Gravitation - Reviews

Story
Shuichi is a young guy who has a friend named Hiro and a band named Bad Luck. They haven't hit it big quite yet, but are determined to get to the top eventually! One day, by chance and a gust of wind, one of the self conscious Shuichi's songs gets into the hand of Eiri Yuki, a cynical and heartless writer, who proceeds to inform Shuichi that he has no talent. Shuichi is totally thrown off guard, and needs to find the man again to figure out what his problem was.

Gravitation, as you've probably heard, is shounen-ai. Yes, I said shounen-ai, as in, men who like men, NOT yaoi, which is men having sex with men. People, when will you learn to stop calling anything homosexual yaoi? Like Earthian before this, this in fact has nothing yaoi related in it. Thus, unless you are really homophobic (and if you are, I suggest therapy), you would probably enjoy this if you like romances.

So what is Gravitation, ultimately? Well, it's definitely a romance series (with comedy thrown in), but it's also a series that follows the band and their rise to fame. These two things are intermixed fairly well throughout the 13 episodes, so there isn't much segmentation to be found. First, let's talk about the romance. We definitely aren't given any lag time as far as the romance kicking in -- things start as early as episode one. Now, I had some problems with the pacing as far as this is concerned. I've read other reviews which talk about how the plot examines Shuichi and him coming to terms with being gay, but I didn't see this AT ALL. I almost wonder if the people reviewing Gravitation were accidentally watching something else. Though Shuichi seems confused all of ONE OR TWO TIMES when Yuki kisses him, after that he's gung ho about the whole thing. We don't see anything where Shuichi is examining his actions or wondering why he is attracted to a male. He just... is. After the first kiss, he keeps coming back, doesn't really talk about the fact that he's switched to the other team (except occasionally asking if Yuki doesn't like him because he's male), etc. This would have been MUCH more effective and believable had Shuichi done the things these other reviews said: coming to terms with being gay. The way the story was set up, however, made me think Shuichi had known he was gay all along. Otherwise, I'm sorry, he would have reacted a hell of a lot differently to the entire situation (and probably would have taken much longer to come to terms with the idea that it was ok). I understand the length was short, but it made it feel much more unrealistic.

The part about the band rising to fame, however, was very compelling and interesting. It's always nice to watch a series where people go from nothing to something, especially in a band related way, since there aren't many series like that out there. The band story definitely was on the back burner compared to the romance, though.

Intermixed with the drama and seriousness was a great deal of chibis and random humor. Though this was funny at some times, it was totally inappropriate many other times. Often Yuki and Shuichi would be sharing a moment together, and suddenly Shuichi is in a random animal suit acting all whiny. Totally ruined the mood, in my opinion. Another failing of the series was the fact that Shuichi was truly annoying in every way possible, and made you wonder why Yuki is even bothering with him in the first place

All in all, a decent idea, but the pacing was quite unbelievable and felt rushed. Also, as mentioned, the romance seemed fairly unrealistic at times because of the total lack of self-examination that went into Shuichi's decision to be with Yuki. A decent idea, though, and the band story was refreshing at least.
Animation
Visually, Gravitation is fairly good. The characters are DEFINITELY bishounen and pleasant looking, reminding me of the characters from X TV or, well, any other series with bishounen characters ;). Hair colors and such were pinks, oranges, and other unusual colors, and the colors used in general were quite vibrant and unique. The clothing on the characters was quite interesting -- very feminine looking, but all the Jpop band photos I've seen do wear clothing like this, so it seemed appropriate. There were only a few unusual types of animation (or lack of) used. In the first episode, some regular video was intermixed with the animation, which quite frankly looked really bad. For example, a real shot of a mini waterfall would be shown, and then an animated one on the street. Near the end a shot of a pizza box was partially animated and partially looking 3D, which looked terrible. Sticking to the normal animation would have been just fine.
Sound
The music was vibrant and poppy, given that it was based on a Jpop band. My only complaint is that Bad Luck played the same exact song every single time, which got very old after awhile. It would have been nice to hear another song they did, since the first one was great. We occasionally heard songs from other bands which were just as good, but again, the same songs were replayed the entire series. The rest of the music was definitely in the background and uneventful. Even the opening and intro were catchy for once.
Characters
I'd like to give the characters a higher score, but a few things hold me back from doing that. First of all, like already mentioned, I had a big problem with Shuichi going into the realm of gay and not even examining the choice or opportunity. Maybe it's covered in the manga more, but I didn't read the manga, I watched the anime. Thus, I would have liked for there to be some development on that front. It's not realistic to me to watch two characters hook up extremely fast and fall into a routine, without having grown together or really talked about stuff. I kept wondering why Shuichi liked Yuki so much, and why he became so clingy.

Shuichi's character was just obnoxious in general. He was extremely whiny and cried a lot, and acted like he was 15. He was a clingy leech and I can't see why Yuki would have been attracted to that. Yuki was a far better character, who had a complex past that we discover near the end, which helps to explain why he is the way he is. He's manipulative and tricky, but deep down is a good guy. He had emotional layers, I liked that.

Other secondary characters ranged from good to annoying. Hiro was a good friend and had an interesting role as a band-mate, while a rival band member (and Shuichi's idol) was INCREDIBLY annoying. He had the same voice actor as Chichiri in Fushigi Yuugi (I couldn't STAND his voice), and even tacked "no da" on the end of the sentences! I seriously wonder what was up with that. In general, the character development was the best with Yuki, since we discovered his past. The romance between Shuichi and Yuki seemed unrealistic and rushed, and there wasn't much else besides that. So, an above average score, but probably not a lot.
Overall
Even though I rated a few sections lower than great, I still enjoyed Gravitation. I just wish it would have kept the same tone and dynamic it did in the first few episodes. I felt like it sort of went downhill from there, turning into an annoying spectacle of Shuichi whining and clinging to Yuki, Yuki getting mad, and then in the background the band is growing in popularity. I wish the series could have decided what it was, a story about a band growing, or a comedic romance. The two didn't fit so well, in my opinion, and took away from each story that would have been better seperate. But still, I enjoyed Gravitation. If you can handle the fact that it's two guys in love (why should it matter what gender they are?) then this is one of the better romances I've seen, even though I had some complaints. And if you like the idea of a band that comes out of nowhere rising to the top, this is good as well. Overall, a decent series.

Gravitation is and probably always will be one of my favourite anime.

The story is fantastic, and every episode leaves you hanging on for more, especially in the later episodes. Despite being a shonen-ai, there is not much explicit content in it. There are a couple of kissed and suggestive scenes, but nothing over the top, as it more focused on the dynamics of the relationship.

The characters are well built and stay in tune to who they are through the whole show.

The only reason for the 9.5 rather than a 10 is because I wasn't overly keen on the ending. It didn't feel unfinshed per say, but I felt it could have done with a little more. However I would gladly watch this show again and would recommend it to anybody.

This anime was very funny and had its moments but there wasn't really a story...

You didn't have time to get to know the characters and there wasn't an understanding on how the young singer fell head over heels in love with the novelist. They did a poor job on helping us understand why the singer chose the novelist and exetra, although the character's personalities were pretty hilarious. I wouldn't take this story or their relationship seriously but just for my pure amusement. There wasn't really anything there that I saw. I didn't feel a connection with the characters or have any pure emotion really because I couldn;t get into something so detailess. There wasn't really a point and the story didn't really have anywhere to go. There was some dark parts but everything didn't really have a rythm.

If I was looking for a romance that touched my heart and made me DIE just to see the characters kiss, this isn't it.

I do however reccomend this anime to anyone just looking for a plain old laugh or some "heart  touching" moments. Please pay attention to the ("") because they weren't fully heart touching but it can make you "Awww!" in some sort of way...

Maki Murakami's manga Gravitation introduced "boy's love", or male romance, to a whole generation of manga readers. The TV adaptation of Gravitation did the same thing for a generation of anime watchers when it originally debuted in 2000. The show toned down the explicitness of the original story a bit for TV, which had the effect of making the show that much more accessible for people who weren't already fans of the original.

This anime falls flat on romance. I'm 4 episodes in and there is no development between the main character and the love intrest, not even a hint. Theres only two other problems i have with it. One the main character feels over the top and fills in comedy releaf when there is no need for it. And two, theres hardly any interaction with the couple and at one point the main character acts as if he knows all these facts about his love interest but no where in the anime did they show that interaction between the two.

Over all the anime falls flat and I had to drop it.