Gungrave

Brandon Heat and Harry MacDowel, two friends so close they could be called brothers, receive an abrupt and violent reminder one fateful day of how appallingly merciless the world around them can be. Their whole lives before then were simple and easygoing, consisting largely of local brawls, seducing women, and committing petty theft to make a living and pass the time. What they failed to realize is that in this cruel world, happiness is fleeting, and change is inevitable.

Enter Millennion, the largest and most infamous mafia syndicate in the area, which accepts Brandon and Harry into their ranks and starts them at the bottom of the food chain. Harry has ambitions to ascend the ranks and one day replace Big Daddy as the supreme leader of Millennion, while Brandon only wishes to support his friend and appease Big Daddy who has taken custody of the woman Brandon loves.

Based off the third-person shooter video game under the same name, Gungrave is an epic story of friendship, betrayal, and avarice that spans the course of several years, ultimately tying back to the gripping and foreboding first episode, all the while building up to the story's thrilling conclusion.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Heat, Brandon Main

Seki, Tomokazu Japanese

MacDowel, Harry Main

Hamada, Kenji Japanese

Kugashira, Bunji Supporting

Tachiki, Fumihiko Japanese

Walken, Bear Supporting

Ootomo, Ryuuzaburou Japanese

Big Daddy Supporting

Kayumi, Iemasa Japanese

Poundmax, Bob Supporting

Chafurin Japanese

Asagi, Mika Supporting

Sakuma, Kumi Japanese

Lee, Balladbird Supporting

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Asagi, Maria Supporting

Inoue, Kikuko Japanese

Burns, Widge Supporting

Houki, Katsuhisa Japanese

Kitayama, Shigeru Producer

Gotou, Hideki Producer

Kubo, Tooru Producer

Tsuru, Toshiyuki Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Reviews

Jan 31, 2024

Babineaux

Recommended

IMPORTANT: Do NOT watch Episode 1, skip straight to Episode 2. Episode 1 is literally just a carbon copy of a later episode and it spoils basically everything, you're better off without it.

With that out of the way, Gungrave is an interesting anime that has a lot of strengths, but also a few weaknesses. This is because it has got two components to it:

1) A very watertight character-driven gangster story that takes up most of the anime, which is very much worth the price of admission.
2) While it's not quite correct to call it this, there is a point where I would describe ... the show as devolving into a Monster of the Week format involving fantastical elements that is unfortunately rather mediocre. However, as I say, this latter part is a minority of the anime's runtime, and the ending few episodes really brings the show back to what it does best.

The writing and characters are excellent, the art style is a bit weird at times but still perfectly serviceable, the music works really well at creating the right mood for this style of story, and the action scenes are generally good*.


A few other (non-spoiler) details...

The show spans a period of 30-40 years, showing the growth of various characters throughout their lives (but focusing in on the relationship between two in particular). It handles characters aging very well in the main, with the exception of Harry becoming a bit of a chain smoker and aging an extra 20 years more than he really should at the end.

*The show handles fight choreography for the mundane gangster shootouts very well, and there are also a couple of the boss fights with fantastical elements that are reasonably decent as well. However, the fights with Necrolyzed enemies and Orgmen in particular that happen later on (you'll know them when you see them) are very clumsy and underwhelming, with the wrong kind of low-detail sluggish bullet spongey combat. You'll just have to grit your teeth and bear them, but as I say, most combats aren't like that.

The mafia is also slightly more messy and OTT than they are in real life, but one can forgive the anime for that because it is in the show for the sake of adding in more action and drama.

Lastly, the idea of turning some characters you know from earlier in the anime into monsters of the week could have been a really great twist on the story formula, but it isn't handled to its fullest potential.


Even though it's relatively old at this point, Gungrave is one of the better shows that you can watch, and is an excellent gangster anime.

And while I have given it a 7, I don't hand out high scores lightly, so don't let that fool you. I'm not some clapping seal that ignores the lower half of the ratings system, and while I do enjoy some trashy anime now and then, this isn't one of them. It's really solid and worth a watch.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Feb 12, 2023

xOsiriaRose

Mixed Feelings

Gungrave has a unique flow to it that comes from being transcribed from a video game story and setting to an anime, and for the most part it navigates that pretty well. It can be very edgy at times with some over the top eye-rolling dialogue, but does what it sets out to do well overall. The strong parts of the show are it's narrative during the first section, and the payoff for it during the second. The art and voice acting (in the dub at least), however, are definitely the weakest aspect of the show, and are distractingly poor at times. Overall, I would ... only really recommend it to interested fans of westerns, action, and shonen.

*Light spoiler story synopsis*
The story is divisible into 2 major parts, past and present, following the main protagonist Brandon Heat. The first half of the story follows a starting-from-the-bottom mafia plotline which is well done, and the second half is a revenge story. Many supporting characters from the first half return after a time skip into the second, and it's done well enough to be enjoyable seeing how it's handled. The second half is definitely the weaker part though as it turns more towards action, you can tell that this was originally a game from how the fights play out.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Aug 2, 2024

airenaishen

Not Recommended

A long story of Brandon's bromantic devotion to Harry. This ultimate led to Harry murdering him, his benefactor, the woman who loved him, countless innocent and not so innocent people.

Even after Brandon is revived as an undead, he still ends up protecting the evil Harry, who was still seeking to murder the daughter of the woman who loved Brandon.

The story is probably written by someone with a twisted mind and necrolysed heart. You may enjoy this show if you have no sense of morality.

Story: 2
Art: 3
Music: 3
Voice: 4
... Characters: 3
Protagonist: 1
Science: 1
Enjoyment: 2

If you're hoping to see any redemption towards the end of the show, you're probably not going to find it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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Live Action Movie of Gungrave Announced

According to Gpara.com, Red Entertainment announced a live action movie of Gungrave at Anime Expo 2010. It will be produced by Convergence Entertainment and will be ...read more

Aug 9, 2010 2:27 AM by dtshyk | Discuss (36 comments)

	Poll: Gungrave Episode 26 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) Tzuno - Jul 11, 2009	118 replies	by qwertyMrJINX »» Aug 31, 1:00 AM
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	Poll: Gungrave Episode 23 Discussion TitanioVerde - Sep 16, 2009	27 replies	by qwertyMrJINX »» Aug 30, 11:36 PM
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