Gravitation: Volume 1 (DVD)

Introduction

'Yaoi' is the genre of manga and anime that refers to gay relationships. There is also a sub-genre of yaoi that is created by women for predominantly female audiences. Gravitation is perhaps the most prominent of such titles. Gay romance for female audiences… I'm not even on that demographic Venn diagram. It's my own fault really, as I always look for something new and different in the anime that I watch. I have to admit, I never seen yaoi before. Actually, I guess few people in the UK have, as Gravitation was made in 1999, released in the US in 2004, and only now comes to the UK courtesy of MVM. Niche titles aren't the easiest to sell in a market as small as our own, and it's understandable that more generic action sci-fi shows get to market first. If yaoi themes have been explored, it's been in the confines of other genres, such as the supernatural Tactics, whose main lead pairing occasionally drifted off into Starsky and Hutch territory. Gravitation may get lucky though. There is an established fan-base for yaoi manga in the UK, with books like Boy Princess, Fake, Eerie Queerie and Loveless, as well as the original manga of Gravitation attracting fans. So theoretically there should be plenty of people willing to buy the animated version.

Gravitation takes place in the cutthroat music industry, with unlikely romance blossoming for Shuichi Shindo, lead singer of up and coming pop band Bad Luck. They've been lined up as the support act for ASK who are hitting the big time with their first album. There are only a few days until the gig, but Bad Luck are low on lyrics, and Shuichi has writer's block. Walking home one night through the park, the wind catches his half formed verse and blows the sheet towards Eiri Yuki, an established romance novelist, who takes one look at them and dismisses them as crass and worthless, written by a talentless hack. The confrontation pushes Shuichi into completing his song to prove Yuki wrong, but he's motivated by more than just anger.

The first four episodes of this thirteen episode series are presented by MVM on this disc, Fateful First Encounter.



1. Gravitation
There's only ten days until ASK's opening gig, and Bad Luck have to support them, only they are short of songs. Lead singer Shuichi has writer's block, and no amount of pressure from his manager Sakano will help. It isn't good when he dreams of scaling the same heights as his heroes Nittle Grasper did. His band mate Hiro advises him to find himself a girlfriend to provide a little distraction and maybe a little inspiration. He isn't expecting to meet Eiri Yuki walking through the park one night, who takes one look at his lyrics and dismisses them as talentless crap, and tells him to get a real job. It's a confrontation that inspires Shuichi to prove him wrong, and Shuichi takes every opportunity to confront Yuki about it. It's turning into an obsession, and then Yuki uses Shuichi as a means to blow off a persistent girl.

2. Live in Soul
After three years away building his solo career, Ryuichi Sakuma of Nittle Grasper comes back to Japan and is greeted by his former keyboardist, and MD of Bad Luck's label Touma Seguchi. Bad Luck and ASK are getting steamed at rehearsals a day before the concert, but the row is broken up by that persistent girl from before, who collars Shuichi and drags him away for a little one to one. It turns out that she is Mika Seguchi, Touma's wife, and Eiri Yuki's older sister, and seeing that Yuki and Shuichi are apparently an item, she wants Shuichi to do her a favour. It could mean getting on the fast track at NG records, especially if she puts in a word with her husband, but it'll add oil to the fire that is Shuichi and Yuki's relationship. Shuichi is all fired up about debuting his new song at the concert, and he doesn't know it, but his hero Ryuichi Sakuma will be there incognito. But when Yuki shows up, Shuichi suddenly gets stage fright…



3. Stray Heart
Shuichi is currently floating high on Cloud 9, but he's about to be brought down to Earth with a bang. Touma Seguchi has seen the potential in Bad Luck, but there are a couple of flaws in the line-up. First, they need a stronger manager, although Sakano will stay on as producer. Second, they need a keyboard player, although Shuichi needs to be convinced that a vocalist and a guitarist alone doesn't constitute a band. Shuichi sees his dreams of fame and fortune vanish when Sugiru Fujisaki arrives, a sixteen-year-old genius with the ivories. Shuichi and Hiro argue over the direction of the band, and he storms out after they come to blows. He turns to Yuki for comfort, only to be berated for his childish behaviour. Is there no one he can rely on?

4. Wave Shock
Shuichi is moving in, whether Yuki wants it or not, and he's soon settling into romantic domesticity. At the studio, Bad Luck meet their new manager, an enigmatic man named K who previously managed Ryuichi Sakuma. He immediately bundles them into a limousine and whisks them off to a TV studio. This may be their big break, only it turns out that they aren't singing, they are last minute replacements for a quiz show team. The humiliation gets worse when they see that ASK are booked for a music show at the same studio that day. They'll need a miracle to turn this around.

Picture

I wasn't expecting too much from an animation that's pushing its first decade, other than the clean and crisp 4:3 transfer that we get here. The character designs are impressive and backgrounds are detailed at times. There is also some excellent use of CG animation techniques, with large spaces like auditoria looking solid and consistent. But consistency isn't the show's strong suit, and while some moments are animated well, others are distinctly lacklustre, and in some instances the character animations look degraded.

The show looked to be going in a wholly different direction at the beginning though, with an intro that was more live action than anime, with CG brushstrokes used to give scenes of every day life a moving oil painting feel. The introduction of the main character from the knees down was live action in that way, but in a pan upwards it changed to a traditional anime character. I had a brief impression that the show would continue that way, with 2D anime characters in photo-manipulated live action backgrounds, but that wasn't to be. It would have been interesting if it had, although the odd moment of live action does pop up from time to time.

Sound

You have a choice of DD 2.0 Stereo English and Japanese along with translated subtitles and a signs only track. For the first time in quite a while I feel that the English dub just doesn't cut it. Normally it's just an aesthetic preference with me, but what little I experienced of the English dub here sounded artificial and forced, as opposed to the natural performance of the Japanese dialogue. It should be noted that the songs in the English dub are the original Japanese songs, not new songs created for the dub as some anime are prone to do. It's a good thing too, as music is key to Gravitation's storyline, and are a large part of the overall experience. The opening theme is straight from the eighties, and it put me in mind of shows like Knight Rider and Street Hawk, with a fast electrobeat. The show has a varied soundtrack though, with plenty of toe tapping opportunities, and temptations to look up the soundtrack CD.

Extras

It's your typical anime offering here, with an Art Gallery with 10 line art images to scan through, the original Gravitation trailer, and further trailers for FLCL and Witchblade. The subtitles with the credit sequences simultaneously provide an English translation, as well as the Romanji lyrics if you feel in the mood for a little karaoke.

Conclusion

I thought I knew what I was letting myself in for. In my wholesale devouring of my local library's manga collection, I haven't discriminated in the titles that I have read, and more than a few yaoi manga are among their assortment. They are also well read titles with more than a few dog-ears and well-used covers, indicating that anime of this sort should find an audience. It's just that I'm not that audience. Those yaoi manga seem aimed at the early-mid teen demographic. What you get between these covers aren't so much same-sex romantic relationships as they are a set of dolls that the author dresses up and plays with. The conventions are always the same, with one member of the couple dominant in the extreme, moody, silent, devilishly handsome, and prone to leaving his shirt open. The other will be childish, cute, playful and loud, and extremely pretty. The relationship will inevitably boil down to the equivalent of a nurturing mother child dynamic, with the strong silent type giving emotional support to the little fellow. Actually it's more like a master with a puppy, showering it with care and affection when he is in the mood, but when the puppy is too annoying, delivering a quick pull on the choke chain to get it back in line. And despite the pretty boy artwork and regular smooching, it's all about as sexually charged as a flat battery.



The Gravitation anime actually distils that down further, and even though I have read some of the manga, the sheer sugary overload that awaited me in the anime was overwhelming. It's a fairytale, with up and coming band Bad Luck taking a rollercoaster ride to fame and success. The main focus of the story is the politics and back scene dealings of the music business, but it all seems to come easily for our heroes, with their only obstacle so far a personality driven rivalry with ASK. The emotional support and inspiration that Shuichi needs comes from his relationship with Yuki, although we're still in a fairytale realm in that one's sexuality is determined solely by whom one falls in love with. There's little soul-searching or consternation, and we're also in the ultimate dream world where no one else comments, unless it is positively. It may be a world that is commendable and something to aspire to, where there is no such thing as discrimination or homophobia, but it is certainly lacking in realism.



The quality of the animation is detrimental, with consistency in character designs problematic. That doesn't include Shuichi's tendency to go super deformed at the drop of a cute hat. The sole saving grace for me was the music, and if you too have a fond memory of eighties power pop, then there will be something for you to appreciate in the show's soundtrack. However, I found the characters to be childish in a story that is equally as infantile. If you are young, early to mid teens, and have a belief that the world would be better if it was an unsubtle shade of pink, then Gravitation is for you.