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Gravitation DVD 1: Fateful First Encounter + Artbox

Gravitation DVD 1: Fateful First Encounter + Artbox

List Price: $39.98
Your Price: $35.98
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A beautiful series better watched in its' native language.
Review: After buying poorly subbed episodes of Gravitation, I was very much so anticipating the English release. Before buying it I'd known the voices were going to be terrible, but I was still shocked to hear them. Shuichi sounds like an old man, Yuki is almost completely monotonous, Fujisaki doesn't sound feminine or arrogant enough, and the other character voices just don't fit. Also, few of the names are prounounced correctly such as Seguchi now being 'Sayguchi'. Aside from that, the DVD is fantastic and the animation is fantastic.

Gravitation is a homosexual love story about a writer with a troubled past (Eiri Yuki), and a young pink haired boy with ambitions of following in the footsteps of his idol Ryuichi Sakuma to become Japan's next big pop star (Shuichi Shindou). It's a great anime for someone new to the concept of shounen-ai, because the romance is light and doesn't go any further then kissing; it is not a hardcore yaoi fest.

All in all, Gravitation is a humorous but sometimes dark anime with interesting characters and awesome music, (I strongly suggest buying the Gravitation soundtrack), and a an odd love relationship between two personalities that couldn't be any more different.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Absolutely Astounding!
Review: As a brand-new fan of Anime, I count myself particularly lucky for having "Gravitation" as my first real exposure to this art form. I've read the Manga and was completely absorbed by the story and the characters. Buying the long-awaited DVD was just the next step...

Imagine my joy at coming home after work and finding my Gravitation Volume 1 DVD waiting on my doorstep. Before I went to bed, I'd watched the whole disk 3 times--twice in English and once in Japanese (and I don't even understand Japanese) and was so totally hooked it's almost scary. I instantly fell in love with the characters all over again now that they moved and had voices; I found myself in a panic that I'm going to have to wait a couple of months before the next volume comes out. I can't get enough!

The story is incredible: the irrepressible Shuichi Shindou is working toward his dream of being a rock star, but on the way he meets intense, mysterious (and way sexy) anti-hero Eiri Yuki. Gravitation is the force that pulls these opposites together and the love story that emerges is nothing short of brilliant. While there's a lot of material from the Manga that is left out of the series, the crucial elements of the story are there, shining through for us to experience. The general goofiness of Shuichi and the anime stylistic gags don't overshadow the deep, yet simple beauty of two people--in this case, two guys--falling in love and seeing where it will lead.

While I'm not yet an expert, I know something great when I see it, and this is it. RUN out and buy this DVD for the story, the characters, the artwork and especially the music (as an aside, I can't get the title tune out of my head and am already well on my way to memorizing the Japanese lyrics--the closing end credits music too). It is beautiful, addictive, meaningful and just a lot of fun, if nothing else.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Four reasons
Review: Based on the manga from Maki Murakami, this series was only available in fansub (japanese dialect with captions) up until now. One of the most popular shonen-ai (boy love) series of its time, and it's easy to see why.

First of all, the art. It's simply beautiful. The characters' expressions and movements are masterfully portrayed while still remaining true to Murakami's original style.

Secondly, the storyline. Shuichi Shindo wants to be a rock star. With the help of his best friend and guitarist, Hiroshi Nakano, he is able to put together his own band, Bad Luck. One day, while walking in the park, he happens to come across a foreign-looking man who criticizes him bluntly about his poor skills as a lyrics writer. This bothers Shuichi for a long time, and finally he is able to meet this man again. Soon, Shu begins to learn more about him, including his name and profession. He also discovers that he has become obsessed with this man in a way that he cannot understand. He thinks it is love. Could it be Gravitation?

Third, the voices. In a lot of cases with anime, the english version isn't quite as good compared to the japanese voices. It would be easy to make that same claim with this series-- after all, the japanese version had voices from well-proven actors such as Tomokazu Seki (Shuichi Shindo in Gravi, Kamui Shirou in X), Kappei Yamaguchi (Ryuichi Sakuma in Gravi, Subaru Sumeragi in Tokyo Babylon), and Koyasu Takehito (Sakano in Gravi, Hotohori in Fushigi Yugi). However, I think that the english actors did an awesome job on the characters here.

Last of all, the music. This aspect, perhaps, is by far the best part of the whole series. If you have listened to the Gravitation TV soundtrack (also found here at Amazon) or the Shuichi Shindo Vocal Collection (try Anime Castle), then you will know what I mean. When I first heard that this series was about a boy trying to become a rock star, I envisioned music that was hurriedly made, with repeated rhythms and melodies. Wrong. Each song in Gravitation is unique, and the beginning and ending themes (Super Drive and Glaring Dream-- they're included in the TV soundtrack) are the best anime beginning and ending themes that I've ever heard.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Amazingly Cool!! -^^-
Review: For all anime fans new to the shonen ai world, Gravi is definitely a good place to start. But watch the anime before you read the manga or it will drive you nuts!! I know they couldn't stuff everything into the TV series, but they left out a ton of good stuff (Like the entire first half of manga Vol.1) Despite that, the animation and character design are fantastic and the story is both humorous and touching. I really have to agree on the dubbed voices... some are good and some are just awful. The worst part is that there's hardly and diversity among the voices, some of them sound so similar to eachother, you'd swear it was the same V.A. Thoma's voice is a huge improvement over the Japanese voice! He actually sounds like a 31-year-old instead of a 15-year-old. This is totally worth buying, but then go back and read the manga for the full story!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: finally...
Review: For those of us who have known about gravi and hav fallen in love with the series ever since the horrible japanese to chinese to english fansubs, this is what we've all been waiting for: an intelligible version. sure it's more expensive but this series deserves to have a proper domestic release. i know i will scrap my bootlegs for the real dvd's and you should too.
for those of you new to gravi, this is one of the funniest anime ever. except for nadesico, i hav never laughed so much during every episode. the humor is of the silly, situational, almost slapstick variety, but it's not annoying as someone else mentioned. the relationship between shuichi and eiri is a typical "yaoi" pairing- cute, bouncy, loving guy vs. the stolid guy with the i-don't-care-if-i'm-with-you-or-not attitude. but once again, its the humor that makes this pairing seem fresh and new. the plot gets a little pretentious and at times it's so obvious a woman conceived this story, but the classic tale of the rise of fame (with a twist) should please most anime fans.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Great to see this title cross the US borders
Review: for those that dont know gravitation is about a up and coming band called Bad Luck that wants to make it big. In the mean while, the lead singer, Shuichi Shindou, is entangled in a love affair with a cold hearted romance novolist by the name of Eiri Yuki. This anime is in the genre call Shounen Ai(boys love)...and not YAOI although americans tend to use YAOI and Shounen Ai interchangably as Yaoi contains (actaully shows) explicit (...) relations between 2 male...Shounen Ai on the other hand does not go too far in depicting the situation. But anyways i stray from the point...this is a very sweet anime and i would recomend it to anyone. give it a chance you might find it enjoyable and the music is awesome as well. Hey its a anime about making it in the music business right...it should after all have some great music to back it up.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Japan's taboo, lovable, Schuichi crosses the Ocean
Review: Gravitation is a story about a complicated love affair based on Maki Murakami's mangas. This story revolves around the world of Schuichi Shindou, an up and coming rock star. Everything is going well for Shuichi until half American-half Japanese romance novelist (and apple of the ladies' eye) Yuki Eiri cassually crushes Shuichi's faith in his abilities. It's all downhill between the two from there. A hilarious love-hate relationship.

Let's be honest up front: Gravitation is a gay romance, but there is so much more to it. It's not a sexual romp based anime... there is a story, and it's a good one. That being said it's very fruststrating watching poor Schuichi be built up and shot down over and over again.

Why is Gravitation worth your time? Because it tells a great story about where persistence will take you in love and in life, and if that doesn't float your boat, it's a love story between cute boys!

Fans of the Manga will note that the anime has been chastised in the sexual department, and for some reason they found it necessary to nix most of the beginning to the story. Also, I don't think we even get to meet Shuichi's sister in the Anime. I didn't notice her at least.

Hope this helped!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Worth anyone's time who is not homophobic.
Review: Gravitation is honestly one of the best anime shows out there. The production quality is high with wonderful visuals, the voice actors for the Japanese version are top-notch and well known, the story is amazingly good, and it is honestly one of the funniest anime shows around without being annoying. Gravitation combines romance and an actual plot; it is not just about Eiri and Shuichi's relationship, but more about Shuichi's rise to fame and Eiri getting over his troubled past. This is a great series for anyone to watch, whether they like yaoi/shounen-ai or not. Anyone who can get over the fact that these are two men that are into each other can appreciate the quality that this series has to offer.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: THIS IS THE BEST ANIME I HAVE EVER SEEN.
Review: Gravitation is the best anime I have ever seen. It is a shounen ai (boy's love) anime, meaning gay people are in it, but even people who do not like gay men can still love the show.
It is about a boy named Shuichi Shindou, his band Bad Luck, and the famous writer Eiri Yuki, and the troubles Shuichi goes through with rival bands (ASK, and half way through the series, Nittle Grasper), Yuki himself, and any other thing that may stand in Shuichi's way to happiness.
The characters are amazing and loveable, and are well developed. The animation is the best anime animation I have ever seen in my life, and the music is even better. Daisuke Asakura produces and writes all the music, MADS (Mad Soldiers), do all the music except two songs (done by either K.ITO + D.K or my favorite band of all time, Iceman). The people who sing/ play the music are professional and are really bands in Japan, which I find really cool.
The anime doesn't follow the manga perfectly, and skips a lot of things the manga had. And even though this is disapointing, the anime is still WONDERFUL, and the best anime I have ever seen in my life.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Gravitation: My first BL series, and forever my favorite.
Review: I can't tell you how much I love Gravitation.

I had never understood yaoi. Why did so many girls seem to like it so much? What was the big deal with it? Then, one day, I thought, "Well, I've heard great things about Gravitation, and I know it's one of those kinds..." So, I downloaded the first episode. Later that night, the episode was done. So, I plugged my headphones into the computer's speakers, and watched it.

I was shocked... Amazed... And quite giddy. I couldn't stop grinning for an hour. I finally understood. "These guys are impossibly CUTE as a couple."

Later that night, I watched the episode again. I went on to download all of them, plus the OVAs, almost every single song. (I'm missing a few, and regretting downloading so many, because now there's not much left when I buy the CDs.) Bought a deck of Gravitation playing cards at a convention, along with the only Gravitation poster they had! (I was luck-y!) And currently am anticipating the release of the seventh volume of the manga.

Now I'm a crazy yaoi fan, and have Gravitation to thank for it. (Note: This is in NO way a bad thing!)

I absolutely cannot wait to buy this, and I absolutely will NOT buy it without the box. (I'm broke for a while, and have promised myself lots of manga and David Bowie CDs, as well as the Labrynth DVD before anything else.)

You, reading this review! Buy this!


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