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| Gun X Sword | |
 Gun X Sword part one DVD cover | |
| ガン × ソード (Gan Sōdo) | |
|---|---|
| Anime television series | |
| Directed by | Gorō Taniguchi |
| Produced by | Hiroyuki Birukawa Hiroyuki Saeki |
| Written by | Hideyuki Kurata |
| Music by | Kōtarō Nakagawa |
| Studio | AIC ASTA |
| Licensed by | Crunchyroll[a] |
| Original network | TV Tokyo |
| English network | |
| Original run | July 4, 2005 – December 26, 2005 |
| Episodes | 26(List of episodes) |
Gun X Sword (Japanese:ガン × ソード,Hepburn:Gan Sōdo, stylized asGUN×SWORD), is a Japaneseanime television series animated byAIC A.S.T.A, written byHideyuki Kurata, and directed byGorō Taniguchi.
The story is set on the "Planet of Endless Illusion", a place where rogues of all sorts gather. The protagonist, Van, travels the world searching for a man with a clawed right hand who killed his bride. He is joined by several other travelers along the way, each linked to the clawed man by a personal loss.
Gun X Sword was first announced by JVC in May 2005 through the reveal of its official website.[1] Despite its aesthetics in the anime's premiere, directorGoro Taniguchi claimedGun Sword is not a Western series. He wanted to convey the series is not simple, that is why he decided to bring the mecha area already in the first episode. Kurata wanted to play homage to the mecha genre which had been highly popular during the making of the anime. Van was often compared withVash the Stampede fromTrigun due to how they avoid fights but Van was more written as a lazy character rather than the pacifist fighter from the other series. Still, the series is not only inspired by mecha such asVoltron, but also as Hollywood movies such asIndependence Day. Taniguchi expressed difficulties on the team working together to produce their own title after several discussion about the trajectory of the narrative. Takahiro Kimura made the character designs with Van's design having several primilar looks in the making of the series which took about six months to finish. Wendy and Carmen instead led to faster results. Meanwhile, Kurata wanted the villains to look menacing as a result of the episodic style using ideas fromRead or Die. His favorite villain was Lucky Roulette as he considers him an "epitome" of villains that commonly seen in B movies.[2]
As the first episode had a violent style, the next ones were instead given a more calm story, resulting in a change of villains into Baron Mayor. Kimura kept designing characters after reading the scripts. The thirteenth episode was specifically written as the midpoint of the story as the style would change and become more serious until the climax. Across the first half, the villains were written as hilarious until the introduction of the main antagonist, Claw. In order to make Claw stand out as a villain, he was given both a polite personality that contrasts his murderous intent. In the end, the staff believed Van's and Wendy's story were fully completed, making no need for a sequel. Several studios collaborated with Tangichu in the making of the anime, making it important for anime fans.[2]
The series aired onTV Tokyo from July 4 to December 26, 2005, totaling 26 episodes. It was collected in a total of thirteen DVD volumes by Victor between October 21, 2005 and October 25, 2023.[3][4] A Blu-ray box was released on April 26, 2017.[5] In the DVD volumes ofGun X Sword, there are 2 episodes tied into each volume in the extras with episode 13 on its own in the final one. The opening theme is "GUNXSWORD" byKōtarō Nakagawa while the ending themes are "A Rising Tide" byShuntarō Okino (episodes 1 to 8, 10, 12 to 16, 18 to 21, 23, 25), "Paradiso" by Hitomi (episodes 9 and 11), "S.O.S" byKikuko Inoue,Houko Kuwashima,Satsuki Yukino &Saeko Chiba (episode 17), "A Rising Tide" (acoustic version) by Shuntaro Okino (episode 22), "Calling You" by Shuntaro Okino (episode 24), and "GUNXSWORD" (starting again) byKotaro Nakagawa andOndekoza (episode 26). The insert songs are "Niji no Kanata" bySatsuki Yukino (episode 3) and "La Speranza" byHitomi (episodes 16, 25). Two official CD soundstracks were also released in Japan on September 22, 2005 and December 7, 2005.[6][7]
The series was licensed in June 2005 for North America byGeneon Entertainment, who produced an English dub overseen byNew Generation Pictures.[8] The dub is also available in Australia fromMadman Entertainment[9] and in theUnited Kingdom byMVM Films. AtAnime Central 2010, North American anime distributorFunimation announced that they have rescuedGun X Sword and re-released the series in late 2010.[10] In 2022,Crunchyroll got access to the series and started streaming it both in Japanese and English.[11]
These are a series of 13omake episodes ofGun Sword tied in very loosely to the plot with the characters as chibi puppets. The main characters are Wendy and her turtle, Kameo, the size of a human in this series and able to talk. Michael, Van and Carmen also appear voiced by their voice actors in the mainstream episodes. All the episodes seem to center around analyzing various events inGun X Sword and mocking the themes displayed.
A novelization of the anime by Hideyuki Kurata, was published byKadokawa Shoten on January 1, 2006.[12]
The series is included in the 2009Super Robot Wars game,Super Robot Wars K, for theNintendo DS, the 2019 gameSuper Robot Wars T forNintendo Switch andPlayStation 4 and the 2021 gameSuper Robot Wars 30 forNintendo Switch,PlayStation 4 andMicrosoft Windows.[13]
The official Blu-ray ofGun Sword sold 4,818 units in Japan.[14]
