Spotlight Character: Rushuna Tendo (Grenadier) MAL Character Information Page: Rushuna Tendo MAL Favorites: 38 For the next week I would like to have everyone familiar with Character Name discuss what they think makes (him/her) an exceptional character. What attributes make (him/her) stand out in the ocean of interesting characters that exist in the realms of anime and manga. Unlike the other two subjects I will not force this conversation to fall into any set structure. Characters that are nominated typically get here because they are adept at breaking the existing character molds and defying definition. Because of this freedom I encourage everyone to do their very best to stay on topic and keep any and all debate civil. Have fun and I look forward to seeing what everyone has to say about this character. RESULTS OF THE 'YOU DECIDE' POLL: Rushuna Tendo was NOT inducted into the club Character list: 3 Yes - 25.0% 9 No - 75.0% 77 I don't know - 86.5% of the total number polled |
santetjanMay 27, 2009 4:54 AM
| I find it kinda hard to talk about this girl, and it really suprises me. ’Cause heck, I was the one who nominated her on and on, week after week. And yet, here I am, trying so hard to find the words that can explain why I’m so (and we are already in /a/ territory here) enamored with Tendo Rushuna. (Funny, in my head, I just went from the word anemored to unarmored. I don’t know why.) Maybe it’s because all the things that make her fantastic as a character are all simple things. She isn’t characterised by weird quircks, but rather, an actual, recognisable and lovable personality. (Notice how it’s the same things –except for being lovable- that allowed Haruhi Suzumiya to be so popular). For some reason, characters like that are hard to come by these days. So what about that girl, Rushuna? Well, she certainly looks nice, you can give her that. Wasp waisted, with F- cup breasts, long, flowing golden hair, eyelashes longer than her face and all that. Obviously, a mangaka that creates a story like Grenadier draws what he likes (I’m purposfully excluding she because there is no way women would come up with something like this), and Kaize Sosuke certainly has impeccable taste. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not one to say this just because his character looks nice. Rather because his main character is the most charming female character concieved in asia this whole decade (and possibly, ever). And it shows from the very first scenes she’s in. The first time we see her, she’s taking a bath. The story’s other main character, Kojima Yajiro, as a sword wielding samurai, is on the run from the modernised, rifle using senshi (a term used to describe someone who’s proficient with a firearm (I liked Anime-Keep’s fansub so much better (they used the term „enlightened”))) bandits that captured the medievil lord he was hired to protect (Yajiro’s a mercenary). He meets up Rushuna taking a bath in a hot spring. Rushuna senses that whoever this person is, he’s in trouble, and proceeds to hide him. This is the first glimps we get about just what kind of character Rushuna is. With no place to hide Yajiro from the chasing bandits, Rushuna resorts to hide the fellow in the only place the bandits can’t see from behind: her cleavage. Literally, she hides Yajiro in the hotspring, with the only thing blocking the bandits view being the back of her barenaked body. And she’s acting completely natural the whole time. That’s one of the novelties of Rushuna’s character: the guy needs a place to hide urgently, and if the only place available is her covering bosom, than that’s were she’ll damn well hide him, because heck, the lad is in danger. And she considers this completely natural. She doesn’t mind it, and never has a single suspicious though about Yajiro. Take note, she is probably the only female anime character who acts like this. A bit later on, we get to learn more about her. Mentioning that he was chased by bandits, Rushuna offers to expplain him the „Ultimat Combat Tactic” sshe was taught to imply: to eliminate the opponents will to fight. Yajiro doesn’t believe something like that is a plausible approach to a battle, and rushes back to the fight, outnumbered and practically alone. Against his wish, Rushuna follows him, and miraculously saves him from sniper fire coming from like, five miles away. She even manages disarm a few of the bandits with revolver shots from the same distance. This is the point where the viewer (and refreshingly enough, Yajiro) recognizes two key trait of Rushuna: 1. She can hit a jumping flea off a dog with one hand tied behind her back, blindfolded, from the far side of the world with a single gunshot. 2. She’d never do that, because she respects life more than anything. Whenever she fires at someone, she only does it so as to stop her opponent from doing harm, and she always tries to disarm her opponents. After her little demonstration, Yajiro decides to allow Rushuna to help him rescue the kidnapped lord. He figures she can distract the bandits while he does the rescuing. This is when we see Rushuna tryingf to apply her „Ultimate Combat Tactic”: She put’s on a smile, and kindly ask the bandits to stop what they’re doing. Whenever she’s in battle, Rushuna always tries to solve things without fighting. Whenever it’s possible to do so, that is. When not, she is forced to resort to shooting in order to get her point across. And the best thing about how her character is handled is that her character isn’t at it’s strongest when she’s in action sequences (no matter how imaginitive and funny those sequences are (what with the way she can reload her revolver and all)), but when she succeeds in implementing her strategy. In Grenadier, villains always resort to guns and violence out of poor circumstances or misguidedness. Rushuna’s aim is always to get her enemies to realise the ere of their ways. And Grenadier is at it’s most entertaining not only when she succeeds in this, but also when it shows her getting her opponents into a „mood” requiered to do so. Here is a character so against fighting, she proceeds to willingly admit defeat in order for the fight to end quickly. She a group of bandits to forget everything bad they did, without even punishing them, to stop a fight. Other times, it seems as though she is so aware of her capabilities (extreme marksmanship, speed that might as well be considered teleportation, among other things), that she’s delibaretly holding herself back, so as not to make her enemies feel down. Even in tough situations, she strains herself to keep a smile on her face, and to bring a smile on her enemies faces. At times, she acts like a complete ditz. Other times, she deliberately acts as is she were intimidated by the enemy’s firepower. But the thing that says most about her is when she gets attacked by a rendom group of bounty hunters, having her confused for a bounty that looks suspiciously similar to her. First she promptly disarms them, then politely asks them wether she did anything wrong to them unknowingly. Once they flea, after she realises that the bandits attacked her out of mistake, she runs after them, to apologise to them! But beyond all this, there is a remarkably brilliant aspct to her character that probably should be considered textbook material about obvious things taking far too long to get implemented. As mentioned before, Rushuna’s goal is to win battles without fighting, to convince her adversaries that violence is not the answer, that compassion can get you so much further. Oftentimes she needs to disarm her enemy first, but then she has to show her trust to her enemy, and get her enemy to trust her. How she accomplishes this? She gently embraces her opponent. Hugs them, with their face in her huge soft breasts. Calmly assures them that everythings going to be all right. Almost all of her opponents are male. She is aware of this. Really, the mere fact that this idea took so long for someone to realise either says something about the forest and the trees, or is reassurance (along with the fight scenes (and via a major leap of logic, along with Death Note))that there is still untapped creativity in the entertainment industry. It’s a marvelous achievement in Rushuna’s characterization that the above feels completely innate to her. Nothing she does feels unnatural or anything other than common sense. She can go from charming to dead serious in an instant, remarkably well presented in her facial expressions. She’s a joy to watch, ad even if her show was the worst thing to be produced by mankind ever, she’d still be enough not only to carry it all the way, but for the show to still be fun to see through. I need to remind myself that I musn’t give all credit to Kaise Sosuke, the mangaka of Grenadier. Indeed, reading what’s available of the manga after watching Grenadier over so many times, it was one of the most vexxing experiences of my life discovering how different Rushuna’s character was originally thought up to be. Mayhaps it really did took the anime’s director, Koujina Yashiro to polish the few remaining edges of the diamond put in front of him. Even so, this changes nothing on the facts: Tendo Rushuna stands firm, with her originality, charm, charisma and groundbreaing characterisation, as (once again) the greatest female character concieved in the medium of anime and manga this decade, and, quite possibly, ever. Wether this title is limited to manga and anime or not remains to bee seen. Though Japan has already lost the fight in the male character front (awsome as Light Yagami may be, no character will ever come close to the amazingness of Patrick Bateman), they’re going really strong with Rushuna. And it’s the competition that makes it all worthwhile, isn’t it? |
DozerMay 20, 2009 5:42 AM
| sorry...I just think she's a weak character. My interest in her was one sided and it wasn't really alot of interest |
 |
More topics from this board
Sticky: » The End of Critics and ConnoisseursHiroM_ - Dec 31, 2022 |
31 |
by danz
»»
Nov 10, 2023 1:08 AM |
|
» Challenge You Decide: Neon Genesis Evangelion: The End of Evangelion (Anime) (1/1)HiroM_ - Dec 3, 2022 |
44 |
by 25saix
»»
Dec 30, 2022 3:10 PM |
|
» You Decide: Golden Kamuy 2nd Season (Anime) (12/4)HiroM_ - Dec 2, 2022 |
42 |
by 25saix
»»
Dec 30, 2022 3:10 PM |
|
» Resurrected You Decide: Mahou Shoujo Madoka★Magica (Anime) (12/4)HiroM_ - Dec 2, 2022 |
47 |
by 25saix
»»
Dec 30, 2022 3:09 PM |
|
» Blue N Rescue Mission: Eikoku Koi Monogatari Emma (Anime) (12/4)HiroM_ - Dec 3, 2022 |
24 |
by Dramaddict
»»
Dec 28, 2022 6:02 PM |