[HEADING=1]Timotei reviews: Grenadier[/HEADING]
[Img_Inline Caption="Her breasts are more than just bags of fat and skin, they also function
as an ammo pouch." Align="left"]http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn183/tenchi_2008/Grenadier.png[/Img_Inline]
"Fanservice exists only to cover up what is flawed." [small]- Suiseiseki IRL[/small]
No series (none that I have seen so far) exemplifies this more than Grenadier. A series which drips fanservice from almost every orifice and cleavage line. And any series where cleavage is used as a place to store your seemingly unlimited supply of bullets cannot be taken seriously.
I will state right now that Grenadier isn't just an empty shell in the shape of breasts. Underneath it's facepalm worthy dialogue, action, characters, sound effects, and the embarrassing amount of times the main character HAS to take a bath, you will find a somewhat (SOMEWHAT) decent plot and rather smooth character development.
[HEADING=3]Overview[/HEADING]
Let me begin by saying that the first few seconds of the opening theme sounds like porno music, but then switches into just a shitty song that is not in the least bit catchy. The first sign that the viewer is in for a world of eye sores. The story takes place in some land where time has apparently been all fucked up where you have people wearing samurai armor wielding full-auto assault rifles, a little kid that operates a powered suit of armor, and a main villain that wears clothing fit for King Henry VIII that has boosters built into the shoes who wields a gun that disintegrates matter and a mask that rips off Michael Myers. That's right, samurai with guns and flying Victorian cosplayers.
The fist episode begins with Yajiro Kojima, a mercenary swordsman and a bunch of other armor clad samurai wielding swords trying to storm a castle to rescue some old man. This would most likely have worked if the men defending the castle weren't armed with rifles and machine guns. Despite this fact, the samurai continue to throw themselves at the castle walls only to be killed faster than one can say "OH SHI-". Finally Yajiro and another man come to their senses and order a retreat and plan to assault the castle once more when the sun is out and they are all visible. Yajiro is chased around by some of the gunmen and runs across the story's other main character Rushuna Tendo (or as Amnestic and I like to refer to her: Boobsie McTitsalot), a revolver-toting pacifist *a contradiction already* who is seen taking a bath in a hot spring yet is perfectly fine with hiding Yajiro in the water with her with his face pressed up against the globes nailed to her chest. The two come across one another once again and it is here that Boobsie exhibits her flawless marksmanship with a revolver that would have Train Heartnet searching for a lawyer.
[Img_Inline Caption="Let the battle of the bra sizes commence." Align="Right"]http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x148/HELLHAMMER_2007/Setsuna09.jpg[/Img_Inline]
To make a 24 minute episode short, Boobsie beats the guys defending the castle and continues on her way towards...wherever; there never really is an explanation where she intends on going since she later sets her sights on the capital of the nation which has no name once a bounty is placed on her head by the woman who trained her. What ensues is basically several fluff episodes with a few easily solved boss battles such as the Power Armor Boy, a giant robot, Mr. Sound Power Armor, Ms. Ithoughtyouwerefuckingdead Power Armor, a pervert who apparently who was last in line to get power armor only to find they gave them all away, and Scubaman. The series also gets a lot weirder with the introduction of a loli named Mikan who can make balloons into any shape or function including *wait for it* a bunny suit with enlarged breasts. The series then ends with the battle between Yajiro and The Mask as well as a battle between Boobsie and THE FINAL BOSS over who has the most unnecessarily sized tits. Eventually all is set right in the kingdom of Noname and our heroes head off to take many more baths.
Yeah it's not the best plot of all time and Boobsie is of course a huge-chested ripoff of Vash the Stampede. The first half of the series is rather slow, however it slowly starts to pick up and evolves into a somewhat decent storyline with a sense of mystery that is immediately buried under even larger breasts and more cleavage. If the writers hadn't focused on trying to create instances where Boobsie wants to take a bath then it could have been better. But hey, why have a storyline when you can have BOOBS? Also the characters develop into something somewhat different than what they started out as yet not anything that you couldn't see coming from a mile away. There is absolutely no element of surprise, unless you count all the times you find yourself saying "Is that truly possible"? The one question I found myself asking the most was "How does Rushuna not have back pains or balance issues?"
[Img_Inline Caption="Rushuna: Not the best example of a pacifist." Align="Center"]http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l248/LuciferAmaraJocelyn/Anime/Grenadier3.jpg[/Img_Inline]
Also:
[HEADING=3]Dialogue[/HEADING]
I'll sum up the dialogue in almost any episode:
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah *tits* blah blah blah blah blah blah *bath* blah blah blah blah blah Ya-chan blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah You cannot beat me blah blah blah blah IMPOSSIBLE YOU BEAT ME blah blah blah blah *moar tits* blah blah blah.
[HEADING=3]Sound[/HEADING]
The sound is very bland and unoriginal. What gets rather taxing are the sounds of gunshots which might as well have been stolen from a Powerpoint audio file.
[HEADING=3]Art[/HEADING]
[Img_Inline Caption="My serious face ************. Do you see it?" Align="Right"]http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f275/jargongames/Grenadier12_Yajioru.jpg[/Img_Inline]
The art is rather vague and not very detailed. Not very much work was put into anything other than breasts and gelatin physics. Even 08th MS team had better art and that was made in a good 9 years before Grenadier and included breasts physics only to make the show more realistic. A lot more could have been done had they possibly had been given better artists and more time to make the series.
Most of the animation budget seems to have been spent on whoring out Boobsie's chest to Fan Service. Character animation is either dull or non-existant with facial expressions being mostly non-descript and extremely basic - the kind you might expect from an amateur artist on deviantART rather than the studio which helped bring you the likes of Samurai Champloo, but then again this is the same studio which also brought us Naruto Shippuden so perhaps we shouldn't expect anything beyond the basics with which they need to satisfy their shallow customer base.
[HEADING=3]TEE TEES[/HEADING]
I'm sorry, did you say something?
[HEADING=3]Final comments[/HEADING]
A lot more could have been done to this series to make it better, however the series was practically crippled at birth by a low budget. I also find it disappointing that the series had good voice actors in both the Japanese and English dubs, but this is negated by a shitty script. The art could have been better as well as the sound. And since when is it necessary to have black screens come out of nowhere with text that might as well have been written by Captain Obvious himself?
Overall it isn't the best series I have seen nor the worst. It's more or less just a small development team with a small budget that got distracted and fucked around and the series itself ended up paying the price for it.
Needless to say, Grenadier does not recieve my seal of approval.
[HEADING=2]FINAL SCORE: 3/10[/HEADING]
[small][sup]
Review by: Timotei
Editing by: Amnestic
Inquisition by: Kuchinawa 212
Line ASK Productions 2009[/sup][/small]
[Img_Inline Caption="Her breasts are more than just bags of fat and skin, they also function
as an ammo pouch." Align="left"]http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn183/tenchi_2008/Grenadier.png[/Img_Inline]
"Fanservice exists only to cover up what is flawed." [small]- Suiseiseki IRL[/small]
No series (none that I have seen so far) exemplifies this more than Grenadier. A series which drips fanservice from almost every orifice and cleavage line. And any series where cleavage is used as a place to store your seemingly unlimited supply of bullets cannot be taken seriously.
I will state right now that Grenadier isn't just an empty shell in the shape of breasts. Underneath it's facepalm worthy dialogue, action, characters, sound effects, and the embarrassing amount of times the main character HAS to take a bath, you will find a somewhat (SOMEWHAT) decent plot and rather smooth character development.
[HEADING=3]Overview[/HEADING]
Let me begin by saying that the first few seconds of the opening theme sounds like porno music, but then switches into just a shitty song that is not in the least bit catchy. The first sign that the viewer is in for a world of eye sores. The story takes place in some land where time has apparently been all fucked up where you have people wearing samurai armor wielding full-auto assault rifles, a little kid that operates a powered suit of armor, and a main villain that wears clothing fit for King Henry VIII that has boosters built into the shoes who wields a gun that disintegrates matter and a mask that rips off Michael Myers. That's right, samurai with guns and flying Victorian cosplayers.
The fist episode begins with Yajiro Kojima, a mercenary swordsman and a bunch of other armor clad samurai wielding swords trying to storm a castle to rescue some old man. This would most likely have worked if the men defending the castle weren't armed with rifles and machine guns. Despite this fact, the samurai continue to throw themselves at the castle walls only to be killed faster than one can say "OH SHI-". Finally Yajiro and another man come to their senses and order a retreat and plan to assault the castle once more when the sun is out and they are all visible. Yajiro is chased around by some of the gunmen and runs across the story's other main character Rushuna Tendo (or as Amnestic and I like to refer to her: Boobsie McTitsalot), a revolver-toting pacifist *a contradiction already* who is seen taking a bath in a hot spring yet is perfectly fine with hiding Yajiro in the water with her with his face pressed up against the globes nailed to her chest. The two come across one another once again and it is here that Boobsie exhibits her flawless marksmanship with a revolver that would have Train Heartnet searching for a lawyer.
[Img_Inline Caption="Let the battle of the bra sizes commence." Align="Right"]http://i182.photobucket.com/albums/x148/HELLHAMMER_2007/Setsuna09.jpg[/Img_Inline]
To make a 24 minute episode short, Boobsie beats the guys defending the castle and continues on her way towards...wherever; there never really is an explanation where she intends on going since she later sets her sights on the capital of the nation which has no name once a bounty is placed on her head by the woman who trained her. What ensues is basically several fluff episodes with a few easily solved boss battles such as the Power Armor Boy, a giant robot, Mr. Sound Power Armor, Ms. Ithoughtyouwerefuckingdead Power Armor, a pervert who apparently who was last in line to get power armor only to find they gave them all away, and Scubaman. The series also gets a lot weirder with the introduction of a loli named Mikan who can make balloons into any shape or function including *wait for it* a bunny suit with enlarged breasts. The series then ends with the battle between Yajiro and The Mask as well as a battle between Boobsie and THE FINAL BOSS over who has the most unnecessarily sized tits. Eventually all is set right in the kingdom of Noname and our heroes head off to take many more baths.
Yeah it's not the best plot of all time and Boobsie is of course a huge-chested ripoff of Vash the Stampede. The first half of the series is rather slow, however it slowly starts to pick up and evolves into a somewhat decent storyline with a sense of mystery that is immediately buried under even larger breasts and more cleavage. If the writers hadn't focused on trying to create instances where Boobsie wants to take a bath then it could have been better. But hey, why have a storyline when you can have BOOBS? Also the characters develop into something somewhat different than what they started out as yet not anything that you couldn't see coming from a mile away. There is absolutely no element of surprise, unless you count all the times you find yourself saying "Is that truly possible"? The one question I found myself asking the most was "How does Rushuna not have back pains or balance issues?"
[Img_Inline Caption="Rushuna: Not the best example of a pacifist." Align="Center"]http://i98.photobucket.com/albums/l248/LuciferAmaraJocelyn/Anime/Grenadier3.jpg[/Img_Inline]
Also:
Unfortunately, Boobsie does not die a slow and painful death.
[HEADING=3]Dialogue[/HEADING]
I'll sum up the dialogue in almost any episode:
Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah *tits* blah blah blah blah blah blah *bath* blah blah blah blah blah Ya-chan blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah You cannot beat me blah blah blah blah IMPOSSIBLE YOU BEAT ME blah blah blah blah *moar tits* blah blah blah.
[HEADING=3]Sound[/HEADING]
The sound is very bland and unoriginal. What gets rather taxing are the sounds of gunshots which might as well have been stolen from a Powerpoint audio file.
[HEADING=3]Art[/HEADING]
[Img_Inline Caption="My serious face ************. Do you see it?" Align="Right"]http://i49.photobucket.com/albums/f275/jargongames/Grenadier12_Yajioru.jpg[/Img_Inline]
The art is rather vague and not very detailed. Not very much work was put into anything other than breasts and gelatin physics. Even 08th MS team had better art and that was made in a good 9 years before Grenadier and included breasts physics only to make the show more realistic. A lot more could have been done had they possibly had been given better artists and more time to make the series.
Most of the animation budget seems to have been spent on whoring out Boobsie's chest to Fan Service. Character animation is either dull or non-existant with facial expressions being mostly non-descript and extremely basic - the kind you might expect from an amateur artist on deviantART rather than the studio which helped bring you the likes of Samurai Champloo, but then again this is the same studio which also brought us Naruto Shippuden so perhaps we shouldn't expect anything beyond the basics with which they need to satisfy their shallow customer base.
[HEADING=3]TEE TEES[/HEADING]
I'm sorry, did you say something?
[HEADING=3]Final comments[/HEADING]
A lot more could have been done to this series to make it better, however the series was practically crippled at birth by a low budget. I also find it disappointing that the series had good voice actors in both the Japanese and English dubs, but this is negated by a shitty script. The art could have been better as well as the sound. And since when is it necessary to have black screens come out of nowhere with text that might as well have been written by Captain Obvious himself?
Overall it isn't the best series I have seen nor the worst. It's more or less just a small development team with a small budget that got distracted and fucked around and the series itself ended up paying the price for it.
Needless to say, Grenadier does not recieve my seal of approval.
[HEADING=2]FINAL SCORE: 3/10[/HEADING]
[small][sup]
Review by: Timotei
Editing by: Amnestic
Inquisition by: Kuchinawa 212
Line ASK Productions 2009[/sup][/small]
[HEADING=3]08th MS Team[/HEADING]
Link. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.145840-Timotei-Anime-Review-Mobile-Suit-Gundam-08th-MS-Team#3310325]
Link. [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/326.145840-Timotei-Anime-Review-Mobile-Suit-Gundam-08th-MS-Team#3310325]
