Gungrave tells the story of a man named "Beyond The Grave" (I'm not even kidding, it's so hilarious you can make fun of it very easily), but he's also known as Brandon Heat. He's back from the dead (by something called necrolyzation) to take down Millenion, a mafia organization that controls everything and the one in charge is "Bloody Harry" Macdowell, who was once Brandon's childhood friend and he's destined to take him down at all costs. Don't let this text fool you, it's far more complicated than this and good thing too cause if I told you more additional story details about the show, It would spoil your interest. Although Gungrave's story starts off very slowly with more dialogue than action and it takes a while to get comfortable with this kind of pace but when big plot events start to pick up on episode 8 or 9, it gets really interesting. Acts of betrayal are committed, friends become foes and consequences will be paid for individual characters, the story will hold your interest for a while and while it stays faithful to the game, it has it's faults. For example, the character Mika is annoying in the series and fun fact; In the game, Mika is very supportive to Grave and she makes herself useful in a few cut-scenes from the game but in this series.... God what a hopeless and useless character she is. If they could have made her character more interesting then maybe I would have liked her but as it is she's just terrible and every time she starts crying, get ready to hit the mute button a lot.
All the supporting characters are great providing some depth to the story but the real heart of the story is the relationship between Brandon and Harry cause they were the best of friends. They always stick to each other and they would do anything to rise on the top when they both joined Millenion. However, as they grew up stronger throughout the years, they themselves change like Brandon no longer having interest in Maria, Harry gets more violent and scams his way to the top on Millenion and even committing an act of betrayal that would shatter their friendship forever. The character Brandon Heat is the same silent badass we all get used to in anime but through the series, we learn that he does have something valuable that makes him human, even after he died. Harry is also a well written character cause he had so much power that he killed everything he hold dear and he also destroyed the best thing he ever had in his life: His freedom. Overall, the characters are well written and they do leave an emotional impact when you have fun with these characters.
The animation by MADHOUSE is gorgeous. While it uses quick animation cuts, the animation holds up well with it's top notch visuals and colorful character designs that were used just like in the games. The backgrounds look really astonishing, the lighting effects are used constantly but well and the art is excellent. The music by Tsuneo Imahori, who also composed the music for Trigun, is pretty good and although, it lacks the badassness of the Trigun music to this, it's still serviceable and to give him credit, the opening theme is relaxing and smooth. The dub by Geneon is good but the dubbing doesn't start off strong and it takes a while for the dub to improve in later episodes, kinda like Death Note where you have to get used to the actors take on the dub version of Light until later episodes.
I would say to you guys to play the game before watching this but seems copies for this game are rare to find now, it would be hard to do that but for now, go check out this series instead. It's a fun, compelling and energetic series that will hold your attention till the end...... As long as you mute the parts with Mika cause HOLY SHIT! She is a whinny little bitch.
