Gun X Sword Volume 6

Having just revealed his plans – albeit without much elaboration on the details – the Claw prepares to reshape the minds of everyone in th world, so they can live together in peace, while Fasalina tries to hold off Van and the others to bide their time.

Priscilla, Carmen and Wendy all separate from the rest in order to make their own way there, but none of them manage to stop the launch of Michael’s Armour into orbit and Ray, who steadied a cannon not far away,  is also prevented from destroying it by Fasalina, who Van couldn’t manage to defeat. By the time all this is done, and now in space, Michael shoots down the satellite that houses and repairs Dann, leaving the team far less capable and with fewer options than when they arrived on the island, where the Claw plans to go through with his ambitions.

Ray, also paralysed by the damage Fasalina’s Armour caused his, can only join his former rivals, installing its engine into Dann, with the aim of launching and installing it in one of the orbital satellites of the fallen Original Seven. Much of the volume then follows this line of action, with a series of prolonged fights and just three episodes, to ensure that the same number is maintained for the last volume as well.

Fasalina takes centre stage as opposition during this volume, but is annoying and flawed, acting with much certainty and prowess, but not seeming to justify her abilities. The sexual overtones surrounding her are also constant, and only come off as gratuitous or unnecessary. The aesthetics of the Armours (or mechs) of the series also starts to look borrowed, at about this point, with Evangelion being an obvious example, when Michael’s Armour spreads wings and Dann is shown to be noticeably human.

In terms of the Claw’s ideology, at this point in the series at least, deliberate obfuscation seems to be a tactic in hiding emptiness, with the moral question of the implications of removing evil from the world being handled in a far less subtle and prominent way than in other recent series, like Deathnote. Considering how much time is spent circling the Claw, his followers and ideology, especially in these most recent volumes, this is quite disappointing, but there’s still room in the final volume for revelation of course.

In Summary:

Gun Sword is a fair adventure series, but its sometimes empty or flawed villains aren’t as compelling as they should be and little has come of the story even this late on, despite the sense of the of a creeping pace.