Gungrave Vol. 1: Beyond The Grave

Pros: Solid voice work, incredible animation, great character designs, haunting music.

Cons: None I could think of or I could see.

My Take:

When I was looking at these episodes of Gungrave, one thought came to mind: This show is just like a Spawn/Trigun hybrid.

The subject matter between Spawn and Gungrave are essentially the same: a person is resurrected for personal reasons. In Spawn's case, it was to return to his wife. In Beyond the Grave's case (before I continue, Beyond the Grave may be a good subtitle for a series, as it is for this first volume from Geneon, but it's not a good name for an antihero; maybe it just sounds cooler in Japanese, where it's Grave The Beyond), it's revenge. The animation even feels the same. It might be a coincidence that both shows were animated by Madhouse, a studio that has achieved fame through previous productions like Card Captor Sakura, X, Trigun, a couple of shorts from The Animatrix, and the incredible film Tokyo Godfathers. The fact that it looks like Trigun in the city isn't a coincidence. Like Trigun, Gungrave is also a creation of comic artist Nightow.

Gungrave is based on a popular Playstation 2 game of the same name from SEGA, and the plot is essentially the same. Brandon Heat is dead. He has been dead for years, a victim of situation he couldn't avoid. Resurrected by a covert scientist, Heat is renamed Beyond The Grave for obvious reasons. Armed with twin handguns dubbed Ceruberus and a coffin arsenal of weapons, he's looking for vengence against the one who sent him to the grave in the first place, Harry MacDowel, Back in the day, Harry and Brandon used to be best buds. However, as learned in the second episode "Young Dogs," things changed between the two and one thing lead to another. Harry now leads the mafia organization called Millennion, and anybody associated with Millennion is on Grave's hitlist. Including the other undead enforcers in the employ of the mafia organization. There are many questions to be asked. Grave knows he has a drive to go after Millennion, but there is one that hasn't been asked.

Why was Brandon Heat resurrected in the first place, and who is really calling the shots behind the scenes?

Gungrave has the potential to become a popular show, at least based on the episodes I've seen. The story is definitely present and the designs are excellent, utilizing the dark elements of Spawn with the character designs of Trigun. Geneon and Bang Zoom! have done an excellent job producing the series. The voice talent is top-notch and the script captures the mood of the original Japanese perfectly. Gungrave is the perfect mix of urban grit and old west gunplay.