Gravitation

Gravitation to me feels to be a bit of a hit or miss. Some anime and manga fans love it, and some of them do not appreciate it. For me I was a bit skeptical upon purchasing it. Although I wanted to broaden my horizons in the realm of shounen-ai I couldn't help but wonder if it was worth it. As the story started out I found myself curious as to how a music based manga would end. So I bought the first two volumes and had a go at it. I have to say I am thoroughly impressed with Murakami-san's ability to create anengaging story. My skepticism started first with the quality of the art. It wasn't all I was hoping for but, as the volumes go on the art gets better. Another aspect that had me hooked were the characters. Each person is distinct in his or her own way. Their personalities are so vastly different, and yet when they interact it gives us a treat. Shuichi's over the top personality, Yuki's sober one, Tatsuha's obessive streak, Tohma's darker side, Sakano's spazz attacks. All of it was so intriguing, and I was surprised how they all meshed with one another. If I had to recommend a series to dip your feet in the water for the newbie shounen-ai fans, this would be it right here.

Gravitation is a romance (allegedly) music (allegedly) BL manga. It’s one step away from being a great parody of the yaoi genre, but unfortunately it’s wholly unironic. It suffers from many problems. The first and the most obvious is that the story just doesn’t make any sense. Both plot-wise and character-wise. The main problem with the duo of main characters is that they have absolutely zero chemistry. They have no reason at all to like each other, it’s as if Shuuichi got hit by a fujo brainwashing tech which makes him fall in love with the first bishounen he sees and so he did. Both Shuuichiand Yuki are also extremely annoying characters, but for such creatively different reason. One of them is a crababy. No, really, that’s like the main emotion you’ll see here, get ready for it. He’s also *really* dumb, to the point it makes you question how he even survived so far. Yuki on the other hand is the the cold one, to the extent of just not giving any signs of affection at all. He gives off the vibes of tryhard, but I’d say this is just author’s failed execution of writing a “cool” character. Author’s failure is what also seems to be behind the lack of chemistry, as it seems like she heard “opposites attract” and went with that, while forgetting that it’s because the opposites are supposed to complement each other, not repel. Regarding the plot, it’s only for the first few volumes at most that the story maintains at least some sort of coherence. After that, it’s wild west of random bullshit. And not in the funny entertaining way, but in the “huh, the author really didn’t plan any of this through”. Conflicts that should have been main focus of the manga are solved within few pages while whole volumes are spent on filler as only once in a while the manga remembers it’s supposed to be about music. Talking about music, it’s very obvious that the author did no research regarding the industry. And of course, don’t expect any interesting band scenes like an actual music manga would have. Another awful thing is just the frequent tone whiplash. You get unfunny gag jokes inserted into what seemed like a serious scene, the characters randomly start being dumb, and sexual assault is treated as serious life long issue when it happens to one of the characters but as a minor inconvenience and almost a punchline when it happens to the other one. It's also pretty weird that the characters keep trying to convince others and themselves that they are not gay, they are totally straight but just happened to fuck dudes? Unsurprisingly for the genre, the art is terrible. The characters suffer the most, as they are drawn inconsistently, a single character frequently looks differently through the whole manga (seriously, just compare even the volume covers alone) while other characters area easily mistaken with another whole different characters, and that’s across genders. The “le random faces” drawings is a cringy humor while backgrounds are almost non-existent, making this into really low artistic effort. To summarize it, expect a wattpad story written by 13 years old level of quality.

Prepare for a long review, and my very first review! I've read the entire Gravitation series three times and so I find it only more than perfect to review this! Now, let's get started... ----------------------------------------------- Story: 8/10 Gravitation is a story about a young man by the name of, Shindou Shuichi. Shuichi is overly passionate music fanatic who dreams of becoming as great as his beloved idol, Ryuichi Sakuma. By starting a band with his best friend, Hiro Nakano (guitarist), Shuichi is now ready and determined as ever to become a rock star and show the world his music, voice, and lyrics. But, by fate he meets a manby the name of Eiri Yuki who harshly criticizes his lyrics and puts the young musician in his place. Shuichi, unable to get the mysterious man and his harsh words out of his mind, throws himself into Yuki's life. The force that brings them together is like gravity and they can't do a thing to stop it... I found the story from the beginning to be very engaging, interesting, and thrown in with some great laugh out loud humor from Shuichi and his antics. I found the romance to be not too over the top and left you begging you for more. Though, as the series progressed the comedy began to go from funny to just down right crazy and over the top as 'mecha panda's, crazy Americans with guns, and Shuichi being a big cry baby and ruining any romantic moment to be a big killer for me. Though, both the journey and struggles of Shuichi with his music career were very realistic and well thought out. Overall, I enjoyed it, I truly did. I was pleased from Volume 1 to 12, some more than others...but still. The story of Shuichi's music journey with the industry was done very well and as was the romance. The only negatives being the occasionally over-the-top craziness and Shuichi's mood killers. This is a negative because he wasn't THAT dramatic in the beginning. Art: 8/10 If you were to open Vol. 1 of Gravitation and lay it open besides an open page of Vol. 12 of Gravitation with no knowledge of the series...you would think they are two completely different series'. It's just that drastic. By Vol. 6 you should see the change. Also, I found Maki Murakami's art to be a bit sloppy at times. Another problem I had is that you may find yourself seeing that other characters look A LOT like other characters. It's hard to tell sometimes but that problem decreases as you become more familiar with the characters. Other than that, I found Maki Murakami's art style very appealing to the eyes and the dramatic facial expressions classic. On a side note, I personally enjoyed the older art style in the eariler volumes compared to the newer style. Characters: 10/10 I find the characters to be the main reason that makes Gravitation unforgetable, as the characters themselves are addicting. With a hyper, happy-go-lucky ball of energy like Shuichi, a stoic Yuki, a personality disorder lyrical genius Ryuchi, and many more that make Gravitation...Gravitation. The characters are what had me fall in love with the series. They are all so very likable and you are bound to find parts of yourself in one of them. Enjoyment: 10 I was hooked from Vol. 1 to Vol. 12. I couldnt put it down. The humor was great and the interactions between characters was excellent. Never once did I think of dropping this manga. The story, characters, art...everything draws you in and has you hooked. Overall: 9/10 With a very good story and art, along with outstanding character and enjoyment, this manga is a must read. This is a manga that is a shounen-ai classic and for any shounen-ai fan, a manga that all should read. So to those that are curious about this manga, please do take a chance to read this manga. The manga that will always have a special place in my heart.

This is one hell of a series, especially if you are a big fan of slapstick, dark, and sexual humor with a story. It's sad that many people avoid this story becuase it's Shonen-ai but it really isn't a big deal, nor really is it excessive. (except in the Doujins, but that's for another review) Overall: Fun characters, great comedy and meaty ongoing plotlines. If you just want an unforgettable manga experience, CHECK GRAVITATION OUT NOW!