Gravitation Review
By heart-of-manga
Gravitation Review
Studio Deen
Review Statistics
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- 1,945
- Comments
- 12
- Reviews
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Plot Synopsis
Shuichi Shindou is the 19-year-old singer in his band Bad Luck. Work has been though, but Shuichi will do whatever it takes to become a great musician. One fateful night, the lyrics to his new song are blown in the wind. A popular romance novelist, Yuki Eiri, catches the lyrics and calls it trash.
Shuichi demands an apology after finding him the next day. One thing leads to another, and Shuichi finds himself madly in love with Yuki. Eiri tries to get Shuichi to leave him alone, but it doesn't seem to be working. Shindou is very persistent, but Yuki does not want to start another relationship and repeat the same mistake that happened long ago. Can the love between Shuichi and Yuki blossom, or will the two be seperated?
Credits: daos
Story & Characters
Gravitation revolves around a 19 year old boy, Shindo Shuichi, who has dreams of
becoming a famous and inspirational singer like his idol. He, along with his
band Bad Luck, are determined to get to the top, and are well on their way,
until a chance meeting with famous novelist Eiri Yuki.
Shuichi's lyrics blow out of his hands to be caught by Yuki, who,
none-too-kindly tells him he should give up writing, and he's seen better from a
primary-school student.
Shuichi is enraged and goes to Yuki's house to ask for an apology, but ends up
finding he has better things to do, and falls in love with the author
instead.
Yuki never really shows affection or emotion for Shuichi, however hard he tries
to obtain it, but deep inside he has a strong loving for the hyper, band
member.
The show can be heartbreaking because of the many times that Shuichi gets
abused, verbally, by Yuki, and gets used.
It is a shounen-ai (boys-love) series
with homosexual relationships, but it is not
yaoi. There is no sex or anything like it, only a few kisses and
hints.
It was my first-ever shounen-ai series, and it's a great show for lovers of
jPop/Rock, or music lovers in general.
- Rating
- 7 (above average)
Art
The art in this show was spectacular, and the special effects were some of the
best i've ever seen in an anime.
The characters are outlined using clear-crisp detail, and the colours and
shading is fantastic.
The hair colours (pink, orange, red, purple etc.) were a great part to the show,
and made it vibrant and fun.
The characters are definately bishounen
and lovely looking and the clothing was unusual. The clothing was more feminine,
and flowy, but if you look at jPop, most of the clothes have the same style.
There was some unusual animation with real-life being mixed with animation,
which didn't look that flash, and sticking to normal anime would have been
fine.
The special effects were great, especially because it was based around the music
industry. The band did concerts where lighting and camera angles are always an
important part as well as the singing, and I believe that the creators did a
great job of capturing the energy and excitment like a real concert.
- Rating
- 10 (excellent)
Sound
The music was vibrant and energetic, but the only annoying thing was that they
sung the same song over, and over, again.
Once, it was a great song, twice it was still good, three times it was boring.
More than that was just plain tedious.
You ocasionally hear songs from other bands, but again, they are always the same
songs.
The rest of the music was really background music and not very interesting to
listen to.
The opening and closing themesongs were also catchy, and I had them kept in my
head for weeks after watching an episode.
- Rating
- 8 (good)
Presentation
The show is certainly original, but a lot of the time it's always the same thing
happening; Yuki loves Shuichi, Shuichi is happy. Yuki hates Shuichi, Shuichi is
sad. Shuichi gets Yuki back after moping around for days.
It's always the same thing.
The show doesn't have any real "ending" which I found a bit annoying,
but the series is great anyway. (If you want a great ending search
"Gravitation" on FanFiction)
It's enjoyable to watch, whatever mood you're in, but it may put you in an
ultra-hyper mood because of all of the music. I got annoyed at it in some parts
because it was hard to understand, and the ending had me throwing things at my
laptop.
There's not much humour, but whenever Shuichi's idol, and his stuffed bunny, is
around there's sure to be something funny happen.
The best quote would have to be "Sparkly, Shuichi", and that section
had me rolling on the floor.
I like this series because it's about jPop and music, and not many anime shows
that I have encountered have covered this topic as well as Gravitation.
Overall, this is a spectacular show and I loved every minute of it.
I would recommend it to anyone, who isn't homophobic, from the ages 13-20.
- Rating
- 9 (very good)
Final Verdict
8.33 (good)
Reviewed by heart-of-manga, 2y 30wk ago
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Very nicely done, I like the review. Clear, simple, and straight to the point.
I also heard a lot of good things about this anime, there are also 13 episodes ne? The main relationship/characters could be said as that of a few other anime I've seen, like Inuyasha, Digimon, or probably Naruto to name a few where you have the "mysterious tough guy" and the hyper and "fun" girl/guy who likes the other protagonist.
Yup.
13 eps, plus 2 OVA's (which I wouldn't recommend). The OVA's are badly done with no recognisable plot, and even the characters are different.
Big dissapointment for me.
Yeah, I'll support that rating! Nice review, I love the show!
nice review
the rating is fine, but i don't think that the storyline is all that
strong
Nice review. I'd give the art less then a 10 though. While vibrant, it was almost too bright imo. Though I don't agree with your age suggestion at all. Why stop at 20?
It's a pretty adult show with adult themes, so I see no reason why an adult
can't enjoy it....
what 20!?! thats a travisty I watched Gravitation for the first time when I was 22
Nice review.. But why do you recomend it to ages 13-20? It's more like 15-99. :P It has to scary elements for a 13-year old to understand completely, ex. the rape. And why stop watching it at 20? Can't find a reason. ^^;
I'd have rated the art a bit lower~ hahaha although I loved this anime, the art is a bit old for me...
Actually, I don't quite know why I liked it because when I think about it now, it's not actually THAT good....story and character wise, I'd probably give about the same rating as you, maybe a tad bit higher..
I'd definitely recommend it for higher than 20 year olds as well, there are elements in there that might interest those who's a bit older ^^;;;; I watched it when I was about 20...and I'd still like it now that I'm 22. ^_^
I like this anime alot but all the boys that i've talked to who has watched it didn't really agree with me. lol! ^_^
merged: 12-23-2005 ~ 07:31am
But i really like shindo, he's cute!
This manga is very funny, with very likeable characters and good moments. It has three problems, though: veyr little previous thought(so the last chapters are veeery out of league), not very good art(not bad either, just not good) and second characters more interesting than first ones. If Ryuichi would have been the main character, this series would have been more interesting from the beggining.
The anime is very different, it's more dramatic, and I think it does good to the story. Even if I laugh more with the manga, the anime(and the pano songs, which are amazing)portrays a credible story, with characters you can sympathise with.
I still think it Ryu would have been a better protagonist^^
Yeah, 13 episodes and 2 OVA's.
The think i love about Gravitation is that it's so much like my relationship, except that i'm a girl.
I'm like Shuuichi, whereas the person I like is like Yuki.
I know they care for me, but it takes A LOT to get them to show it, and they sometimes treat me like crap and say really mean things that hurt because of my personality type.
I liked your review, and I'm glad someone besides me found the songs repetition very annoying-it DES NOT matter if you like them, 13 times is enough
On the other hand, I think the background music is one of the best I've ever heard in anime...
And I think the animation is not so good. Character design was very inconsistant, sometimes good but sometimes horrible, and noone looked like in the manga (which is much better, by the way; if you want a good ending, go find the manga). I missed a lot of the humour in the original manga, as well as more action from Ryuichi and Tatsuha and Mika, who all have large roles int he original story. The animation didn't do anything spectacular for my view, but...well, fishes for everyone in the seaXD