forgettable yet they still had the active energy to tell a lot about each one just by the talented designs that were put into them. There is so much obvious talent on display from a creative design stand point but it’s wasted on a meaningless story that constantly failed to hook me in with any meaningful way. The first half of Gun Sword is almost exclusively “adventure of the week” episodes a la Shinichiro Watanabe’s Cowboy Bebop and Samurai Champloo that, quite frankly, can be fun but are more often than not just annoying in Gun Sword’s case. I found myself captivated by a couple of these silly shenanigan scenarios like the episode where Van teams up with essentially AARP Voltron and the episode where Van goes to Mafia Land where the mechs are cars but a lot of these stories just weren’t fun and were a struggle to sit through to give my undivided attention. The thing is that when the story finally did kick in with the introduction of proper antagonist The Claw, it didn’t improve for me at the time either. I felt as if I was missing a critical piece that would provide me that single remote reason to care about the story of Van and his gang. The merry band never quite resonated with me with Carmen99 being the sole character I had any stakes in seeing her story to the end and that’s just because she’s, quite frankly, a hot anime woman and I am just a vessel for my dick to control some days as it concerns anime women (I am in a very committed relationship, please note). Van did have shining moments of blinding coolness but they were frequently overshadowed by how little he actually stayed consistent in the plot. Was he a lazy slacker pacifist or was he an angry madman hellbent on revenge on a devastating scale? The main antagonist, The Claw, and his scowling lot of followers also failed to maintain a sense of consistent writing and failed to illicit any reaction as well. Is this a writing issue or were the dub performances (I chose dub for this show since it seemed very Toonami coded and you have to watch that kind of show with a dub) failing to give the characters a relatable and watchable quality to hook me in? I don’t know.

Quick side note: David Vincent as Van had a standout performance for several of his big hero moments in the course of the show and want to offer him nothing but praise. While I didn’t like Van, I sure did find myself enjoying just how much of a spark Vincent tried to give him. Johnny Yong Bosch also gave a fantastic portrayal of Michael, Wendy’s brother, so props to him too. I’m a simp for Johnny in almost every capacity. He is one of humanity’s crowning achievements and if a scandal ever comes out over him then I will be forever jaded.

What’s the final review? Give me an arbitrary number!

At the end of the day, anime is an art form that should and almost always delivers unique experiences. When that’s achieved, I can find myself being so proud to be a fan of this art form that is unlike any other. Gun Sword really does attempt to deliver that kind of experience as with its setting, characters, and unique-ish world building. The only issue is that it is absolutely so frankly boring at times. With a meaningfully dry and uninteresting plot and wasted characters, Gun Sword is striving so hard to be an anime that transcends the end result. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from Futurama honestly.

Bender: Yeah but I’ve learned something. Life is about decisions. Make the wrong ones and you’ll wind up face down in a pool of your own blood and urine.

Zoidberg: Still, to have your own pool.

That’s the spirit of Gun Sword to me. It made the wrong decisions with an execution that left me dispirited at all the little things that I did enjoy but still. Gun Sword aimed to be something with attempted vivacity and, while I can be as cruel as I want in my critical review, that can’t be taken away from it. In another world, Gun Sword, you were a Trigun or Cowbow Bebop for Americans anime fans instead of just a footnote in Canadian G4TechTV’s broadcasting history. Shine on, Gun Sword. Just don’t come to my house again please.

6/10 – An interesting premise marred by lackluster execution with too many dull elements which leaves the show to never reach its full attention. It could be someone’s jam; it’s isn’t going to be on my PB&J for sure though.