Review of Gungrave: Vol. 1

Introduction

During the past year or so, I have been entertained by the DVD release of Trigun, an anime based on a manga by Yasuhiro Nightow, a stylish futuristic Western with a tinge of darkness at its core. This blend of light and dark, coupled with a distinctive soundtrack by Tsuneo Imahori resulted in a rather unique show, with memorable characters and an involving story. This isn`t the only anime based on Nightow`s work available in the UK, and for some time now, MVM have been releasing the more recent Gungrave. Once again Tsuneo Imahori supplies the music, and I`m curious to see whether lightning strikes twice.

For Gungrave we leave distant planets and the western motif behind, but as you can guess by the title, firearms play a big part in the story. This time the focus is on organised crime and the mob, with a legacy of betrayal and vengeance to be resolved. An indestructible gunman named Beyond The Grave has been brought back from the dead to wreak vengeance on the leader of a major crime syndicate, cleaving through his army of undead warriors. But in another life, Beyond The Grave was Brandon Heat, and the man who is the mob boss was once his best friend Harry McDowell.

The first four episodes of Gungrave are presented on this dual layer disc.

1. Destroyer In The Dusk
A mysterious warrior awakes in the back of a trailer, and straight away he`s unleashing his formidable weaponry against a horde of zombies. This is Beyond The Grave, and a scientist and a young girl have awakened him. Mika`s mother knew Brandon Heat, and she wants his resurrected form to avenge her mother`s death by killing the man responsible, Harry McDowell. Bloody Harry is now the head of the powerful Millennion group, and it was his Orgmen that were attacking the trailer. There are few who can stand up to an Orgman, and when Harry hears of the defeat of several of the pasty white creatures, he`s determined to find out who is responsible. He isn`t expecting the resurrected form of his old comrade in arms. Soon a more formidable creature is stalking Beyond The Grave.

2. Young Days
We step back in time for the subsequent episodes, to when Brandon Heat and Harry McDowell were best friends and petty criminals. Along with friends Nathan and Kenny, they were a formidable gang who regularly locked horns with rival Deed`s mob. Despite the petty thievery and rivalries, life was good, Brandon had a girlfriend named Maria, and Harry was a big fish in a little pond with a promising future. Things started going wrong when Kenny decided to rob the wrong person, and Deed`s elder brother Ladd returned and decided to take his brother`s constant humiliation personally.

3. Rain
After losing one of their own, the gang go into hiding. Harry tries to find out who was responsible, and their prospects don`t look good when he learns that `Mad Dog` Ladd is the one who pulled the trigger, and he also is connected with the mafia. When Brandon goes to find help, he walks straight into a trap with lethal consequences.

4. Go
It`s a time for grief as the mourners bury their dead. Harry and Brandon have to figure out which way to turn, their prospects don`t look as bright in the small town. They are already making a reputation for themselves though, and an armed confrontation in a graveyard opens a door for both of them with the Millennion organisation.

Video

Gungrave gets a 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer and it is a clear and sharp rendition of a recent anime. Aside from the digital banding that affects all anime transfers to some degree, there is little to complain about. The first episode has a stunning visual impact, with a degree of surrealism tingeing events and the animation style reflecting that. The episode has a bleached out unearthly feel to it. The rest of the episodes are a little more down to earth, but they still have a moody feel to them, making splendid use of light and dark to establish an atmosphere. Yasuhiro Nightow`s distinctive character designs are evident from the off, and work splendidly in terms of the story.

Audio

You have a choice between DD 2.0 and DTS Japanese as well as a DD 5.1 English track. Optional translated subtitles or signs accompany these. Both language tracks work well, and as usual my preference is for the original Japanese. The surrounds are put to good use for the various action sequences in the show.

Features

Extras are typical of an MVM disc, that is to say minimal. Along with the distinctive animated menus, you get the textless credit sequences, as well as 25 images in a Production Art gallery. Finally there are trailers for Paranoia Agent and Texhnolyze to top things off.

Conclusion

Zombies! Why`d it have to be zombies? I`m not a fan of that particular sub-genre of horror, and with the introduction to Gungrave an episode devoted to the blasting of hordes of the white skinned lumbering beasties, I was sorely tempted to give up on the experience. That`s despite the episode featuring some vibrant animation and moody visuals. That`s where the beauty of these DVD releases comes in. Were I watching this on television with a weekly broadcast schedule, I would most certainly have turned off after episode 1. But with the DVD, you get four episodes to watch, and thankfully the next three episodes are all about the back story, developing the characters, and giving the first episode some much needed context.

The first episode really serves as the sugar that entices fans, replete with action, cool visuals and not a lot of depth. What little we do learn about the main characters is a mystery, hints and allusions to a past. My interest was piqued when that past began to be developed in the flashback episodes. The gangs and petty rivalries that boil over into violence are depicted well, and seeing the beginnings of Harry and Brandon`s story is much more appealing than the eye-candy of episode 1. Finding out how two happy-go-lucky petty criminals wound up on opposite sides, in their unique positions (Harry as head of Millennion, and Brandon as Beyond The Grave) is the hook in this series, and surprisingly the flashback motif works well, with plenty of excitement, suspense and uncertainty to keep it fresh.

I do have one or two reservations. The show is relentlessly bleak. It`s about corruption, about characters` decline and fall, about personal tragedies. If you are looking at Gungrave as a successor for Trigun, then it has none of the lightness of the latter series. There`s nothing wrong with a dark and bleak story of course, but such stories work best if there are lighter moments to contrast with, and I saw little of that in these four episodes. Second, I`ve heard of taciturn heroes, but Brandon is practically tight-lipped. As Beyond The Grave he hardly speaks, but even in his earlier incarnation, you only really hear him in voiceover. It`s hard to develop sympathies for a character if he keeps quiet, but the story does a good job of rounding out his character by displaying how his friends relate to him. Still, he makes Clint Eastwood seem positively effusive in comparison.

Gungrave is a stylish show that boasts interesting characters and an appealing, if dark story. The first episode is designed to hit you straight between the eyes (although in my case it totally missed the target), but the following episodes are where the story really starts to develop. It becomes compulsive viewing from then on, and it looks to be a strong character piece. The only downside is that it`s inevitable that we`ll eventually catch up with the present time again, which will mean the return of those stupid zombies. Hopefully by then the characters will have become enough of a hook to make the zombies superfluous.