this is one my favorite anime series. it's really almost perfect.
Gungrave tv Review
Brandon Heat was a part of the biggest corparation in the world, the Syndicate. They ruled over basically everything in their giant stratoscraper. One day, while riding up the HUGE elevator to the stratoscraper, Brandon's best friend, Harry, makes a plan to kill the boss and take over the company.
But then Harry made one wrong move... he told Brandon that he could have the boss's wife. Although Brandon loved her, he was sickened by the idea. So he punched Harry, and Harry put 12 caps in his stomach, and then shot him in the eye, sending him falling from the very high elevator. After Harry took over, he started the Necrolization project, which was supposed to bring people back from the dead as super human zombies and help Harry take over the rest of the world. Once again, Harry did something very wrong. He used the project to resurrect Brandon and use him as part of his army.
Now Brandon was a dead man. He had no memories or emotions. He was just one badly dressed killing machine. Brandon had become Beyond the Grave, or Grave for short. Grave, clad in really weird clothing, with his twin guns Cerberus and his coffin, went out into the world to find and kill Harry for all the trouble he has caused in the world.
Now that Grave is a super human, nothing will stop him until he finds Harry, and finishes him off for good.
Story & Characters
Never betray the family.
The family is the most basic structure of society, upon which all relationships are initially founded. Thus, treachery among family members is nigh unthinkable.
Especially if you’re a Mafioso.
It’s enough to put a strange and almost sentimental twist on an obvious and definitive cliché: First, what happens when you take a charismatic orphan with an ambitious Godfather complex, conjure him up an introverted super-marksman of a partner, and slap them smack-dab in the middle of the most powerful organized crime syndicate ever founded? Then add a coffin with an arsenal capable of downing a small army, a pinch of betrayal, and a hearty helping of necrolysis to the mix… and, lo and behold, you have Red’s Project Gungrave.
I was first recommended Gungrave TV by a comic artist who knew I’d watched Hellsing and Cowboy Bebop, and played Devil may Cry. Naturally, when I found that the anime had been designed by Yasuhiro Nightow of Trigun, my hopes dropped (Needless to say, Trigun was never much to my liking), but against much of my better sense, I decided to give it a once-over.
Gungrave fulfilled my expectations, and more.
Storywise, Gungrave’s got a healthy dose of action mafia-style, plus enough heart-wrenching drama that the tears will blind you for a week: a former sweeper for the mafia finds himself back from beyond the grave to protect a young girl by any means necessary from the individuals he once called family… Family and betrayal are motifs constantly intertwining throughout the series: What does it mean to have a family? What does it mean to betray? Not to mention the show’s first and eighteenth episodes do wonders at tying the flashback and present-day episodes together...
Character development is a must-see: unlike certain anime which I’m not going to name, this show doesn’t
suffer the plague of action halting in its tracks to explain a person’s historical background and motives
(*cough* Naruto *cough*). Where Hellsing takes form over function and Bebop function over form, Gungrave spins a unique
alchemy from the best of both worlds; suffice it to say this is anime’s answer to the Godfather movies. So when
you take away the man-made zombies and the one-man army-deal, you’ll find Red put a lot of effort into making the
story believably touching; Pulling several of the viewer’s heartstrings (painfully, I might add), the
show’s action-packed firefights quickly end as terrible tragedies. After all, we all have families we care
about… even though we don’t always like to admit they exist.
Rating:
Art
When it comes to art and animation, Gungrave is one of the best. Character designs are… needless to say, incredible: the Vash-ugliness I hated so much didn’t find its way into Gungrave, characters are pleasant to look at. Firefights and duels flow with a fluid grace that comes close to Bebop’s in exchanges of enough live ammunition that would put Hellsing to shame. The coffin is an exceptionally-incredible design… never have I seen another piece of heavy weaponry with the form and function of Grave’s coffin in any other anime… yessss precioussss, we wantssss it!!! However, I do have one minor complaint… Brandon/Grave looks too much like Vicious or Dante. But I guess almost every weapon-toting anime character with shoulder-long white hair looks alike… you see one, you see them all, as they say.
Rating:
Sound
Voice actors were nicely selected in both English and Japanese tracks. Not many emotional flaws here... and definitely no flaws in timing. I particularly liked Brandon/Grave's voice actor Ron Allen, who I thought captured the introverted super-soldier’s character quite nicely.
Truthfully, the musical score wasn’t incredibly revolutionary (the opening theme, “Familyâ€, was quite
normal when compared with Bebop’s nostalgic harmonica ensemble, DMC’s eerie heavy metal tunes, and
Hellsing’s disturbing ‘666 to 777’ [Yes, that’s the name of the song. So shoot me.]). The
BGM, that on its own, would have been terribly disappointing… made the show work. Not overwhelmingly spectacular,
but not lukewarm, either... just what the good doctor ordered.
Rating:
Presentation
You’ll be hard-pressed to find an anime whose presentation is better than Gungrave’s (there are a few out there. Just not that many). The very selection of the genre was a nice change from all the swords and sorcery stuff I was used to; Gungrave’s presentation is like a hybrid of Hellsing, Devil May Cry, and Cowboy Bebop with a resurrection factor... needless to say it’s similar, yet different. In fact, I found the presentation better than the award-winning Bebop saga (and that includes the movie); Red presented the anime in a way that it appeals to more than just action buffs. And as for Gungrave’s value, I’ll let the anime speak for itself. It’s well worth the money the DVD boxset costs, and this circa 2003 series is a great anime for folks who appreciate some deep dramatic element under a mantle of explosive gunfire...
Hey, I’m sure your opinion will vary from mine. But, irregardless of subjectivity, I realize one thing about this anime remains irreplaceably certain:
After watching Gungrave, you’ll never want to betray the family.
Trust me. You’ll thank me for it.
Rating:
Final Verdict
9.8333 (excellent)
Reviewed by Exequy, Aug 28, 2005
Comments
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V-Slasher Aug 29, 2005
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ilzhaolinger Banned Member Aug 29, 2005
:) justice ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^haha
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adamska Aug 30, 2005
Gungrave is one of my fav and I find it rly interesting: a more drammatic, more tragic, more serious series than trigun.
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KReeP Aug 31, 2005
Well, giving Trigun it's due, when it was good (eps. 16+) it was really good. But compared to the comic of the same, they really dropped the ball. The comic is so much more compelling.
As for Gungrave, the game itself was disappointing... so I didn't expect much of the anime. But what I liked about the anime is that it threw away most what was in the game and re-envisioned it in a much better way. I enjoyed watching how they became mafioso part, much more then at the end with the sci-fi exploding crytsal zombies (wtf?). For the most part a very cool series. -
kira13 Sep 22, 2005
I'll give a 10/10 for your presentation. Good job :)
I love Gungrave too, it's one of my favorite, and I'll give it a 10/10 too. :pacman: -
ricenoodles Nov 13, 2005
Gungrave is an excellent anime. Very nice review. It's a pity the latter few episodes didn't turn out as good though.
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Memero Nov 17, 2005
Goddammit, MAN! My Gungrave DVD hanged, at the LAST episode.
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Banchan Dec 20, 2005
Excellent review, couldn't have done so myself.
Gungrave is indeed one of the best anime's ever created, not just the art, but because of the underlying morals and facts/flaws about humanity that they incorporated into the anime. It definitely shows us just how wonderful and devastating humanity can be at its finest and at its worst.
Excellent plot, characters that leave lasting impressions to the audience, all in all the best combination if I may say so myself. -
HELESTIJA Jan 19, 2006
This anime show to us a part of a real life:family ,friends ,love,bad guys and good guys. But it is sad that even in this such great anime good people are gon.
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UberDog Mar 23, 2015
What an outstanding, structured and detailed review. Good job.
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