Review #110: Samurai Gun

• Episodes: 13
• Published: 04 (JP), 05 (US)

The place is Japan. The time, the start of the Industrial Revolution. The Shogun still rules with an iron fist, terrorizing the people with murder, rape, imprisonment, and more. Using ruthless men and the newest technology of the times, the agents of the Shogun maintain bloody order with an iron fist.

Enter the Samurai Gun.A group of covert fighters for justice, the group is made up of elite fighters trained to work with precision and speed to covertly work against the Shogun and his minions. Working together under the orders of the orders of a secret council, each Samurai Gun wears a distinctive beetle looking samurai suit and carries top secret, top of the line guns. They do everything from hostage rescue, to sabotage, document retrieval and delivery, spying, and more.

Ichimatsu is one of those Samurai Gun, a man with white hair, an eye patch, and a troubled past. During the day he works as a server at a local bar, staying in a small apartment room nearby. By night however, Ichimaru is given missions as a Samurai Gun, no matter how reluctant he is about the possibility he might have to kill once again. He’s often joined by a few fellow Samurai Gun from the area, including a local teacher named Daimon, and the bar’s resident singer Kurenai.

Unfortunately for the Samurai Gun, the Shogun’s organization isn’t still long. As the rebels begin to inflict wounds on the Shogun’s people and supplies, a group of Anti-Samurai Gun is organized, their only goal the elimination of the Samurai Gun organization. Using the best technology the Shogun has access too, as well as a devious set of evil traps meant to ensnare the moralistic Samurai Gun, Ichimatsu finds more and more that his wish not to kill pushed to the wayside again and again.

As time goes on we meet more and more of the initial Samurai Gun, each of which has a number, a number they were given during their initial training under harsh, and even brutal conditions. Each of the initial trainee’s family’s were killed by the orders of the Council and the children made to train to fight day in and day out for years. Ichimatsu finds out he’s not the only one with a compulsion to kill that he wants to hold back, even as those around him watch his mental state teeter closer and closer to the edge…

Samurai Gun is one of those classic examples of a one season anime that feels more like a pitch than a completed work. The plot paces itself fairly well to start, and even right up until the end things seem to progress at a natural pace, keeping new characters simple and interpersonal relationships the same. The problem comes in when the anime just ends, leaving a lot of plot lines and relationships unresolved in a way that speaks strongly of their being plans for a second season if things went well.

This would all be all right if the plot itself were more enjoyable. While there are interesting characters, fine voice acting, and a lovely art style that reminded me of a cross between Samurai Champloo and Lupin the 3rd, the action and plot itself is mostly forgettable. Even now, right after finishing the anime, I can barely remember most of the episodes. The few memorable set pieces were vastly outnumbered by the generic.

In the end, that’s the downfall of the series, despite all I liked about it, and despite the ramshackle ending. A lot of anime’s end early, so that’s something that someone who watches a lot can grow used to. Being generic and forgettable is the true death of a series, making an anime something left behind where even a truly bad series would be mocked years later. Samurai Gun isn’t a series that most will regret watching, and one that many will find enjoyable parts in. I don’t think there’s enough meat on the bones of the series however, and in the end it’s nothing more than a light snack that you forget you had the next meal.