Grenadier 6/10

Dictionary.com defines "grenadier" as:

1. A member of the British Grenadier Guards, the first regiment of the royal household infantry.

2. A soldier who is a member of a special corps or regiment.

3. A soldier equipped with grenades.

If you equate "grenades" with "large breasts" that about sums up Grenadier. Of course grenadier is also French for pomegranate tree. Read into THAT what you will.

This show is relatively new so we get some very high quality animation and backgrounds throughout the 12 episodes. The music is pretty good at times but I didn't consider the opening or ending themes anything special. There's some cool western guitar music during the fight scenes that's worth listening for. I liked all of the character designs and appreciated the large breasts many of the female characters are endowed with. Yay boobies! Of course there's pretty limited fan-service here, it's more of the tease kind but whatever. The Japanese VAs were all good as always. This show aired in 2004-05.

The story revolves around Rushuna , the busty blonde heroine of the story and her new samurai friend Yajirou. She's got impressive "guns", she's got a cowboy hat, she's got a skimpy outfit, and she's armed with a gun she knows how to use. At first they just sort of meander around fighting the baddie of the week, of course the deal with Rushuna is that she's non-violent and doesn't kill her enemies but usually just breaks their weapons with her gunfire. At about episode 6 Rushuna gets a price put on her head by her queen, Tenchi. Yajirou has a previous beef with the queen, which is why he's been hanging around Rushuna, so they head out with a little girl they pick up and go to the capital to confront her. On the way they continue to fight the baddie of the week, arrive, find out there's a big conspiracy, then save the day. Pretty white bread eh?

Did I mention she Rushuna strips down and has a bath in EVERY episode? Did I mention she reloads her gun by flipping fresh rounds out from between her breasts? Did I mention she ends up wearing various skimpy outfits throughout the series? Did I mention she gets her clothes nearly ripped off in every fight? Well she does.

In this show the characters are great but the story isn't. Rushuna's a pacifist but she has the easiest time of it I've ever seen. She's also amazingly one-dimensional. We get some character development from Yajirou and the little girl but we never really get to know Rushuna and it leaves her as somewhat of a shallow ditz. I'm comparing the pacifism theme of this show to Trigun and I'm not impressed at all with Grenadier's inept handling of a plot device that Trigun handled so amazingly.

This show was OK as mindless eye candy but not much else. The jiggle and fan-service isn't even up to snuff as far as I'm concerned. I guess I'm kinda, sorta recommending this series but I feel Grenadier is a shadow of what it could be.

(Did I mention the final dual is between 2 big breasted gun-toting girls who flip bullets out from between their breasts? It's a sight to behold.)