Oishii Furesshu: February Fanservice

Grenadier
/ fansub review 1

On first impressions, Grenadier seems to be little more than an excuse for titillation; putting itself in the category of Ecchi (meaning ‘naughty’ rather than the full-blown pornography that is hentai) – a sort of extended fan service.

When we are introduced to Tendou Rushuna, the titular Grenadier, we find a blonde bombshell with a cleavage to make the Grand Canyon jealous, but there is more to this pretty face than meets the eye.

Rushana is one of the Ten Heavenly Enlightened, sent by her Empress to bring peace to the land – “To erase the enemy’s will to fight, first requires having a smile”. And this she intends to do.
To help her on this quest, we discover that she is an unbelievably talented senshi (which seems to mean gunman); equipped with an impressive array of traditional and more exotic skills to enable her to take on the of hardest foes, all without bringing them too much harm, because of course, on her mission of peace she is not going to be killing anyone.

Yajirou, a samurai who is not impressed with the bullies wielding guns that plague the land and much prefers his trusted old sword, happens to bump into Rushana whilst on hire as a mercenary.
As they end up travelling together, Yajirou gradually comes around to Rushana’s way of thinking, watching as she defeats a series of enemies with her gun skills and heart-felt compassion.

A further companion is found in the form of Mikan, an orphaned daughter of balloon makers, who brings her bizarre inflatable creations to the aid of our heroes as she slowly learns from Rushana to get over the vengeance she seeks from the bandits who killed her parents. All of the characters have their own interesting back-stories but none tend to tie in with the plot as much as Mikans’.

During each episode, the group almost always faces a different foe (usually one of the other talented Ten Heavenly Enlightened) and given the range of tactics and skill at Rushana’s disposal, this of course makes for a whole load of entertaining battles. The enemies have interesting, bizarre abilities that range from a sonic weapon based on a mouth organ to a special bullet proof cloth.

The setting is a curious mix of 18th century Japan, steam-powered machines and modern-world firearms and yet the tone of the show isn’t so serious that you expect any graphic realism- more like fantastical cleavage and fantastical fights, coating a message of making peace with your enemies.

As I mentioned before, it’s hard to get away from the idea that Grenadier is basically Ecchi, what with Rushana’s fondness for taking baths, the tendency for her clothing to get more revealing during intense battles and settings such as the Peach Blossom Tower (pretty much a brothel), but given the conspiracy at the heart of the plot and the endearing characters, you can’t help feeling that the fan-service elements are incidental rather than essential to the show (despite the fact that Rushan keeps her ammo in her cleavage!).

It’s a good natured and beautifully animated series, funny rather than mushy but with a plot intriguing enough to make you stick with it. By the end you’ll feel you’ve got to know the characters, let’s hope they come back for another run.

Action, adventure and breasts, this hasn’t had the attention of other shows this season but it deserves to get some more fans, seek it out.

Ultimate Girls
/ fansub review 2

One day I expect that someone will write a book exploring the significance of the schoolgirl in modern Japanese culture.
Until that day, we’ll just have to get by on bewilderment.

Suffice to say, Ultimate Girls is another animé about Japanese schoolgirls. Specifically, it’s about Silk and her friends, Vivian and Tsubomi.
One sunny afternoon after a spot of shopping, Silk and her friends decide to go to the park for a bite to eat. But this is no ordinary city, oh no, this is a “mecca for monsters”. But that’s monsters of the godzilla sized soft vinyl toy variety, obviously.

Luckily UFO man, a dead ringer for Ultraman and equally as massive, turns up to save the day, but it’s then that we change scenes and find our girls have been trampled to death by the monster! Naturally, UFO man offers Silk an opportunity to come back from the dead, but only providing that she does what he says.
Next thing we know the girls are back and Silk discovers that what UFO man wants is for her to grab a phallic protuberance from his now tiny and hovering frame. Cue misunderstandings, a sharp slap from Vivian and ultimately the obligatory panty-shot as Silk undergoes her transformation into a skyscraper sized heroine.

Not happy after being pushed into a lake, the baby voiced monster pushes poor Silk back and its here on the ground she discovers that UFO man’s powers are waning, meaning her suit is vanishing leaving her hundreds of feet tall and totally naked. Fan service ahoy!
After realising her revealed state, Silk’s scream of panic unleashes her exploding-light power, vanquishing the monster and leaving her normal sized, forcing her to wear Tsubomi’s cosplay costume to protect her dignity.

Thus ends the first episode of Ultimate Girls, with no doubt many adventures to come. It’s an animé-parody-animé and whilst it doesn’t seem as stuffed with gags as Excel Saga, its short at 11 minute per episode and means there is enough going on to keep you occupied.
Whilst not the best show out at the moment, Ultimate Girls looks to be definitely worth following. Like the fascination with schoolgirls, this series will no doubt leave you confused and amused in equal measures.

Sunabouzu
/ fansub review 3

Sunabouzu is best described as an OTT action-comedy.

Set in a post-apocalyptic desert, a favourite setting of many animé series including Trigun, Wind of Amnesia and even Cowboy Bebop (to some extent), Sunabouzu is our anti hero, a highly skilled bounty hunter and gun for hire.
As we come to learn, he is also a breast-obsessed diminutive teen, not as chivalrous as you’d hope for a crusading hero but I suppose you’d expect a bounty hunter to be in it for the money.

Known as the Demon of the Desert, Sunabouzu is a crack shot with his beloved Winchester and has dozens of other tricks up his sleeve to help get one over on his opponents, and in keeping with the type of show this is, these face-offs often form the backbone of each episode.

Ranging from the usual bloodthirsty bandits to professional snipers to gargantuan tanks, these encounters are always entertaining, especially when Sunabouzu’s ingenious tactics come into play. His most formidable adversary seems to be a large chested female bounty hunter who provides fan service and a thorn in our hero’s side in some episodes.
Basically Sunabouzu is a talented little perv.

The opening and closing sequences reflect the tongue in cheek humour of the show. It opens with a live action Sunabouzu messing about in a desert with his trademark Winchester rifle, gasmask, cloak and sunhat (it’s pretty sunny after the apocalypse) and closes with a daft little song teaching us to draw Sunabouzu.

There is a (worrying?) attention to firearm authenticity, though unfortunately this doesn’t extend to the standard of animation, which often seems to be fall behind the current standards of a typical anime TV series. Despite this, Sunabouzu is a fun series and enjoyable to watch. In recent episodes we may be seeing a darker side to Sunabouzu (in contrast to the happy-go-lucky fun so far) and whilst this may turn out to be a bluff, you can’t always predict the outcome of a series and Sunabouzu may not turn out to be our golden-hearted anti-hero after all.

Not essential viewing but this series is definitely worth considering, give it a try.

(Images from: Itsumo Anime Blog and We Are Mizuho!)