After 3 episodes, it's beginning to look like there's more to Grenadier than a blonde gaijin who's a fighting fool. It seems she's a holy warrior on a quest.

We have our first continuing bad guy -- and he's very bad.

I'm beginning to get Najica Blitz Tactics vibes from this -- by which I mean, I'm beginning to feel like I'm watching a show which is primarily a fan service vehicle, but which also is trying to tell some sort of story which may not be half bad.

The fan service isn't as strange, nor as overwhelming, as in Najica Blitz Tactics, and that may actually be a good thing. But as with NBT I think the fan service is primary; the story is a vehicle for delivering fan service, not the other way around.

But that doesn't necessarily mean the story will be a bad one. NBT's story was actually pretty good, and this one may be too. It's not just about guns and boobs; it's also about good and evil, and it looks as if Rushuna's main challenge is inside herself.

The reason Rushuna seems so naive is that she's innocent. Part of her reason for going on this quest is to become more worldly, but to do so without becoming cynical or evil.

One way you can tell that the fan service is primary is one of Rushuna's main weapons: her tits. Continued, and NSFW, below the fold.

Her ultimate technique for making a friend out of a hostile man is to push his face into her chest and hold it there, while talking about how nice it is to be good and decent. (Apparently there's no problem with ammunition getting in the way.)

This was a very touching scene, until that happened. Then I started laughing. It completely broke the mood. What it means is that the story telling is going to be second rate, just as was the case with NBT. That doesn't mean it'll be terrible, just that whenever the story prevents an opportunity for fan service, the story will give way. The fan service will be primary.

But I think the story may turn out to be pretty good, even with that. And even the combat isn't going to just be about guns. Rushuna's enemy this time was much worse than that. Against other gunmen, Rushuna is overwhelming. But she nearly lost to this one.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 06:23 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 I have some (maybe all) of this on fansubs, but haven't watched any; reviews tended to be dismissive of it in much the same way they are of Divergence Eve.

I'll dig it out of the Unsorted directory and see how it goes.

Posted by: Pixy Misa at August 30, 2007 08:25 PM (PiXy!)

2 Let's make clear that this doesn't play in the same league as Divergence Eve, or at least it doesn't seem to so far.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at August 30, 2007 10:13 PM (+rSRq)

3 I've only watched the first 6 episodes of Divergence Eve, but I must say I had a lot more fun watching Grenadier.  Divergence Eve just seems like a jumbled mess at this point.  (I do plan on finishing it, but I just haven't had a lot of time for watching lately.)

As for the breaking of mood you mentioned, I really liked that aspect of the series.  There will be a few more similar instances.  The series tends to swing from serious to silly quite quickly.  I really enjoyed it, and I hope you do as well.

Posted by: Mob at August 31, 2007 05:10 AM (f+cPk)

4 Having the 11th episode first confuses some people. The thing about DE is that there's a lot of weird things that happen which appear to be total non sequitors. Without getting into spoilers, there's one episode that ends darkly, and at the start of the next episode, everything's fine...no explanation at all.

Except that it's not an accident or screwup as you'll find out later -- if you're paying attention. There's a lot of that in this show. Everything was plotted out well in advance, and there's no, "um, we don't know how to resolve this, so we're gonna pull a rabbit out of a hat.". In fact, the opening episode had a weird event that I didn't even remember until I re-watched the series. At the time it's a complete "huh? what was that?" occurrence. It only makes sense towards the end of the series.

Another thing is the opening historical segments. Don't skip those...you'll see how they tie in about 2/3 of the way through the series.

DE/MC isn't for everyone, and maybe even with those cautions, you won't like it. That's the nature of the hobby.... hey, some folks like Ikkitousen and Naurto.

Posted by: ubu at September 01, 2007 07:25 AM (HULLT)

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