blizzarddog5

Review

The story starts out fairly simple. A man named Beyond the Grave is brought back to life using forbidden science and it seems like he came back “to kick some ass” because he was killed by a man named Harry MacDowel. After lots of stuff gets blown up in the first episode, we trek back about two decades into the past to a time when Beyond the Grave was still known as Brandon Heat and to a time where he was still good friends with that same man who killed him, Harry MacDowel.

During that journey into the past, we learn of how an immense friendship between the two was formed, a friendship able to transcend hard times and difficult decisions. From their lowlife street gang beginnings to their rise to power in the Organization, we learn how that bond between them was made ironclad and we also learn how it was destroyed by the very Organization that reinforced that bond.

The central characters themselves are rather interesting in what drives their actions.

Harry for example at the beginning was compelled to gain enough power in which he can create a world where there isn’t any suffering or pain, a world where he can live freely with his friends doing whatever he wants, whenever he wants. But he slowly loses sight of his real intent in that climb up the ladder of power because of various circumstances that put him in a position where he must step over people, regardless of who they are, to get to his goal.

Brandon joins in the climb to power, readily following Harry’s lead. His way of life forged by his various interactions with the people around him, he reflects on those interactions and develops the logic that protecting can only be done when you put the well being of others before yours. And through this, he dedicates himself to protecting the Organization and the dream that Harry had envisioned. He does this without saying much, putting emphasis on his actions rather than his words.

But then, something happens along the way and Brandon is killed because he becomes caught up between his duty of protecting the Organization and protecting his friend’s dream.

From that point, we return to the present. With advancements in a technology he funded, Harry has begun using monsters, known as Orgmen, as a symbol of his absolute power to govern the city in the pursuit of his ever-elusive dream. The writing is still undoubtedly very strong even at this point, but many people may fail to realize this mainly since they can’t take the idea of Mafioso suit-wearing monsters too seriously.

When you get past the cheese, there is a deep message about duty, responsibility and friendship with a good sense of character development that happens along the way as Beyond the Grave meets with people that he once considered to be his most valued and trusted friends. The past is contemplated and the parallels of both ages are drawn. And to achieve ambition, both sides go the distance necessary.

When I look over my analysis, I don’t think that the game franchise tied the series down at all. Sure, it was different (dare I say “cool”) and deviated in feel somewhat, but the importance of characterization and message is still made very apparent. When it comes down to it, what Gungrave does is what most mafia dramas do well: to derive sympathy from the audience for a set of people that are clearly doing wrong things to go through life and give it a sense of justification.

The final episode is a feat in itself, being completely different from what is expected. The ending of the series has just about everything. What I like most about the way the series ended is that it somehow packed a lot drama, dialogue, character development and ass kicking all into one episode. To put it lightly, I haven’t seen any other ending in an anime that carries such a significant amount of emotional power. Endings generally do not get any better than the one for this show.

Rating: 8/10

__________________


My Sig attempt ^^

Poparteeb

Nice Review! I'm beginning to think that you're writing sorta how I did too in the beginning, kinda long summary but that's how I like it ^^

__________________




-You better know what you need to do, otherwise, is there a point to living?

Benawolnow

Your kind of throwing random names in there so I have no clue who the heck they are like I said before...PICTURES PICTURES PHOTOBUCKET PICTURES.

__________________
"Humans make mistakes and those mistakes are what makes us humans, humans." Luckyly I make tons of mistakes which means I'm more human then you!

mangime

gungrave looks pretty damn cool from the pics on google ^_^

I may check this out!

Suggestions:
Maybe in clue the author/creater
include what genre(s) it is
audience age: like 13+ (shit like that)

Grading:
Maybe do different types of grading such as a grade for the art, story, music, and then an overall.
Also, maybe you can do like a personal overall score, and a general overall score.

for example, u may like romances and give all the romance anime u see a 10, but for general audience viewers who like other stuff may give the romance a 6.

so maybe try to give the general overall score, a score that you would give if you didnt like any particular genre in general.

these are all suggestnios, you dont have to do any of them

__________________