Two Sides of the Revenge Coin
Gun×Sword
There is a saying that too many cooks spoil the dish. In Gun x Sword or Gun Sword, too many condiments can make a dish bland? Spicy? Just right?
If you’ve never seen Gun Sword, it’s a twenty-six-episode anime released in 2005 currently airing on Funimation. Centered on an earthlike planet called the Planet of Endless illusion, Gun Sword follows the story of Van, a waifish sword toting vagabond dressed in a black tuxedo who bears a striking resemblance to Spike Speigel of Cowboy Bebop. Tribute much, my dear creators? Yes? Ok. I’ll carry on.
My inner dialogue can sometimes get the best of me, but as much as Gun Sword follows the story of Van and his tsundere loli Wendy as they search for the man with the Claw, I’m reminded that the carpet doesn’t match the drapes in this anime.
First, let me say that I love this anime. I love it because, spoilers; underneath this action, mecha, stripper pole, cult harem anime lies the story of two men affected by similar circumstances and how each would choose his path.
Not much is known about Van except that when Gadved finds him, he was a man of little self-worth. A man whose days blurred into another. We can infer a few things about him that he does not have parents or a last name. Throughout the anime, he is given descriptors; names like Van, the “Pretty Man in the Garbage Heap,” or Van, “Prisoner of Love,” These descriptions, as well as others, give us insight into his psyche. It is also stated in the anime that he is a virgin and a man of honor.
When Van begins to entertain his repressed memories, we learn that Elena would help move him from Van “The Unemployed” to Van of the Dawn. The latter would be his favorite. Elena was a scientist and incorporated Van in the Armor Dann of Thursday, one of the Original Seven Mecha used by their riders to police the Planet of Endless Illusion.
The Original Seven riders became corrupt; the man with the Claw would kill them, save Gadvad. It would be Gadvad who would introduce Elena and Van to the man with the Claw. She and Van would ultimately reject allegiance to “our Comrad’s” plans, and she would be mortally wounded on her wedding day. She and Van had fallen in love…..moving on.
Elena’s last request was for Gadvad to use her blood to save Van, a painful request to hear and a painful request that required revenge. From the moment of his resurrection, Van would spend the next three years searching for the man with the Claw. It would not be until he arrived in Evergreen that the chickens could begin coming home to roost.
Now, if Van is the sword? Who is the gun? Well, it isn’t one bullet Wendy. or yo-yo swinging Carmen 99; it’s Ray Lungrnad, the anime brother of bodybuilder and Rocky IV actor Dolf Lungrand.
Ray, who makes his full appearance in episode five, is an Armor rider whose late wife was also killed by the man with the Claw. Like Helena, Shino learned of the Claw’s actual plans and rejected his offer to join him. Also, like Helena, Shino worked on the Armors. Ray would fight in one of her creations, known as the Volkein. This Armor was the blueprint for the beam weapons used by the Original Seven Armors. The Vulkein was all that Ray had left of his wife, and he would use it to track down the Claw.
Similar in stature to Van, Ray is a blond-haired man dressed in white with a red scarf around his neck. His weapon of choice is a katana-like gun—the opposite of Van, who carries a sword gun.
Ray is a sad, brooding man, single-minded in his desire for revenge against the Claw to the point of taking a by any means necessary approach to achieve his goals. According to his younger brother, he was not always like this; before the death of his wife, he was a kind and compassionate man.
Because one of the underlying themes of Gun Sword centers on staying on “the path,” the two men are often at odds. Ray has no issue with destroying anyone who stands in his way of revenge, while Van prefers not to involve innocence. In Non-Claw matters, Van likes not to get involved. I believe this is a defense mechanism to avoid attachment. However, two things will set him off, the first being the Claw, he’ll go into a rage fest, and the second being straying from your journey. The latter is perhaps the other reason why he attempts to avoid others’ entanglements.
A few things change Van. The obvious is his interactions with Wendy and later Priscilla. Van struggled with remembering names (attachments), including Carmen and Wendy; however, upon meeting Priscilla, he remembers her name in Episode 14. Other reviews stated it is because her fighting ability was equal to his; I venture that a part of her reminded him of his late wife. I believe somewhere; he wondered if he could love again.
But before episode 14 in episode 13, he fights against his old friend Gadvad and is reminded of the repressed truth. He is given a choice of paths, retribution, or atonement. Van chooses retribution defeating his former friend, while Gadvad chooses atonement.
The complete reconciliation of Van’s emotional dishevelment does not occur until episode 16, and all I’ll say is its unrequited Odeipus love versus requited love, and requited love wins.
Ray does not receive the same treatment as Van as he is not the main series protagonist, so his story is overshadowed. Hideyuki, in my opinion, does give Ray enough depth to show that he isn’t a side act or just another fighter.
Ray loved his wife, and while he remarks that Van has a slew of women, it is shown that his heart (Ray) was closed off to the prospect of loving another woman. Yukiko does attempt to warm up to him though he brushes off her slight advance. When Ray fights Fasilina, she notes that she has never fought someone with such callousness and aggression. Her erotic fighting style was such that it was a tool to defeat her opponents but held no sway against Ray or Van.
Ray’s desire to kill the Claw and die to be with his wife (Gladiator) brings a bit of sadness. He does meet his wife again in eternity and remarks that he had awakened from a dream. But I wonder if his late wife would have wanted him to continue living. Perhaps it was the only course he could take when his eyes are injured—seeing his remaining vision to the end. He does reconcile with his brother Joshua whose selflessness helped him see again. Ray’s last words before dying were a thank you to his younger brother.
Though it is not the most cohesive story Gun Sword is a heavy anime in its finality as the main protagonist obtains his revenge but must continue living. Because Van via reconstruction is a part of Dann, he is semi-immortal. Such a path is a gift, and a curse as loss looms over the horizon even if he loves again.
