Gun X Sword/Characters

Important characters in the Gun X Sword anime, and the tropes they embody.

NOT ALL SPOILERS HERE ARE MARKED YET

Van
"Voiced by Takanori Hoshino (JP), David Vincent (EN)"

- "DAMN! THAT'S GOOD!"

Main character of the show. In short, he was going to get married, some guy called "The Claw" iced his bride, and he's going to kill the guy in return. Along the way, he makes a name for himself as a total Badass, acquires a ton of names, and more or less goes a Roaring Rampage of Revenge to avenge the woman he loved.

His primary weapon is a sword which can morph into a grappling hook. However he can also summon a mecha called "Dann of Thursday" when the situation calls for it.


 * Badass Longcoat: Tuxedo, actually.
 * Big Eater
 * BFS: Variable at times, but generally he and his mecha, Dann of Thursday, carry one. For that matter, Dann transforms into one.
 * : Naturally, it also involves some Cue the Sun. He is Van of the Dawn.
 * Can't Hold His Liquor: The man drinks milk because booze does BAD things to him.
 * Celibate Hero
 * Chick Magnet/Nakama These two tend to go hand in hand, as Van seems to unintentionally get attractive women to follow in his wake (despite having no interest, as he's very devoted to his deceased lover), and manages to make friends despite his very personality militating against it. It gets so bad Ray Lundgren blatantly lampshades it.
 * Deadpan Snarker: Sometimes.
 * Determinator: With regard to vengeance; he may be apathetic about other things.
 * The Drifter: Both during the series and prior to meeting his (ill-fated) future wife.
 * Empathic Weapon: Dann of Thursday is this to him. He literally can't LIVE without it.
 * Estrogen Brigade Bait: You can tell by all the Shirtless Scenes.
 * Healing Factor: When he links with Dann of Thursday he can heal almost all the injuries he sustains. It's necessary for him to enter Dann once a week because.
 * Humongous Mecha: Dann of Thursday.
 * I Have Many Names: Van of the Dawn, Crybaby Van, Nice Guy Van...
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold
 * Kiai: CHESTOU!
 * Nice Hat
 * Not So Stoic: When he finally talks to Wendy about his love for Elena in episode 16.
 * Oblivious to Love: Pricilla is pretty obvious about her feelings, but he still doesn't notice until she confesses.
 * The Power of Love: He runs on this, as his love for Elena is what keeps him going.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge
 * Running Gag:
 * His ever-rotating nicknames.
 * Also, "Serve me *insert food here* and all the condiments you have" -> Eats the food -> Yell from the top of his lungs about the taste.
 * Samurai Cowboy: The hilt of his sword is a gun's handle. And his clothes and attitude supports it.
 * Shut UP, Hannibal: TWICE.


 * Later...


 * Slasher Smile: Van looks a little unhinged when he sees The Claw for the second time.
 * Spin to Deflect Stuff
 * The Stoic: Subverted when eating and when pissed; see also Not So Stoic, above.
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Every single condiment in history on whatever he's eating.
 * Walking the Earth
 * What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: Dann of Thursday's satellite base looks like a cross.

Wendy Garret
"Voiced by Houko Kuwashima (JP), Stephanie Sheh (EN)"

- "Van, you're horrible!"

Van's main traveling companion. She's an orphan with a strong sense of loyalty to her kidnapped brother: she'll risk anything to get him back. However, she is also deeply concerned with right and wrong, and is willing to put her sense of ethics above her emotions when necessary.


 * Action Survivor: She's pretty resourceful when need be.
 * Cool Pet: Her pet turtle Kameo counts for this big time. He helped make money when she had none,
 * Girlish Pigtails: Notable because in the scenes when she has her hair down, she frequently looks older.
 * Hairstyle Inertia: A flashback shows that when she was a small child, she wore the same pigtails as when she was a teen.
 * The Heart: She's the character who most cares about helping others in need, even if she hardly knows them.
 * Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Van towers over her. A sketch in the artbook really brings this home..
 * : A variation: she never explicitly promises this, but it seems to be what she's doing.
 * Jail Bait: She's probably somewhere around 13, but that doesn't stop grown men from threatening her sexually in episode 4. Good thing she's traveling with a protective Celibate Hero.
 * She's probably younger than that considering that  It's either that, or she's just REALLY underdeveloped.
 * Kid Sidekick: She's no good at fighting, but she's smarter and more grounded than Van, so sometimes steers him the right direction.
 * Modesty Shorts: When hiking across the world its a good idea to wear these.
 * Morality Pet: Hence, the quote above. She manages to temper Van's Jerkassedness somewhat.
 * Plucky Girl: She has her Damsel in Distress moments, but most of the time she's optimistic and determined.
 * Tagalong Kid: But for good reason! This is her role as part of the Five-Man Band, but when she's traveling alone with Van, she functions more as a Kid Sidekick.
 * Tsundere: She may seem like a sweet, innocent girl, but Van frequently brings out her irritable side.
 * Wise Beyond Their Years: Justified in that she and her brother have been living on their own for years.

Carul Mendoza/Carmen99
"Voiced by Kikuko Inoue (JP), Michelle Ruff (EN)"

- "Remember, I'm Carmen99!"

An information broker who has known Van for a long time, and happens to be one of his few friends (whether Van openly admits it or not). She originally was a neutral element in his life, but when her life is ruined by the same guy who murdered Van's wife-to-be, things become personal.


 * Action Girl
 * Ambiguously Brown
 * Big Breasts Big Deal: She is very proud of her chest. The 99 in her name refers to her measurements.
 * The Chick / occasional The Smart Guy.
 * Cool Big Sis: Assumes this role somewhat.
 * Deadpan Snarker
 * Foe Yay: With Fasalina.
 * I Lied: Jokingly tells Wendy she's in love with Van. Given who she is, it may or may not be true.
 * Impossibly Cool Clothes
 * Insistent Terminology
 * Kikuko Inoue: Somewhat A BIT Playing Against Type. Carmen is much more forward and aggressive than the role that Kikuko is usually typecast as.
 * Killer Yoyo
 * Meaningful Name: Carmen99. The 99 refers to her bust size in centimeters.
 * Ms. Fanservice: For the good guys.

Ray Lundgren
"Voiced by Takahiro Sakurai (JP), Liam O Brien (EN)"

- "When you're out for revenge, humanity just gets in the way!"

Ray, like Van, witnessed his wife murdered by the Claw, and took to getting revenge for her death. Unlike Van, however, he is willing to do anything to kill the Claw, even taking the lives of innocents who get in the way.


 * Aloof Big Brother: For most of the series, anyway.
 * Blond Guys Are Evil: Or at least so amoral they get close. Ray's hair is long too.
 * Blue Eyes: Specifically, Icy Blue Eyes.
 * Detached Sleeves: A rare male example. Oddly, his 'chaps' are also detached in the same manner as his sleeves.
 * Estrogen Brigade Bait: Just look at the man.
 * Everything's Better With Spinning: His armor, Volkain, is attached to a drill and often makes its entrance by burrowing up from the ground, in contrast to the falling Dann. It destroys most of a train station in Episode 13.
 * The Gunslinger: At first it looks like he prefers trick shots but his favorite gun and his Armor are better suited for flinging great quantities of lead.
 * Hidden Supplies: In addition to his pole-mounted submachine gun, Ray has at least one gun in his boot-heels.
 * Jerkass: Again, for most of the series.
 * Knight Templar Big Brother
 * The Rival: To Van.
 * Roaring Rampage of Revenge
 * Samurai Cowboy: Emphasis on the "Samurai," despite his reliance on firearms and his mecha's design.
 * Shadow Archetype: Again, to Van.
 * Trigger Happy: Very.
 * Would Hit a Girl: His first actual episode has him shoot two women individually before he drills a hole clean through their Armor.
 * In the same episode, he also fires at Wendy, and later threatens her again to keep Van from attacking him.
 * Shadow Archetype: Again, to Van.
 * Trigger Happy: Very.
 * Would Hit a Girl: His first actual episode has him shoot two women individually before he drills a hole clean through their Armor.
 * In the same episode, he also fires at Wendy, and later threatens her again to keep Van from attacking him.

Joshua Lundgren
"Voiced by Junko Noda (JP), Yuri Lowenthal (EN)"


 * Accidental Pervert: On numerous occasions.
 * Big Brother Complex: Subverted. Joshua is the younger one, and he despairs over the coldness of his big brother Ray.
 * Ditzy Genius: He's a brilliant engineer who can fix anything in the world, but he lacks common sense and sometimes tact.
 * Dogged Nice Guy: Semi self-inflicted. He's a very nice kid, but his innocent naivete tends to backfire around less patient people and makes them disdain him.
 * Dumb Blonde: He's kind of clueless.
 * Running Gag: "You don't have a lot of friends do you?"
 * The Smart Guy: He knows a lot about technology, including armor, explosives, and aeronautics. Doesn't know a lot else.
 * Stupid Good
 * Too Dumb to Live: Seriously comes off as this. Lampshaded by various characters.
 * Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Very respectful of women, his Accidental Pervert moments notwithstanding.
 * Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Very respectful of women, his Accidental Pervert moments notwithstanding.
 * Wouldn't Hit a Girl: Very respectful of women, his Accidental Pervert moments notwithstanding.

Pricilla
"Voiced by Saeko Chiba (JP), Carrie Savage (EN)"

An Armor pilot with a bit of an Idol Singer theme. First encountered by Van and the others in an armor tournament where she was fighting to earn enough prize money to save her orphanage.


 * Dance Battler: What her Armor fighting style amounts to.
 * Genki Girl
 * Rose-Haired Girl
 * Zettai Ryouiki

The El Dorado Five
A quintet of walking shout-outs to the days of themed combining super-robots. They were content to wait around in their town's cantina, tired and forgotten by the younger generation, until Van stumbled along one day and showed them that there are still people with the spirit of heroes.


 * Badass Spaniard: All of them.
 * Calling Your Attacks: Constantly. Pricilla even tells them their lead-in is a smidge long.
 * Cool Old Guy: All of them.
 * Drink Order: Tequila.
 * Dude, Where's My Respect?: At first it seems like the townsfolk don't appreciate their local retired heroes, but it turns out that's mostly the younger folks opinion. The sheriff in particular is kind of torn about having to regularly arrest his childhood heroes for drunk and disorderly conduct.
 * Five-Man Band: Albeit their The Chick is dead; her granddaughter Yukiko fills in spirit, motivating the others to keep fighting the good fight.
 * For Great Justice: Being Super Robot hero Expies, it comes with the territory.
 * Gratuitous Spanish: AAADIIOOOOS!!! AAAAMIIIIGOOOOO!!!
 * Hot Blooded
 * Old Superhero

The Claw
"Voiced by Kenyuu Horiuchi (JP), Kirk Thornton (EN)"

A... very nice, affable old man who is a Friend to All Living Things, polite, soft-spoken and loves everyone... except that he's the Big Bad. While his motives may seem good, his final goal is morally problematic. His charisma is one of his main strengths: he gathered a lot of followers by merely 'helping' them. However, he has also committed his share of murders, namely Van's bride Elena and Ray's wife Shino, which marked him as the ultimate target of their bloody revenge.

Tropes associated with The Claw:
 * Affably Evil: And how.
 * And Call Him George: He has a habit of killing people because of this, although it's ambiguous the degree to which it's accidental versus accidentally-on-purpose.
 * Big Bad
 * Cool Old Guy: An evil version of this.
 * Friend to All Living Things
 * Hey It's That Voice: Yes, we've got ourselves a 'nice', old, senile Raiden.
 * Insane Troll Logic: The various ways that he downplays and justifies his crimes can often fall into this. For instance, him explaining to Ray that his murder of the latter's wife wasn't such a big deal because 'she still lives on in your heart, doesn't she?' The viewer is left rather surprised that Ray does not immediately fill him full of holes and explain to him that his missing organs aren't such a big deal because they, too, still live on in his heart.
 * Love You and Everybody
 * No Name Given: He's only called 'Clawed Man' or 'Comrade'.
 * Obliviously Evil: He doesn't even realize when he has bear-hugged one of his own minions to death by slashing their back out until it's too late.
 * Really Seven Hundred Years Old: He looks in his late eighties.
 * Villain Ball: Grabs it when Michael offers to help Wu kill Van and he refuses him.
 * Villain With Good Publicity: Like you wouldn't believe.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: At least, that's one interpretation.
 * Villain Ball: Grabs it when Michael offers to help Wu kill Van and he refuses him.
 * Villain With Good Publicity: Like you wouldn't believe.
 * Well-Intentioned Extremist: At least, that's one interpretation.

Michael Garret
"Voiced by Soichiro Hoshi (JP), Johnny Yong Bosch (EN)"

Wendy's brother. At first kidnapped against his will by The Claw, he is later charmed with The Claw's methods and faithfully served him, abandoning his sister. He also strikes a relationship with Fasalina and goes a bit more on the extreme side later on. He is later selected as the pilot of Saudade of Sunday and spends his life protecting The Claw.

Tropes associated with Michael:
 * Aloof Big Brother
 * The Dragon
 * It's Personal: Michael hates Van because Van killed Gadved, and (Michael thinks) kidnapped Wendy. Van, on his part, blames Michael for abandoning Wendy.
 * Only a Flesh Wound:
 * Punch Clock Villain: Well if he is not doing 'evil', he mostly spends his time trying his damnedest to befriend his fellow friends.
 * Stockholm Syndrome: Overlaps with Lima Syndrome in regards to him and Fasalina.
 * The Power of Love: Subverted, as his relationship with Fasalina was one of the main reasons he stayed with The Claw.
 * Stockholm Syndrome: Overlaps with Lima Syndrome in regards to him and Fasalina.
 * The Power of Love: Subverted, as his relationship with Fasalina was one of the main reasons he stayed with The Claw.

Fasalina
"Voiced by Masayo Kurata (JP), Karen Strassman (EN)"

A blank-eyed beautiful woman who was formerly a slut/prostitute/pole dancer and came to hate her own, unclean body. Until The Claw rescued her and promised her the new world where she can be cleansed from her unclean body. Cool-headed, polite and soft-spoken, she is somewhat The Claw's second in command. She grew interested in Michael, and later. She's also Carmen 99's arch-enemy, as she is responsible of the death of Carmen's friend, her hometown's destruction and her fall from grace. She pilots the Dahlia of Wednesday.

Tropes associated with Fasalina:


 * Affably Evil
 * Berserk Button: There's nothing that can actually make her angry, but calling her a whore comes close.
 * Boobs of Steel: She is quite possibly the most powerful female in The Claw's group, if not the whole series, and the bustiest as well. Granted, of the two named females in the Claw's group she's the only one who's an adult.
 * Broken Bird
 * Cool Big Sis: Evil version.
 * Close Call Haircut: Carmen gave her one in the final episode.
 * Dance Battler: While in her mecha, she controls it by dancing on a pole.
 * Dark Action Girl
 * The Dragon: More or less serves as The Claw's second in command.
 * Evil Counterpart: To Carmen 99.
 * Foe Yay: She and Carmen really like antagonizing each other. She tries this on Van, but it fails due to him being a Celibate Hero.
 * Hey It's That Voice: Quite possibly one of the first instances of Masayo Kurata jumping up from 'adorable little girl' to... well look above. Also in the US, she has Karen Strassman for her voice.
 * Orgasmic Combat: She, uh, really gets into her duel with Van. Complete with blush and innuendo.
 * Pet the Dog: Semi-played straight, albeit a little late. If she wasn't so broken, she wouldn't be nearly as messed up, and she did genuinely try to be The Heart of the antagonist team (even the Jerkass Tyke Bomb Carossa had a soft spot for her), and even truly falling for Michael at one point.
 * Shadow Archetype: To Carmen 99.
 * Simple Staff: Main weapon of choice; the Dahlia of Wednesday also carries this over.
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo

Carossa & Melissa
"Carossa voiced by Makiko Ohmoto (JP), Sterling Beaumon (EN)

Melissa voiced by Chiwa Saito (JP), Megan Harvey (EN)"


 * Big Brother Complex: Played utterly straight in Carossa's case.
 * Creepy Children: Sometimes.
 * Emotionless Girl: Melissa borders on this most of the time.
 * Enfante Terrible
 * Jerk With a Heart of Gold: The jerk part is subverted with Carossa who just wants to protect his sister Melissa. Mostly a way of projecting his massive insecurities, and both Fasalina and his sister managed to get his softer side to show.
 * Knight Templar Big Brother: Carossa is definitely one of these, due to his overprotective nature of his younger twin sister Melissa.
 * Punch Clock Villain: When not working for the bad guys, these kids aren't all that different from the average brother/sister dynamic you'd see at their ages.
 * Shrinking Violet: Melissa is very shy.
 * Sibling Yin-Yang
 * Twincest: Not often played up due to their age, but they lick each others tears.
 * Shrinking Violet: Melissa is very shy.
 * Sibling Yin-Yang
 * Twincest: Not often played up due to their age, but they lick each others tears.
 * Twincest: Not often played up due to their age, but they lick each others tears.

William Will Wu
"Voiced by Mistuaki Madono (JP), Dameon Clarke (EN)"


 * Alliterative Name
 * Axe Crazy
 * Badass Long Hair
 * Berserk Button: Because his castle is a symbol of his mother to him, he really hates it when other people touch it.
 * Blond Guys Are Evil
 * Madness Mantra: "I didn't want to, but I did..."
 * Momma's Boy
 * Mommy Issues
 * Oedipus Rex: And HOW!
 * The Power of Love: Well, he claims that discarding his love for his mother made him stronger. If so, it didn't do him much good.
 * Royal Rapier
 * The Stoic
 * Not So Stoic
 * Not So Stoic

Gadved
"Voiced by Kazuhiko Kishino (JP), Dan Woren (EN)"


 * Affably Evil: Quite possibly the 'sanest' the Dysfunction Junction group could get, other than Michael.
 * An Axe to Grind: Favored weapon of his Armor, Diablo.
 * Broken Pedestal: For Van.
 * Face Heel Turn
 * Only Sane Man: As close as you could get in the Claw's organization anyways.
 * Only Sane Man: As close as you could get in the Claw's organization anyways.