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Now in Japan
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Written by maehara
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Sunday, 14 November 2004 00:00 |
 How do you describe a show where the main character can load her gun
using nothing but her breasts? That's one of the things I had to ponder
after watching the first few episodes of Grenadier...
1 - The Smiling Flash Warrior
There are worse places to hide after defeat in battle than between the
excessively large breasts of a beautiful woman, I suppose - which is
where young samurai Yajirou finds himself after an attack on an enemy
stronghold goes wrong (swords against rifles is never a good idea...).
She's Tendou Rushuna, and she's quite the combat-capable woman herself,
despite her easygoing 'blonde' attitude to life. Where Yajirou and his
army failed, Rushuna succeeds - and she's about to become a large
feature in Yajirou's life...
2 - Rushuna's a Target
Yajirou decided to join up with Rushuna - her fighting's so good he's
determined to learn from her, especially her 'winning without fighting'
idea. Rushuna jokes that she'll just have to protect him - but the
tables are turned when Rushuna herself becomes a target, after a reward
is seemingly placed on her head. She soon comes face-to-face with the
real criminal, though...
Rushuna reloading her revolver cracked me up - the most unbelievable gun scene since Madlax and the one-shot helicopter kill, and then there's the gunfight scenes that wouldn't be out of place in Noir or A-Team.
'Suspension of disbelief' is all very well, especially in anime, but
there's a certain point past which you really shouldn't go - that point
where the viewer just goes "Oh, come on!". Grenadier
makes the mistake of passing that point several times in the space of
these two episodes, and it was just too much for me to bear.
The production qualities are good - it's all nicely animated &
looks the part - while Rushuna herself has the potential to be an
interesting character, with her world view looking set to be a key part
of whatever story finally develops - "Trigun with a woman" is a comment I've heard several times now, but while I enjoyed Trigun, this just didn't click. Pass. |
