Ranked #1537

Gravitation

The truth of the matter is that most shounen ai anime just isn't good; be it because of the crappy story, obvious fan service or bad direction. However, Gravitation doesn’t just pull it off as a shounen ai but as an anime in general.

The story follows Shuichi Shindou, a 19 year old vocalist trying to make it big in the music industry and Eiri Yuki, a young, cool and cold romance novelist and pretty much revolves around the couple’s careers, love life and past. Nothing complicated or confusing neither is it plot less or pointless. The series is short, only 13 episodes long but every episode is filled with quality; it’s well paced, never did it ever feel even slightly slow or boring. It's simply entertaining which is what an anime should be!

Shuichi is a generic uke; he’s loud, cute, innocent, has a feminine body (which he uses for his failed plans) and is quite open about his love towards Eiri yet he’s a loveable character. I don’t usually like characters with this sort of annoying personality but with Shuichi he grows on you, maybe because its quite nice to have such an energetic character as the main lead.
Eiri is….a cool guy, look wise and personality wise. He’s the classic “Tall, dark and handsome” character fan girls scream over. When I said before it revolves around the couples past, its actually his past that it’s focused on (I mean, seriously, you can’t expect Shuichi to have a dark past now could you?)
Other characters include Hiro and Suguru who are the other members of Shuichi’s band ‘Bad Luck‘, Mr K their manager, Mr Sakano their producer, Tohma Seguchi their boss, Eiri’s brother in law and a member of Shuichi’s favourite band ‘Nittle Grasper’ etc. The cast of Gravitation is likeable, they’re mostly used for comic relief and for a 13 episode show they all carry a decent amount of distinct characteristics. Tohma reminds me of some petite pretty boy gangster though, the way he handles certain situations and is one of the more serious characters.

Here comes the music. A very important part in any anime, even more so in this one since it’s a show all about music. The music and themes in this are just simply fun and personally I quite liked them - the opening and other songs the band sung had some techno in it which made the songs really funky, which I enjoyed since I don’t really listen to techno. The piano themes used when there’s a ‘heart-warming moment’ or whatever got me every time (in a good way) and the ending is used to create a cliff-hanger moment at the end of each episode.
However, it sort of annoyed me that they recycle the same song/scenes every time they showed Bad Luck singing - only a couple of other times did they use new footage or songs. The music aren’t masterpieces but it’s a great listen.

If outfits come under art, I would down rate the art because the performing outfits that Shuichi and Ryuichi wore are HORRIBLE. They look like some bad cop out from the 80’s which I don’t understand how it managed to find its way into this show since Gravitation came out in 2000. Then again, I don’t live in Japan so I don’t really know how singers dress there, though I’m pretty sure no singer in their right mind would dress like that. Other than that little critique the art was fine. The cover shown in the summary pretty much tells you what the art is like - bright, pretty and cute, so not much more I can really discuss on that.

In my opinion, Gravitation is one the best shounen ai out there to date. The only reason why I say “one of” is simply because I haven’t watched all the shounen ai out there, but even so it’s still up there because it also does well as an anime. It’s well funny, throughout the series I had had many good laughs. There are extremely lame and stupid moments (e.g. Shuichi dressing in dog costume) that had made me cringe but I guess that’s just part of the course. There are also shocking pause-the-screen-to-take-in-what-just-happened moments which either puts a huge grin on my face or make me look completely dumbfounded.

The music industry aspect is quirky, serving much humorous content with the sheer craziness of it all and does make the audience doubt the music industry of today if that’s how it’s really run. And even though it is shounen ai, don’t be completely put off by it - I guess if you ever want to explore this genre then Gravitation is a good or perhaps the only place to start. read more

I used to be such a fangirl for this series. Looking back, I can still see why I loved it so much, but I feel like I evaluate it with a more objective perspective now.

STORY - I would venture to say that Gravitation was probably one of the first of its kind. Certainly, this was the title that opened the floodgates for hundreds of other shounen-ai titles at the turn of the century. Sure, if you pick through the music and ignore the gay pairing, you leave yourself with a simple, old-fashioned love story about one person pursuing another's love while a troubled past stands between them. Nothing new there at all. But Murakami's decision to intermix a very strong musical plotline together with the core romance was a very smart move indeed and probably one of the main reasons I took to this series so readily. I really appreciated the fact that Shuichi's attention was split fifty-fifty between his career and Yuki -- this balance made things interesting in so many different ways because there were times when Shuichi's two goals seemed to go against each other and he had to decide which was more important. The fact that he sometimes had trouble putting one above the other made him easy to sympathize with, and it was refreshing to see that the romance wasn't always the absolute central point of the series.

I also really enjoyed the insight into the music industry, though much of it was certainly exaggerated. It's amusing in a way how much I shirk away from caring about the rival bands and scandals for musicians in real life, but Gravitation got my attention anyway. The drama was good, and I suppose you grow to care about these characters much more than those in reality. Unfortunately, Yuki's deep, dark past could be considered the most cliché aspect of the entire series, and even in my fangirl days, I was never really impressed by it. Still, within the thirteen episode series, the subject is skirted around constantly and details always remain a bit fuzzy around the edges. I suppose it's partially because much of the series is very comedic and the horribly tragedies of the past are only explored enough for the present to make sense. It works alright enough, but it certainly isn't anything amazing.

All in all, Gravitation's story is a good, fun twist on a simple, old love story. While not perfect by any means, it's still both a brilliant comedy and a touching romance, and there's enough little surprises to keep you excited for the entirety of its run!

CHARACTER - I don't think there was a single bad character in this entire series. Each and every one of them had some sort of role to fill and had their moment in the spotlight. Though there were a few classic archetypes like Yuki, the dark and mysterious one, and Hiro, the best friend, somehow the little quirks in their personalities made them seem a little less typical. Yuki especially, armed with his tragic past, was an interesting character to follow because he himself admits that he doesn't understand himself. In retrospect, his probably wasn't the most accurate or the most convincing account of trauma and psychological health problems in the world, it works well enough for the story's purposes.

Shuichi was a fun protagonist, considering he was also one of the series' primary sources of comedy relief (in the first episode, he was late for a meeting because he had to go save a turtle being harassed by a bunch of kids, you know). Spastic and crazy most of the time, he's moments of seriousness almost seem random, but where Yuki's past only worked well enough, Shuichi's dynamic personality actually worked very well. It's clear that his love started off as simple infatuation and that he had to deal with mostly un-reciprocated feelings for several episodes; it was thus intriguing to watch how his generally happy personality dealt with the chaos, turmoil, and heavy uncertainty that came with the relationship he found himself in. It was also nice to see a character that wasn't always sure of himself and his feelings -- even though it was easy for the audience to tell how he felt, Shuichi still questioned himself and the "purity" of his love wasn't cheapened by the absolute certainty other characters sometimes have.

Pretty much all of the other characters are also worth mentioning, but I'll try to be more brief for the rest of them: Ryuuichi and Tohma are probably the most interesting characters aside from our main boys. Both front one image of themselves while maintaining ulterior motives that are both understandable, easy to sympathize with, and realistic enough, making them more whole as characters. K and Sakano, both wonderfully unique and quirky, aid Shuichi in the comic relief, and they do it oh so very well. Tachi, and to a lesser extent, the rest of ASK, are probably the flatest characters in the entire series, which is rather impressive, I think, because they're not that unbelievable of characters despite that. And though Gravi is a very obviously bishounen-centric series, the three whole female characters we get are all fairly respectable. Mika, Noriko, and Ayaka all serve their roles well and don't bring down their sex! Power to that.

ART & ANIMATION - The animation was more or less average. It wasn't outstandingly exceptional, but nor was it terrible and poorly done. Some introductory scenes are made to look like a live action piece, which made things interesting, but again it isn't anything eye-popping. The bright and flashing lights during performances were good and realistic; some of the backgrounds throughout the series also looked quite nice because of similar effects. Though the characters are drawn in a pretty generic style for the most part, super deformed chibi people jump in quite often for emphasis and comical effect. The "normal" characters don't much resemble Murakami's original style, but thats probably partially due to the fact that Murakami's style changed dramatically during the course of her twelve volume manga. The chibi style on the other hand, is pretty easy to recognize as Murakami's own.

MUSIC - Gravitation is everything about the music. The music in this series is what makes it complete, and I wouldn't have it any other way. From beginning to end, Gravitation is filled with perfectly appropriate background music, no matter how long or short the clip or scene is. Many a times, insert songs are rehashed as soft instrumental and piano versions, helping to bring in familiar themes for emphasis and emotion.

J-rock artist Kinya Kotani sings all of Bad Luck's music in the series. Though his music has changed significantly since his work in Gravitation, his work at the time suited Bad Luck very well because Kinya's personality was near identical to Shuichi's. Seriously! Someone like that actually did exist in real life! "The Rage Beat," Bad Luck's main insert song is incredibly upbeat and energetic, perfect for pumping up the audience; it's also very inspiring to listen to and helps gear everyone up for some exciting confrontation. "The Rage Beat" actually plays once an episode for like the first five episodes, but you don't really tire of it. If anything, you get more excited for it every time. "Blind Game Again," the band's other insert song is equally energetic, though a bit more serious sounding, which fits very well with when its used. Nittlegrasper's only song in the series is "Sleepless Beauty," which is performed by K.ITO + D.K. (Kenichi Ito and Daisuke Kuroda) It's a breathtaking song and also suits the band very well.

Funnily enough, Murakami obviously got her inspiration for some of the characters in Gravitation from real life groups. Nittlegrasper, a legend in the series, is comprised of Tohma Seguchi (keyboardist), Noriko Urai (keyboardist), and Ryuichi Sakuma (vocalist and lyricist). Nittlegrasper disbands with Ryuichi leaving to pursue a solo career in America, and Tohma becoming the president of NG, a producing company. Now, Icemen was a real life j-rock band, though they certainly weren't as famous as Nittlegrasper, they performed "Shining Collection," Nittlegrasper's song in the Gravitation OVA. Icemen is comprised of Daisuke Asakura (keyboardist), Kenichi Ito (guitarrist), and Michihiro Kuroda (vocalist). Icemen disbanded in 2000 with Kuroda leaving to pursue a solo career in America, and Daisuke is now the very capable producer of many j-pop/j-rock bands. Including Kinya Kotani. And K.ITO + D.K. And Yousuke Sakanoue (who did Gravi's OP theme). NG produces all the music for Bad Luck. DA produces all the music for Kinya. Well, what a coincidence! The change that Murakami made was adding in Noriko, the purple-haired keyboardist in place of Kenichi, the red-haired guitarrist. But wait, Hiro, of Bad Luck, is a red-haired guitarrist! And they're both on white guitars no less! Guess she was trying to make it less obvious where she got her inspiration.

Really though. The music in Gravitation is fantastic. The OP theme is one of the few that I actually sat through every single time because I was so enthralled by its energy. The ED theme is similarly entrancing, though with a slower, calmer melody. Good stuff guys, seriously.

DUBBING & VOCALS - The original voices in Gravitation are exceptional. A lot of renowned voice actors worked in this anime, and they all live up to their name. Seki Tomokazu works Shuichi's personality beautifully. His voice is energetic and strong when need be, and softer, more quiet and scared when need be; the emotion that rings in Shuichi's voice is incredibly convincing. Shuichi's singing voice is that of Kinya Kotani, and I've already rambled about that. Ryuichi's voice has a similar effect with emotion. Yamaguchi Kappei has played a lot of famous leads, including Ranma and Inuyasha, and though he doesn't play lead in this anime, his character is nonetheless quite essential and a good voice never hurt in that. And since Ryuichi's character changes so quickly from second to second, it's amazing that he sounds so good. His normal, chibi, cute character is fitted with a perfectly adorable and simply lovable voice. It really does sound as if a child is running around and squealing about the Monster Gao and cars going zoom. Then, quickly, in the blink of an eye, Ryuichi will be serious and his voice suiting him just as wonderfully.

My favorite voice in the series is neither singer however, but rather, Tohma Seguchi, for he is voiced by Orikasa Ai. You can't really can't tell Tohma was voiced by a woman unless you already knew. She does a phenomenal job with it, making Tohma a strong and eeriely convincing character. He can show support and kindness when he wants to and give calm and simply chilling orders when he's irked. Tohma means buisness; he gets what he wants. And that's made perfectly clear. Orikasa Ai is also the voice of Ryoko from Tenchi Muyo!, and not to mention Quatre from Gundam Wing, who looks freakishly like Tohma's twin.

Gravitation has been licensed and dubbed in the US by The Right Stuf International. Because TRSI hasn't worked with that many series, the names on the cast list are unfamiliar and unimpressive for the most part. I bought the first two DVDs when they came out and thus saw the first six episodes dubbed. I couldn't do it anymore after that. As a fan of the series, I realize I was probably (and still am) a bit purist about it, but I usually consider myself to have a pretty high tolerance for bad dubs (I made it through ten episodes of the 4Kids One Piece, after all). Gravitation's dub was just that awful. All of the characters sounded flat and unemotional, and they all sounded like they had the same voice actor. Shuichi wasn't nearly as energetic as he should have been. It was simply bizarre hearing Tohma with a very generic man's voice. Yuki's voice was probably the most forgivable, but that's probably because his archetype was the easiest to type cast for. One of these days, I might go back and watch those DVDs again for a second impression, but when the original is just so damn good, I don't know why I would. (My impression of the dub does not affect my score in the "sound" category of this review.)

OVERALL - Gravitation really is a piece of work. It can go from absolutely hilarious to troublingly dark (and vice versa) in three seconds flat. You get two stories at once, two missions, two goals. You seem to jump back and forth from one to the other, but in truth, they're both intertwined through relationships and an mysterious history, making things quite intriguing. Gravitation is worth a watch, even if you aren't particularly fond of shounen-ai. In the end, it's a romantic comedy with a dark twist, and I've known a good number of people who don't care for the genre at all to have fallen in love with this series because the boy's love isn't the point. (Just a plus.)
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5 WORDS OR LESS REVIEW: Cute, funny and good enough.

Like your typical shonen-ai anime, Gravitation focuses more on boy-boy love and thus the other plot elements are forgotten. Other than being a shonen-ai anime, Gravitation was supposed to be an anime about making it big in the music industry. Sometimes, I think that aspect is overlooked. I think if the shonen-ai and music making aspects were balanced, Gravitation would have been better.

The cast, as expected, were full of gorgeous male characters. My favorites would be Hiro and Yuki – I like the mysterious, tall and handsome types. Shuichi was okay, he gets on my nerves sometimes, but he’s really cute when he’s chibi-fied. His choice of outfits is questionable though – his normal clothes are okay, but the banana suit and the school girl uniform was too much. Why can’t he be more like Ryuichi who’s cute all the time?

I’m always impressed when a female seiyuu is assigned to a male character. Takimoto Fujiko (Fujisaki Suguru) and Ai Orikasa (Seguchi Tohma) were good in portraying male characters, however I like Takimoto Fujiko more because when I first heard Seguchi Tohma’s voice, I knew his seiyuu was female right away. Ai Orikasa’s voice was too high pitched and mellow, which is unfitting for a male president of a record company. Of course, I can’t forget to note Tomokazu Seki, who was Shuichi’s seiyu. He’s my favorite no matter what roles he picks.

Visuals for gravitation were interesting. I like how they incorporated real images with the animation – it makes it look different. However, when it’s just pure animation, I have to say I’m not a fan. The drawings were inconsistent, and needed work. Yuki’s face changes almost every episode. Same goes for the coloring. There were times when there were stills and repeated scenes were used. That’s just being lazy for me. The visuals did get better towards the end.

As for the music, the OP reminded me a lot of Pet Shop Boys songs. I only heard a few of their songs (I wasn’t born yet when they first started), but when I first watched Gravitation I immediately thought of the Pet Shop Boys. I like the ED better, it’s quite catchy but I kinda wish a girl sang it. It is a shonen-ai anime after all. There’s also the insert songs, which were nice, but again – Pet Shop Boys.

It could have been better, not that I’m saying it’s bad – but it needed some improvement. For me, Gravitation’s strengths lies in its comedy, chibi-cuteness, Tomokazu Seki and of course, the shonen-ai. read more

When I first read about Gravitation, it was like gay anime? Never, ever... So I didn't take a second look. After a while I forgot the name and by coincidence still downloaded it. I started the first episode and at the beginning it seemed like a totaly normal Anime, no gayness whatever. Well, ok soon it begins to develop, but it's not tasteless. No in fact, you even forget the gay-theme for a second as Suichi seems to be more a girl then a boy...

The Story is great, yes it is. A boy who wants to become a famous musican and gets into the big world, why not. An author who writes novels especially for woman, but is gay himself, right! You won't see the whole picture at the beginning, episode by episode it develops more and more. And I think that's great, as you won't get bored! Gravitation has a lot of slapstick elements, it's comedy, a bit of dramatic and romantic.

In fact: If you can suppress the gay theme (if you are not into it) and if you like romance anime, you could have a fun time watching Gravitation.

I won't go into the Detail about the sound and art, I think there are enough reviews out there which already did so. read more

It’s been a while since I watched this anime, and I know that I don’t want to see it ever again. Back then, I was looking for some yaoi or shounen-ai to watch. Going through various forums and reviews I found Gravitation, downloaded it and started watching.

With every episode I hoped that the next one will be better, but unfortunately they all were at the same low level. An over-emotional immature kid who’s able to sing only one or two sings through all the 13 episodes, with huge eyes and pink hair, dressed in some funny coat and shorts. Thanks, I’ll pass.

Instead of funny, try pathetic. I don’t remember laughing much when I watched it. And when I did it was more of the silly actions of the main character than of the actual humor. The art isn’t stunning either, the music even worse.

There were, of course, some scenes that I liked, but not many of them. The only character I could like was Yuki Eiri because of his outwardly cold and indifferent demeanor. But even that wasn’t good enough to begin liking the anime in the slightest. I survived to the end of it and was glad to be able to finally remove it from my HD. Well, the last episodes I watched thinking ‘only 4 (or less) left, if I survived till now, I can finish it as well’.

And ever since I watched it I’m wondering how it’s possible that so many people worship it. I cannot understand it. For me, it was probably the worst anime I’ve ever seen. read more

Oh, Gravitation. What can I say about you in this small review that can express my feelings about you? Let us see:

Honestly, I don't understand why people don't enjoy this like I do. I can't expect everyone to like everything I do, but this one seemed like it could reach out to a lot of different people. I mean, it has a whole lot of comedy, but it still has its serious moments. My friends that like anime have read the manga and watched the anime, and we all LOVED it.

Gravitation is, in my mind, one of the greatest things ever made. It's about a singer named Shuichi Shindou who is in a band called Bad Luck with his best friend who plays the guitar named Hiro. He loses the lyrics to a new song and a mysterious man picks them up, and literally tells him that he sucks and that he has no talent.

Later on, you find out that the man is Eiri Yuki, a famous novelist who is very popular with the ladies. And it just sorta takes off from there.

At times, this whole show doesn't seem very realistic, but it's an anime. Who says it has to be realistic?

Story: (9) This has some of the funniest stuff I have ever read in it. It gets really crude at times, but not as much as the manga. The story at times can get so random that it's hard to keep up, but in a good way.

Art: (7) Gravitation does not have the greatest art in it. Although at times, it somehow adds to the anime. It's not an eyesore, but it's no Code Geass or Death Note.

Sound: (10) Every song in this anime is in my top favorites. I bought the cd a while back, and I have every song memorized from beginning to end, especially Spicy Marmalade and Shining Collection.

Character: (8): I love a majority of these characters. Shuichi is so immature that it's adorable! Eiri Yuki has so many sides, and I love each and every one of them! Ryuichi Sakuma is definitly my favorite character. He makes you think of a five year old, with Kumagoro (Mr. Bear, if you're watching the dubbed). K is the most badass person ever on the face of the planet!
But some characters, I just want to stab in the neck with a knife, like, at first you might think you love Tohma, but then he's just a sick bastard that needs to die. Ayaka is just a bitch. That's all there is to it. (I was gonna say more, but this is really long!)

Enjoyment: (10) I easily give this a ten. I have watched the anime five times in a row now, and I still cry from laughing so hard at most points. It's just so random and innocent, yet sad and emotional all at the same time. You will sit there with tears of sadness running down your face, and all of a sudden you fall over laughing.

Overall: (9) This has to be my favorite anime of all time (besides Death Note). It is just that amazing. If you don't like yaoi, then stay away. Especially from the manga. That is a lot more sexual than the anime. I highly recommend this, because it is just an anime that about everyone can get a good laugh from. ^.^

Thanks for reading! =3
~Tracy read more

There is little that can be said of Gravitation that has not already been said. Gravitation has been the "shounen ai" flagship for many years, and it is well deserved. While other anime series lose themselves with complex storylines and characters, this one dazzles you with it's over-simplicity.

The story of a boy who longs to be a famous singer [who hasn't dreamt of that?] and equally longs to be loved by the person of his dreams [and who has not dreamt of this either?] the story barely deviates from this idea and therefore lacks the need to embellish or exaggerate the overall theme. If Jem & the Holograms were an all boy cast, this would be the result. Tho primarily a romance, there is a little sprinkling of action, drama and even mystery in there....not to mention comedy. This series is a welcome reprieve from the Myth and Mecha genre.

Animation and Character design again, are not deviating from the show's simplified formula using traditional *bish* design. Wherefore making it quite easy for each character to shift gender with just a few tweaks, primarily lead character, the pink-haired Shuichi, who frequently dons what one would normally designate as female clothing. And there are others, who also seem to flirt with blurring gender lines. The movements were standard anime, and there are several scenes that are looped, which becomes repetitive, this show's only notable flaw.

What's a music show without music? The creators of this series provided us with 4 or 5 tracks which were outstanding. The first concert song by Shuichi/Bad Luck was phenomenal, couple this with the fact he sings this with his long time idol will make even the most skeptical anime watcher's heart melt. Opening and closing theme songs were toe-tapping good times as well. I got the whole soundtrack! It's really good.

As I've earlier, with the exception of it being one of the first real BL animes to make it big, there is nothing new about this series with regard to art, theme, or story and will not satisfy your needs if you are craving visual or intellectual stimulation. No, I think the true magic of this series is how it makes you feel inside with it's simplicity. read more

Second Review. (I think I might make this a hobby)

To be honest I thought the anime of Gravitation, was just poor. It was obnoxious, and way too irritating. I barely got through it. Thirteen episodes was more than enough for me. And although most of my friends tell me to watch the OVA’s.. I have no motivation to do so, that is how bad the anime was.

The characters had very little development, they stayed the same throughout. For example the main one remained obnoxious and kind of naïve. It’s a very typical shounen-ai. Cheesy, with no twists, and absolutely no real plot development. Most fans of this anime are indeed female, but only because it is classified as cute.

Guess when I’m looking for shounen-ai, or more so yaoi. I should look for more serious things, and less cute. A tease and a waste of time. As harsh as that sounds. :(

The only thing I can really commend it for, is the music. It has decent music, and voice overs.


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okay~ gravitation.

i was buying DVDs one day and stumbled upon this one. seriously, i did NOT know it was shounen ai. it must have been fate that brought us together :)
better that i said it earlier, it was shounen ai, not yaoi. (aww, makes me sad)

plot: 8/10
i found the story cool actually. i mean a writer falls in love with a singer? that isn't one thing you'd see in everyday life. but when the story gets a move i found myself bored because of the love-hate relationship. sort of like taming a dog using the candy and whip. but the latter part was a surprise :)

art: 8/10
the art is good enough for what it's worth, which pretty much means... uhm. if you've seen sukisho, it's kind of like of the same level, only with darker shades and cruder details. but if you haven't, i think it is safe to say that the art is "cute". haha. ugh. words fail me.

sound: 9/10
since the main character is a singer, then expect songs! but not too much amount of songs. haha. yeah. just right. i didn't placed much attention to the seiyuus so, sorry about that. but the bg music doesn't affect much.

characters: 9/10
i don't have anything much to say about the characters. i didn't like yuki's (seme) temper =__= i found myself shocked whenever he turns cold towards shuuichi. but i couldn't bring myself to hate him because he says too much pick up lines. haha. shuuichi is your average clingy uke.

enjoyment: 8/10
well, it kept me pretty well entertained for the time being. i wanted more action actually. =__= but it provided more fluff. haha. i think it's good for those who cannot handle yaoi but likes shounen ai.

overall: 8/10
compared to other shounen ai anime i've seen, this is probably one of the best. there are only a handful of such anime, so i'd recommend it to those who likes shounen ai. i'm influenced heavily by the art and story so no surprise about that :)

owari :)
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I loved this series so much! I really like yaoi because it's so cute, but this one was really outstanding. The despreate Shuichi trying to get closer to Yuki, the band (with great techno music) and heart-warming friendship, the oh so characteristic features, beautiful art style and the humor could make every Yaoi fan scream in joy!

General, this is my second favourite anime, really good indeed. I don't think that many boys would like it though, because I suppose only we, girls, love shounen-ai :P I could be wrong of course. The story is very good and original in my opinion, it shows how someone who is really in love could fight with all prejudices (and there are trurly many of them). The art is really one of my favourte tipes, though there are a bit too more chibis, but I like it :) Since you're watching about musical groups in this anime too, the sound is outstanding, really good and made with effort. The charactres are most of all boys, but very cute ones ;) They are really good made especially when you know that half of the manga is cut if not more. I've really enjoyed watching this anime so I recommend it to all of you, especially girls ;P
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This is a funny, and romantic history of Shindo Shuichi`s life.
He was a normal school kid, who is a singer in his little band called Bad Luck, with his best friend and life partner Hiroshi.
His life went on a turn when he met the great novelist Eiri Yuki.
He fellt in love with Yuki, but Yuki plays a lot with Shuichi-kun.
Shuichi and Hiro starts to grov with they`re music, and soon they reach the top.
It`s a cute love-love story, with beautiful music, strong lines, funny characters and on the anime there are just awesome music:D

To fans of shounen-ai/ yaoi anime, Gravitation was the anime that helped popularize the launch of later "boys love" TV anime titles that would pop up now and then like Junjou Romantica and Loveless. However beyond the latter and Antique Bakery, much of my exposure to "boys love" titles have consisted of subpar and angsty melodramas focused on "dominant" and "submissive" types of attractive male characters that made me not survive any further than the first few minutes of a show's first episode. Sadly, Gravitation follows this same mold to a great extent in its focus on Eiri and Shuiichi's developing relationship with each following the dominant and submissive roles respectively. Both characters got quite obnoxious with their personalities for me with Eiri's barely expressive demeanor and Shuuichi's energetic and intrusive behavior. The approach that the anime takes in their relationship developments is just as irritating where the plot keeps teeter-tottering their developments between going smoothly and strained on enough occasions throughout the show's run, which made me blow enough steam over why Shuuichi doesn't just jump ship from his angst-loaded lover having enough mood swings. To its credit, the series does at least provide decent fleshing-out of its prominent characters and provide some believable elements to the complications that arise when becoming a celebrity such as the paparazzi and handling the fast rise of fame acquired. However, these few positives elements aren't enough to outweigh my sheer annoyance of the main pairing of Gravitation as I could care less about neither their relationship nor characters because of how melodramatic they were. Unless you're a sap for any type of shounen-ai/ yaoi anime title, I wouldn't waste any time on Gravitation. read more

Although it's kinda shonen-ai, i think everyone might enjoy this anime. It's not too dramatic... and has quite funny scenes.
It's kind of a musical anime, there are a few songs of the bands which are quite good. you can enjoy the music in the background as well.
the plot is simple, easy to follow, and exciting i must say.

It's one of the best animes i've ever seen. personally i had fun watching it and i hope that others who seen it had fun as well.
this anime is warmly recommended for everyone.

Love romance animes? Then gravitation is for you, This romance makes you swoon and cry along with it. The anime had no flaws and its got characters that you fall inlove with from the first minutes into the very first episode. To the lovable main character who is so cute and has got tons of talent To the handsom, serious and badass Yuki there isent a thing in this anime that you wont love with hot guys, killer music and tons of comedy and romance plus amazing art and story line you will absolutly fall for this anime before you can say Gravitation. Just like gravity pulls a stone to the ground Yuki pulls Shuichi to him This amazing anime grabs you and pulls you tword it. 10/10 read more

If this was the one I bought waaaaayy back when it was first popular - I have a bit of a problem with it.

Overall, the animation was okay. IT WAS OKAY. I hated the fact that in some scenes, they used real footage with a filter over it. What's the point!? Also, it looks like the anime cels were stretched...since every character's eyes look stretched to their limit.

The Japanese dub was the cloak that hid the horrible truth of this anime adaptation. The English is a complete and utter waste of time, money and of a fan's time and money. My friends and I were Gravitation "fangirls" who bought the manga and when we saw that there was a anime, we freaked. I was the provider of this and we only watched the Japanese because we were purists and believe home languages of any film, TV series, etc. were to be watched first. We watched the English and I felt like I was deceived into something so sinister. Yuki's voice was okay but his actor read the script TERRIBLY. In fact, all of the English voiceover was so wrong that I never watched it again. It was that bad.

They forgot alot of things, aswell. So many little events that could make this so. much. better. They took the pinnacle events (Shuichi meeting Yuki, Yuki's "past", etc.) and animated those.

I gave this a 6 for a reason. I might go and watch the OVA to compare but I just...can't. XD It ruined alot for me, this TV version. I gave it a 4 'cause I like Gravitation. I'm not crazy about it but I like it. It just wasn't executed well. read more

This is so CUTE! Ok, now that my fan girl love has been squeezed out, I’m sorry but I can’t help it! This show has everything a yoai girl would fall in love with. Cute guys, drama, romance between a cute little brother character and a hot older male.

Shuichi is like a little brother, always acting out on his feelings even when it might get him into trouble. He also is known to put people in front of himself. He doesn’t care what happens to him as long as everyone else around him is happy.

I love Hiro! His design is really cute and he always teases Shuichi about his love and anything else but he is always there for him like a best friend should.

I wish Yuki would be nicer to Shuichi. I feel so sorry for him since he keeps getting beat up by Yuki both mentally and physically. Most of the time, I wanted to punch Yuki for acting the way he did though that would of broken my screen.

As you can tell, I really got into this one and my fan girl couldn’t help me get past the fact they weren’t real people. The way the creators made them, most of the time they felt like they could be people I would meet on the street one day.

The artwork is kind of so so actually. It is beautiful when they put a lot of effort into it but then lacks in other places. The design of the eyes is beautiful and the romance scenes too but when we get into the comedy part, it lacks slightly.

The music is rather awesome for a j-pop boy band. Some music is a miss for me but others like the opening are really awesome. Unfortunately, Yuki (English Dub) keeps sounding like he’s just reading lines and doesn’t show much emotion. I know he’s an angry guy but he could at least put a little more emotion to it. Shuichi (English Dub) does come across as a whinny little child sometimes although I think that’s part of why people like at least him. read more

I watched this anime w/ my cousin we laughed hard every time Shuichi Shindou do something.... let's say ODD. It's my first Shonen-ai anime I've ever watched.

While admitedly Gravitation is a good series, it's really only mediocre compared to its manga parent. The writers took a twelve-volume manga and smashed it down into a thirteen-episode anime series. The artwork is beautiful, the songs are great, the characters are just as engaging as in the original, but the problem is how much of the story has been cut from this masterpiece manga series.

Shuichi Shindou and his friend Hiro Nakano have just hit their big break and are an up-and-coming band (named Bad Luck) who are trying to finish their first album for their debut concert. While searching for ideas in the park Shuichi's song is blown away and he meets famed author Eiri Yuki, who insults his song, causing Shuichi to throw a fit and write an even better song just to show the writer (who at the time he doesn't know is famous) up.

It seems that the writers have traded story and art for music, but even that is rather lack-luster as in the thirteen episodes Bad Luck has only three songs features, and their rivals Nittle Grasper have perhaps one or two. Even still, the comedy and romance have stayed in tact and it's a nice anime to take a day to watch and perhaps get yourself in the mood to read the daunting twelve-volume manga that accompanies it. read more

To be honest, even though this anime is old (being produced in 1999) this is one of the best ones I watched. I wasnt actually a fan of BL until I watched it. Its my first BL anime.
The story line is really good, and you won't get bored anytime during the 13 episodes. You stay hooked until the very end, you even would end uo wanting more. Its really sad that there isn't any completion for this anime, I would really love to watch it.
Long story put short. Your missing alot if you don't watch it!