Customer Reviews

Gravitation - Fateful First Encounter (Vol. 1) With Series Box

5 star:		(23)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As a brand-new fan of Anime, I count myself particularly lucky for having "Gravitation" as my first real exposure to this art form. I've read the Manga and was completely absorbed by the story and the characters. Buying the long-awaited DVD was just the next step...

Imagine my joy at coming home after work and finding my Gravitation Volume 1 DVD waiting on my doorstep. Before I went to bed, I'd watched the whole disk 3 times--twice in English and once in Japanese (and I don't even understand Japanese) and was so totally hooked it's almost scary. I instantly fell in love with the characters all over again now that they moved and had voices; I found myself in a panic that I'm going to have to wait a couple of months before the next volume comes out. I can't get enough!

The story is incredible: the irrepressible Shuichi Shindou is working toward his dream of being a rock star, but on the way he meets intense, mysterious (and way sexy) anti-hero Eiri Yuki. Gravitation is the force that pulls these opposites together and the love story that emerges is nothing short of brilliant. While there's a lot of material from the Manga that is left out of the series, the crucial elements of the story are there, shining through for us to experience. The general goofiness of Shuichi and the anime stylistic gags don't overshadow the deep, yet simple beauty of two people--in this case, two guys--falling in love and seeing where it will lead.

While I'm not yet an expert, I know something great when I see it, and this is it. RUN out and buy this DVD for the story, the characters, the artwork and especially the music (as an aside, I can't get the title tune out of my head and am already well on my way to memorizing the Japanese lyrics--the closing end credits music too). It is beautiful, addictive, meaningful and just a lot of fun, if nothing else.

For those of you who aren't familiar with Gravitation, either the anime or the manga, here's a brief explanation. Shuichi, the lead singer and songwriter of his band, is out walking one night and gets the lyrics of one of his new songs severely criticized by a mysterious, scary, and handsome man, the writer Eiri Yuki (technically Yuki Eiri, if you're watching the Japanese). So begins Shuichi's obsession with Yuki, leading to their sometimes cute and certainly turbulent relationship. Yes, they date each other, live together, and are both guys. If you strongly disapprove of this sort of thing, then you shouldn't buy this anime. However, the only thing you'll see on screen is a few kisses and some implied sex. The series mostly revolves around Shuichi's band and Yuki and Shuichi's relationship.

The Story Itself: To tell you the truth, this first volume is not the best. The story takes a few episodes to really warm up. Still, I wouldn't recommend beginning with the second volume, since you'd miss out on a lot. I just remember being worried, because I'd gone out and bought all four volumes ($20 a pop, eek!) and was wondering if I'd made a mistake. It really does get better, and these first episodes were definitely rewatchable after I realized that. The JPop music that is a big part of this anime is really pretty good, so you might find yourself wanting to buy the soundtracks after watching this.

The Voice Acting: When I get new Japanese anime, I first watch everything with the English dub, unless this is too painful to bear (I had that problem with Full Metal Panic). This way, I can get all the plot without having the watch subtitles, which might make me miss important and/or pretty visuals. Gravitation's English voice acting isn't awful, although there are certainly far better dubs out there (Fruits Basket and Cowboy Bebop, for instance). Of all the English dub voices, my favorites were K, Tohma, and Hiro. I now usually watch Gravitation in the original Japanese, because those voices are really excellent. It helps that Yuki's Japanese voice actor, Kazuhiko Inoue (who also voices Kakashi in Naruto), is one of my absolute favorite male Japanese voice actors.

The Extras: If you buy this licensed version, like I did, good for you, although you, like me, will probably spend more than you would like to. The extras are good enough to make the price paid seem not as horrible as it could have been. I know, that sounds wishy washy, but I always feel awful about paying $20 or more for only three episodes of something, especially when the episodes are only about 20 minutes each. Such is the sad life of an anime fan. Anyway, this disk includes a US trailer for Gravitation that I have never seen on anywhere besides this disk. There are also episode liner notes that are helpful for understanding some of the puns and thoroughly Japanese bits of the episodes. There are also profiles of Shuichi, Fujisaki, and Hiro, and an art gallery with black and white line drawings. This disk's trailers include His and Her Circumstances, Comic Party, Boogiepop Phantom, Shingu, Dangaizer 3, and KO Beast.

Overall Verdict: I've watched Gravitation over and over, so I would recommend this. However, the price is a consideration, especially since these episodes are not collected in a boxed set that would make things a little cheaper than buying one disk at a time. Some people may have problems with Shuichi, who can be whiny and annoying, or Yuki, who can be a cold jerk. Also, people with hang-ups about guy/guy relationships will probably have issues with this series. Finally, if you don't like JPop, this series will be a problem. If none of that is an issue for you, than by all means, buy this disk and the rest of the series. It's a bit cheaper than buying all the manga. And a quick word about that: the anime is not the manga - there are a ton of differences between the two. The anime shortens the overall story, which I found a bit disappointing, since I think this could've been a good 26 episode series, instead of 13. Several characters get cut or shortchanged due to this fact, and Shuichi and Yuki's relationship gets less development than I would have liked. However, on the plus side, the characters in the anime have much more stable personalities (Shuichi and especially Yuki's personalities seemed to fluctuate with every book in the manga), and the story is more cohesive.

I can't tell you how much I love Gravitation.

I had never understood yaoi. Why did so many girls seem to like it so much? What was the big deal with it? Then, one day, I thought, "Well, I've heard great things about Gravitation, and I know it's one of those kinds..." So, I downloaded the first episode. Later that night, the episode was done. So, I plugged my headphones into the computer's speakers, and watched it.

I was shocked... Amazed... And quite giddy. I couldn't stop grinning for an hour. I finally understood. "These guys are impossibly CUTE as a couple."

Later that night, I watched the episode again. I went on to download all of them, plus the OVAs, almost every single song. (I'm missing a few, and regretting downloading so many, because now there's not much left when I buy the CDs.) Bought a deck of Gravitation playing cards at a convention, along with the only Gravitation poster they had! (I was luck-y!) And currently am anticipating the release of the seventh volume of the manga.

Now I'm a crazy yaoi fan, and have Gravitation to thank for it. (Note: This is in NO way a bad thing!)

I absolutely cannot wait to buy this, and I absolutely will NOT buy it without the box. (I'm broke for a while, and have promised myself lots of manga and David Bowie CDs, as well as the Labrynth DVD before anything else.)

You, reading this review! Buy this!

Shounen-ai : Definition - boyxboy love, but not graphic.

Let's be clear, this is not "animated porn stuff" simply because it's about a BoyxBoy relationship. And now that we're all up to speed, I'll continue with the review.

I will honestly admit that I, myself, and not entirely comfortable of the topic of BoyxBoy relationships. That is part of the reason I was drawn to this anime. The other part was all of the great loyality I saw towards the series from others.

Though this anime series is romantic in nature, the creators spared none of the humor. Every episode has something you can laugh at. Sometimes it's Shuichi's goofy naivete and sometimes it's the hilarious situations. It's also fun to see that the typical laughter-provoking American stereotypes are alive and well in Mr. K, the manager and my personal favorite.

Understanding that this series revolves around Shuichi as a rising star in the music business, I would have been very surprised if the music had not been amazing. From Bad Luck's own song to the background music, this is definitely a soundtrack I would/am looking into buying.

The series itself deals with several different issues, not just the relationship, though that is the main issue. Often, after a bout of cold-shoulder from Yuki, Shuichi questions "Is it because I'm a guy?" The relationship between Shuichi and Yuki develops with the episodes. There are hard spots, and sweet spots, and spots where it seems there is no relationship at all.
Other issues include Shuichi realizing that he doesn't always have to live in the shadow of his idol, Ryuichi. He has the potential to succeed and surpass if he wants it.

The Voices: Unforunately, I cannot comment on the English voices, as I have not yet heard them. The Japanese voices are outstanding though. I would highly recommend watching the Japanese(with subtitles if you need them) when you watch this series. On the subject of english voices though, I would like to say that ADV Films, who dubbed this series, usually does very satisfactory work. (Sidenote: If you watch the original Japanese of both Gravitation and Inuyasha, have you noticed that the voice actor for Ryuichi and Inuyasha is the same? ^_^)

I would recommend this anime to anyone. Especially those who are still slightly uncomfortable with the topic of BoyxBoy relationships. This series was extremely well done and the themes and topics were extremely well executed.

5/5 for Gravitation.

As many people have already attested to the plot and general quality of the series, I'm just going to give an overview of my thoughts on the series as someone familiar with Gravitation's 3 various incarnations:

Gravitation is a series many fans are already familiar with, and has had quite a following in Japan for the last few years. The story is very simple and its success depends entirely on the character development-- after all, how many times can the "chasing your dream and finding love on the way" plot-line work on its *own* merits?

Thankfully, every character contributes strongly to the entirety of the 13 episode series. With a hot J-pop soundtrack, generally well-done animation (more so at the end of the series than the beginning), and a talented vocal cast, such a character-based drama is well-deserving of its success, though some would accuse it of being *too* character driven and not plotted enough (bah!-- certain genres suit certain themes and devices... a romance drama such as Gravitation requires more emphasis on the "soap opera" character elements than might the sci-fi/fantasy/action pieces that most American anime fans are familiar with... in Japan, the character drama tends to be more popular).

Gravitation has been available online in many places for quite some time, but the way I first saw the series was through buying the Hong-Kong version DVD import on e-bay. ^_^; Even then-- with bad subtitles-- the series was quite moving and constantly engaging.

Gravitation is a sweet romance story that occasionally gets a little bit sexual (kissing, snuggling, implied sex-scenes... lots of above-the-waist shots of naked men-- shocking, I know). The manga (of which I have the first 10 volumes in Japanese) is slightly more sexual (er... more aggressively so, shall we say) and has a plot that continues on much longer than the series.

As well, there is a 2 episode OVA (Original Video Animation) that is *much* more sexual than either the series or the manga, follows a parallel version of the series' events, and has even better production values. If you're interested, you might try looking up the OVA online... "back in the day" it wasn't too hard to find. As well, there have been radio dramas done of Gravitation, but that's more a Japanese fad than anything people in the U.S. would likely be interested in.

If anything, Gravitation provides an interesting look into how the Japanese character drama works, and, in that light, it succeeds beautifully.

For all anime fans new to the shonen ai world, Gravi is definitely a good place to start. But watch the anime before you read the manga or it will drive you nuts!! I know they couldn't stuff everything into the TV series, but they left out a ton of good stuff (Like the entire first half of manga Vol.1) Despite that, the animation and character design are fantastic and the story is both humorous and touching. I really have to agree on the dubbed voices... some are good and some are just awful. The worst part is that there's hardly and diversity among the voices, some of them sound so similar to eachother, you'd swear it was the same V.A. Thoma's voice is a huge improvement over the Japanese voice! He actually sounds like a 31-year-old instead of a 15-year-old. This is totally worth buying, but then go back and read the manga for the full story!

I've had a sneak preview of the entire first episode thanks to an Anime convention, and I won't spoil it for all of you who are waiting on it to come out, but for those of you on the verge of buying it who aren't sure: it's worth it! I watched the first dubbed episode and met the director, and it is so well-dubbed, the voices are SO well-cast, and it's well worth your money! Grab this one, it's a jewel!

Gravitation is the best anime I have ever seen. It is a shounen ai (boy's love) anime, meaning gay people are in it, but even people who do not like gay men can still love the show.
It is about a boy named Shuichi Shindou, his band Bad Luck, and the famous writer Eiri Yuki, and the troubles Shuichi goes through with rival bands (ASK, and half way through the series, Nittle Grasper), Yuki himself, and any other thing that may stand in Shuichi's way to happiness.
The characters are amazing and loveable, and are well developed. The animation is the best anime animation I have ever seen in my life, and the music is even better. Daisuke Asakura produces and writes all the music, MADS (Mad Soldiers), do all the music except two songs (done by either K.ITO + D.K or my favorite band of all time, Iceman). The people who sing/ play the music are professional and are really bands in Japan, which I find really cool.
The anime doesn't follow the manga perfectly, and skips a lot of things the manga had. And even though this is disapointing, the anime is still WONDERFUL, and the best anime I have ever seen in my life.

WOW. I've been watching romantic anime for a while, but this one takes the cake. It's beautiful and sweet, while still retaining the obvious fact that these two guys are just that... guys who fall in love. Each character has a unique personality; you could get addicted to it even if it didn't have the main story line of Suichi and Yuki falling in love. And Bishi heaven? *Sighs at the thought of Yuki, Suichi, Tohma, Ryu, and Hiro*. Yeah, if you're a bishi fan, you're in for a real treat. And actual plot on top of that -- I have no idea what's going to happen next in the series, but I can't wait to find out!! Though only three episodes on this disk, it's well worth your money!!

Based on the manga from Maki Murakami, this series was only available in fansub (japanese dialect with captions) up until now. One of the most popular shonen-ai (boy love) series of its time, and it's easy to see why.

First of all, the art. It's simply beautiful. The characters' expressions and movements are masterfully portrayed while still remaining true to Murakami's original style.

Secondly, the storyline. Shuichi Shindo wants to be a rock star. With the help of his best friend and guitarist, Hiroshi Nakano, he is able to put together his own band, Bad Luck. One day, while walking in the park, he happens to come across a foreign-looking man who criticizes him bluntly about his poor skills as a lyrics writer. This bothers Shuichi for a long time, and finally he is able to meet this man again. Soon, Shu begins to learn more about him, including his name and profession. He also discovers that he has become obsessed with this man in a way that he cannot understand. He thinks it is love. Could it be Gravitation?

Third, the voices. In a lot of cases with anime, the english version isn't quite as good compared to the japanese voices. It would be easy to make that same claim with this series-- after all, the japanese version had voices from well-proven actors such as Tomokazu Seki (Shuichi Shindo in Gravi, Kamui Shirou in X), Kappei Yamaguchi (Ryuichi Sakuma in Gravi, Subaru Sumeragi in Tokyo Babylon), and Koyasu Takehito (Sakano in Gravi, Hotohori in Fushigi Yugi). However, I think that the english actors did an awesome job on the characters here.

Last of all, the music. This aspect, perhaps, is by far the best part of the whole series. If you have listened to the Gravitation TV soundtrack (also found here at Amazon) or the Shuichi Shindo Vocal Collection (try Anime Castle), then you will know what I mean. When I first heard that this series was about a boy trying to become a rock star, I envisioned music that was hurriedly made, with repeated rhythms and melodies. Wrong. Each song in Gravitation is unique, and the beginning and ending themes (Super Drive and Glaring Dream-- they're included in the TV soundtrack) are the best anime beginning and ending themes that I've ever heard.