Anime: Gungrave

Gungrave is a crime epic which offers some excellent moments, although it is not without it's failings as well.

First of all a note on the viewing order: The first episode is timed near the end of the series, effectively spoiling the plot; just like Berserk did, but Gungrave's spoilers have a bigger impact. I suggest skipping the first episode; it repeats on episode 18 anyway.

The artwork is superb. Everyone's favorite studio Madhouse, delivers one more time. Although the anime is a little bit old (2003-2004) the artwork is better than most of the fall 2015 season's anime; I have a perpetual nightmare where the cgi armor from Garo chases me and screams to me in a digitized voice “Behold the future”.

Returning to Gungrave, it begins as a strict seinen work, meaning the pace is little slower and the bullets actually find their intended home, but unfortunately, beginning in episode 18 the anime degenerates into it's shounen roots -it is based on a FPS game for PS2 after all. So the third -and last- act being a collection of shounen clishes, really hurts the quality of the anime. That phenomenon continues up until the climax, but it manages to deliver a fulfilling ending in my opinion.

One third of the episodes sucking, usually manages to damage the anime irredeemably, but Gungrave's characters manage to save the day; Brandon and Harry grow older, mature, and face tough decisions through beautiful storytelling, making them complete, fleshed out characters, in sharp contrast with the stereotypes Japanese writers love to serve us. The supporting cast, for the little time it manages to stay alive, is memorable, making Gungrave a collection of real characters.

The aforementioned collection brings us to Gungrave's core, which is the bonds. Gungrave for all it's mafioso glory is a study on the bonds between characters. It offers plenty of emotional scenes where painstakingly forged bonds are put into the test, demand increasingly larger sacrifices in order to survive, and collide with other bonds to find which one is the stronger; it's like the bonds have a mind of their own and want to imitate the mafiosos in a deadly zero-sum game to find who will sit on the top.

Of course, all those beautiful depictions of character interactions are made possible by the great characters. No one cares about the conflicts and tribulations of paper thin characters, but Gungrave's characters, although they are all morally bankrupt by any common standard, manage to snatch an emotional investment from the viewer.

The characters and the bonds they form between them manage to salvage this flawed anime to a 7/10.

I don't think Gungrave has an anime equivalent; sure is shares some elements with Berserk, Cowboy bebop , and Trigun -Also, Gangsta is clearly inspired by Gungrave I think- but none of them manage to capture the Mafia essence which drives the story. Oh and I know Black lagoon has also a rotten city and lots of handguns, but that's where the similarities stop. Black lagoon's silly (and very entertaining!) action does not compare with Gungrave's seinen-ness.

So, if you liked Gungrave, I suggest taping on the rich mafia works of the live-action medium: The godfather trilogy, anything Scorcese made with De Niro, and the TV-show Sopranos.

GunGrave is perhaps the absolute mafia-themed anime made by the consistent and awesome guys at Madhouse. It starts as some freak sci-fy show that can scare almost 90% of the possible audience, but after that it takes on a sequence of superb episodes with a dark theme of brotherhood, friendship, betrayal and crime. The show slowly builds a powerful cast within a great setting and with so many awesome twists and yet never miss the right balance in any of its elements.

Art & Animation
GunGrave starts with a bizarre scenario that looks like an post-apocalyptic stuff and with a baddass hero vanquinshing hordes of zumbi-like creatures. When the shows demands for such action and thrill, the animation and art style can deliver it, even if not with superb quality. The overall show is not exactly superb in quality, but everything fits the setting perfectly and demonstrate what is needed. The character design of the first-episode protagonist is incredibly weak and stereoptical, but the whole mafia thing that comes later is gorgeously portraited, without losing to the animesque style that would otherwise take out all the mafia atmosphere (like Hitman Reborn and other bad animes that transform mafia in childish play).

Sound
GunGrave was one of those shows were you never notice soundtrack yet you are dragged into the atmosphere. This means the show has almost no issue in regards with sound. The opening and ending are okay, even if the opening does not truly fit in 100% of the series because of the extreme different takes on the middle of the series and the rest, but the ending is very good (for those who want to hear anime's ending). The background music is fine and succeeds in its mission, never creating an issue but also rarely bringing outstanding impact. Voice-acting is fine and you won't be troubled by it in any way.

Story
Brandon and Harry are good friends in a dark world. They do shady works as street thungs with their friends until they start messing with big, important, and powerful people. Their dreams and ambitions clash, and a sad chain of events puts these two against each other within a world of crime and death.

1. Bizarre start at a point in the future
   GunGrave, like Berserk, starts showing a Brandon fully powered and delivering some superb massacre to zombie-like creatures. After that it goes back in time to tell how Brandon got into that state and the mafia starts to play its way. Crimes, betrayals, intrigues, everything needed by a mafia-themed is present here, with awesome twists and turns that slowly makes the silent brute Brandon a true killer.
   
   Nice development up to the mid part
   You'll be wandering how things will suddenly happen to put the episode number one in line, and the events that take you there are great, with so many tragic events, deaths, surprises, and a feeling that anyone can be killed in the next second. The mid part of the show, after it gets to the where first episode was, is where the plot take its biggest blow, throwing the mafia theme away and turning into a scy-fy slaughterhouse of zombies where Brandon becomes a uber-powerful killing machine.
   
   Let's trash this scy-fy stuff and go back with mafia
   After knowing the background behind these zombie-like beings, they surely get more likeable, but are still unfit to the whole premise of the show. While the fights are good and Brandon is still a nice character, the divergence with the rest of the show is a bit hard to swallow. Finally, everything goes back on its trail, continuing Brandon's pursuit and leaving most of the scy-fy stuff behind. The show focus more on how the badass Brandon Beyond the Grave can still be a mafia character regardless of his new design, and the concluding events have a return of the twists and surprises that make GunGrave so good.
   

Character
Being a mafia anime, most of the strength of the show would naturally come from deep characters with enough motivations to betray, deceive, and kill. GunGrave never misses here and delivers a superb cast. Brandon's evolution is simply outstanding, mixing his grow in skill with his resolve without turning him in a complete different person. The villain is also another great character, even though he becomes the stereotypical mad-mastermind for a while. The support cast also gets its piece of quality, even if most of them are bound to die or somehow get out of scene within few episodes. This easy-death to the support cast is perhaps what makes GunGrave a serious anime even through the zombie-slaughtering part. Take a superb protagonist, a good antagonist and a great support cast and you have one of the best character direction I've seen that manages to keep its quality even through events that would otherwise turn them into stupid stereotypes in other shows.

Value
GunGrave is the only mafia anime that I have knowledge of that remains true to its setting and never loses to noisy characters or some other typical shounen stuff like super-powers, mad guns skill, etc. The show starts bad, making you think this is exactly what it's not, with the typical shounen stuff in fact. But everything is corrected in the next episodes and when it comes back to the first things gets a bit more belieavable. This formula of backtracking to tell a character's story was successful in Berserk and it also works here as well, added by a more serious experience that never looks childish, never give in to fillers, and remains true to its purpose even when it goes out of its natural path.

Enjoyment
GunGrave is serious, it has fighting and action, but most of the time you'll be watching talks and shots that focus on emotional states of the characters. The show has many slow-paced scenes, but the overall development of the events is good enough to drag you in and make you want more and more, especially for the first episodes when you're thinking of how things can turn out the way they were at the beginning. GunGrave, however, is not a show for everyone, and those who dislike to see good characters die or a story that is more realistic than fantasy without being cheesy romance will be disappointed.

Comments
When I've watched GunGrave first episode I instantly put it aside in my queue. It took a few months to gather the courage to watch the rest of the show, but it was certainly one of the most impactful anime that I've watched until then. The Berserk-like approach, the similarities and yet differences between the legendary Gatts and Brandon, the good scenario and the nemesis-stuff makes GunGrave some sort of mafia-themed Berserk with a superb conclusion, and this is clearly awesome.

Another thing to be aware is the great character evolution through the series that reminded me of Gundam Seed and Kira Yamato. You'll see a brute Brandon witho little skill in guns or crime, and a weak resolve at the beginning, and by the end he'll be a top killer with enough resolve to see anything through, and yet his change is soft and belieavable, a rare feat in anime. The support cast is a good choice as well, never being given to the spotlight for too much time and serving their purpose extremely well. You'll be captivated by them even if you see them only for a while, and that without making bizarre and flashy character designs, everything is gorgeously made and yet never lose the focus on realism.

ANIME MINOR JEWELS SERIES
Full list of the review series can be found on this page, 3rd post from bottom:
http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?uid=251338&show=userpage&do=blog&blogid=29009&page=0

Gungrave is animated by the king of anime tv series, studio Madhouse. As usual they did a wonderful job so here is a bonus in scores just for that. It is also very good as long as you let it fool with your expectations. Seeing how it is based on an action/shooting game with little to no plot and watching the first episode you will be made to think it will nothing more than a shallow slugfest with macho guys shooting generic monsters for little to no reason at all. Something like Hellsing or Devil May Cry. And then you watch the second episode and WHAM; hey this is far more mature than a brain dead shooting show; BANZAI let me double my score for it for turning out better than I expected. So yeah the show is great at trolling you to expect one thing and getting another, thus winning your first impressions.

I came to view this anime as “Berserk meets Scarface and The Crow in Racoon City”. You have the plot unraveling by starting in the present, then going for a long flashback showing how two gangsters and best buddies turned to mortal enemies, and then the anime returns to the present to show their final showdown. Oh, and here there be zombies… named orcs. WUT???

Anyways, the show was very good as long as it was about the interaction of the main characters in the past. Harry and Brandon (as in Brandon Li of The Crow?) show the way all gangsters follow, beginning as urchins, then slowly becoming more and more powerful criminals and eventually getting consumed by jealousy and hatred for one another, losing trust and consuming themselves in power struggles. And yes there are women being the cause of most problems as always. Thus the prequel part is an almost realistic gangster film ala Copola style. NOT ala Tarantino as the cover art or the game may have made you think it was. There hardly is exciting action here and all the focus is given to drama and character development, which is of course plain awesome.

Unfortunately the show eventually goes for more action and fantasy and out of nowhere comes a new science that turns the dead to mindless fighters named orcs (well, actually it is orgmen but they could just as well named them zombies). From hereon it loses a lot of the realism and character focus and becomes a lot more one-of-the-same slugfests we watch while eating pop corn. As soon as the plot returns to the present of the first episode, Brandon turns to an undead superman and swears to avenge Harry even beyond the grave. And Harry has turned to a megalomaniac supermind criminal with his own army of mass produced monsters, sending them after him. BAM BAM DIE MONSTER AAARGHHH!

It could still be highly entertaining if the action scenes had amazing choreography but overall the whole series is rather weak in this regard. Brandon is simply unbeatable and the enemies he is facing are dumb monsters with zero personality who vaporize after being defeated. That is NOT exciting. At the same time it is not exactly boring either as he still goes to confront people he was a friend with (or more) while still alive [/i] (if you consider he is not alive now, despite kicking ass of hundreds of monsters) [/i] and it is both tragic and ironic to see how they all react to seeing him again like this. It still saves face in this regard, although as I said Brandon is still unbeatable no matter what and that takes away a lot of the drama. He wasn’t like that while he was a normal guy in the flashback.

Eventually there is a major showdown in the finale and most of the characters die during the havoc, proving the futility of spending your life in violence just for money and power. Easy come easy go, as they say. The finale is a very powerful one and again manages to win even your final impressions and again you go WOOT I GOTTA INCREASE MY SCORE AGAIN while completely forgetting all those mediocre monster busting episodes mid-way. Boy does this series know how to mess with you.

Another good thing is how the anime goes for style but not for shallow entertainment. You will definitely not gonna like it for its action and the coolest thing in it is Brandon looking all badass as BEYOND THE GRAVE. It is mostly good as a portrait of the glamour of the life gangsters have, as they start from street punks and eventually become godfathers who control nations. Even the music is quite easy going, some sort of lounge music that aims to keep you calm and perhaps unaware of the tragedy that roams in the future, thus again cleverly maintains your inability to foresee what is coming up.

In all it is a very good show if you keep your disbelief mode open when the sci-fi kicks in. The middle part of the series is definitely the weakest for not focusing much on its characters and just goes for mediocre slugfests. And I could really do without those ridiculous zombie armies. Although I did enjoy it I still didn’t FULLY enjoyed it because of the above. I even felt it mixed more elements than it could handle in the first place. The Crow is definitely more memorable for being simpler, as so is Scarface and Resident Evil. As for Berserk, well, that is a cult and simply put Brandon and Harry pale before the GAR of Guts and Griffith.

And now for some excused scorings.

Hey AniDB, it’s time to throw down a review onto the already super popular Gungrave. So here we go, my two cents.

Animation
Gungrave has something to do with Trigun right?
There’s similarities, sure. They’re both Madhouse productions, and they both share Yasuhiro Nightow as credited original creator. For Trigun he’s the writer/artist of the manga, but Gungrave’s source material is actually a Playstation2 game where I believe he’s only the character conceptualist. It’s not a stretch to see his Trigun flavor seep into Gungraves cast though: Vash and Grave, Wolfwood and Brandon, even the giant crucifix gun has a counterpart in Gungrave, a giant coffin gun. There is also a western feel to both and a few of the hot, dry and acrid landscapes could find a home in either or.

The PSX2 game is a third person shooter, so is Gungrave filled with shooting and action and explosions and guns and graves?
Ever see those scenes where the good guys just emotionlessly stand still in the middle of an empty volume with no tactical advantages and shoot round after round of unlimited bullets into well hidden faceless badguys?

Oh. So is it low budget, low-low budget, tear out my eyes it hurts, it hurts so bad budget?
Low during the action sequences, standard during the dialog and static scenes. The first few episodes I felt were the worst of it, with strange eyes, super pointy chins, and awkward proportions like males being twelve plus heads in height, females significantly shorter. It gets to standard anime quality in the middle but at the end when the script calls for epic battles it falls noticeably short. Animation is not the strong suit in Gungrave, that’s for sure. For a 2004 release it is sub-par with what you expect, but in the grand scheme of all things anime you’ve probably survived far worse than this.
• Looks/Visuals : 5/10

Sounds
What kind of opening and ending themes does Gungrave provide?
Ugh… yeh, let’s not talk about it.

Riiiight. Well what about the general music score?
It’s much more appropriate to the theme and content and at times quite good. Mostly orchestrated pieces and a few that blend genres (like western taking on a hip hop beat). It’s directed by Yukako Inoue (who also did Trigun so I guess that is another similarity). There are terrible slow songs during episodes 6, 7, and 14 that I felt were out of place but that aside, the score is good although typically forgettable.

How is voice performance of the characters?
I went English dub, which as hopefully we are all in accord with, is very hit or miss. Gungrave is mostly miss. The majority of voices are ones we’ve heard before and come off as being very dry. Tony Oliver voicing young Harry is probably the character with the most dialog and his performance had me at times wondering if he voiced Inspector Gadget. He didn’t. The protagonist is mostly silent, but when he talks Ron Allan portrays him as very drab and dull. Both of these voices “do” fit their characters so they are doing their jobs, but it isn’t flattering. Also, it is just really hard to hear “Big Daddy” as a character’s name spoken in all earnestness.
• Score/Voice Acting : 6/10

Story
A lot of people say Gungrave plays out kinda like Berserk?
Yeh, like how both series you start with monsters and sci-fi/fantasy action in episode 1, but then the next episode after that it’s a flashback of almost an entirely different anime.

You saying Gungrave is a new story and they ditched those sci-fi concepts from the game?
Not really. I only youtube viewed a few highlights from the game having never played it and I figure it’s like this. You have to picture Gungrave the anime as essentially 2 totally different stories smashed together. Smashed may be the keyword too. Three fifths of Gungrave is “the flashback”, a mostly character development and mafia/underworld rise-to-power story that’s all new material only briefly hinted at in the video game. The remainder (including episode 1) is “the present” and that’s the sci-fi shoot ‘em up story from the PSX2 source, complete with boss battles and locations.

Okay… so explain a bit of the flashback story…
It’s a story of friendship, how two dudes who come from nothing join “The Family” aka the mafia (which is at times glorified and portrayed as generally good to be a part of in Gungrave) and try to “rise to the top”. They make hits, squash rival gangs, gather information, collect debts, and establish relationships that help them climb the ladder. Although at times it lacks common sense, it’s pretty enjoyable.

…and then the present story.
The present story clearly has a much more quickened pace and feel (and in my opinion isn’t as good). The bad guys now use an army of monsters to police the land and the hero, who though super powered and supernatural is on a limited time frame for his revenge, is gonna shut them down. Simple. The major shocker and points of interests here are seeing how things have progressed and how far characters have fallen during the time skip. It’s a different world.

Does the transition flow well or do you never see it coming?
Well after episode 1 you should really be wondering throughout the entire flashback story “how the hell do we get back to that?” So it shouldn’t really be a complete surprise when they nuke the fridge and the undead and super power stuff starts up. There is during the flashback act one sub-story too (Bloodwar Arc) where it gets all sci-fi… so really, if you’re paying attention you know it’s coming, but it’s not as subtle as I’d have preferred. The two stories go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly…

I like PB and J….
I actually don’t, I just like peanut butter, but that’s the point. There’s contrast between the substances, they don’t gel together but for some people that’s all the more reason to like it. For others, well they may like one and not the other (or neither) and think the combination just doesn’t work. Whatever though, that’s just the analogy for how I see it.
• Story : 7/10

Characters
Now I know Harry and Brandon are our main characters, slum dogs rising up through the mafia, I’ve read the descriptions of the anime and paid attention thus far, so for characters how about you tell me something off the beaten path rather than a stereotype description?
Ah, okay, let’s try it, a new approach. Let’s talk about odd character behaviors because Gungrave features a few singularities. Brandon, the hero and mostly silent protagonist who is the muscle balancing Harrys charm, displays the most bizarre expression of love I have ever seen in any story ever! Infact, Gungrave characters seem to value friendship and “commitment to the family” more than love. And female characters in Gungrave totally dig older men. Oh and mortality, in Gungrave a no-name faceless character (throw away grunt) can actually kill a character with dialog. How often do we see characters like that?

Mm-hm. Interesting attempt, we’ll work on it. Oh and the purple suited white haired bad ass looking outlaw cowboy dude on the cover of the Playstation2 game, where’d he go!!??
After episode 1, yeh I know, that’s Beyond the Grave, and even though he’s the playable character in the game he is not heavily featured in this anime. In fact, in that costume you may only see him 2 or 3 more episodes… which is a shame ‘cause he looks wicked cool.
• Characters : 7/10

Value
Do I have need to have played the game to ‘get it’?
No, and it probably won’t make you want to play the game either, it stands alone well.

So then in my anime que, where does Gungrave go?
Depends what you’re looking for. Gungrave has a really neat mafia story, terrible op/ed songs but a good score, sub-par animation quality that disappears when you want it most, and a lot of really strange character behaviors that are in my experiences so far unique to Gungrave. If you can accept the shift in theme when it comes crashing into the story like an elephant then you’ll be rewarded to a really cool ending, and a solid one of those is a rare breed in the anime world and makes Gungrave in my opinion worth an eventual investment.
• Value : 7/10

Enjoyment
Favorite episode?
2, 3, 6, 8, and 26 stood out but 14 made me smile wickedly in delight.

What was your favorite moment in Gungrave?
Bunji was the only character with a real threat factor and the rematch was as inevitable as Goku versus Vegata….

What was your favorite line?
Episode 13. “Why won’t you talk to me”, -“’nuthin’ to say”.
• Enjoyment : 8/10

Overall : 7

Thanks for your time!

Is this a Masterpiece? If it is not, I think it got very close to be one. Gungrave is impressive, or should I say... amazing in every aspect. But I didn’t think so at the beginning, when I first saw Gungrave, my first impression was the worse possible, the first episode is a conjunct of monsters, and shots, and dying, no sense at all. I could not stand it for one more minute, I thought at that moment, that gungrave was one of the worst anime ever. But some time later, a friend of mine that was in my Japanese class told that I should see the rest, that my impressions about the anime would definitely change my mind along my perception about everything, that the first episode was in a place that shouldn’t be.

So as I advanced throughout the story and episodes, I could not believe what were in front of me, something that I have never seen in such a master degree as the development of the characters. You may think I am overreacting, but they actually place several characters and manage to make a complex story behind them, and most important, all of them. Every and single one have a reason, a sense, a place and it is almost like they can think and interact with every single element combined with such mastery that you can almost think and feel every single moment of complexity that they live trough and to complete, they somehow did it with the mark of only 26 episodes. Herry and Brandon, you could call them the main theme of the plot, but I think that what is amazing is that it depends on the part of the story they leave space for others characters to develop it by their own, I mean, Big Daddy is of extremely importance in Maria´s life that was extremely important on the choices that Brandon have and connect it with such feeling in all the organization members and above all transform in a rupture point where everything they fought and believe for pass on a transition of value with the success achievements of our surprising Herry. And the connections never seems to fade away, and everything is so human, all the time you can presence the human nature behind everything, how we could react to every situation even rationally and irrationally choices. Where does your grief and will of victory and dreams can go? Does it go beyond your heart? Pass trough your identity, your feelings, your way of live that supported your smile for so long? Humans cannot be happy with what they have in their hands, they always need more and that achievement is the feeling so called happiness as describe Hobbes in his Human nature research. In all that, you have a space for love, that you can find inside Brandon... a fellow that is smart on his own, that amazingly says the right thing when he needs to, always, but in his silence you can simply find and discover an heart, not only about his love for Maria, but his loyalty to his best friend that materialized later on the organizations rules and goals to achieve high harmony on the Iron Law.

The sound is pretty good besides I did not like very much of the theme song at the end, the score is usually right and exiting. The value is a high replay in my opinion, since there are infinite elements to be discussed, the enjoyment is above all expectations. Among these amazing elements it could have lost it´s glory with the introduction of the Orcsman, that I must admit, but the finalization of the history makes you put the orcsaman where they belong, in the past. In my point of view the Necro Rising should finish with Grave but the intent to make enemies that could fight 1 to 1. I am forgetting something very important here.. oh yes Bunji.. I have no words for such character, he is extremely amazing! His way and respect for Brandon and at the same time the appreciation of his gun rival displays a final fight with respect and final applause where Harry, oh him... is just craved inside his brain and heart that follows every choice of his, choices that ended up right in front of his still friend, even after death immersed inside Iron Law. I could make this review even bigger because as I said the characters are all very important, Maria´s daughter, Bear Walken and his daughter that comes with love above all else. A masterpiece of the Japanese Entertainment? If not, something very close to it.

one of the best anime i have seen.
To take it one at a time:
the animation was almost perfect..great colors,well animated.
the sound was good but it could have been muxh much better.this i could say is the weeakest point of GUNGRAVE.
the story is superb,it keept me tied to my chair,i could eaven compare it with MONSTER(spectacular).
The caracters are well made.they all have their own personalities,and i liked that each of the caracters had a series of moments where you could see who they really are.
value:i will probably watch it again in a short time,so it has a great replay value.
it was really enjoyable,and as i said i will watch it again in a short while.....