Gun X Sword: Thoughts?

[Empedocles]

Just out of curiosity, what is the general/your personal opinion on the 26 episode anime series Gun X Sword? I absolutely loved it but I almost never see it mentioned. Thoughts?

[TSGames]

It was OK.

It did have some very excellent characters; it excelled in portraying just how messed up the bad guys were. However, I found the good guys to be significantly less interesting.

[Empedocles]

It was OK.

It did have some very excellent characters; it excelled in portraying just how messed up the bad guys were. However, I found the good guys to be significantly less interesting.

Really? I thought the Claw was the most interesting, but Van and Ray were also both well developed (albeit Ray is a bit of an antihero).

[Man on Fire]

Didn't liked it. Found it to be rather boring and too big mash of everything they could put there. It was like one of Van's dishes - too many different spices made the dish inedible. I found antagonists to be much more interesting, characters I liked to be totally wasted (this show should be about El Do Rado Five) and Wendy's fanservice to be getting on my nerves - I don't have anything about fanservice but when they're showing me one of 12-years old, worse, censoring all other fanservice there is, while keeping that of 12-years old, I can almost hear the director saying "You will be a pedophile and you will like it".

[Mx.Silver]

I've tried watching it. Twice. Never managed to get more than about 8/9 episodes in, just because I got bored with it. It really just didn't seem to have anything particularly memorable about it, barring a somewhat inconsistent tone. It was just pretty dull overall, not helped by the fact that a lot of the episodes don't seem to go anywhere.

[Prime32]

this show should be about El Do Rado FiveIf you want a show about the El Dora Five, watch GaoGaiGar or any of the Brave Series (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Anime/BraveSeries). That's what they were a parody of.

[Man on Fire]

You don't have to recommend GaoGaiGar to me, it's one of my favorites.

[Das Platyvark]

Started watching with no expectations or knowledge. Saw mecha. Stopped watching.

I'm mostly over the anti mecha thing now, I might get back to it at a later date.
It also just felt like it took itself much too seriously, given the content.

[tensai_oni]

Gun X Sword is fun - it has cool and unique mecha designs, interesting characters, but is mostly just fun. Not terribly deep, but not just shallow entertainment consisting only of fanservice and explosions either.

@Das Platyvark:
I don't really see how this show takes itself too seriously. Especially since it parodies or homages so many things.

@Mr Silver:
The real plot starts somewhere around the time you stopped watching. Before that it's a series of loosely-connected one-episode stories that Van and Wendy get themselves into. Awesome one-episode stories. El Dora Five, anyone?

Also, one more thing I like about this show. Gun X Sword is about vengeance - Van's motivation is to find an evil bastard, and kill him. The show never tries to hide it, but it neither glorifies nor demonizes this attitude. Nor is it DARK AND EDGY about it. Van remains a decent (if grumpy and antisocial) guy for the whole extent of the show. It's a refreshing change after so many anime try to preach to you that vengeance is bad and the protagonist should forgive the Big Bad, usually after mowing down hordes of nameless mooks without a second thought of course.

[Closet_Skeleton]

Gun X Sword's problem is that when it comes down to it it just isn't really very good.

It can be fun to watch, but it really doesn't go beyond the level of 'giant robots and adventure towns'. You basically have to already enjoy that sort of thing or you'll be easily bored. Its not really fun on its own merits the way a show I'd actually use the word 'fun' as a complement towards is. There are shows that just bubble with enjoyableness and Gun X Sword isn't one of them. You basically have to already like it before you watch it, it isn't able to charm you if you're not into what it is.

The plot isn't bad either, though the plot and the villain are pretty much interchangeable in this case. None of the characters are especially memorable otherwise. Even the old men sentai team are only memorable in concept.

Only bit that really stuck with me was

The samurai/sniper guy (Ray?) shooting the big bad's McGuffin machine with his dying breath instead of shooting the big bad, because pissing off the villain was more satisfying revenge than killing him.

[TSGames]

The samurai/sniper guy (Ray?) shooting the big bad's McGuffin machine with his dying breath instead of shooting the big bad, because pissing off the villain was more satisfying revenge than killing him.

That was definitely the bes part of the entire show. It helps that the sniper guy was by a wide margin the most interesting of the protagonists.