(L) Gun X Sword

[dreamless]

totally awesome ending! However I can't help but feel it's hilarious that

Spoiler:

Michael and Fasarina get crushed just seconds after Karmen told them "now you have a reason to live on" oh the irony

[MrProphet]

I think it was done in a rather ambigous way.

Spoiler:

I for one was not certain they died. Carmen turned away, heard a crash and when she turned back there was a huge rock.

Much more ambiguity than in, say, Clawman's death, as we saw his cut off claw lying on the ground.

[dreamless]

well, this is not GSD...

[gianna]

Originally Posted by MrProphet

Heh, this was a good ending. I am glad I stuck with this series to the end, even though it became somewhat cliched since the bikini episode. But all in all, Goro Taniguchi didn't disappoint and the ending was awesome.

Captain Cage is my hero! "Ladies and gentlemen! And ojiichan!" 8)

It was cliche, but I think that's part of what made it good for me. Over all a good series.

I LOVED when he said that!!! I had to throw in a screencap of him in my previous comment.

[TougeSil80]

Man, I couldn't find the last ep yet. Can't wait.

[dreamless]

Captain Cage is da man of men! the turtle is God!

Both Van and Clawman are quite anti-cliche IMO

[dreamless]

BTW another great thing about the ending is that

Spoiler:

Yukiko and Joshua hooked up

[renasis_force]

I enjoyed watching this anime

[TougeSil80]

Spoiler for Ep.26:

Great ending, I'm pretty sure Farsarina and Mihael died, that rock looks pretty big. This ending rocks, Van saved the world, the Claw Man got chopped in half, and the turtle got really big. Anyway, this anime rocks!!!

[Zu Ra]

GunXSword is my pick for 06 ,I know its an 05 anime .Last ep aired on dec 26 05

This anime is a mixture of country westerm meets mecha .Weird u think But all most all anime stories always do sound weird...Till u watch them

Its traces of Kill Bill the only difference is the groom is alive and out for revenge .A well made mecha genre, where the protagonist has shades of vash . You cant call it a story solely based on Vengance its gots lots of diverse issues.The only downpoint is no use of cg .

[pianocello]

Just finished the show. Wow! I must say that this show turned out to be one of the most pleasant surprises. There have been few shows which have such a huge change from the 1st half to the 2nd half. The 1st half was so episodic and predictable with Van and Wendy travelling somewhere and meeting the goofy villain of the week (the character they met always turned out to be piloting some mecha who predictably is beaten by Van in each episode. Then starting from ep 11, everything changes and everything starts building up to an excellent ending with many characters showing character growth and development. The introduction of Priscilla and Joshua made the story much better and at the end you see that average 1st 10 episodes actually had a purpose.
Oh...and I think Fasalina has to be the greatest villain's henchwoman ever in any anime. Where can you find one that uses a stripper's pole?

Spoiler:

And now on to some detailec thoughts about how things played out. Did anyone think that Clawed Man and Fasalina reminded them of Joker and Wendy from ROD TV? I'm a little disappointed that Van didn't however show enough character growth by the end. He still doesn't know how to treat a lady right and he was still too obsessed with revenge to be able to see the bigger picture. I was hoping also for a more romantic resolution and I was disappointed that they choses to leave things ambiguous between Van and Wendy. Would it be asking too much for them to show a kiss between them?
The whole Fasalina x Michael thing in ep 20 was a big surprise and came out of nowhere considering that they had censored ep 17. I'm wondering whether the DVD will add more detail to the scene. I do however subscribe by the philosophy that if you don't see the dead bodies, they may still be alive. Should they make a sequel, the producers can still bring them back.
I would have loved to see more character development for the twins. I barely knew anything about them and I ended up hating the male twin for being so hot-blooded. Oh...and the whole Joshua x Yukiko thing was implied but ambiguous but would have been nicer to have been developed better. Would also have loved to see more interactions between Wendy and Priscilla. Priscilla's butt attack by the way, rocks. And I thought it was rather humorous that the last half ended up being a harem series in some ways.

I hope there will be a sequel. Is this based on a manga? If yes, how's the manga?

[molitar]

Well I'm watching episode 17 and what a stupid episode it is.. what the hell is wrong with this? A censor donkey? Ugg... how stupid stupid stupid! It isn't even like they are naked or anything.. just a stupidest thing I have ever seen. I don't even know if I can bring myself to watch anymore of the show with the stupidity like this in it.

[pianocello]

Something I've been wondering about:
Did the clawed man really meant to kill people with his claws. We see this happen in ep 18 and also in flashbacks to the weddings. However, he always acts like he was just giving the victim a hug and forgot that he was wearing a claw. Is he really that senile or dense or is he just putting on an act?

[ShikaShika]

This is one of those shows that I feel really conflicted about. While I really liked it, I feel that it could have been so much better. The show had the potential to become a classic in my eyes, but it didn't really come thorugh. I can't really put my finger on what I didn't like, perhaps partly the writing and partly that mecha isn't really my genre (not that I particularly dislike it). Too bad, because I really enjoyed it, and thought it had great potential (I did finish it after all).

[kagutsuchi]

honestly, i completely agree with shikashika. overall, the plot was okay, but i must admit the appearance and style was phenomenal, other than that, gun x sword left me somewhat disappointed. ideally, in most of my animes i watch, i expect at least some character development near the end. unfortunately, i don't feel like van is a character grew at all and left much unanswered. all he knew was revenge and such, but after he actually kills the claw guy, what did he actually do next? i don't know, i wouldn't expect so much if this anime was like azumanga dioh, but when a character devotes so much to emotion in a task and goal, you'd think some sort of major revolution would have occurred.

[TougeSil80]

I wasn't disappointed at all.

Spoiler for Ending:

You can see from the beginning of this show that it was meant to be too serious anyways, and there's nothing wrong with Van being the same way throughout the show, he's very determined to avenge his wife, and when he killed the Claw Man, he's basically have nothing left to do.

[LastDuaL]

Agree with Shika and Kagu. Still an awesome series overall, but a few things keeping it from reaching the top. What really bugs me is:

Spoiler:

They never really explain why the claw man killed Van's wife in the first place. From the wedding flashback, it didn't seem like an accidental embrace, more like a sudden slashing massacre...yet no motive, so we're left with him just being a diluded pacifist with random psychotic urges to kill...

[CaiSter21]

well he was a bit messed up in the head...

[wingdarkness]

Finally, finally, finally finished this series...It was a good series, but just good...Atleast Wendy turned out to be a pretty hawt little lady...It would have been nice if her and Van's relationship would have been less ambiguous after the time skip, but that's a loli-tuff guy mecha series for ya...This series had an opportunity early on to be a trend-setter or genre-bending type of series...Based on the first 5-to-10 episodes (Inwhich a few were really amazing like that of a Cowboy Bebop) I'd say the series lost it's way abit...I mean what happened to the travelling from town to town with Van actually using his sword in rumbles?? The quaint little scenes of Van being in different environments, in different bars, diners, etc., meeting different bosses just dissapeared as the show transformed into "Find the Claw-man"....and when they found him it just didn't seem that great...Even his final scenes in the final episode left me going "WTF?" I mean was this guy truley worthy of final boss status?!? The claw dude needed a Prilosec or sometype of meds (Either that or he was on them XD)...I really wished there had been more eps with Van actually using his sword in battles and exploring the actual world and the people of Endless Illusion who I still have almost no clue to why they are so bad that they need to be reborn...

Anyways enuff of the bad stuff, this series also had alot of good stuff too...The mecha action is quite unique and gave me many surprises...I loved Wendy's bros mecha with all the tattered-wings...I also liked all the female characters in the show...and the sexual tension between them was really funny at times...The show for that matter was really funny at times without really trying to be which is much better than forced comedy...It also had some great dramatic moments aswell...Episode 16 when Van shows his caring emotional side in a somewhat dark episode to Wendy was one of the best in the series...I remember feeling a definate impact after seeing that ep...The characters seemed to need one another during that ep...Also Joshua's jaded relationship with his brother and how they resolved their differences was really nice to see...His death was really well done in another really good episode...


Overall I'd say this is an anime that had a chance to be really unique and possibly a genre-breaker, however somewhere in the middle it started to get predictable and turned into a simple "I gotta kill the bad guy" kinda of plot that's done all the time,but that doesn't mean some of it wasn't well done...So in the end I really enjoyed this series, wish it had ended a bit less ambiguous with a better main villain, but I'd be lying to say I didn't enjoy alot of it...

Originally Posted by pianocello

Just finished the show. Wow! I must say that this show turned out to be one of the most pleasant surprises. There have been few shows which have such a huge change from the 1st half to the 2nd half. The 1st half was so episodic and predictable with Van and Wendy travelling somewhere and meeting the goofy villain of the week (the character they met always turned out to be piloting some mecha who predictably is beaten by Van in each episode. Then starting from ep 11, everything changes and everything starts building up to an excellent ending with many characters showing character growth and development. ?

Wow I saw it so totally different from you, just the opposite in fact...The first 5-10 eps had an unpredictable and sporadic nature that made it different from most shows in the mecha-genre...Plus those eps were so much fun splashed with violence...After ep 5 there wasn't many other decent human (non-mecha) fights in the series, especially not with Van...The show seemed to be changing the whole mode of a mecha based series, then once we get to the Clawman the whole plot just becomes this singular purpose with every episode slowly moving toward the inevitable which wasn't very imaganative...

[aardvark]

I was rewatching the first 4 eps now that I got the DVD, and I noticed something.

Did anyone else realize that all of Wendy's next ep previews are actually her talking to the

Spoiler:

Reporter from the last episode

Pretty neat, guess it showed they really had the whole thing perfectly planned out from the very start.