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Gungrave: Why doesn't this anime get more praise?

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I

isamu

OMFG HOLY MOTHER OF MARY IN HEAVEN I CANT BELIEVE IT WTF WHERE ARE MY SEDATIVES AAAAHHH
Just watched it for a second time and it was phenomenal. Even better the second time around. Should be in everyone's top 25 best anime IMHO. Made by the same folks that did Trigun but it's much better than Trigun IMO.

People barely talk about Gungrave when asked for suggestions or in the "Which Anime should I watch threads", and I wonder why? Well if you get a chance check out This show. Highly underrated but highly entertaining. Think Godfellas meets....I dunno...Planet Terror? LOL.

gungravev2.jpg
 
The first part is one of the best mafia animes ever and had potential to be one of the greatest anime out there. Then it devolves into dumb and generic anime bullshit. That's why.
 
Because the second half shits any of the good the first half did. Also a largely silent protagonist in an anime where so many people directly talk to him? In games like these it's implied the person is responding. This lead doesn't start speaking more until some episodes into the first half I believe.
 
I do find it funny that a video game adaptation got much worse when it actually started adapting the video game. I did think the last episode was good, though.

Also, the first episode is repeated almost exactly later in the series.
 
The mafia stuff is pretty good, but once they start to add the fantastic elements, it devolves into generic anime fights for far too long. Wished the author would have toned down that part, at least.

Liked the way it ends, though.
 
For a show about an undead mob man killing people with a coffin that doubles as a gattling gun, there was surprisingly little bombast in anything that happened. That's probably why people don't like it very much.

The entire show as like the two slow episodes of Eatman. Fine if there's contrast, but there...wasn't.
 
Mesoian said:
For a show about an undead mob man killing people with a coffin that doubles as a gattling gun, there was surprisingly little bombast in anything that happened. That's probably why people don't like it very much.

The entire show as like the two slow episodes of Eatman. Fine if there's contrast, but there...wasn't.
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The show was better when it wasn't about an undead mob man and just the mob is the thing. It was something unique and pretty good by being a sort of anime goodfellas. Once it turned into a dime a dozen monster killing anime, that frankly didn't do it all that well, it became not great at all.
 
I think it's been universally acclaimed whenever I've seen it brought up.

Funny, because I didn't care for it too much lol. Just seemed a bit too long for what it was.

It was good, but just not something I'll watch again.
 
Yep the story took a nose dive when they decided to go that weird fantasy shit route. But up to that point it was pretty great.
 
I forgot to mention what ever you do NOT watch the first episode! Go right into Ep 2 and start from there.
 
Actually, whenever people bring up Gungrave the responses tend to be extremely positive. I agree, it's great.
 
isamu said:
I forgot to mention what ever you do NOT watch the first episode! Go right into Ep 2 and start from there.
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Me and a mate watched the first episode and as an experiment removed the first episode when giving the series to another friend. Boy was he surprised towards the end.

I do agree that the first two thirds are better than the final act because you lose an interesting narration, but it's still a fun journey the whole way, plus dem feels at the end.

Really, the story is like a modern Berserk - super close friends, in a band/gang, while one does the ultimate betrayal for the power he has always wanted. Anyone else agree haha
 
The whole flashback part of the anime was amazing, but then it turned into something awful with the mutants and stuff. Though that ending with Harry in the restaurant was all worth it. I still remember the anime so clearly even though I last saw it about 10 years ago if not more!

Definitely up there with Berserk for me.

isamu said:
I forgot to mention what ever you do NOT watch the first episode! Go right into Ep 2 and start from there.
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Yup, I would also recommend this.
 
I really stopped caring by the time Bob turned into a helicopter.

Agree with pretty much everyone that the flash back/straight Millenion stuff was great.
 
I havent watched Gungrave since highschool and I remember it was absolutely brilliant.

I remember trying to make an Prog Metal AMV for the series. I forget if I finished it though.
 
Despera said:
Yep the story took a nose dive when they decided to go that weird fantasy shit route. But up to that point it was pretty great.
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They didn't decide to go there, gungrave was based on a ps2 game that was about that. They were following the source material.

But yea, the second half was no where near as good as the first half.
 
I never liked the anime, but I'm a huge fan of the game, and the anime changed so many things. I also prefer the ending of the game
Grave fighting Big Daddy and Alien Head, killing Harry at the end and going off with Mika to carry on protecting her
than the animes ending.

I also didn't like what they did to Grave's design.

The anime was well made, but as a fan of Gungrave I found it hard to enjoy.
 
TDLink said:
The first part is one of the best mafia animes ever and had potential to be one of the greatest anime out there. Then it devolves into dumb and generic anime bullshit. That's why.
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This is the perfect way to describe it.

I remember rolling my eyes during some episodes of the second half of the anime.
 
I feel like I've brought it up a few times on GAF. Not my favorite but easily the one that was the biggest surprise. I bought it based on that cover art expecting mindless chaos but it was (mostly) just a cool mafia story.
 
To those complaining about the fantastical/sci-fi elements, that was directly from the game. And it worked in the game. Because it was a short game, and you're blasting through, then
HOLY SHIT IT'S AN ALIEN... wait, what?
The anime didn't handle these elements very well, bottom line. It could have. If it had, that would have been amazing.

The ending of the anime was worse than in the game, too.
 
I like the second half of Gungrave for the same reason I love Berserk. The really fucked up, horrible nightmare-fueled world everything transforms into really makes that first half all the more poignant as a memory of the good old days. And then the ending perfectly ties the whole thing together.

To be clear, Gungrave is not as good as Berserk (manga).
 
I started watching it after I played the Gungrave game on PS2. I was not expecting it to be that good. It reminded me a lot of The Crow, and I enjoyed the character development immensely.
 
It was really big 10 years ago. The first half felt like Godfather-in-Anime-form. I really loved the first half. Terrific relationship dynamic between the two main characters. Not many stories have explored being friends quite like that.
 
Jimnymebob said:
I never liked the anime, but I'm a huge fan of the game, and the anime changed so many things. I also prefer the ending of the game
Grave fighting Big Daddy and Alien Head, killing Harry at the end and going off with Mika to carry on protecting her
than the animes ending.

I also didn't like what they did to Grave's design.

The anime was well made, but as a fan of Gungrave I found it hard to enjoy.
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I didn't even know there was a game. What system is it for?

BuckRobotron said:
Also one of my favorites and have the blu-ray on the shelf.
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Can you shed some light on the picture quality of the blu-ray? I read a while back on AoD that it has worse picture quality than the DVD. Is this true?
 
isamu said:
I didn't even know there was a game. What system is it for?



Can you shed some light on the picture quality of the blu-ray? I read a while back on AoD that it has worse picture quality than the DVD. Is this true?
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I wouldn't go out of my way necessarily for it over dvd. I believe it is an imperfect 1080i. I got it as I didn't have the full series, it was on sale, and had only 2 of the individual dvds (of 7 iirc) before that. Also, part of the appeal is the better audio than the dvds, similarly to other imperfect blus like Gunslinger Girl where all the gunplay comes out that much clearer.
 
isamu said:
I didn't even know there was a game. What system is it for?



Can you shed some light on the picture quality of the blu-ray? I read a while back on AoD that it has worse picture quality than the DVD. Is this true?
Click to expand...

PS2. The anime was loosely based on the game. The game focuses on the present day stuff/the more surreal things.
It also got a sequel, but I never finished that one.

The game is fun though; imagine putting a 2D beat em up as a 3rd person shooter with Dynasty Warriors mash buttons to kill things combat. It's a bullet hell shooter in the sense that you just walk through areas and absolutely mow everything down with bullets.
 
Jimnymebob said:
PS2. The anime was loosely based on the game. The game focuses on the present day stuff/the more surreal things.
It also got a sequel, but I never finished that one.

The game is fun though; imagine putting a 2D beat em up as a 3rd person shooter with Dynasty Warriors mash buttons to kill things combat. It's a bullet hell shooter in the sense that you just walk through areas and absolutely mow everything down with bullets.
Click to expand...

Nice. I'll check it out, sounds fun.
 
Absolutely loved the show and I'm a big fan of the video game too. I actually enjoyed the science fiction element, though I did play the video game first.

The ending was fantastic too, one of my favourite finales for an anime. Though even if people don't quite like the second act of the show I'm still surprised it isn't more popular. It really did the character relationships well and neatly tied everything up in the end.

Just wish there was more Grave blasting up people in the show.
 
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