Story - 5/10
The usual stuff. There isn't anything new here. I don't even know what to comment about it. The main character, Van, is in a quest searching for a man with a claw, who killed his bride. As soon as he get to this claw man, he will kill him. Van is driven by vengeance. And at each episode, there is a mini story involving a mecha fight to save the town where Van is, and to get information about the one he seeks. And i can't forget, at the first episode, a girl named Wendy starts following him, in search for her brother, that was kidnapped by the Claw. As time passes, they encounter various characters and armors - the robots - , and the plan of the Claw starts to be uncovered. All the story is set in a planet called the Illusion Planet, a prison, or at least it were a prison.
Art - 7/10
The art has nothing really impressive to show, in a general view, but the design of the mechas is cool, and the animation is good enough. Sometimes, the lazers and stuff like that may seem a little awkward, but the action scenes are good, overall.
Sound - 6/10
I think i watched only once the opening. It isn't appealing at all. Even the video isn't good, its generic, and its a mess. The background music is not at all remarkable, but at least its not bad. The sound effects are good, they fit the ambient nicely, and seem natural.
Characters - 5/10
While i did enjoyed some of them, others are annoying as hell. Van, the main character, is like many many others, he likes to eat, has his unique way of doing it (with a lot of tempers), and only drinks milk. He is great at fighting, and sometimes, he isnt really the ideal hero, with actions like being uncareful or just dont giving a crap. But at the end he always do the right thing. He has a sword that looks like a gun. Wendy. I hate Wendy. The stereotypical girl who cares so much about everyone, speacialy for her "nisan". OH, ISN'T HER KAWAI DESU?! I simply hate naive characters like her. "Don't treat me like a child", "I will find you, nisan". And she has a turtle. Oh yea, a turtle, hanging on her neck: The turtle, Karmelo (something like that), is a gift from her brother, to bring luck. Wendy starts following Van since the first episode, because they have the same objective, finding Claw, the man who killed Van's bride and kidnapped Wendy's brother. Carmen, the usual clever hot woman. She is an agent (they never specify that, so im not certain) who already knew Van from the past, and helps him get information, sometimes asking for info too. I think they should have developt her a little more. And as they journey goes, they find Ray, a pilot also looking for Claw, as his bride was also murdered by him. He has a gun that looks like a sword (totally unpractical), and will do anything to find Claw. He has a annoying brother who try to follow him, and convince him to not kill Claw. His younger brother, Joshua, starts following Van, because he thinks they will meet Ray in the future. I wont go in any more details, the characters are not very good. I like the old mans, though. In a town, Van encounter with some old guys, that were pilots in the past. They are actually kinda fun, talking about the past, and being some sort of comedy relief. The Claw, the villain, is also interesting, as he sometimes is clearly the bad guy, but in certain occasions he may seem correct. His henchman are boring.
Enjoyment and overall - 7/10
GunXSword isn't at all innovative, it follows a famous recipe, but it has some great action scenes and the Claw is an incentive to keep watching.
