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Gravitation (manga)

is a shōnen-ai manga series written by Maki Murakami. It has been adapted into an anime series, directed by Bob Shirohata.

The story follows the attempts of Shuichi Shindou and his band, Bad Luck, to become Japan's next musical sensation. Fitting for the subject, the anime features a large amount of music, a diverse set of characters, plenty of comedy and touches of drama and violence.

The manga originally ended in 2002 after 12 volumes, but new chapters are being serialized in an online manga anthology. The manga has been licensed and is published in English by TOKYOPOP. The Gravitation novel was released in English by TOKYOPOP on March 7, 2006.

A two episode OVA series was released in 1999. The thirteen-episode TV series aired in Japan from October 4, 2000 to January 10, 2001, on WOWOW satellite channel. The anime goes to roughly volume 7 of the manga. The Gravitation TV and OVA series have been licensed for North American release by Right Stuf International.

A manga sequel has been written under the title of Gravitation EX, published in English by TOKYOPOP.

A second novel of Gravitation called Gravitation: Voice of Temptation which is written by Maki Murakami is being published in English by TOKYOPOP.

Story

The story surrounds an aspiring singer, Shuichi Shindou, and his band, Bad Luck (formed with his best friend Hiro). Shuichi want to become Japan's next big thing, and follow in the footsteps of the famous idol Ryuichi Sakuma, lead singer of the now-disbanded legendary group Nittle Grasper. One evening, Shuichi is writing lyrics for a song when his paper is blown away by the wind and picked up by a tall blonde stranger. The man dismisses Shuichi's hard work as garbage, which hurts Shuichi deeply. Despite his anger, he is intrigued by the stranger. This will be their first, but not last, encounter, as Shuichi becomes fascinated by the stranger, who soon turns out to be the famous romance novelist, Eiri Yuki (real name: Uesugi).

The manga is a quirky blend of over-the-top humor (Reiji's giant panda robot destroying parts of New York, Shuichi's explosive nosebleeds and ridiculous declarations of love, K's machine gun wake-up calls, Tohma's half-teasing come-ons, etc) and gay romance. The storyline is just serious enough to be compelling, but also contains elements of parody. The characters are often thrown into insane situations and in some scenes the art style is dramatically overdone for comedic effect.

The art style of the manga is notable in that is very different in volumes 1-6 than it is in volumes 7-12. The first half of the series has a more "old-fashioned" style that slowly changes and becomes noticeably different by volumes 6 and 7. The second half features cleaner lines, and more polished and stylish appearance.

Major Characters

Shuichi Shindou: An energetic, devoted, and good-natured teen who falls in love with Eiri Yuki. He chases Eiri constantly, despite being rejected, verbally abused, and ignored by the other man. The only thing he cares about more than Eiri is his band, Bad Luck. Even after becoming Eiri's boyfriend, Shuichi still struggles to win his heart completely and find out more about his dark past.

Eiri Yuki: A cynical romance novelist whose real name is Eiri Uesugi. He is generally blunt and rude to those around him and has a fairly negative view on people and life in general. His good looks and charm make him popular with women and his female fanbase, but he doesn't make any emotional attachments with the women he gets involved with. He eventually agrees to a relationship with Shuichi (who refers to him as Yuki), despite mixed feelings. Eiri suffers from psychological problems, mostly stemming from a traumatic incident during his childhood.

Tohma Seguchi: The former keyboardist for the band Nittle Grasper, and now the head of NG Productions, the company that is producing Bad Luck's music. Tohma is a genius musician and a stern businessman. He is married to Eiri's older sister, Mika. Tohma cares greatly for his oldest brother-in-law and feels an intense guilt for failing to protect him during his childhood. When he feels that Eiri's livelihood is threatened, he is prone to get involved.

Characters

Bad Luck

Nittle Grasper

A.S.K

N-G Production Staff

Claude K Winchester "K"
Sakano

Uesugi Family

Winchester Family

Kitazawa Family

Yuki Kitazawa
Yoshiki Kitazawa
Riku Kitazawa

XMR Records

Reiji

Others

Ayaka Usami
Maiko Shindou, Shuichi's sister.
Yuuji Nakano, Hiroshi's older brother.

Media

Print

The precursor to the Gravitation manga was a dōjinshi series titled Help!, which followed a similar story line but cast the characters in slightly different roles.

Murakami penned a thirteen volume dōjinshi series called Gravitation Remix under the group Crocodile Ave. The Remix dōjinshi are much more sexually explicit than the manga and deviate heavily from the manga storyline. They contain an element of parody. For example, one volume features a female version of a male character, Shūichi.

In addition to the Remixes, Murakami created four Megamixs dōjinshi, dubbed Megamix, Megamix: Panda, Megamix: Kumagorou and Megamix: Capybara. These are extremely explicit, even compared to the remixes, and can be shocking to readers at the magnitude of explicit imagery presented. These also deviate from the storyline as the Remixes do, though Panda takes a step further to include Shota. A new Megamix is currently in the works, entitled Megamix Zebra. Not much is known about this Megamix except that it will feature the couple of Shuichi x Ryuichi x Eiri, with Shuichi as the seme.

A sequel to the original manga series has also been created, entitled Gravitation EX though many fans know it as its original name, Gravitation Genzo (so named after the online magazine it is published in). The story picks up directly after volume 12, and is known for being even more like a soap opera than the original manga. In the span of twenty chapters (as of April 2008), Shuichi and Eiri find and agree to momentarily take care of Kitazawa Yuki's son Riku, Shuichi kisses and conducts a short affair with Sakuma Ryuichi, who announces that he's always been in love with Shuichi, Eiri is in a car accident that causes him to temporarily lose his eye sight, and Reiji announces that she's making all that has happened into a movie. Shuichi believes that this movie is the reason Ryuichi "pretended" to go after him, although as of April 2008 Ryuichi's true motives - whether he is really in love with Shuichi, was making a movie, or was trying to bring Shuichi and Eiri closer in someway - are not clear. In track 71, the cave Bad Luck is filming a music video in collapses, leaving Shuichi trapped inside. The following three tracks are slow-moving, but in track 75 it is revealed that Shuichi is in a coma with no signs of waking up. Nothing else happens in that track, though it is hinted that Eiri may take over as Bad Luck's vocalist. It is unclear where the story will go from there, as Murakami has been on hiatus since the January 2008 issue, and it is unclear when she will go back to publishing the manga monthly again. It is also unclear when TOKYOPOP and other manga distributors will release the second volume of Gravitation EX in English. Recently after being on hiatus, Murakami released a new 30 page track of Gravitation EX.

Audio

Drama CDs

Eight audio dramas were produced for Gravitation, featuring most of the seiyū of the TV and OVA series. Five retell events from the manga series, while the remaining three cover new story material. The drama CDs also contain musical tracks performed by the Japanese voice actors.

Themes

The opening and closing themes to the TV series were "SUPER DRIVE" and "Glaring Dream," performed respectively by Yosuke Sakanoue and Kinya Kotani and Mad Soldiers. The latter also performed both themes for the OVA: "Blind Game again" (opening) and "Smashing Blue" (closing). Most other music in the Gravitation franchise (except songs that appeared on later drama albums) was written, performed or produced by Daisuke Asakura. Guitarist Kenichi Ito also appears on many of the tracks as well as Kappei Yamaguchi.

Reception

Almost half a million copies of the Gravitation manga have been sold from its release in 2003 to 2007.

References

External links

Gravitation Official Homepage by Sony Music
Gravitation Official Homepage from RightStuf
Gravitation Sequel Official site by Genzo Track
Gravitation Official site from Madman Entertainment, Gravitation anime distributor in Australia and New Zealand
Sex & Silliness: Maki Murakami’s Gravitation (Interview with the author)