Ask John: What are Some Good Girls With Guns Comedies?

Question:
I am enjoying Upotte!! so far. I like this series because this is a lighthearted take on the girls with guns genre. Are there any lighter-toned and comedic girls with guns of gunplay anime before this?

Answer:
I’ve also been quite enjoying the current Upotte! anime series partially because no other anime has ever combined pretty girls, schoolyard comedy, amusing history lessons on military armament, and plenty of tactical gunplay. The number of anime girls weilding guns is immense, and the number of “girls with guns” anime fairly substantial. But the vast majority of girls with guns anime are either not lighthearted and comical. Many of the candidate anime that are light and humorous don’t include prominent focus on guns or gunplay. For example, prominent girls with guns anime including Noir, Madlax, Black Lagoon, Gunsmith Cats, Gunslinger Girl, Angel Heart, and Mezzo Forte are not comedies. Anime that prominently feature gun-weilding women like Dirty Pair, Bakuretsu Tenshi, Aika, Armitage III, and Angel Beats don’t actually include a lot of gunplay or don’t focus primarily on guns and shooting. So anime that maintain a roughly even balance of bishoujo comedy and concentration on firearms, as Upotte! does, are rather rare.

Prior to Upotte!, the Burn Up! anime franchise may have been anime’s foremost comical girls with guns anime that actually has a heavy emphasis on guns and shooting. Dirty Pair may be anime’s foremost comical girls with guns anime, but the Dirty Pair anime largely doesn’t focus viewer attention specifically on weapons and gunplay the way the Burn Up! anime does. I personally prefer the original 1991 OVA, but the 1997 Burn-Up Excess arguably has the franchise’s most prominent exploitation of firearms.

2004’s Grenadier ~ Hohoemi no Senshi television series could be called a female Trigun in the respect that, like Trigun, the series is primarily a lighthearted fantasy adventure starring a skilled shooter. Grenadier episodes frequently climax with exhibitions of spectacular marksmanship, and the series ends with a literal anime recreation of the climactic gunfight from the 2002 American action movie Equilibrium.

The Miami Guns television series from 2000 met middling American viewer reception, but a receptive viewer should find it a noteworthy satire filled with gag references to gun-oriented action movies including Die Hard, The Matrix, Django, Leon: The Professional, Charlie’s Angels, Dirty Pair, and Golgo 13, not to mention an abundance of other references to films including 2001: A Space Odyssey, Friday the 13th, Godzilla, Evangelion, Initial D, Mach Go Go Go, Mononoke Hime, and Maison Ikkoku, to name a few. Miami Guns also features an abundance of gunplay and an emphasis on a variety of guns and expert shooting.

Stylistically, last year’s Hidan no Aria may be somewhat compared to the prior year’s Angel Beats! in the regard that it’s a teen sitcom drama with a tone inspired by light novels. But while both Hidan no Aria and Angel Beats! both include lots of shooting, Hidan no Aria focuses viewer attention on armament more consciously and prominently than does Angel Beats! I, personally, did not enjoy Hidan no Aria, but a viewer enjoying Upotte! may want to give it a shot (no pun intended).

2010’s Asobi ni Ikuyo!, very recently released on American Blu-ray under the title “Cat Planet Cuties,” is not centrally a girls with guns anime, but it does include a prominent sub-theme of armed girls, gunplay, and appreciation for high-powered real-world handguns.