The story is fantastic. In the opening episodes, Brandon Heat is shown as an undead hitman with a score to settle with the city crime boss Harry McDowell. The first half is all about how two young boys finding work through the mafia. The characters introduced at the start are some of the best I've ever seen, especially Harry McDowell. The show follows Brandon and Harry growing up and becoming more brutal, while being pulled apart from each other and becoming quite different from when they were kids. You see why it is they need each other and the trust they have together. One finds love, the other finds power, and neither find happiness.
The second half of the show is a revenge thriller, where the two men now fight over everything they once shared. The mafia now have the tech to pretty much raise the dead, and Harry tries to have Brandon killed, but the problem is he doesn't stay dead. All of the trust they once had is gone, and they tear the city apart trying to claw at each other's throats.
GunGrave has the best developmental Villain arc I've ever seen, because it's stayed with me. A young man takes shortcuts and cheats to get out of poverty and then to gain power, up until he has no other choice but to become the head of the family or wind up dead by it's enforcers. There's desire and desperation from the start, and this show doesn't let you forget that. Watching two good friends fall out over money, a woman, and power is always compelling, and it's done perfectly in this show, it feels a little bit like the novel The Count of Monte Cristo. This is storytelling at fantastic level, it's not convoluted that you get lost or too slow that you get bored. I will admit though, some of the character designs look a little silly, like Beyond the Grave in general, but hey that's early 2000s anime for you.
The animation is very good, even if some of the designs are a little silly. Fight scenes are tense and hard to predict. The side characters are all well expanded, and when they start dying, you remember their names. The soundtrack is great, delivering suspense, reprise, and suspician while still being able to pump up your heart rate in those pivotal moments. The english dub is top notch and has a great cast, really able to bring those well written characters to life when you hear them.
This is one of my favourite shows, definitely the best of 2003. It's a shame it has such a small viewerbase, because this really is a gem of a show
