Gungrave: The Complete Series Box Set - Anime DVD Collection for Action Lovers | Perfect for Binge-Watching & Anime Enthusiasts

“The closest of friends when we first started/ But grew apart as the money grew and soon grew black-hearted,” – Jay-Z More than anything else, friendships comprise the most essential trait in any gang. Once you join one, your fellow comrades aren’t simply shoehorned into people you co-exist with; in a gang, your peers become your friends, your most trustworthy companions, the bonds strengthened through trials of fire. Loyalty is absolute, orders are unquestioned, and the unabashed togetherness a gang exudes is what attracts normally unassuming people to them. It is also because gangs, for some reason, have radiated a sense of devilish charm. Why do you think Al Capone was such a nationally renowned celebrity in the 1920s? Why do you think the life of a gun-toting hoodlum in a wife beater is so vehemently glorified in rap music? Why do you think The Godfather and its sequel are regarded as among the greatest works in cinema history? It is because people have a warped, Kafkaesque outlook on gangsters as a whole. They think poisoning millions with various drugs is “cool”; that reducing a woman, depriving her of self-respect and dignity, to a mindless cow is “sexy”; that knocking the daylights out of a man because he’s wearing a different shirt than you is a must; and that pulling a trigger on another human being is an everyday occurrence. Even when gangster films attempt displaying the dangers of this “live fast die young” lifestyle, it rarely dissipates the viewers’ delusions of grandeur. However, Gungrave is one of the few stories, film or otherwise, animated or not, that fully delves into the most brutal aspects of the gang culture. In the span of 26 episodes, it presents a heartbreakingly realistic tale of how two lifelong amigos are drawn to this lifestyle, how it mentally and emotionally scars them, of how it eventually reduces their friendship to smithereens, and how it ends in the death of one of the amigos. Their names? Harry MacDowell and… Brandon Heat. Brandon Heat. The name itself evokes the susurrus of the sweeping squadron of tumbleweeds drifting gently in the breeze of God’s own breath, with the sun – ripe and red – settling on another gorgeous Midwestern day. “Brandon Heat,” whispers the fragile droplets of rain, rhythmically pelting the cold concrete below. All the hours here in this town of no name, from dawn to the deepening dim, are marked by a couplet of sounds that, hand in hand, beat out the metronomic and immortal pulse of the land.Click. Bang. Click. Bang. Click. Bang. Click. Bang.It is Brandon Heat, and Brandon Heat is the land.Men, strong men, who established themselves as household names in the seedy realm of gangsterdom, whose pride in what they do is as undilutable as the atom, grow silent when Brandon Heat passes by.Women, strong women, who stood sentinel at every resting place from crib to coffin, gaze dreamily into the distance, content that they were graced with the presence of this man, this legend, this Brandon Heat.For Brandon Heat is nothing less than anime’s Jesus in the flesh, our Lord and Savior himself. He does what he can to aid his fellow man. He performs the feats that are inconceivable to lesser beings. He is fatally betrayed by a friend whom he predicted would do so. He is later resurrected from the dead. Brandon Heat, he whose tranquility is of mythical proportions, he of nonchalantly long black hair, is Jesus with revolvers. If Brandon Heat is Gungrave’s Jesus, then Harry MacDowell is most certainly Satan (you can also compare him to Judas). Driven by a raging desire to escape his poverty-stricken conditions, Harry shrewdly capitalizes on the sleek charm of a veteran salesman, his iconic white jacket, his crooked connections, and his deceptively simple demeanor to bulldoze a path to the upper echelon of the mafia. Whoever serves as an obstacle in Harry’s ascension to glory, whoever is regarded as a mere inconvenience to Harry’s cause, is quickly and mercilessly dealt with; eventually, that includes Brandon Heat. Although Harry’s actions prevent him from registering as likable or sympathetic, his willingness to reflect on his mistakes in the last two episodes of the series helps solidify him as Gungrave’s most dynamic character. For most production companies, The Anime Jesus and Harry MacDowell would’ve been enough to constitute a cast (the rest would be likable yet underdeveloped nobodies) but Gungrave decides to elevate the other characters into unforgettable figures (Before the series finale, names like “Bear Walken”, “Bunji Kubashira”, and “Blood War” will be etched into your skull). Not only is Gungrave’s collection of characters a work of art but the transformations they undergo is mesmerizing as well. Bunji, a hitman of great prestige, evolving from an ice-cold killer to a kitten lover is a truly beautiful subplot to witness. Balladbird Lee, who is among Harry’s closest friends, morphs in a more subtle fashion throughout the series, as his voice actor Steve Blum slowly shifts away from using the easygoing playfulness of Gurren Lagann’s Leeron to the suspicious, low-toned seriousness of Cowboy Bebop’s Spike Spiegel.(Before I write of what else stands out about Gungrave, I have to dedicate a few words to Mika Asagi (voiced by Kari Wahlgren). Among those who have seen this series in its entirety, she has received quite the disappointing reputation. Often referred to as the worst thing about Gungrave, Mika has been alternately dubbed annoying, unessential, and unnecessary. I’d like to say that although her character arc pales in comparison to The Anime Jesus and even Big Daddy, the mafia head, Mika brings a youthful enthusiasm that this series needs; she also provides a unique perspective to the story as a whole and, in the end, guides Brandon to what’s ultimately the right choice to make. If nothing else helps to change your opinion, at least Mika has a bigger impact on Gungrave than her mother Maria Asagi, who only existed as Brandon’s love interest). As you most likely know, Gungrave began life as the brainchild of mangaka Yasuhiro Nightow, who also created the great Trigun. To summarize that show, it’s a lighthearted series with occasionally over-the-top humor. As Trigun enters its second half, it edges further and further into the depths of darkness. With the classic episode “Sin”, the normally happy-go-lucky Trigun was consumed in the very essence of joylessness but that is simply Gungrave on a normal day. Unlike the anime Gangsta, which treats the gangster culture as something of a cliché, Gungrave spares no sentiments as it painstakingly portrays the ruthlessness that it’s all about. Much like real life is, this series is a Shakespearian tragedy in that virtually everyone dies at some point. Characters crucial to the plot and those not so are murdered gruesomely, dramatically, and consistently (You’d be hard-pressed to find a Gungrave episode where someone doesn’t die). In what’s already an overwhelmingly somber series (even the episode previews are bleak beyond belief), the soundtrack helps strengthen the mood of the atmosphere with its melancholic jazz, folk blues, and classical (Violins are a particular favorite in Gungrave’s OST for obvious reasons). There’s also a sprinkle of some grimy underground rap beats and a bit of techno in here as well, causing this soundtrack to be one that appeals to a variety of people (Even “BG”, the song featured in the DVD menu, is a must-listen). Like Trigun, Gungrave is a series for whom one half is different from the other. Excluding the pilot episode (do not watch!), the first fourteen episodes focuses on Brandon’s backstory, what the mafia (called “Millenion” in Gungrave) is all about, and what Harry did to cause Brandon to desire killing him. Then, the last nine episodes (excluding episodes 15 and 16) return the story to the present as The Anime Jesus re-visits those he knew before, including Harry (they don’t exactly welcome him back with open arms). Although Gungrave’s latter half is where it peaks in practically every respect, it feels more like an endless shootout between gunmen with superpowers instead of a real story (After all, Gungrave was originated from a videogame franchise). In the end, whatever flaws I found throughout the series were greatly redeemed by the last episode. It is precisely when you assume that Gungrave is heading in one direction that it abruptly shifts to another, and its series finale is without question the greatest example of this. As a matter of fact, it exemplifies everything that the series has been defined by up to that point and is in my opinion among the greatest of its kind. What actually happens in that last episode? I won’t spoil anything but there’s a reason why I keep hailing Brandon Heat as The Anime Jesus. One last note (SPOILER ALERT!!!): whenever I ask myself what’s the overall lesson Gungrave is trying to teach me, my mind rewinds to that scene in the last episode where Harry and The Anime Jesus are lying down in the dirt, their bodies bruised, bloodied, battered, and about to collapse, sharing a few final words to each other before they die, both regretting the decisions that led them to where they are now. It is right here that I discover what the lesson is: “Don’t join gangs”.