Episodes Reviewed: 1-13 (subbed)

Basic Plot:

Shuichi is the singer in a rock group called “Bad Luck” and is also responsible for writing the lyrics. The group is struggling to rise to fame when one night Shuichi’s life is changed by a chance encounter with an enigmatic young novelist who criticizes his lyrics. The novelist is a handsome, rich, and successful man named Yuki, and Shuichi is instantly drawn to him. By sheer persistence, Shuichi gains a relationship with Yuki and helps his group rise to the top. But a former group has come back together, and they were Shuichi’s role models. They’re called Nittle Grasper, and their leader Tohma, who happens to not only be Bad Luck’s producer, but also Yuki’s brother-in-law, is determined to separate Shuichi from Yuki.

My Review:

It should first be made clear that this is a shounen ai anime. That means it has male homosexual romance. It should also be made clear that it is NOT graphic and it should not be considered hentai. It was aired during the early evening on regular tv in Japan. The most you’ll see here is the occasional kiss. I also want to make it known that not all the characters here are gay. Only three are blatantly gay.

That said, I’d like to move on. The animation for this series is very crisp, colorful, and fluid. Maybe it’s because it was the first series I watched on DVD, but the animation seemed higher quality than the usual stuff I see. The voice acting takes some getting used to (as Shuichi’s voice can be annoyingly high pitched, as well as the voice of another main character, Ryuichi), although once you get acquainted with the characters, you’ll see that they fit. The music is, as to be expected from a series about rock groups, pretty good. It matches the series perfectly and most of the vocals (if not all) are done by the voice actors, which gives everything a nice harmonious feeling.

Plot-wise, it isn’t all that amazing. Nothing surprised me all that much and I wasn’t hanging on the edge of my seat at the end of each episode. I won’t say it was completely predictable, just not full of shocking plot twists. However, I did find it interesting enough to watch 12 episodes in one day (I hadn’t realized how close I was to the end or I would’ve finished it on the same day). But, to be honest, that’s something of a habit for me on slow days (which this happened to be). The area where Gravitation shines though is it’s characters. None of them are typical “yaoi-boys”. Shuichi is like a pink-haired Omi (of Weiss Kreuz) on acid. Yuki is as cold, quiet, and downright rude as Heero Yuy, but brief glimpses of his traumatic past and sensitive side make him more understandable. Tohma is a slightly evil Quatre Winner, and Ryuichi is apparently on the same drugs as Sana-chan (of Kodomo no Omocha). Yes, Shuichi and Ryuichi can be annoying, but they’re darn funny and cute as hell.

Buy this series if you’re looking to see what the shounen-ai/yaoi genre can offer, or if you just like to see lots of bishounen gathered in one place.