Gravitation-Anime-Review
July 9th 2010 06:21
Gravitation - Anime Review
Information:
Studio: Studio DEEN
Length: 13 Episodes
Year: 2000
Genre: Shounen-ai, Romance, Drama, Comedy, Music
Synopsis:
Following the antics of Shindou Shuichi and his band, Bad Luck, Gravitation stays lighthearted while working through its characters' rather hard-hitting personal issues.
Review:
The series circles around Shuichi's attempts to become a great singer that get thrown off track by his meeting--and falling in love with-- the famous novelist, Yuki Eiri; and around Eiri's attempts to maintain his collected lifestyle after Shuichi invades, bringing up old memories and changing the way Eiri sees the world. I had ventured into watching Gravitation thinking that it was purely about an aspiring pop-star. Little did I know it happened to be one of the more popular yaoi titles around. Review based on MVM Entertainment DVD release (UK/Europe). The animation considering its age, I found it fairly appealing. The colours were chosen well, with decent character design. Fans of shounen-ai would love the mass of lovely looking men on screen. As animation quality goes, it was better than average. The story was admittedly my first ever exposure to a yaoi title and I was VERY apprehensive about it. Thankfully the 'love' scenes were handled delicately without too much exposure on screen. Despite its target audience the general plot managed to tick all the right boxes with a decent balance of humour, seriousness and of course romance. Whilst not overtly original it made for a refreshing change having the setting in the music industry. I think if this were a regular 'girl-boy' story Gravitation would have certainly received more positive plaudits from a wider range of viewers for its better than average attempt at a well-rounded plot and story. Unfortunately it's this very genre which immediately alienates so many fans. The characters of the anime on which the main protagonists were polar opposites. You have the incredibly sweet and naïve Shuichi trying to win the heart of the distantly cold Eiri. With the exception of Eiri the cast as a whole were developed at a good pace. Shuichi remained far too childish for my tastes, but the supporting cast members contributed to their roles. The music and sound of the anime even though this story is primarily based on the dreams of an aspiring musician I did not really enjoy the songs all that much. With the exception of the ED, I found the general taste of the songs rather saccharine. The Japanese VA's were good and the heart-wrenching moments were delivered well, but I found the English language version rather flat. I found the score was decent but nothing to really set the world on fire. In summary this will not appeal to all anime fans. Fans of yaoi would love this. Romance fans will find this unusually entertaining. Mecha and action fans will hate this. I've seen plenty of anime and I’ve learned over the years to judge a show purely on its own merit. This was a decently crafted show which I enjoyed more than I expected. As a romance story it really pulled on your heart strings. With the higher than expected amount of humour and the delicately handled subject matter (seen mostly off-screen thankfully) Gravitation is deserving of a decent 4 stars. As mentioned previously this may not be for everyone’s tastes.
Grade B (plus) - Recommended - Check it out if you are a shounen-ai fan.
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