Review of Gun X Sword: Vol. 4 - Fallen Knights

Introduction

It`s volume 4 time for `Gun X Sword` (easy on the `X`), so that pegs us about half-way through the run. It had been a fairly quality-consistent series, albeit with parts of the last volume being a mite on the disappointing side, but it made it up with a great exposition-heavy two-parter that served as a much needed break from endless mecha battling. This volume however, is a bit of a bummer. If you`ve invested in the series as it`s been released (and buying like that isn`t exactly pocket change) then you`ll be frustrated to learn that this time it`s a case of taking the rough with the smooth as this set of adventures not only fails to capitalise on the preceding events set in and around the train station with the opening episode, but follows it with one of the worst `GXS` episodes yet.

The disc begins with Van, Wendy, Carmen 99 and Ray`s annoying little brother finding themselves face to face with the notorious Claw and his group of devoted followers. After the smoke has cleared, the protagonists find themselves back on the hunt again as their enemies manage to flee following Van battling his old friend Gadved. During their travels, they battle a girl named Priscilla and her armour Brownie and take a much needed rest on an airship where Wendy tries her hand at acting mature, and Van finds himself the target of a revenge-fuelled madman.

Episodes:

13. On the Way Through the Dream
14. Swift Brownie
15. Neo Original
16. A Shine is an Electric Current Spark

Video

A top-notch 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer, probably the best you`ll see that doesn`t have the words `Ghost` or `Shell` in the title. Beautifully crisp and brilliantly hued with deeply saturated chroma and great contrast, `GXS` sports one of the brightest, most vivid colour palettes outside the works of Miyazaki. There`s a fleeting hint of aliasing now and again, but you have to try really hard to care. What may not be to everyone`s tastes is the choice of character design for Van, which is a sort of amalgam of traditional action anime design and the elongated, disproportionate characters that designer and director Masami Obari (`Virus Buster Serge`, `Fatal Fury`) likes to employ. But Van is the only main character to be drawn this way, if flashbacks of `Virus Buster Serge` and its overstated body models and gangly legs come crashing back to haunt you. All in all, `GXS` is a particularly stylish looking anime, particularly the anime-meets-James Bond opening credits, and the transfer is difficult to fault.

Audio

Your choices are three-fold when it comes to soundtracks. A native Japanese DTS 5.1 or Dolby Digital 2.0, and an English dub presented in Dolby Digital 5.1. The surround tracks are excellent. There`s sufficient directional implementation to remind you anime can do something special with 5.1 when it comes to travelling a soundstage, the dialogue is exceptionally clear through the center, and both the DD and DTS really know how to work a sub-woofer with the show`s gamut of various explosions, thuds and crunches.

The English translation from Californian dub house New Generation Pictures is spot on, and for the first time in a long time succeeds in representing a teenage girl in anime without having her sound either inherently whiny and annoying or shy and reserved. Wendy`s dub is full of youthful exuberance and character, and although Van is a stock tough-guy-loner, all terse and laconic, his performance doesn`t sound samey or feel overly contrived. As the show is set on an Earth-like planet with English featuring exclusively in the signposting and in towns, the English track could be considered the lead track in this instance.

Features

While `Gun X Sword-san` has always been a great little extra with better writing than the actual show, the dullness of the episodes on this disc make the computer-animated microseries look even better. There`s also the usual MVM gubbins as extras; if you don`t know what they are, why are you reading this review?

Conclusion

I distinctly remember saying something stupidly optimistic in a previous `GXS` review along the lines of "even if the show continues to be armour of the week, it`ll still be worth a watch". Well, I`m reneging on that, because, well, I`m a big fat reneger; this disc, the bulk of it inconsequential, self-contained episodes, is a particularly disappointing volume. You can`t expect even quality throughout volumes, as they`re basically a selection of sequential TV episodes lifted from a series graded on their own merit - and this is especially true when you`re half-way through a run - but `GXS` really has taken the mid-way sag to heart as these middling episodes take a noticeable dive in quality. The nod for the worm to turn here - after some fairly impressive scores for the preceding volumes - is really the first two episodes on the disc. The first, the resolution to the confrontation between Van/Wendy/Ray and The Claw, is super anti-climactic as, shockingly (read: not shockingly), the series antagonist makes a lucky escape to elude Van another day, and anyone expecting it to be settled in anything other than an armour battle will be frustrated.

The second is an utterly trite, goofy 14th episode; itself perhaps the most mind-numbing filler of any 26-episode anime series as Van enters into an armour battle contest. The disc also suffers from the way the episodes have been stacked. Ideally, the previous volume should have been five episodes long, with episode 13 - here opening volume 4 - rounding off the arc. Although there`s been a whiff of 80s small-screen sensibility about `Gun X Sword` from the beginning, watching the fourth volume really tends to remind of the Stephen J. Cannell, same shtick week-in, week-out approach to episodic television. Just like discerning audiences tired of over-predictability and decided they`d rather spend next week cleaning the gunk out of the cistern than watching Reno Raines karate-kicking more bad guys and riding off on his hog, Jim Rockford avoiding the bad guys and solving yet another case and The A-Team making their umpteenth tank out of a mouldy carrot and an envelope, there`s truly only so much of `GXS``s cycle of the same you can take before you decide to call it a day and give the next volume a miss.

It`s not like the elements aren`t present in this volume for some fairly entertaining stuff; there`s a new character introduced and even when the protagonists are nowhere near them, the goings on of the unnamed `bad guy stable` can be inserted into the narrative now we know a little more about them. But honestly, the main story has the plot development of your average TV commercial. It may simply be a poor volume - there`s always the chance that the show delivers a star turn in the next selection of episodes, but I just want them to step on the gas and get to the finale already; bored now. The double episode that rounds off the disc is decent enough, but like the rest, the further it pulls away from the initial premise of a sci-fi western spin on `The Fugitive`, the more it breeds contempt with (figuratively) cartoony peripheral characters who seem to do nothing but travel from one town to another getting in a mech scrape every episode. This is starting to feel like kids stuff, and it`s at least halfway over the shark.