Grenadier: Hohoemi no Senshi

I've bought the Collector's Box of this anime, watched it in two days, and actually liked it very much. I don't know why has it got such a low score or why is so unpopular, all I have to say is that this anime haves everything you look for in a good anime: decent story, rich characters, action, humor and "echiness".

The theme of the story is based on the the feudal Japan. A very old era where the weapon of choice was the katana, but in this anime there are guns as well, actually the anime itself centres around the use of this guns and ... specifically in the marksmanship abilities of Tendo Rushuna, the main female character. So being her a female with REALLY big breasts expect a lot of echi shots (lol she reloads her revolver with her real pair of guns) on the action scenes, this will make you think that the fights lack seriousness but in the end it just looks refreshing because the echiness just matches perfectly with the action sequences, that are actually quite impressive and varied. The story goes on well from the first episode through the 9th one. But then one get's the feeling that the 12 episodes range this anime has is not enough to reach a conclusion, so the last 4 episodes really are like rushed for that needed conclusion and drain the essence of the anime. But it is really an enjoyable story, not a great one just a decent one. Even so it would have felt better if they had did a, at least, 24 episode storyline for this one.

The concepts and design of the characters are nice to watch. Rushuna looks very sexy in her double-layered, boob revealing outfit. The art focuses more on female characters than it does on male ones. The exceptions are the Jester and (partially) Yajiro, also the design is focused more on the size of the breasts of the females and probably the facial expressions. The artistic design goes all out in the action scenes as well. The gun tricks that Rushuna performs are diverse and really clever, of course being a bit exagerate at the same time. The space in which the story takes place looks like a feudal-western type scenario, this really reflect that this anime mixes (and does it really well) the marksmanship with the swordsmanship themes (obviously focusing more on the marksmanship), giving as a result a really polivalent world filled with all types of characters and locations.

The sound makes justice for this anime. The opening is a bit slow but it has a adventure-theme tune that captivates and leaves the viewer wanting to see where these "travels" will take him. The battle BMG's are very good indeed, they sound really well combined with the gunshots tracks and manage to connect one stance with another in a action sequence to make it feel like a original and different one every time watched.

The characters are very rich in personality but in looks the vast majority (females) look too much of the same, I mean all of them have huge chests (except Mikan). Only Rushuna differenciates totally from all the other females with a unique and gorgeous look adequate for a female main character. Rushuna's personality is just wonderful and, at some point, seductive, "a caring mother actitude" is what the director of Grenadier describes it like. Also love Aizen Teppa perverted behavior, it does add spice to the plot. On the other hand I don't like Mikan as a character because she rarely acts as a girl, her balloon tricks are awful and her involvement in the story conflict is just lame.

"The ultimate battle strategy is to eliminate the enemy's will to fight without a combat, and to achieve that one must be unarmored to truly be able to smile and to strip the enemy off his armor as well ". This is really what this anime is all about: fight with no violence at all just by using a smile to try to make the enemy feel the same way you feel, to share your ideals.

At first glance this anime looks like a typical one. I think that is just above a average-stardard anime in story but if you mix it with the great artistic design, sound and character personality you get a really good anime that has a big enjoyment factor and an unusual theme that projects really nicely. I recommend this one whole-heartely.

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 funny ... show. 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 to ... nil 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!

Once you finish watching the first episode, don't continue on--unless of course you like a woman who can reload her gun using her breasts. Sounds cool huh? I thought so at first, but after she does it over and over again, it's like c'mon, try something new for a change. (sigh).This show is fun if you don't mind a repetitive theme, but after the first episode, not much changes. The story is just like any other anime out there that doesn't try to pry open the mind and make you think heavily on a subject; Grenadier is simple and boring.

The art on the otherhand ... is quite enjoyable. I liked the colors in this show, and the main character(s) make a great display on the television. For some reason, the design of most of the characters reminded me of Inuyasha, so, with that in mind, if you've seen that then you probably know what you're in for.

Character development is mild, and not much philosophy is changed until the very last episode. I don't know, I guess most people stick with their beliefs until something shocking happens before their eyes, such as a teacher turning evil. Oops, did I spoil something? You probably won't make it to the end, so don't bother with this.

If you like simple-minded anime, a big-breasted-blonde-woman-who-holds-a-revolver-and-has-perfect-aim, and tons of bad guys who try and get in her way, then you're definitely in for a treat! Otherwise, steer in a different direction and watching something more provocative.

-Basel Assaf

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 relatively ... predictable 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 more ... often 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.

Boobs, everywhere...
There, thats grenadier in two words, but since i'm such a nice guy and enjoy spending my time writing reviews for free \(*_*)/ I will elaborate a bit for you at home.

This basically follows a super well-endowed ditzy blonde chick as she runs around trying to prevent fighting and violence in general. How does she plan to do this? by stripping them of their armour, which is meant to be taken the dirty way, but after so long the phrase just gets really lame, but yeah thats her plan. To do that she decides that flashing smiles will solve all the problems, guess what, ... it doesnt. Instead she stops people from fighting by shoving her boobs in their faces, which in my opinion would work far better; if nothing else, it would work on me.

Character wise, shes about it with the exception of some samurai dude who litterally brings a knife(or katana in this case) to a gun fight. Yeah, everbodys runnin around packing heat in the form of machine guns and he walks in with his sword, and is all like "l got this guys", no he doesnt, the blond chick with the bazookas "has this."

The story is as weak as a pot of three day old coffee, and involves minimal story line progression. It makes sense at least which is one thing it has going for it.

To be completely honest, the ONLY reason that l kept watching after a certain point was the boobs, but l still almost got bored with them. My opinion is that if you like boobs, you'll love this; if you love boobs, you'll go nuts for this; if you are like me and enjoy lots of boobs, but need a story behind the to keep you interested, you will probably watch this whole thing but then realize that it came to nothing. As with everything in life however, you just need to try it yourself and see how you feel.

Will Grenadier's service with a smile put one on your face?

Grenadier is a manga series by Sosuke Kaise. Halfway through its initial publishing run from 2003 to 2006, it received a twelve episode anime adaption by Group TAC.

It's pretty short, so Grenadier is an easy show to pick up. Whether or not it's worth it is what shall soon be found out.

Visuals:

The artwork in Grenadier is fairly consistent and doesn't show too many quality issues. It's never very detailed, but does have fairly vibrant ... colors. The majority of detail is devoted to the characters, but only the female characters show some degree of good character design. One character in particular tries too hard to make up for this and has a gigantic zipper to compensate for the designer's lack of creativity. Nearly everyone else looks fairly generic and bland, which also seems to go hand-in-hand with Grenadier's level of animation.

The animation is not anything to brag about. Scenic shots are infrequent and close-ups of someone's face commonly fill the screen. This is never overdone to a point of being too noticeable, but it is an aspect of the animation that could have been improved upon. Action scenes play with a delicate balance of movement and fairly still, panning-shots. Scenes like Rushuna's unique way of reloading a gun always play out the same, but are frequently animated a little differently at some point, which is nice. In the end, the animation is mediocre. It's not bad at all, but it's enough to show that Grenadier didn't have a high budget. The visuals, however, can't be the only place Grenadier had to spread out its budget. Sound is something everyone has to focus on as well.

Sound:

Nothing really stands out in the sound department of Grenadier. Each character's voice is normally well suited to their appearance in both the English dub and the original Japanese audio. The only downside to the English dub is that AnimeWorks felt it was necessary to add extra words into the translation so that each character's flapping lips fit the amount of syllables in a sentence. This means dialogue is often wordy and very cheesy since nobody speaks like you'd expect in a normal conversation. The voices themselves are fine, but the Japanese audio with English subtitles is recommended if you want more natural dialogue.

Outside the fairly generic OP and ED, the music chooses to let itself lie in the electronica category and shower the listener with some fairly nice techno beats. The combat themes in particular are exciting to listen to and fit the battle sequences well. Unfortunately, the theme that plays during a couple of the goofier moments in the show was incredibly short and repetitive and stood out from the rest of the soundtrack as very annoying.

Characters:

The characters of the show are a fairly uninteresting bunch. The only ones who stand out are the two main characters, and even they have problems.

For instance, Rushuna is a pretty enjoyable character at first. One may find where she stores her ammo a very entertaining factor of the show, but aside from her quirky personality, entertaining antics, and... full character design, she simply lacks a proper backstory and any kind of character development. This isn't always needed to make a character interesting or entertaining, but one could debate that her lack of development makes her a flat character. On the other hand, her traveling partner, Yajiro, turns out quite a bit rounder than she does.

Yajiro is the only character to receive any real development. He changes drastically throughout the show and does receive some interesting backstory to explain his initial motives and ideals. Unfortunately, his main flaw is that he's a little more than useless at times. This isn't actually a flaw of his character, but one of the show itself. Grenadier simply forgets to involve him in the combat and sometimes chooses to save Yajiro's usefulness for a later time get Rushuna out of a jam. Like the animation, this problem doesn't always happen. Yajiro does get some action, but he's left out of enough of it to be noticeable. The show even has the audacity to introduce a third main character later on, the token loli, whose sole purpose is to provide Yajiro and Rushuna with a cheap method of escape whenever they back into a corner.

Along with the main villain of the show and the supporting cast, nearly everyone else gives the viewer very little reason to show interest. If the characters of Grenadier are weak, then what's the main focus of the show? Maybe this is where the plot comes in...

Plot:

More than half of the show follows the episodic villain routine. The usual set-up is that Rushuna arrives somewhere new and has to solve a problem that crops up, which is usually due to a villain causing problems. The only real problem here is that the majority of these episodes rely on shallow plot, villains, and supporting characters to move Rushuna and Yajiro further towards the end of the show. Fortunately, each episode makes sure to include something relevant to the main story to keep things moving.

The thing is, whenever Grenadier stops focusing on the plot and pauses to show Rushuna and Yajiro simply interacting with each other, the show is at its best. The comedy here is plentiful, but not all of the jokes are laugh-out-loud funny. Most of the time, they're dull and feel intrusive. As if to make up for its lack of humor, though, one good joke will drop in during every other episode. It's not enough, but after sitting through the rest of the show the occasionally good comedic scene will bring a smile to one's face. In fact, there's one scene towards the end that had me roaring with laughter, and was the only scene in the entire series where I opened my mouth and physically let out a laugh.

Grenadier drops its episodic villain routine near the end of the series, and the action begins to heat up. Battles and verbal debates about war and peace ensue, one side character from an earlier episode shows up (but turns out to be useless), and a couple of plot twists reveal themselves. Did these moments come too late into the show to be of any significance? The answer is: yes. The final two episodes really feel like a slightly more elaborate filler that drops the ending in front of you and leaves. The best part of the final episode was the unveiling of a new villain. After a surprisingly wonderfully animated fight scene, the show ends. What about that new villain? Where did she come from? What's her story? Why didn't we see more of her before? None of these questions are answered, we're just introduced to her, given an action scene, and then the show wraps everything up. In other words, as soon as someone interesting came in, Grenadier was unable to handle the inexplicably weird idea of grabbing the viewer's interest and threw in the towel.

So just what was Grenadier trying to accomplish?

Conclusion:

Grenadier is rife with fan-service. There's never any full-on nudity, but you can expect Rushuna to enjoy at least one bath scene per episode. There's nothing wrong with a bit of cleavage nor the fact that Rushuna actually uses her assets for a practical purpose (hammerspace), but you can bet that fan-service was Grenadier's main goal, not its plot.

Perhaps the series' secondary goal was its theme. It's not hard to uncover, but the message it tries to get across is that to resolve situations, our first priority should be to act kind and love one another. It's pretty sappy, but Rushuna Tendou makes it clear that showing other people kindness and respect is the most important part of a conflict. If we try to understand each others view first, a peaceful solution is a more likely result; if it ends in war, at least we've already displayed our strongest weapon.

Despite my complaints, I did somewhat enjoy Grenadier. It had its moments, it had its jokes, and it had an alright theme. Rushuna Tendou and Yajiro Kojima may be the only good part of the show, but at least it has something going for it. Still, if you want to watch something about a blonde outlaw looking for world peace, I'd recommend you look around for an outlaw named Vash the Stampede.

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.
ART SECTION: 6/10
Analysis: General Artwork 1/2, Character Figures 1/2, Backgrounds 2/2, Animation 1/2, Visual Effects 1/2

SOUND SECTION: 7/10
Analysis: Voice Acting 2/3, Music Themes 3/4, Sound Effects 2/3

STORY SECTION: 4/10
Analysis: Premise 1/2, Pacing 1/2, Complexity 1/2, Plausibility 0/2, Conclusion 1/2

CHARACTER SECTION: 5/10
Analysis: Presence 1/2, Personality 1/2, Backdrop 1/2, Development 1/2, Catharsis 1/2

VALUE SECTION: 2/10
Analysis: Historical Value 0/3, Rewatchability 0/3, Memorability 2/4

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 3/10
Analysis: Art 0/1, Sound 1/2, Story 1/3, Characters 1/4

VERDICT: 4.5/10

Dear readers,

If you have nothing else to watch at the moment, then you must watch this anime, since it has comedy, some action and ecchi in it.

The story about getting a bounty on your head is something I haven't seen so far, so that is original. It was confusing in the beginning though, because the main characters were saving people and the female main character still got a bounty lol.

The art is old, because it is an anime of 2004, but I still enjoyed it and that fact isn't something to be worried about. The characters were good developed and I also liked it, because ... they had guns even though it looked like the story was playing in the edo period of Japan lol.

There aren't many soundtracks in this anime, but the ones that were there, were still good enough, because the soundtracks that were playing was fitting for the tension at the scene.

I hope this was helpful, see you later, byeee!

“Grenadier: The Beautiful Warrior” is what happens when You’ve read “Trigun” and think “Hmm… What if Vash had huge breasts, zero to no drama and didn’t have a crippling donuts addiction?” It’s an anime about an overpowered, blonde bombshell gunslinger with a huge bosom, a pretty useless sword slinging companion and their journey to set the wrongs of the world right.. If You think that is an oversimplification of the anime…

For most of the anime the main cast consists of:
Rushuna Tendou - blonde, busty gunslinger with a soft spot for taking baths. Her weapon of choice is a six-shot revolver but she prefers using it ... as a last resort, preferring to avoid violence when possible. If she does use her gun, she shots to disable her opponents rather than kill. Something that is seen as weird by other people. She claims to want to end chaos and violence but isn’t all that against using it when it’s needed, something that makes her kind of a hypocrite in my book. She also uses her bosom to reload her gun, something even Vash The Stampede wasn’t able to do.

Yajirou Kojima - Tendou’s travelling companion, her self proclaimed partner and basically an annoying little shit with a tragic past that has little to do most of the series. Despite having some skills with the sword he doesn't have many opportunities to show them off, thanks to Rushuna taking care of most trouble they get into. He hates people that use guns and thinks that human life is worthless to them but he doesn't seem to mind Rushuna using one. He’s also the only one that really changes during the story. Not only does his thinking changes but also his M.O.

Technically there are two more that join the team as the story progresses but one is an annoying loli and the second one is a boring pervert (that's something I never thought I would write) that You’ll forget the moment they get offscreen so I’m not wasting time on them.

The story is divided into two parts. The first few episodes are the “Let’s go to random places and help random people” type of tale and the second part is the “I finally have a goal and motivation” type. All in all the story is very simple. Nothing wrong with that. Simple stories have a lot of pros and can be very enjoyable. This one is… to a point.
To make the story enjoyable You really have to forget about logic. The closer the final episode the more dumb stuff happens in both camps. Both protagonists and antagonists become dumber the closer they get to the final showdown. Yes… the villains seem to get lobotomised in that case but the heroes are really close to their levels of stupid. The story itself also loses its moral lesson. For a story about avoiding violence the final showdown is a gunslinging, sword swinging fest. Despite the final outcome the way the story decides to collide the main philosophies is by using violence. Something that more than one person in the show claims should be avoided. Well, I guess a lot of shows do this type of hypocrisy so I guess I shouldn't be so harsh on it. It’s still bad writing, no matter what show, book, anime or game does it.
When it comes to antagonists their plan is total BS. It makes no sense, it’s poorly explained and has more than enough flaws to make me think that they want to be stopped. Still, the villains as characters are more interesting for me than our heroes. I wouldn't mind some more info on them and their motivation.

Despite all its flaws I had fun watching this anime. The action scenes could use a little more polish in the number of frames department, but You are able to follow what’s going on and the fan service while reloading was comical enough to get a laugh out of me few times.

At the end of the day, this isn’t the worst anime that I ever saw and it does some things well. Yes, it’s full of clichés and is predictable as hell but it can be enjoyable as long as You remember what You’re getting Yourself into.

By no means painful to watch, but more of a time killer than good entertainment. The plot feels a bit contrived as do many of the characters, and some events and decisions seem completely illogical and clearly exist only to force the plot in a given direction; perhaps I blinked at the wrong time but the end moments of Rushuna Tendou's climactic battle left me wondering what in god's name I had just missed. But perhaps you're watching for the ecchi - which is mediocre and, by the time you've seen the same boob-jiggling gag three times in rapid fire succession (pun intended), ... a bit tiresome. The central theme of 'men are egotistical but lovable children who can and should be kept in line with breasts' is a pretentious bit of 'wisdom,' and a bit irritating if taken out of the context of a genre driven by stereotypes. All in all I've seen thicker plots, I've seen deeper characters, I've seen shinier art, and I've seen jigglier jubblies. Please note that I am a tough crowd, and YMMV.

There are times where you see an anime that gets good reviews that you don't necessarily agree with, and feel like they're building it up too much (for me, a prime example is Attack on Titan), where there are others that get called mediocre or even bad that you find yourself liking (I like Tokyo ESP quite a bit). Grenadier fits into the latter for me, I quite enjoy it.

The story, in my opinion, is probably the weakest element. It's mainly just our three heroes travelling across the world and fighting people along the way. There are parts of the story that are quite nice, ... but for the most part, it's just serviceable, nothing really special or even all that great.

Everything else though is pretty good. The characters for the most part are good. Rushuna, though following the classic anime fashion of giant boobs, is actually quite a fun character. She's so sweet and nice that it's infectious, and she always just wants to give people a smile. But, she can get really serious, and she is a real badass, able to hold her own extremely well. Yajiro is also a pretty fun character, who has a lot of pride and experience, but can often be the butt of a joke, but he gets used to it. And he can still be taken seriously as a good fighter. The relationship and dynamic between Rushuna and Yajiro is entertaining. Mikan, the last main character, is rather annoying. Though there are far worse characters that fall into the same category as her, she wasn't really that compelling. She wasn't terrible, but she was still annoying. Most of the side characters range from either serviceable to actually quite fun.

The animation, for its time, was quite good. The action scenes are quite awesome and interesting, with plenty of anime greatness sprinkled in there. They might not be the greatest, but for what they are, they're pretty good.

Overall, Grenadier is an enjoyable anime with some flaws that hold it back. While it may not be the most serious, the funniest, or the most intense, it's still a fun show that you can breeze through and have a good time while doing so.

A grenadier by definition was a soldier in around the Napoleonic era that specialized in using grenades, however in anime terms aparently grenadier means "take a concept of a show that was good and add over-the-top fan-service." That good show I'm talking about is of course Trigun, and you will see me use that show as an example a lot during this review because the fact of the matter is that Grenadier is basically a half-assed rule 63 (one of the rules of the internet, "if it exists, there is a female version of it, no exception") version of Trigun. On to the review.

Story 2/10: ... A skilled guns-woman who is a complete pacifist (sound unfamiliar?) going around with some philosophy that if she's unarmed and smiling then suddenly the whole world will act like everything is sunshine and butterflies. Eventually the plot picks up when her former teacher (who is the living embodiment of kindness, so much so it becomes rage inducing, more on that later) puts out the order for a elite group of fighters to assassinate the main character Tendo. The fact that this plot lacks any form of originality truly does harm its score however it's not just that, I've seen shows that lack originality before but still managed to be moderately good, this show is just the same thing over and over. Where as Trigun had it's moments where things got serious and more grey shade then just black and white Grenadier does away with any of the deeper moments and just makes everything pure white, this leads the show to have absolutely no dept and thus makes the plot just plain bad.

Art 8/10: The art itself is a little dated however for the most part it's pretty good. As for the animation I'll admit it's not all that bad, the movements for the combat are smooth enough although it does suffer from the same problems many modern day anime does which is the occasional part where the animation just seems poorly done and choppy. As for the character designs... It basically follows the idea that "if we put hot chicks with big tits in it they won't question if it's physically possible!" Wrong, I noticed it, the females in this show look like god damn tooth picks with breast so large you could land a helicopter on them. Forget back pain, how the hell haven't these chicks snapped in half yet?

Sound 3/10: First the music, like many anime today it's forgettable, none of the tracks particularly stand out and they just seem to blend into the background. This however is not a bad things seeing as the point of music in any form of media (other then the music industry itself) is not to distract from the show but add to the overall mood, unfortunately the music in grenadier does not in anyway do this seeing as how most of the time it just seems like a completely random track was chosen half the time rather then something that would work with the scene in question. And now for the part I've been dreading, the voice acting, the dub, good god the dub! The dub is something that make you want to rip your hair out by its roots and punch yourself repeatedly in the genitals, the voice actors are so annoying and their acting is so ungodly bad! Do yourself a favour and watch the sub, I've never seen it but it could not in any possible way be worse then the dub.

Character 2/10: I think the way they figured out who the characters would be was by buying a mad lib, the Trigun edition! Tendo is Vash the Stampede with breasts, Yajirou is Meryl, Teppa is Wolfwood, and the Tenshi guys were basically the Gung-ho Demons. Since all those characters were good though these ones must be too right? Wrong. Not only are all these characters complete rip-offs, but they're also so over the top it become infuriating! Where as Vash the Stampede actually had his more human moments where things weren't so black and white Tendo is a complete Mary Sue character, it seems the character was just made to be fapping material. And don't even get me start on Tenshi, she was so nice and perfect that I just wanted to punch her face clean off! There's also the problem of no build-ups! There's a few parts in the story where the villain is revealed and it's done in a way where they want us to be like "oh my god, *blank* was actually *blank* the whole time?!" Problem is, we don't know who the hell those characters are supposed to! I mean it's fine if it's just a few minor characters, but when the main villain is finally reveals herself at the final episode the audience shouldn't be thinking "so it was her in disguise all along!... Wait, who is she anyway?"

Enjoyment 4/10: The first few gunfights were actually enjoyable, although a little over the top (even Vash the Stampede wasn't this good of a gunman, and he wasn't even human!), however it's only the first few fight that are somewhat good because all the fights are the same! Tendo spins around to dodge the bullets, shoots the guns out of the bad guys hands, reloads using her breasts, rinse and repeat. It's just the same thing over and over from the first episode to the second last. I'll admit that at least the final battle of the whole series was somewhat entertaining with all the crazy kung-foo with guns stuff but that's about it.

Overall 4/10: You ever wanted to watch a clone of Trigun where Vash is a chick with huge tits, almost no plot and character dept, and a dub that makes you want to go to a back alley and beg junkies to beat your brains out with a tire iron? Well then you've found the perfect show! In truth Grenadier isn't horrible but it's definitely half-ass, I would recommend you just re-watch Trigun if you're looking for this kind of show, or if you haven't already seen it just watch Trigun for the first time, in which case I envy you, first times always the best.