This is a list of the fictional characters, with biographical details, in the Japanese anime Gun Sword (full name Gun x Sword: the "x" is silent) the story of which takes place on the fictional "Planet of Endless Illusion".

Protagonists

Van

Van is the primary protagonist of the series. He is traveling the world, searching after a mysterious man with an artificial claw hand who killed his bride, Helena, on the day of their wedding. Van swore to kill this man to avenge Helena.

His primary weapon is a shape-memory cloth held at his side like a pistol. When an electrical charge is run through the weapon, it can change configuration to a dueling sword or extend to grapple or embed itself into walls. Van can also spin it in place from its hilt at high speed to act as an efficient shield against projectiles.

Through his travels he has been given several titles, including: "Van the Unemployed", "Van the Freeloader", "Hangover Van", "Steel Van", "Invincible Van", "Pretty Boy Van from the Garbage Dump", "Van the Unsung Hero who Gives It All He's Got", "Van of the Dawn" (his favorite), "Daybreak Van", "Nice Guy Van", "Van that Weird Guy who Helped Out", "Van of a Thousand Conquests", "Van of a Thousand Naps" (according to Joshua), "Van, The Devil in The Poisoned Tuxedo", and "Van the Devil's Swallowtail Suit". Although laconic and calm of nature, whenever information about the Claw's whereabouts are mentioned, he quickly shifts to extreme anger.

His white Armor, Dann of Thursday, or simply Dann, is held in place over the planet in a crucifix-shaped satellite, and is launched to his position when he twists his hat 180 degrees, holes varying in size form on his sword and then swings a 'V' with his sword in the air. It is one of the strongest armors on the planet, and uses a sword as its primary weapon. Due to Van's position as one of the "Original Seven" he needs to enter his armor once a week to regenerate. If he does not, he will fall ill and eventually die. In addition, Dann's regenerative abilities grant Van immortality as long as he rides periodically.

Van tries his best to remain uninvolved with those he meets along his way, and if he does help them, he does so out of public sight. He has an extremely low tolerance for alcohol, and drinks milk instead. When dining, he asks for all the available seasonings or all the condiments.

Although unexplained at first, he also possesses an unusual scar on his stomach; a circle split vertically down the center with seven lines radiating from the outside.

Van has a habit of forgetting the names of those he meets on his travels, especially Carmen, much to her chagrin. It wasn't until later that he begins to remember consistently. The first whose name he begins to remember is Wendy. The only person's name whom he does remember right away is Priscilla because she is a strong opponent which Van considers to be almost on the same level as him.

He is shown to still love his wife Helena even after her death and shows no romantic interest in anyone else.

He suddenly disappears without saying goodbye, and doesn't show up until a few years later, unwittingly meeting Wendy at her home.

Wendy Garret

Wendy is Van's first traveling companion and joins him to find her brother Michael Garret who had been kidnapped by the Claw. Wendy is kind, compassionate, and determined and often wishes to assist those in need of help that they meet during their travel, in contrast to Van's policy of leaving everybody to him/herself. Around her neck is a pink tortoise, Kameo, that serves as a good luck charm, given to her by her brother. In the first episode it does so by stopping an incoming bullet meant for her, which leaves it with a dent in its shell.

Wendy grew up in a town called Evergreen with her brother, whom she deeply cares for as he protected her from danger in her early childhood days. She carries her brother's gun which she retrieved after his kidnapping. The gun contains only one bullet, and Wendy does not use it until the final episode of the anime, ironically to shoot her brother.

A point constantly made in the series is Wendy's coming of age. She is often irritated when people put her aside as a child and she has attempted various times to be more adult-like in Van's presence from when he dismissed her as a brat in the first episode to go back to her town, and Wendy tells him to stop treating her as a child because she was ready to be his wife at any time. With each progression in the story, she begins to be more ladylike as she learns more about the world. When she finally finds her brother, she decides to continue journeying with Van to find out what is right or wrong and what is true happiness, especially when she finds that she cannot deny that the world the Claw envisioned was attractive to her. She eventually follows Yukiko in trying to help the others despite not being able to fight. Also, Wendy grows to refute Van's statements at times, standing for her beliefs instead of subsiding. At the end, before Van departs, he remarks to her about how she'd grown since the first time he'd seen her in Evergreen.

(An older Wendy is seen years later at the end of the series, retelling the events of the series to a reporter. By that time, Kameo had grown to the size of a coffee table and Wendy's cooking had become oriented towards how 'Van liked it', as she explains to the reporter. At that point, Van stumbles into her house unexpectedly, asking for some food and milk yet again, and the two stare at each other in shock.)

Her relationship with Van is another aspect as it presented her with a revenge-driven drifter who still managed to be kind. She goes to extensive lengths to take care of him and it has been hinted quite constantly that she has feelings for him. Wendy refers to Van as her hero in the beginning, but sheds that title from him as she learns more about him, growing closer and seeing him with his flaws and his hidden side; she refers to this part of him with a memory of 'how very sweet and precious he looked when he was like that' (Episode 16 preview).

Carmen 99

Carmen 99 (real name, Carol Mendosa) is a bright and self-sufficient intelligence agent/mercenary who Van and Wendy encounter in the second episode of the anime, although Van apparently has met her before. The nickname 'Carmen 99', comes both from her bust measurement (99 cm) and the number of hidden accessories she always carries. She is often looking for more ways to earn money.

Carmen grew up in the town of Trinolia with her uncle and his daughter (having lost her parents), both of whom she shared a close friendship with until she left the town. Throughout the series, Carmen frequently leaves Van and Wendy's company to later reunite with them, until she finally joins forces with them at the final stand to save the planet.

In the second to the last episode, she infiltrates the Claw's headquarters along with Yukiko, planting bombs along the way. Carmen winds up in a room filled with the flowers that devastated her hometown, where she confronts Fasalina, her nemesis, for the last time. While they fight, Carmen admits to being jealous of Fasalina's directness, freedom and innocent appearance, but declares that she would rather die than become like her. When the Claw dies, Fasalina begs Carmen to kill her. At first, Carmen is more than happy to do so, but when she finds Michael Garret running towards Fasalina, she spares both of them.

In the end, she also admits to liking Van very much after he finally remembers her name, though she laughs it off, before flying away.

Ray Lundgren

Ray is a withdrawn and ruthless Armor pilot whose wife, Shino, was killed by the Man with the claw hand. He first appears in episode 4 at the last minute, making his main appearance in episode 5 but is opposed at first to Van. Like Van, he travels to find the Man with the claw hand and exact his revenge by killing him. Unlike Van he has far fewer qualms over who dies by interfering with him, something Van despises and is easily provoked by. However, according to Joshua, he apparently was completely different in behavior prior to his wife's death. Later in the series he reveals that he seeks to kill the Claw and then die too in order to meet Yoshimo again. Like Van, he also abstains from alcohol, drinking water instead, though drinks it in a sake cup.

Near the end of the series his eyes are injured and his vision is blurred. His vision remains blurred until he is killed on episode 24 while he tries to kill the Claw Man, his gunshots becoming more erratic with his deteriorating vision. His final shot temporarily derails the Claw's plans by lodging itself in the timer used by the Claw Man to activate his plan. He is then killed by security vehicles and falls down the steps. He is seen in his last scene in a sort of dream sequence where Shino is still alive and he remarks on the 'strange dream' he had before being reunited with her.

His rivalry with Van stems from the fact that both of them want to kill the Claw. Later in the series, they work together, although they show little concern for each other, even when engaged in combat with enemies.

Ray's primary weapon is a katana-shaped gun with a large magazine where the blade would be. He holds it just ahead of the hilt and spins a disc on the chamber to fire streams of bullets. He has several hidden weapons, such as the heels of his shoes. One acts as a very small hand held gun, while the other provides a way of summoning, remote-controlling, and self-destructing Volkan.

In many ways he is both very similar and opposite to Van. They both use Armors their wives worked on, completely dedicated to kill the Claw because he killed their wives, and are weak to alcohol. Where they are opposite is where Van wears a more western style, Ray wears more of a samurai style, Van uses a sword that looks like a gun, and Ray uses a gun that looks like a sword, Van focuses more on close combat where Ray fights with long distance, and finally Van summons his Armor from the sky where Ray summons his from the ground.

Last words: "Thank you...Josh."

Joshua Lundgren

Joshua is Ray's brother and is talkative, upbeat and sociable. Though he deeply cares for Ray, he is entirely different in behavior than his older brother. Joshua claims his brother changed to his present behavior after his wife, Shino, died at the hands of the Claw, and although he also loved Shino, he wishes for Ray to accept her death and return home instead of exacting his revenge on her killer. Joshua has great technical skills, being able to repair numerous everyday items, analyze armor weaknesses, and even set up timed explosives. Joshua is somewhat dense when it concerns females, however, since he just walks in on Priscilla when she was taking a shower, and entered a women's restroom to find Wendy in a train station.

When he and Wendy first meet, they instantly get along, probably because they share so much in common. However, Van finds Joshua very annoying, and when Joshua is hospitalized after being injured when Ray confronts the Claw for the first time in the series, Van leaves Joshua behind. however, Joshua manages to catch up with help from Carmen 99, and they rejoin Van and Wendy for the final showdown.

When Ray is killed, Joshua rushes to his aid, only to find himself captured by the Claw. However, before Yukiko can bust him out, he has already escaped, vowing to put a stop to the plan his older brother managed to stall before dying, and saves Yukiko as well. He is instrumental in the final battle as he succeeds in cutting power to Birthday thereby halting the Claw's plans.

The El Dorado Five Nero Josè Carlos Barrio