Ranked #235

Gungrave

Betrayal can be a hard thing to swallow. Being betrayed by the very people you call your family--that's something you will take to the grave. And that's exactly what Brandon Heat does after his life crashes to a halt. Through conflict with the crime syndicate Millennion of which he was part, he seeks out those members who were the greatest friends he had ever had in all of his life. Friends who had betrayed him.

Gungrave is a bitter tale of revenge. It is also a story about the roles the people you love and care about the most in the world, and the power that comes with their position in your life. While the anime does play out as a mafia flick with crime, guns, gangs and living the life of criminal in a dirty town, Gungrave also has sci fi tones in which we see the creation of superhumans and monsters. The first episode opens in the present, where Beyond the Grave, Brandon Heat's alias, is preparing himself to exact his revenge on Millennion. The plot quickly changes, and we go back to the past, to Brandon's humble and violent beginnings. There we see his life with his best friend Harry MacDowell, two orphaned punks who run the streets committing petty crime. They are a duo, and wherever one goes, the other follows, though it's quite clear that Harry's the one doing the leading. After a chance encounter with Millennion's leader Big Daddy, the two are accepted into the mafia. The story then follows the rise of Brandon Heat and Harry MacDowell in the crime world.

Gears are eventually shifted once again, and the story returns to detailing the present. The build-up of the storyline is done extremely well. We're given a snippet of the present, wonder what are this man's motives and reasoning, and through careful plotting, we learn about the history of Brandon Heat and watch as the rest of the series chronicles the execution of his revenge. There are several themes that reign throughout Gungrave's storyline. Betrayal and loyalty, friendship and love, humanisation and inhumanity, poverty and wealth, power and weakness. While it does come off as the "big boss battle" type anime, in which after a few episode arcs, Beyond the Grave fights a big-name from Millennion and one of his ex-friends, Gungrave manages to handle this set-up very well.

I was rather sceptical about the character design. The art for it is not always the best. In fact, I thought Mika's look was downright awful. But for the most part, the characters are drawn with elongated faces, more gruff appearances, a little more realistic than say, cute. There are some great scenes of gun battles. Watching Beyond the Grave tear through swarms of enemies with his guns is something else. Hundreds of bullet casings drop, and you're left feeling satisfied that you've watched something rather decent and animated well.

The sound has some violin work. In more action-driven scenes, the score picks up and sweeps over the images. And there are the quiet scenes, the more peaceful scenes with music that is less powerful that suitable to the atmosphere set. There isn't any pop. There isn't any happy music. This isn't a happy anime.

Brandon Heat a.k.a. Beyond the Grave or simply Grave is one of the more silent protagonists in anime. He does not say much, but when he speaks, his words have the importance and weight of something grounded deeply into the earth. While he has the capacity to be a serene person, he does not know what it means to be a good person, as he commits numerous crimes and countless murders as a hitman for Millennion. While Brandon's societal morals have been shot to pieces by the only the lifestyle he knows, it does not mean his personal beliefs are that of a monster. He is actually rather honourable, though really, it may just mean he's nothing more than a good dog for Millennion--a theory which Harry takes to heart later on in the series. He is nothing more than a support man, and though he has the capacity to do or take whatever he wants, Brandon adheres to the rules and norms of Millennion. His only love, for example, was given up because of his loyalty to his boss. We watch him retain and lose some of his stoical nature while coming to care for his ward Mika later on.

Then there's Harry MacDowell. He is the best friend that breaks the time-honoured code of friendship. Harry is a charismatic, savvy man with the spirit of a leader inside of him. His ambition makes him a rather cut-throat person, and he'll stop at nothing to get what he believes is rightfully his. Harry doesn't want to reach for the stars--he wants to own them and get something better than that afterward. There is something special about the relationship he shares with Brandon. He is the best friend who slaved with him, who he ran the streets with, admired, shovelled crap with, and spent most of his life alongside. If such a thing existed, I would call them 'soul mates'.

The rest of the cast consists of members of Millennion and Brandon and Harry's close friends and co-workers. Each one of them are rather interesting, from the gluttonous technology whiz to the cynical, sociopathic ruthless killer, to the guy who idolises loyalty and guns more than anything. All the characters aren't archetypal, as there are very original ones such as Bear Walken, an aged man who lives only for the contentment of his only daughter, a man who would betray those who he was most loyal to as long as she was safe and happy. There are two important female members of the cast: Maria and Mika. One is Brandon's love interest and the other is a girl who he is obligated to care for because of Maria. They provide something lighter to the anime, reflecting innocence in an anime about darkness and corruption.

Gungrave is an excellent series. Granted, after my first viewing, I wasn't particularly moved. I was grateful I watched it a second time, as I picked up on nuances and themes and careful characterisation that I had not got from the first time. This series is moving, tragic, and shows a nastier side to friendship in a rather beautiful manner. It is touching, actually, to see human relationships given a second try with Brandon's return to Millennion. After a while, it isn't just about revenge anymore. This is about easing the pain by showing those who had hurt you what wounds they had caused.

Gungrave is not just about burying emotions and relationships after they've died. It is about digging them up, bringing them to light, and finally laying them to rest. A truly great anime that's worth a watch. read more

Based on the cult PS2 title by SEGA and Red Entertainment, this anime is an alternate retelling of that respective title which I own a copy of, and you can get it for like $5 at Game Stop. The anime tells the origin story of the main character, Brandon Heat, who is later re-named Beyond the Grave, and his best friend, Harry MacDowell. The organization of the presentation of the story feels as if it was perfectly structured as a 3-act play, each with its own unique theme and gimmick. Act 1 you can label as a story about rags to riches in which Harry and Brandon are teenage small timers just trying to survive. Act 2 is about how the duo is trying to establish themselves, and make it to the top of the mafia. And Act 3 is an epic conclusion about betrayal and redemption, which speaks for itself. But throughout the duration of the anime, the idea of family and loyalty will always be a consistent theme.

Even though it’s centered primarily around two characters, I felt a good majority of the characters had their own unique presence and contribution, and really made the themes and messages felt realistic and powerful.

What of course also stands out is Brandon’s characterization that comes across as cliché. In the original game, Brandon never speaks, and the anime is very true to this for the most part. Brandon is still quiet in nature, but with little words he says, it still gives a lot of what goes on inside his mind (of course through narration) and you truly see him start from being an innocent boy, to a contemplative man but yet still maintains his unique surface qualities of being quiet, but yet shows enough emotion to give the audience an idea of what goes on through his mind and find a way to relate to him.

And of course another feature with this whole mafia gig are the weird sci-fi elements. I felt it wasn’t really forced in a way that having sci-fi traits seemed out of place. But the nature of the sci-fi is what makes it bizarre, but yet unique and original. I don’t want to get into the details of that since I would also have to reveal spoilers, but it does add a unique kind of flavor that doesn’t turn you off from the series. The sci-fi part is properly introduced but I felt that the setting such as how far in the future it takes place which will be revealed which will conveniently make sense to make it work. Granted the anime will reveal what year in some parts it takes place in that will make it feel like it makes sense, but I think the anime should have established it from the start, and not 2/3 into it.

What also attracted me to Gungrave was the fact that Nightow Yasuhiro, the creator of Trigun, was the creator of this product as well. Obviously, some elements from Trigun are in this anime as well. Such as the design of Brandon’s guns are quite similar to Vash’s, and Brandon’s coffin gun is of course influenced by Wolfwood’s cross gun. But despite having the same creator, there are some distinguishing differences as well.

In Trigun, Nightow-sensei’s style was more kid friendly and generic, while in Gungrave, his style for the character designs are more edgy and mature which perfectly suits the nature of the story. For the most part, despite the time the anime takes place in, the architecture is quite modern. Though as the series progresses, there are vehicular designs that appropriately reflect the scientific and futuristic elements this anime has. And of course, I like how the anime approaches the aging of the characters throughout the duration of this anime, which I can’t ignore. It does it pretty effectively.

And before I get into the action, I’d like to talk about Brandon’s costume design. I must say it is pretty bizarre, but hey, in his situation by then, what the hell, huh? I think it’s still pretty cool, and really matches his artillery in a complimentary way in that sense, I guess. The action is pretty intense as well. For the most part, it’s just gun violence that does get pretty brutal, and does have some martial arts action as well that isn’t really exaggerated until things start to change into the sci-fi part. If you’ve seen Trigun, then you know what to somewhat expect, but this time, the main character will kill.

Even though I always associate Imahori Tsuneo’s name with his use of guitars, which was prevalent in Hajime no Ippo and Trigun, but hearing the way he composes this anime totally changed my opinion of his talent. The guy knows how to create an appropriate atmosphere with the elements this anime has with a sad blues and jazz kind of feel. Along with the presentation of the animation, I thought his music also brought a noir feature this anime has on all acts in this anime whether in the mafia or sci-fi moments so his presence brought an overall appropriate touch to virtually all scenes that had music.

The voice acting in the Japanese version I thought brought the noir feel to the anime as well, and utilizes most of the voice talent from the original game which was in Japanese. I tried watching the English dub, but it didn’t give me what I was feeling in the Japanese version. Personally, I feel overall the dub isn’t worth watching since there was no dub in the game to begin with to give me some expectation of how it could work. If you’re the kind of person that prefers dubs at whatever levels, I still say it’s good enough for you. But if you’re someone who prefers straight up Japanese no matter how good or bad a dub is, I felt the portrayals in Japanese were best. I felt watching it in English just didn’t have the same level of seriousness that the Japanese had and kind of felt more like a dark comedy, which I feel Gungrave isn’t. I really like how in the Japanese version, which was also done in the English version was how they did Harry’s voice throughout the duration it takes place in. In his younger years, he has a voice where he sound really easy going and sarcastic like Spike from Cowboy Bebop, but when he’s old, he’s as evil as Mori in Flame of Recca. And Brandon was appropriately played by a big favorite of mine as you all know, Seki Tomokazu, who is no stranger to playing quiet and somewhat isolated characters such as Miyata in Hajime no Ippo.

Well, all I can say is if I had to put this anime in a nut shell: try to mix Scarface, The Godfather, Versus, the Yakuza PS2 games, Skullman, Cowboy Bebop and Trigun, then you got this anime. Speaking of Versus, I can actually imagine Kitamura Ryuuhei doing a live action version of this movie, and I could imagine the leading role from that movie playing Brandon. I say anybody who likes those animes, games, or movies individually will certainly enjoy Gungrave and you don’t have to be a fan of all of them just to watch it. Heck, anime fans in general who have no experience with what I described or even the original game despite some significant changes will probably love it. As you can tell from this review, I think it tells an excellent story with characters and themes we can all relate to despite its edgy underworld setting.
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