Anime: Grenadier: Hohoemi no Senshi

Grenadier is the smutty daughter of Trigun and Rurouni Kenshin. It has the same theme in it (fighting for something, either honor, peace, or ambition) and at the same time it has lots of brainless fan service in the form of nude and action. Although most such shows have only an excuse for a story, this one in particular is occasionally trying to focus on its theme in ways that are somewhat smart.

So the story begins with swordsmen being wiped out by modern weapons. A survivor of them meets a girl who happens to be a master gunner with the title of Grenadier. She is on a quest to clear her name of accusations regarding treason and at the same time doing her job as a defender of the land. So the two of them roam the land, trying to get to the capital and confront the queen who seems to have gone mad and left the kingdom to rot.

The premise is indeed catchy and the show does not drop it a few episodes later for aimless softporn and storyless adventures. It sticks to it and offers a solid ending; something most such anime do not. At the same time it is not deep or complicating; it is still full of silly action, over the top nudity, and tired jokes. So it tried to be a bit of both and was left stuck in the middle, something most viewers do not like because they would rather have an extremity of one or the other. Ι for once didn’t mind that much.

The setting is also eye-catchy on a basic level, as it combines all sorts of cultures, from Wild West, to feudal Japan and hints of medieval fantasy. This expands to the soundtrack, which is a blend of western, Japanese folk, and J-pop. The production values are not great in terms of animation or outlines, but as far as decorations and details are concerned, they made a fine job.

Unfortunately the above will go unnoticed for most, since they will most likely be looking at huge boobs, bath scenes, and weird duels between superhuman gunmen. There is a ton of guilty pleasure in every episode that will most likely overshadow all its attempts to be smarter than the usual. The action scenes are actually very good for this sort of anime and even follow a sort of internal logic, as well as basic strategy. Of course you should not try to rationalize anything because they are all pretty far-fetched. The heroine can dodge bullets by spinning around and reloads her gun with bullets that pop out of her breasts. Yeah, oozing creativity used for wrong reasons…

But beyond that, each fighter in the show has his or her own personal style and even sort of lives his or her life based on it. It is not just for show but also a way of life. Nothing complicating but at least it fits to each one of them. My favorite part is the brothel which aims to make men less violent by removing their guns (and clothes). Past that, there is no actual character development for anyone in this show, past the young samurai who wants to avenge his fallen comrades, even if it costs him his life. Since all other Grenadiers have reached the peak of their skill they have no room for development, and the ephemeral goons they fight are just too dumb to matter. He alone though was not that strong to begin with and being dragged on a quest of vengeance with little value to his life meant for a lot of interesting things to happen that flesh him out in a nice way.

Although not a great show by any means, it is occasionally shows a few interesting concepts that remain constant and the action is not bad for what the show is all about. Just don’t expect an amazing story or memorable characters.

And now for some excused scorings.
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Grenadier is racked with things that i simply hated, including token characters (Mikan), the main character's occasional ditsyness, gimmicky fighting techniques, a supporting character that's supposed to grow and change, but has a growing process that is more sudden than anything, and finally, the main character's...interesting body.

On the other hand, the main character, when she's not ditsy, is almost a perfect model of a "Hero" character, and overall, the series has enough dramatic encounters and catch lines to make it interesting, and ultimately, enjoyable, but only if you can get by the unbearably corny and nonsensical parts.

Grenadier also suffers from a lot of foot dragging and a repetitive script. It's action sequences are drawn out by these "smoke scenes" where someone generates a lot of smoke in an attack, and everyone has to wait to see if the attack did anything. These scenes are meant to leave the viewer excited to find out the outcome, but seeing how often this trick is used in Grenadier as well as other badly choreographed action anime, it's completely predicatable. You know if the fight's over or not.

The script is filled with repetitive speechs like "That's what i would have expected from a jutensen." Barely noticable when used sparingly, but when used as much as it is in Grenadier, it gets annoying fast.

The smaller issues aside, Grenadier has more flaws still. The core of the show, this "ultimate battle strategy" is really like philosophy for a 3rd grader, and not only that, when this strategy is used towards the end, it's not even used coherent to the philosophy.

Grenadier is far too nonsensical to be really engrossing. The philosophy lessons sound like they're for 7 year olds while the character designs suggest a teen target audience. Also prostitution to take away people's will to fight? Are we suppose to buy that? Are we supposed to see that as heroic?

My final gripe is uninspired villains and bad supporting heroes. Mikan does nothing, and yajirou's development is too jumpy to buy. More importantly, there's absolutely nothing interesting about these two characters.

The soundtrack of Grenadier isn't bad. I like the OP and ending, but the regular soundtrack works pretty well too. There's no real distinguishing quality, but it's not ugly, and it has enough flare to catch your attention.

But the only reason Grenadier was enjoyable at all for me was because Rusyuna outside of her ditsyness (Ditsyness for a main character, especially in an action anime is not the way to go) makes an unwavering image of a hero, but even then, her annoying side often kicks in and i find myself hating her.

Maybe some people have a soft spot for Grenadier because of Rusyuna or something, but there's no debating that this is a low quality work. If you look at the repetitive script, the uninspired characters, the weak philosophy lessons, the zany plot, and the excessive use of still frames rather than real action, I don't think there can be argument on that. Still, the first time around, i vaguely enjoyed it.

This anime is about the journey of Rushuna (a 16 year old gunslinger with breasts bigger than her head) and Yajiro (a mercenary swordsman who hates guns) towards the capital, and a meeting with Rushuna's mentor, Tenshi.

The battle animations are decent; effects arn't anything too spectacular, but in a show like this I wasn't expecting too much in the first place. The character models were all fairly similar: women with gigantic chests and handsome, skinny men with spikey hair. However, some of the animations are extremely repetitive; for example, the motion of Rushuna reloading by "flipping" her breasts and popping out bullets. Also, Rushuna's dress gets cut in the exact same place every fight (of course, right between her breasts).

The soundtrack is decent: I liked the final fight-scene song with its Mexican Western/Fantasy feel. The opening and ending songs were also "mythical" in nature, and fit well with the genre of the series and the theme of pacificism.

The story, as to be expected of an anime with only 12 episodes, is simplistic and full of holes. The main themes of the anime are "The Ultimate Fighting Technique"'s guidelines: beat your enemy without fighting, and destroy his will to fight by taking them into your busom. And, apparently, "taking them into your busom" is meant to *literally* take their heads and place them in your gigantic naked boobs, not to figuratively emphasize with their plight. And, really, this "Ultimate Fighting Technique" is never really used: every fight is solved with fighting and guns/swords/hands. The entire philosophy reflects the naivete of Tenshi and Rushuna.

The story is utterly predictable; you won't be surprised by any of the "twists", and the story really isn't that interesting anyway.

I have seen this anime compared to Trigun; I believe that is an apt comparison. The major difference being that, while Trigun was a male-dominated series, with all the major heroes and villians being male, Grenadier is a female-dominated series, with most major heroes and villians being female (with two or three minor exceptions). The similarities are quite apparent: both feature main characters which abhor violence due to their mentor/friend from the past, both carry revolvers, and both try to put on smiles for the world and prevent violence. Also, both of their ultimate battles are of a personal nature, and test their conviction in their beliefs.

Besides Rushana, none of the characters are remotely interesting. Yajiro seems pointless as a character, serving only to participate in "embarassing" moments involving Rushuna's breasts, and serving as a starting point for flashbacks about the rebellion. He is given little development; we find out a bit about his past but there isn't much development in his character besides his apparant infatuation with Rushuna. As for Mikan, she is given about 30 seconds of cursory background information and does little to advance the plot; she also has no development whatsoever. The only truly interesting side character is the spear-wielding former Juttensen (similar to the Gung-Ho Gang of Trigun, or the Juppon Gatana from Rurouni Kenshin) who also runs a "pleasure palace"; her unique way of fulfilling Tenshi's ideals.

Rushuna is interesting mainly because strong female main characters are so few and far between. Rushana is also interesting due to the contrast between her naive beliefs and her ability to fight; this constantly vexes even her during the series, as she struggles to reconcile her actions with her beliefs, and to find a way to win battles according to the pacificistic ways of her mentor.

This anime doesn't have too much value; I won't be re-watching it, and I wouldn't reccomend it to people before a multitude of other, better, anime with similar qualities. Such as Noir, which also features gun-toting women.

While this anime is semi-entertaining, it gets old pretty fast and the simplistic plot and lack of supporting cast really brings the anime down.

A fairly decent action-comedy with Pamela Anderson in a major ecchi role.

Animation[/u]: Bathtakingly … er, breathtakingly big breasted to add to the ecchi.

Animation looks pretty okay, although I personally have something against female characters who consist of 1/3 boobs. I have seen plenty of series where women have big breasts, but I have never seen them as big as this in an action series, perhaps except for Tenjou Tenge.
There are several reused frames in this series, but they don't really feel intrusive and might not even be noticeable by many people, so it would be unfair to take off too many points for this. The same goes for the CG, which this series has at several points. They're sometimes pretty bad, but there are a few cases where they are also pretty good and actually suit the scene without disturbing it, that it is worth mentioning.

Sound[/u]: Okay … I guess?

I have to admit that I haven't noticed very much of the BGM, except for a few times, so I guess that's okay. Also the voices are not bad, but I haven't noticed any outstanding ones either. Even the sounds they use in the anime are done okay, so … I guess it's okay?

Story[/u]: Tad annoying due to the motto of ‘thou shall not kill’.

When your main character has breasts which should drag them down to the floor, I don't believe anyone expects an overly good story and Grenadier doesn't provide that either. This series tries to have a moral which is accompanied by a lot of ecchi and some fights. But don't expect too much of the fights because it doesn't make things more realistic when the gun gets reloaded whenever the main character bumps her boobs and there are bullets coming out of her clothes. It is all meant to be ecchi, even the fights - or did you truly believe that the part where the breasts hide are always meant to be torn?
Then again, since the series is meant as a fun enjoying series to watch without too much depth, this series manages quite well. The plot is as thin as a wet tissue and you can predict almost everything, so don't bother too much with the plot.
The only thing which came across me as annoying is the ‘Thou shall not kill’ policy which we have seen so many times before and in a full-out deathmatch this is sometimes a bit too much.

Characters[/u]: Light and easy, yet not fully without development.

Grenadier has easy accessible and light characters. Rushyuna (how the hell did they think of such a name?) and Yashiro are characters which suit this series well and they do their jobs well. Yashiro is perhaps even the most likeable character, with his skills and his honesty. He might not be the best fighter out there, but that doesn't make him the least important character.
Usually characters in such series are so shallow that one doesn't even consider them getting any development, but somehow they managed to give Yashiro some decent development (also the only character, btw). Not that his development is breathtaking or anything, but he gets some more depth, more substance the further the series gets and that is something which surprised me somehow. His development was so much more than what the others got, that it caught my eye. Or rather, the development from the other characters was so non-existant that it was sheer impossible not to see him as THE developed character. In the country of blind people, the one-eyed man is king, after all.

Value & Enjoyment[/u]: Drop the plot, enjoy it as a light action.

Grenadier is not a bad series. It has its flaws, but it is enjoyable as a light action series. If you can stand the overly developed breasts (cup P or so?) and can enjoy the ecchi comedy, then this is certainly a series which is a nice watch. Personally I didn't really like it, but I can indeed recognize how others might like this series. And as a light series this series does its work well. Due to the plot not being that deep (the revelations are so easily predictable that it's almost laughable) it has a decent rewatch value without you feeling bad about already knowing how it ends. It doesn't matter how it ends, what matters is the way how it makes it to the end. And that is an enjoyable way.

At first: I apologize at the beginning if you don't understand something in this review. My english is not perfect. It might be also horrible at times, but if you get an idea of overall review, then i have managed to make it understandable. So here we go.

I have seen now all 12 episodes of this and review will be a bit different from before.

It was obvious that this will be instant hit while watching the very first episode of Grenadier I'm truly amazed that I'm the first one here to make a review.

Let's go this step-by-step so that it would be useful for everyone.

ANIMATION

Unlike some other animes animations i have seen, this goes smoothly. There are almost no errors in character, nature, animal or in other movements. Painting and colors are brilliant and sharp. Also character movements are fast and cool to watch. It seems like there haven't been any rush while creating drawings. Also for example every fight happens in real-time (except some of great still-pictures) and so it wont take too long. That is how is left also time to tell other things too. It can't be helped but animation makes me just *gasp* and say things like "Oh my God!" and "Wow!". Well because this is review, i have to say also something negative: This might also be even more better, if the surroundings would have more action. Now it concentrates just in a few things on a background or in main characters of the story. It is unusual to see birds flying on the sky or grass to move or wind to blow. But these doesn't still bother me much because overall this is very well invented. For example: I compare these drawings to animes like Hunter x hunter (especially OVA's), Naruto and Kikou sennyo rouran. There are similar points in all of these. Almost perfect but not just yet.

SOUND

That Theme song in the beginning is one of the best i have heard nowhere. It feels like this is truly a drama but not really action serie. (But i was wrong. There isn't much drama in the end :)) It's just calm melody with beatiful woman voice which also have something to say from the story. "Because they are just travellers"

Like in many other series, this also have very good voice talents. you can tell sometimes just by hearing them what they are thinking. It's really amusing to hear them to laugh for example.
As something negative to say - there isn't always so great music on the background, but usually in fights for example music is good. It feels like you were hunted or something. And yes. One thing I must tell: it feels much like this could be some western when that kind of "bang bang bang" -music comes. The music lives as happenings in the story. Overallö music is not so good, but still ending and beginning themes save a lot from it.

STORY

This section is easy to explain because there is not much story - or so i thought at first. This is the story of young, golden haired, and beautiful woman called Tendou Rusyuna, who is excellent sharp-shooter. She is on her journey to learn the most powerful fighting tactic - smile which can take enemies will to fight.

It is interesting at all times to watch what happens next. You get hooked by this for sure. It is good when you never know what happens next - so you can't do nothing but just watch and see yourself. Basically she is fighting against different enemies. With her gun not much with that smile, but when story goes on, she began to learn that smile thing better too.

Story begins when she accidentally meets Yajirou the warrior and make him the first one to "strip from will to fight". So Yajirou join Rusyuna on her journey and together they visit different places, began to know each other and meet new friends.

I don't want to spoil any more, so if you want to know more - watch it. And by the way i changed also score for this because there IS story after all. My previous score based on first 5 chapters. But that ending was great and clever and it really combined everything. So that will raise score to 8.

CHARACTER

Rusyuna is open-minded, ideal-shaped and kind person who is always trying to avoid arguements and fights. She fears nothing and loves everybody. She might be sometimes glumsy too but she is not definitely stupid.

I must admit that she's not like typical heroine because of her strange desires. But whoever watches her, might also feel something warm when noticing that rusyuna isn't killing nobody but trying always to save their souls from evil.

Technically speaking she have, as a character, her own kind of imagination of everything and she is one well-invented personality.

But well we don't actually know much about her past or what she likes and dislikes. ( Well she likes taking a bath that's for sure! And erm... exposing herself). Dislikes violence. And she's just so silly and funny. But anyway she still lack some personality. Yajirou is more like real character.

VALUE

There is high possibility i will watch serie again sometime. Fight scenes were so great. And also some jokes i might understand better now so that i have seen it once. And because of that theme song i would gladly watch it over and over again. Or maybe hear that theme song only :)

In fact yesterday when i watched that theme song from episode 1, i soon found myself watching whole episode again! 8 for it. Actually 7.5 But it rounds to 8 anyway.

ENJOYMENT

Well... I truly enjoy! My suggestion: If you are watching Naruto, Hunter x Hunter, Bleach or any kind of action series, you probably like this too because there is lots of action. It's sometimes very funny too and there are some very good scenes which make you laugh at loud voice. And then there are FIGHTS! Those I enjoy the most! I just don't want to spoil.. But you have to see it yourself!


And of course it is not ONLY fights as i wrote above there in the story section. Thanks for reading. I hope this helps you to decide is this serie worth of watching. And by the way: There are no cruel violence at all and just mild nudity so it is targeted approximately to 12 years old people and above.

Animation: The animation for this is for the most part fluid. I took away points for the occasional use of stills and the overall poor choreography (my opinion) of the action sequences. The movement was fluid but there was not that much of it. The character designs are fine, I decided not to take away points for the character design of Rushuna, despite the fact that it bothered me a lot as I'm sure plenty of people probably watched for the sole purpose of watching her character.

Sound: The sound for this was okay but unmemorable. I didn't really think it was really good or bad. It fit in the fight scenes though.

Story: What story? This anime is nothing but a bunch of poorly pieced together fanservice scenes with an attempted semblance at a story to put reason for having the fanservice scenes. There is one point where Rushuna is dressed in a skimpy bunny outfit in the middle of a blizzard. I won't go into an explanation of how the anime tries to explain this in the storyline. I guess my definition of a story would be, a female gunfighter with oversized boobs which she uses to hold her bullets and reload her gun goes around preaching love and don't fight while shooting people up and kicking their ass. She also loves to take baths, they feel the need to emphasize this point alot in the series twelve episode run. She meets a sword fighter and a girl who makes balloons and they travel together. Comedy and cheap fanservice ensue.

Character: The majority of the characters are shallow. Rushuna is so one dimensional and uninteresting. The only character with even a small amount of depth is Yajirou, the sword fighter and he is mostly just comic relief and is put on the backburner in favor of more fanservice. The characters they meet on their journey usually only last one episode so they get no development. The balloon girl is extremely irritating and the fact that they also put this character who is a little kid in fanservice situations really puts a bad taste in my mouth. (She also has the honor of being in a playboy bunny like outfit in the middle of a blizzard).

Value: There is no value in this if you want a coherent story, well developed characters and exciting fight scenes. If you just want boobs and fanservice the value may be high for you. But as for me, this gets a value of 1.

Enjoyment: Despite it's many flaws there were a few genuinely funny moments and a few good fight sequences.