Grenadier: Hohoemi no Senshi

I don't know whats wrong with everyone else but don't listen to them. Grenadier is a great anime. The story isn't overly complicated . Which can be a good thing. even though i guess for people who like really in depth stories it didn't appeal to them. The characters are very likable or dislike able if they are a bad guy. The characters generate just the right amount of mystery making you want to know more about them. There is a large amount of ecchi for guys that like to see bouncy boobs and long legs. It can also be a very funnyshow. there are many parts where i laughed my head off. And through out the whole show it gives off a good moral. "Killing is not necessary to win a battle". Rushina the main character believes in this so strongly That despite having amazing fighting ability she doesn't kill a single person through out the whole series. This show may not be a really in depth on the edge of your seat kind of show. But it is a simple and enjoyable watching experience. The fights are good, the ecchi is good, the comedy is good. Grenadier is a show you watch when you just feel like mellowing out.

On the technical side of things, great care was obviously taken with Rushuna’s massive assets and ensuring quality control on those ba-shook-shooks, but shortcuts are rampant everywhere else. "Oh look, he kinda froze…I guess that means he got shot?" "Explosion? Shake the still frame like a Polaroid picture!" You get the idea. The show never really impresses visually, and more often than not, it repulses with variable character models and halfhearted animation. The character designs themselves are sufficiently memorable, but not terribly unique. Back to the two main focuses of the budget, they’re ridiculous. No matter how busty you are, those things never narrow tonil at the end and suspend up to one’s armpits no matter what you’re wearing, and what’s with that fake looking shiny spot on top, it’s in every scene and lighting situation! *gasp* They’re not breasts at all, they’re balloons! Peach balloons! Movement-wise, they’re not so unrealistic if they were 80% silicone, 20% woman. I guess if they had giant robots in feudal Japan, they had plastic surgery too! None of the music is pleasant. The opener and closer, while forgettable, sound less synthesized than the background music, which is not a good sign. The 80s are over. Let the instrument go! It wants to die! The voice acting is pretty lax no matter your language, but if you were to watch the show, I’d have to highly recommend the sub. Rushuna is certainly the best performance, with Wendee Lee pouring forth optimism and kindness without becoming annoying, along with standout side characters Teppa, Touka, and Setsuna, but even then, those four are just okay compared to everyone else who is barely listenable. Mikkan, Furon, and Kaizan are unbearable in particular because not only do they act terribly, their character voices themselves are brain-melting screech. I’d blame the awkward script or poor direction, because there are several good actors present, but nothing approaching a good performance, just tolerable at best and oftentimes BAD, BAD, BAD! The Japanese is sort of underwhelming, and it might be terrible too, but if you’re monolingual like most, you’ll never know, will you? Ignorance is bliss. Now believe it or not, this is NOT an ecchi title! Stalwart Yajiro is not the harem personality you’re looking for. Granted, he doesn’t have much of a personality at all, but he’s not the worm-man of ecchi lore. There is a genuine story here, and even though it’s REALLY predictable, it’s not at all a bad one. The ecchi aspects are more minimal than you would believe. For some reason, Rushuna takes a hot bath in EVERY episode, and annoying as that is, we never actually see her naked or posed in any evocative manner, so I think the device is there to emphasize her innocence and beauty in a less base manner, which is refreshing. Our heroes even spend the evening in a brothel with not ONE little dirty joke cracked, to instead focus on the story. Fanservice is limited to the bouncing bountifuls of Rushuna and some other women, as well as putting the girls in appealing outfits, which is at least marginally respectful to the viewer’s intelligence. Which is more than I can say for the execution of the story in Grenadier. From the vow of pacifism and uncanny gunmanship of an undeserving fugitive to the violent companion with good intentions to the yang to hero’s yin villain, and the conniving toadie who dispatches Juttensen assassins when they fail in their setup missions, this was all clearly ripped straight from Trigun without copying its great characters, depth or honesty. If you can imagine it, the love and peace messages in Grenadier are even LOUDER than Trigun, but hold none of its truth and power, coming off even more false and unrealistic than anything that has ever aired on the Disney channel. That’s intense. Grenadier is so overwhelmingly preachy, in fact, that I was sorely wishing they had spent that time on doofy humor. Then I saw the series’ attempts at humor and changed my mind. It’s not funny. I understood why a lot of these jokes were amusing, I guess, but nothing actually hit the mark because every joke was so tame and tepid, like the bad puns on those Laffy Taffy wrappers with text under the jokes saying “It’s funny because poodle sounds like puddle!” Like I said, they visit a brothel and they might as well have been at an old lady’s bed and breakfast. I appreciate that it wasn’t filthy, but they didn’t try anything daring or witty comedically, and the result is barely worth a smile, senshi. So, aside from the fanservice, is there…anything good about Grenadier? Yes. Some of the fight scenes are a lot of fun. From a gunfight under water to fighting an enemy who duels with sound frequencies, the varied fights are unique and enthralling, but even the brightest crayon in this pencilbox looks like it was gnawed on by a two-year old, because the laws of physics are insulted at least five times in each fight to a debilitating degree. I don’t mean the laws you’re allowed to break in an action show, I mean even the ones you’re NOT allowed to break. It kills the validity and cool factor of the show’s best features. Is this show masochistic? So at the end of 12 episodes you have a comedy that isn’t funny and a fantasy that’s a predictable ripoff wrapped up in an ecchi that isn’t really ecchi…barely supported by poorly acted characters with zero development or depth. But Rushuna has boobs that chuck bullets! Yeeeah. I’m gonna go watch Trigun now. It’s twice as long, but a thousand times better. All in all, it’s hard to be cruel to a title that looks like it just wants to have fun, but I kept having to ask myself where the fun was hiding. The story on its own is decent, and could make for an enjoyable experience, but rather sour production values and the abnormally preachy atmosphere supporting failed humor pull Rushuna’s tale back a cup size or two. *THIS IS A PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT OF MY VIDEO REVIEW WHICH CAN BE SEEN HERE: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yYyPC62hRo Thanks for reading!

I watched this originally via my University's animé club. The sole reason it was voted for as pitched was based on the idea that "She reloads her gun like this!" [shows clip of bullets flying out from between her breasts] Ok, some of you might be like "sign me up right now!" and some might be like "Oh God that's terrible". Though this is sort of one of the main "recognition" features of this animé, I'd say there's more to it than that. Don't expect crazy plot depth and ridiculous twists, but as I recall there's enough to it to make it interesting and though relativelypredictable if you like to think ahead, there are a couple of surprises. Overall the tone of this is pretty light/cheery though it has a few dark moments as well. Has that sort of cheesy idea of trying to use love to stop violence, though realistically it doesn't usually seem to work all that well. In particular, one redeeming quality is that though the main character uses her...assets in one sense, in another she's not the promiscuous type either, so that's somewhat redeeming from my point of view. It's a short series, and it makes for a nice, relatively light watch. Kind of quirky and cute at times too. It's no 10, but I think it's worth watching once if you like that sort of thing.

Grenadier is an anime that most people ought to enjoy seeing once. It isn't a genius work of art or anything, but it is something enjoyable to pass the time with. And at only 12 episodes, it would be a good way to take a break from some long, serious anime you happen to be watching. Cause it's about as light an anime as you can stand, really. While I say that it's almost too lighthearted, it just fits, and it kind of warms you up. You may laugh at or scoff at those sappy moments in life, but moreoften than not, they still warm you up inside. This is one of those. First of all, I'd have to tell anyone that will listen to stay away from the dubbed version if they can find it subbed. Outside Wendee Lee as our heroine Rushuna, the other voice actors range from less than inspirational to truly awful. I didn't watch much of it with the dubs, just enough to understand how bad it was. Wendee Lee's Rushuna is very bright and true to the character. The rest is just not cutting it. Having said that, I'll get to the rest of the review. Those that compare this anime to Trigun are very right to. Just picture a female Vash, take away the pervertedness and add in a love of baths and you've got a basic idea of Rushuna. She travels around trying to spread her philosophy of using a smile rather than violence to solve conflicts. But when it comes down to it, her handgun is more than enough to take out (but not kill) any evildoers. It's true that she does bring a bit of an ecchi nature to the show, but she's about as pure a character as you can imagine. While it shows our heroine taking a bath in every episode, her innocent nature is so defined there's really not a lot of room for perverted thoughts, at least not in my opinion. So, if it comes to someone looking for a show filled with ecchiness, this probably isn't it. It seems that the main selling point of the show however is the fact that bullets fly out from in between Rushuna's breasts whenever she needs to reload her gun. Rushuna's character also has drawbacks though, as she is really almost too pure and innocent to be believable, much less being the main character in an anime. Even when her (perverted) childhood friend ogles and basically just sexually harasses her, she just smiles and says "that's just like Teppa-chan." And the bullets flying from bosoms bit is used enough that it really strikes you as just an excuse to provide ecchiness to sell the show. I don't think it's enough to really ruin anything though. Enough about Rushuna though, there are other characters. The male lead is Yajiro. He's a much more believable character; a swordsman involved in a rebellion not so long ago that is a bit perverted, but somehow drawn in by the hope of Rushuna's philosophy. Mikan, the little girl that follows them around after a while is also believable. The daughter of a murdered balloon-maker, that at first desires revenge, after meeting Rushuna, she decides to give up revenge and decides to follow them on their journey. She keeps trying to get in between Rushuna and Yajiro, but also proves to be useful with her balloon skills. There are other characters, but they're the most important ones, and they wont be anything all that original either. There's not really much development either. Of course, you can't expect much in a 12 episode show, but there really isn't any development to speak of at all. The characters are as they are. The story of Grenadier is pretty straightforward. There are no plot twists at all and you'll probably be able to figure out most of what's going on rather quickly. It's just a simple story of a girl on a journey for love and peace. Very Vash-like. As I said before, it's very light, and there's really not a lot to it other than that. The art is pretty nice, but nothing mind-blowing. Rushuna is obviously made to please fans, and he reloading stunt is there to help it along. Any of the other women are likewise built to appeal to men. Mikan is interesting with her balloons, and Yajiro is really a lot like characters you will find elsewhere, but it all fits pretty well, and there's decent action to be found in fight scenes as well. Sound is a bit of a drawback. There's not much music, and the opening and endings are not really awe inspiring or anything close to it. Even though I seem to be pointing out a lot of flaws the series has and actually if I think about it, it's hard to name it's strengths, it is an enjoyable show. Even with the flaws, you just want to smile at Rushuna and believe, like her, that violence is not necessary. It appeals to the idealist in you and just tugs at you until you believe it too. Even though parts of this show I would rate at a 5 or 6, or maybe even lower, it adds up to be something better than the sum of its parts. It really is just something that you should enjoy. I'd give this anime a strong 7 or maybe even an 8.

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