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Plot Synopsis

No plot synopsis or other information available for Grenadier ~Hohoemi no Senshi~

Story & Characters

The story isn't what I would call something completely new, as it follows some of the same parts of Trigun, basically a blonde gun-person who has gone out into the world to stop the badguys but never kills anyone. Grenadier takes that idea a step forward.

A little bit of the plot, so you know what I'm talking about--

Rushuna, or Ryushuna, depending on who's fan-subbed it, is a follower of the empress's teachings to disarm your opponent with a smile. Evil people have somehow changed the Empress's mind on her teachings, and convinced her to take over the world by force.

The story is set in what looks to be a feudal Japan setting, except that there are guns used by "Enlightened" people, who really aren't that enlightened. They use their guns to harm people and to take things. Rushuna uses a gun, but only when there's no other choice, and even then she always manages never to kill anyone.

The real interesting parts of the story, to me, had to do with Yajirou, a swordsman from a rebel army that attempted to take over the capitol some time before the series begins. While Rushuna continues pushing her ideals, it is this man, who she calls Yachan, that is really doing a lot of changing. It was frustrating that for the most part he didn't do any fighting, but I see now that I've watched the whole series why that is, but I won't tell you, because that'd be no fun.

I'll give the story a 7, because it was basically a Trigun rewrite with a character with big breasts, however Yajirou's story and past and how he changes in the series make it have something that Trigun didn't have, bringing up the score a bit.

Rating

7 (above average)

Art

The art in Grenadier was very well done. It was a bit bright at times, to me, when there could've been a lot more shadow to bring out dramatic emphasis.

The backgrounds were all done pretty well, whether they were in a city or the forest, as long as there wasn't a ton of action going on, it was always there and fit it pretty well. I liked the cities the best I think, they were all laid out well and you were usually shown an arial view of them.

The gun-fight scenes were particularly well done, especially the final fight in the show. Yajirou's few sword fighting scenes were alright, but I've seen better.

The worst part of the art was the odd effect that Rushuna's breasts seemed to never be the same size more than once or twice. They would seemingly get a lot larger while she was fighting/running, which was kind of frustrating.

Sound fx were rather standard fair, but nothing too spectacular.

Overall, I'll give the art, like the story, a 7, since it was pretty, but nothing ground breaking.

Rating

7 (above average)

Sound

Voices were pretty well done in the original Japanese, nothing that I would stand up and clap for, but nothing bad either. Rushuna's voice was cute and playful, which fit her character. Yajirou, when he spoke, had a hard edge to his voice that showed his somewhat dark past. And I found him trying to speak like a high class gentleman to the Empress extremely amusing.

I liked the music, particularly the Spanish/Old West theme they would play during the fight scenes.

And the intro and ending songs were done by Mikuni Shimokawa (Did opening to FMP and the ending to Kino's Travels, I beleive), who is a favorite of mine, and are both very nicely done songs.

Because of Shimokawa's music, I'll give the sound an 8.

Rating

8 (good)

Presentation

As I stated above, the series is somewhat original, even though it is similar in theory to Trigun, thanks to Yajirou's part in the story.

There was a great deal of humor in the show, even though some of it made me roll my eyes a little. I like fan service, and there was a great deal in the show, and most of the humor revolved around this. However, there comes a point where I believe that the story is being sacrificed for fan service, and I think Grenadier is a good example of this. The story could've been much more drawn out and in-depth, but they seemed to want to put as much of Rushuna's cleavage on camera as possible, and that was distracting, not just to me, but to the story as well. Because of this, the series only lasted a whole 12 episodes.

Overall enjoyability though, was pretty decent. Despite all the fanservice, there was a decent underlying story here that really did shine at times. And as a guy, I did like the fanservice, I have to admit that much (though I also admit that there should've been less to let the story's interest build). It was a good show overall, that made me laugh, and think, and occasionally be wowed by the fighting animation.

Rating

7 (above average)

Final Verdict

7.17 (above average)

Reviewed by Larynx, 3y 26wk ago