Gun Frontier

Title:Gun Frontier
ガンフロンティア
Overall:Rent
Keywords: , , , , ,
Notables: Original Concept - MATSUMOTO Leiji
R1 License - Media Blasters
SATOU Akemi
TACHIKAWA Megumi
It is a harsh and barren wasteland, where the weak aren't allowed to dream. It is also a sacred land for true men, for there is no place a man can feel more alive. This is the Gun Frontier. Sea Pirate Captain Harlock and the errant samurai, Tochiro arrive in the United States on the Western Frontier. Along with a mysterious woman they meet along the way, the two friends challenge sex rings, bandits, and corrupt sheriff. They are searching for a lost clan of Japanese immigrants, and they will tear Gun Frontier from end to end until they find it.
(summary from ANN)
13 TV episodes. Old West series by [notable:MATSUMOTO Leiji] with a remade version of the Harlock saga.

1:30min Series Opening - YouTube Video
[edit] The ↗Captain Harlock franchise:
  • (1982) Arcadia of My Youth (Movie, alternate retelling)
  • (1982) _ Arcadia of My Youth: Endless Orbit SSX (TV) (sequel, 22 TV episodes)
OverallArtAnimationCharacter Design MusicSeries StoryEpisode StoryReviewer
Watch 6 5 5 6 5 6 Ggultra2764 [series:734#1552]
Looks like this is Leiji Matsumoto's effort in trying to make a western-themed anime. Here, Harlock and Tochiro are cowboys in the American Wild West seeking the whereabouts of Tochiro's Japanese people and encountering random members of a secret enemy syndicate. There's some depth provided in Tochiro's purpose and how he became acquainted with Harlock. In addition, this title is noticeably more adult in its content than most of Matsumoto's animated works with enough onscreen deaths, prostitution, nudity (non-detailed, but still there) and moments of implied intercourse and rape.

However, Gun Frontier still carries the typical quirks and flaws you can find in a Matsumoto work. Some of the locales visited by Harlock and Tochiro have rules a bit on the ridiculous side that are meant to be funny, yet seem juvenile and not meant for the adult audience this series seems to be targeting. The series also seems a bit misogynist at many points with its treatment of women where mostly every guy that Harlock and Tochiro encounter are a bunch of horndogs lusting for the prettiest woman in sight who gets mistreated or raped and Sinunora, the woman accompanying Harlock and Tochiro in their journey, is regularly stripped nude and nearly raped in nearly every episode of this series. The series carries with it the typical problems of a Matsumoto work in that you have deformed and crude looking character designs (counting Tochiro) among the cast and the show's spouting of "being a real man", which I've come to see as nothing more than empty rhetoric in Matsumoto's works since the spewing keeps getting uttered for cheap dramatics. This series also carries a similar flaw as Harlock Saga in that it lacks a conclusive ending.

While I'll give the series some credit for trying something different with the Leijiverse outside of a space opera, Gun Frontier still carries some pretty significant flaws that are either typical of a Matsumoto work or are unique to the anime itself. As a matter of fact, I'm not even sure where this would fit in with any continuity to Leijiverse considering the minimal sci-fi elements found in Gun Frontier.

Last updated Saturday, March 23 2013. Created Saturday, March 23 2013.
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Last updated Tuesday, May 04 2010. Created Thursday, April 02 2009.
Buy Jer Alford [series:734#614]
In this remake of Captain Harlock, the scar-faced space pirate is in this series a drifting gunslinger along with his midget piano-teethed commrade Tochiro. Tochiro is bad with a gun, but swift with the sword he keeps in his staff. They go from town to town causing trouble but ultimately puting things right, despite the fact that they kill alot of people along the way to do so. They are looking for a group of Japanese immigrants in the western United States during the old west. Hoping to find a lead at Samurai Creek, they get more than they bargained for. Harlock and Tochiro ultimately become enemies of a group known as the Orginization(a pseudonym used by numerous bad guy groups in anime). Gun Frontier lasted only 13 episodes, and whether it has any definative connection to the futuristic Captain Harlock is uncertain, much like alot of the continuity in what is called the "Lejiverse".

Last updated Wednesday, February 25 2004. Created Wednesday, February 25 2004.

Other Sites
NameURL
Media Blasters http://www.media-blasters
The production company behind the U.S. release.
Japanese Series Web Site http://www.leiji-matsumoto.ne.jp/gunfrontier/top.html

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