Gravitation tv Review

Shuichi Shindou is the 19-year-old singer in his band Bad Luck. Work has been tough, 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 separated?

Credit: daos

Story & Characters

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?

Well then, I've never really heard of any anime that involves bands, especially ones that are starting out. I think this is quite an original idea and makes for a good plot. I was also interested to see the relationship between Yuki and Shuichi develop and blossom, especially with the hurdles placed in between them. [We'll establish more on that later.]
There was also the whole "battle of the bands" in the series, which was quite interesting to see since Nittle Grasper's lead singer was a bit weird in his own way. You got the most popular (Nittle Grasper) which are easy-going and fun people, and the other bsand which was popular before, ASK. I don't know what it stood for, but I bet it was A Snobby Something.
Overall the plot was interesting, and certainly reaslistic. I didn't see any flying people or some world-saving thing where you magically transform to defeat the bad guys.
Just your average band which tries to rise to the top. I can picture that, since bands have always been competing for the top spot and to be number one.

Rating: 9

Art

I can't say much on the art since I saw a bad quality thing I downloaded, but even so you can tell the art has some potential.
It's pretty average I guess, nothing bad but also nothing spectacular. The eyes are quite nice and vary from one person to another, as well as the different hairstyles and clothing everyone wore.
The characters themselves were quite original, like K who carried a large gun and even used it as well as grenades a few times in the show. He sort-of reminded me of that show, Burn Up W or something. (sorry I can't remember the actual name!)
Shuichi was hilarious, and I love the costumes! He has everything from dressing up as a suitcase, to a girl, a soda machine and a banana. ("I hope you slip on a banana peel and die!") His costumes are quite original, I've never seen anything like this in anime before.
Yuki on the other hand, was calm and collected wearing something that wasn't too casual but not too fancy either. I'm gald that the artist decided to put in the costumes and minor changes to the outfits of the characters, because it gets tiring to see the same Sailor Moon outfit every episode.
Ryuichi also had quite an interesting costume a few times, which was I believe a vending machine and what appeared to be a giant pink rabbit. (As it happens, he has a stuffed plushie of a pink rabbit! =O)
I'm sorry to say but it seemed that while I loved the guys in the series, the girls I thought were beeches. Ayaka was really mean towards Shuichi, and acted like she owned Eiri. I guess the girl couldn't take the signal that he-wasn't-interested, despite the fact that something was supposed to happen.

Rating: 8

Sound

This show is about a band, so of course you can imagine that there is quite a lot to talk about in sound.
I saw a fan sub of the anime, so I got to hear the Japanese voices which I think fit the characteres fine. However, there is something in this show I've noticed that I have also seen in another one. The president of the records company was a married man, yet he had a woman's voice. I found this weird, because at first I was confused as to whether the character was male or female!
Yuki had a deep and sexy voice, which I think was fitting since he was the hot romance novelist that probably every girl in Japan liked for those two traits. He was very cool, calm, and collected, and I think this rather fit him nicely.
Shuichi of course, was the younger guy in the relationship, and he was very childish but determined. His voice was hilarious at times, because of the way he was persistent or burst into tears out of the blue.
Also, Shuichi was the lead singer of the band Bad Luck [as it happens the show has 13 episodes!], and I found the songs I've heard quite nice. One was 'Rage Beat', which was the hit single in the anime that you heard quite a lot when they were performing. The other sounded like the opening and closing credit songs, but I think the opening credits song was also Rage Beat. What I didn't ilke though, is that every time 'Rage Beat' came on it appeared as if the same animation effects came on, using the same lights and sounds. This got tiring after a while, and I think the artists should have made an effort to fit the atmosphere more.

Rating: 9

Presentation

Pretty good anime, very hilarious to watch.
"I saw kids who were harassing a turtle, so I had to help it and that's why I was late!"

The only problem with romance comedies is that the atmostphere starts out nice and pleasant, but tends to get heavier and more serious as the realtionship blossomed. This is exactly what happened in this anime, but I suppose you can't blame the creator after what Shuichi and Yuki have been through.
Now, to talk about the relationship itself. Yuki is the dark kind of person, and Shuichi is the light happy one. I've seen these two very opposite kind of people get together before [or at least one liking another] in anime such as Naruto in the love triangle. Also , anime like Chobits and I's have the idiot guy and the calm collected girl who fall in love, which is also pretty muc what happened here.
Somewhere in the very earlier episodes, you see actual scenes from real life, and I'm not sure what the creator was tryign to do here. You see the anime in colour and then bam! A black and white image of shadows walking on the street, as if it were an actual photograph. What happened here?
I'm glad that this went away after a few episodes, the creator knew where to stop.
I [and about a hundred other fangirls and gay boys] especially enjoyed the love scenes, when Yuki and Shuichi would kiss! <3 <3 <3 I think more of this should have been thrown in, at least to please the fans.

Great anime, if you want laughs and romance you should definetely watch this!

Rating: 9

Final Verdict

8.8333 (very good)

Reviewed by daos, Feb 11, 2006

Comments

toxictea23 Feb 11, 2006

I totally agree. Infact, though gravitation is considered a bit old, its still number one to me! I love Ryuichi Sakuma and Kumagoro and tohma seguchi^^ good review.
walkure245 Feb 11, 2006

I like the storyline too. ^_^ I didn't like the ending too much but I like the overall story. I like the art at times. I especially love Ryuuichi in his bunny costume. XD The music was really good but I agree with the animation. It was good the first time when he was singing Rage Beat for the first time. I agree with most of everything you said. A really nice review~
kit-kat Feb 12, 2006

I was surprised how much I enjoyed Gravitation, but it was a really good show and I really liked the emotions the characters went through. The music was pretty good to :). I really like the music too :), nice review.
crsg Feb 13, 2006

*Gravitation fan* I'm still attempting to collect the dvds - this anime is definitely on my top 5 list.
Leena Feb 15, 2006

though they list it under shounen-ai/yaoi but they talk more about the singing and shounen-ai only.
xelloss100 Mar 03, 2006

** I agree with you, the ending wasn't the best but in the manga the story continues with a much better ending [well is not really an ending since gravitation 2 manga has allready reach it's 10th chapter] but still... ** I totally agree with you in the Ayaka business, she is really annoying ** Nice Review! **
Kuragari-Kyrokushen Mar 09, 2006

Personally i thought i was never gonna read a "gay" manga but I did. I liked it and Im am gonne read gravitation 2 :D
kirihime91 Jun 17, 2006

I LOVE THIS ANIME! It was so good! i didn't think i would like it but then their catchy music and storyline events caught my attention! The ending was okay but it could have been better. It seemed like they just ran out of time and just kind of quickly made the ending. Although that is just my thoughts on it.
Anyway, everyone should at least try it! Great review!
Has anyone watched the OVA called Lyrics of Love?
billybong Aug 31, 2006

i never thought i would read manga about gay boys but now i can't stop, its just so entertaining (don't get the wrong idea)
back07 Sep 24, 2012

thanks for the nice review
:)

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