I'm going to come right out and say it; I love samurai anime. I just can't seem to get enough of it no matter what series I'm watching. Of course just watching a series with a standard theme doesn't really cut it now-a-days. From shows like Samurai 7 to Samurai Champloo there are several series out there that like to shake things up a bit. Ladies and Gentlemen welcome to yet another samurai with a unique spin, Samurai Gun.

The atmosphere here is a little different and this is one of those anime that doesn't beat around the bush. It gets up in your face with loads of over the top violence, adult themes and tons of action. Sexuality and senseless murder are prevalent themes in Samurai Gun and it has a very seedy atmosphere for the time period its set in. All of these things put together sets this show apart from the rest of the anime crowd and it is definitely aimed towards an older audience.

The focus of the show centers on a one-eyed man named Ichimatsu and follows his exploits as a member of the Samurai Gun. They are an elite special force commanded by something called the council, which basically acts like a black ops government agency. Ichimatsu doesn't go at alone though and he teams up with his friends Daimon and Kurenai to carry out the Samurai Gun missions.

In the third volume Ichimatsu had to escort Sutekichi and some blueprints for a new piece of military weaponry. As they approached the Kikou Mountain Great Valley Bridge they knew full-well that there was going to be an ambush, but Ichi-san's mind wasn't exactly in the game. He had been having nightmares about his sister's murder and powerful inklings for revenge for the murderer. There was also another mission that involved rescuing a glorified meteorologist known as a predictor. Ichimatsu also found himself in a bit of a sticky situation and was facing off against a mysterious masked man.

The progression of this series has been an interesting one. The show doesn't really have a lot of continuity to it and that really has been a deterrent for me. The episodes are very stand-alone and apart from the whole Samurai Gun and Anti-Samurai Unit rivalry there really isn't much of a story to follow. The fact that there have only been three episodes on each volume hasn't helped matters along either. This fourth volume represents the very last exploits of the Samurai Gun unit and even though there are only two broadcast episodes on the disc there is a third "un-aired" episode.

The first episode here features a rogue Samurai Gun agent named Gouta going around and killing everybody. He was apparently an original member of the organization but slaughtered so many people that he eventually couldn't stop himself. When Ichimatsu's girl gets kidnapped by the butcher, he also receives a letter calling him out. The two old friends get together but the party is just getting started when a newly constructed heavy samurai gun unit arrives to blow everything up.

While there is an unaired episode that fits into the mix somewhere between episodes eight and nine, the series pretty much ends here. The finale is so anti-climactic and open-ended that it begs for loose ends to be tied up. Unfortunately that doesn't happen and we are left with so many unanswered questions it's frustrating beyond belief. What happens with the anti-samurai unit? What's the deal with the counsel? More importantly, what becomes of all of the main characters? There is a little snippet after the credits of the twelfth episode but in all fairness it doesn't do much other than raise more questions.

Samurai Gun was a show with a different atmosphere than most run of the mill anime. The tone was darker and the action was over the top. There was also a certain mystery surrounding every little thing in the show. You could label that as part of the charm or chalk it up under the category of frustrating. It's certainly easier to raise and ask questions than to answer them and this show proved that the creators didn't really have the answers. So many things were left open at the end of the series that it really irritated me. If you've been watching the show since the first volume then you'll want to grab this for the action and un-aired episode.

Samurai Gun is presented with a 1.33:1 full frame aspect ratio and looks pretty good on DVD. The image is very crisp and colorful with a great use of some animation techniques to spruce things up. My only real complaints are that there is some grain that appears in some scenes as well as some pixilation in the darker ones. At some points this grain looked like it was a part of the print, but it seemed to be mostly attributed to the backgrounds. In a couple parts I noticed some aliasing, but it wasn't anything too glaring or blatantly obvious.

There are two ways to watch this show as is the anime standard now-a-days. For all you dubbing fans out there you will definitely enjoy the 5.1 Dolby English set up since it features a decent channel mix. Most things come from the front channels though, but it's a step up in terms of quality from the Japanese 2.0 track. While I don't mind listening to the English tracks, I tend to enjoy my experience more with subtitles and the original language going.

Samurai Gun Volume 4 features some bonus material worth mentioning just like the rest of the volumes. Clean opening and closing animations find their way onto this disc again as does some character and production art galleries. Just like the last installments as well the "Fun with Audio" makes its return and is really the crowning jewel of the extra stuff. There're jokes about anal beads, golden showers, and even a bag of Cheetos. These skits run at just about six minutes and are hit or miss as far as how funny they are.

Samurai Gun was one of those shows that in the end didn't really go anywhere. Sure the trip was fun and the characters were interesting enough, but the ending just left me with an overall feeling like, "yeah, and?" It just didn't sit well with me that there was no resolution to anything though I suppose you could chalk that up to being part of the nature of this show. The episodes were always fairly stand-alone with little to no continuity so why should I have been surprised by the ending? Overall the series was decent enough to recommend, but you'll probably be better off waiting for a thinpak collection because the three episodes per disc thing is rather light content-wise.

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