Gun X Sword – Volume 1: Endless Illusion
(Animé)
Picture: B-
Sound: B Extras: C+ Episodes: B-
A combination of Leone’s “spaghetti westerns” and Mad
Max with the usual Animé trappings of jokes and giant robots (called armor
here), Gun X Sword (with the X not pronounced, but meant as a logo and
slash-mark) is a surprisingly good series and for being rated for ages starting
at 13 is a surprisingly smart, mature show.
A planet much like earth has its civilization collapse and one day, a
well-dressed drifter named Van stumbles upon a massacre at a church. A gang has killed everyone but a young girl
named Wendy who is shot at, but the bullet misses her heart.
Van is just looking for food and could care less. Instead, he lands up fighting the killers
with a special sword and sudden ability and great prowess with martial
arts. She is looking for her brother,
has decided they should be partners and will even marry Van. She is obviously too young and besides, he
can never remember her name! The first
episodes here are:
1) Tuxedo
Blowing In The Wind
2) Funny
Stream
3) Heroes
One More Time
4) And The
Rain Kept Falling
Though the show never becomes silly with its humor or
infantilized in its situations, its one flaw is drifting into fantasy too much
when the set up is so good that the creators just needed to focus on that. The maniacal villains are very good and the
animation style is better than most. It
is not as repetitive as these shows tend to become and I can see why Geneon is
giving it such exceptional treatment.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is a mix of
hand drawn and some computer animation, but lacks the tired “beaching white”
look of so many bad Animé series. Color
is not bad, with graphics only somewhat simple. The sound is here in the usual Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo in
Japanese, but the English is only here in Dolby 5.1. Best of all is the Japanese DTS 5.1 mix, which is up there with
Geneon’s Gungrave as their best-sounding series release to date, from
the dialogue down to the music and sound effects. It is a performance combination that is HD ready. Extras include previews for three other
Geneon releases, a set of textless credits, series of TV ads and an art
gallery. Our edition came in a sturdy
illustrated box with a collectible necklace, a limited edition that costs a
little more but might be one fans will want.
- Nicholas Sheffo
