Story - The story does jump about, but is generally cohesive. Briefly: A girl called Ai is a being known as gravekeepers, who's job it is to find dead people. Her dad disappeared and her mum died (tragic, aye). Anyway, mysterious man slaughters everyone in her village (which I didn't quite understand, even at the end, but I'll get on that) - this stranger is actually Ai's dad! Him and another stranger called Yuri then fight, then Ai chases after Hampne (Ai's father). They look for another gravekeeper called Scar. Hampne gets into another fight, but dies (despite being immortal... I'll give my spin on the symbolism after this) and meets again with Yuri.
Yuri, Scar and Ai go on a trip, and Ai is kidnapped by the Goran Academys version of the FBI, as she now must attend a school. Here she meets Alice (a guy) and Dee, among others. Few roadtrips later, we find Alice, despite looking 16, is actually nearer 30 as he comes from an alternative dimension that has been stuck in a time loop. He then makes everyone in this loop realise there in loop (thanks to Dee) and everyone escspes. Yes, that is OVERLY simplified.
I think the director had a hard childhood, life, and maybe considered suicide. Death and mass slaughter is prominent in this, along with a lot of people who 'leave' (die) and I think this is symbolising death and mourning. OK, yes, it's kind of implied with GRAVEKEEPERS, but, especially the last 2 episodes, you'll definitely see the suicide and death links. Hate to compare it to something as it's a great show in it's own right, but the show does scream, if you hadn't seen it by now, ANGEL BEATS. 9/10.
Art - Love the art. Standard CGI but just it's SO different to normal CGI use, it's not all crisp and "moe". It's all different and awesome. 8/10.
Sound - minimal, except at the end of each episode, a little, like, sombre interlude played which didn't add much and the opening and ending songs aren't particularly memorable, but what I LOVED was the song in the last episode between Ai and Alice, but I'll say no more. It really did save the score from dipping, as you can see. 7/10.
Characters - I've done brief bios in the story arc, but it's not what they do individually, it's what they do together. As said, they show the symbolism of mass murder, of mourning, of death, of the Kübler-Ross model (anger, denial, acceptance) - oh, there's a little optimism, but there's a general pessimistic undertone. But that in itself is the brillianceof the show. And this also acts as my overall enjoyment and conclusion of this review. Go in to this show as it is, and you'll find a quite generic show that then blooms into something you'll want to no more about and that you'll damn well nearly cry, if not you will cry, by the end (why do I watch such depressing stuff when I HAVE DEPRESSION. Ffs...)
Go into this while having watched Angel Beats and you'll have a nagging feeling this has all been done before, but watch this then Angel Beats and you'll get the same feeling. Overall, highly reccommended if you enjoy shows like Angel Beats (which I did) and a good recommendation overall into the insight of human pessimism. Thank you all and good night :)
