A picture is worth a thousand kills.
Keeping on the "manly anime" tip, I bring you an accounting of Funimation and Gonzo/TAP's series "Speed Grapher."
The hero of our tale is Tetsumi Saiga. Saiga is the stereotypical burnout photojournalist turned tabloid photographer. Trapped in a society where the rich get richer while the poor get fucked [sometimes literally] Saiga has become jaded and cold. He has a fuck buddy Hibari Ginza that is as smoking hot as she is full of shit. Ginza can only get excited [you know, in the pants...] while she's holding a gun to Saiga's body. I don't want to say the girl has some serious control issues, but um, well, she does.
In the opening episode we learn that Saiga actually earned a reputation as a famed photographer while photographing a war. Through a flashback, we learn that Saiga has his own eccentricity... photographing images of violence through his camera tends to get him, well, happy in the pants area. As you watch more and more episodes, it becomes clearer that it's the envy of the power of human type destruction that gets to Saiga. If he's honest with himself, he wishes that he could inflict that kind damage through his lens. This concept eventually becomes one of the driving forces of the plot for the series.
Speed Grapher is one of those series that tries to emulate an ensemble cast TV show lineup by exploring the past, present, and future of several characters over its two arcs. As you progress through the 24 episodes of the series, you explore the lives of the hero and heroine Saiga and Kagura Tennozu as the main thread that binds together the stories of Kagura's mother Shinsen Tennozu and Shinsen's left hand man Suitengo. I don't want to give too much away, but saying that the way each of the main characters pasts' entwine with the other characters' past or even present is interesting enough to more than hold your attention. I think that aspect of the series alone makes it worth watching, the strong sexual content wasn't even needed and at time can detract from the fact that a compelling story is trying to unfold before you. I don't need to see a room full of middle aged men riding younger women wearing a saddle and harness to get the point across that they are fat-cat bastards.
What I find interesting about the series, and the reason why I find it to fit in that "manly anime" category is because Saiga ultimately is a man's man. He's tough, he's gruff, he takes what he wants and he's unapologetic about it... almost to the point that he's happy about where he is in life and how he got there. A tiny tip about a super secret club for the rich and powerful of the city called the Roppongi Club is the key to his undoing in a way. Saiga decides to infiltrate the club in order to do an exclusive report on them and expose the club and all of it's depraived patrons to the public. Roaming through the club reveals more debotchery, fetishism, and corruption than even Saiga had imagined...it's only a chance encounter with "the goddess" that is the catalyst for his changing. [In more ways than one.]
A young innocent struggles to be free. A reluctant hero stuggles with himself and the environment to give a damn about more than just his personal desire. A middle age woman stuggles with aging, being surpassed in beauty by a daughter that serves as a constant reminder of a lost love. Then there is the sinister character that seems to focus only on feeding the evil and greed that has control of the city.
Speed Grapher is not a series for the faint of heart. It is in no way a shojo anime. It is definitely a series striving for maturity, and I give it credit for that. My only complaint is its ending...it's quite lame in my opinion. When you get to the end you will understand what I mean. With all of the other taboos that the series address and even places prominence on, Speed Grapher should have ended in a much different way.
The ending is the only thing that isn't manly about the series. I'll give it a 4 out of 5.
Keeping on the "manly anime" tip, I bring you an accounting of Funimation and Gonzo/TAP's series "Speed Grapher."
The hero of our tale is Tetsumi Saiga. Saiga is the stereotypical burnout photojournalist turned tabloid photographer. Trapped in a society where the rich get richer while the poor get fucked [sometimes literally] Saiga has become jaded and cold. He has a fuck buddy Hibari Ginza that is as smoking hot as she is full of shit. Ginza can only get excited [you know, in the pants...] while she's holding a gun to Saiga's body. I don't want to say the girl has some serious control issues, but um, well, she does. In the opening episode we learn that Saiga actually earned a reputation as a famed photographer while photographing a war. Through a flashback, we learn that Saiga has his own eccentricity... photographing images of violence through his camera tends to get him, well, happy in the pants area. As you watch more and more episodes, it becomes clearer that it's the envy of the power of human type destruction that gets to Saiga. If he's honest with himself, he wishes that he could inflict that kind damage through his lens. This concept eventually becomes one of the driving forces of the plot for the series.
Speed Grapher is one of those series that tries to emulate an ensemble cast TV show lineup by exploring the past, present, and future of several characters over its two arcs. As you progress through the 24 episodes of the series, you explore the lives of the hero and heroine Saiga and Kagura Tennozu as the main thread that binds together the stories of Kagura's mother Shinsen Tennozu and Shinsen's left hand man Suitengo. I don't want to give too much away, but saying that the way each of the main characters pasts' entwine with the other characters' past or even present is interesting enough to more than hold your attention. I think that aspect of the series alone makes it worth watching, the strong sexual content wasn't even needed and at time can detract from the fact that a compelling story is trying to unfold before you. I don't need to see a room full of middle aged men riding younger women wearing a saddle and harness to get the point across that they are fat-cat bastards.
What I find interesting about the series, and the reason why I find it to fit in that "manly anime" category is because Saiga ultimately is a man's man. He's tough, he's gruff, he takes what he wants and he's unapologetic about it... almost to the point that he's happy about where he is in life and how he got there. A tiny tip about a super secret club for the rich and powerful of the city called the Roppongi Club is the key to his undoing in a way. Saiga decides to infiltrate the club in order to do an exclusive report on them and expose the club and all of it's depraived patrons to the public. Roaming through the club reveals more debotchery, fetishism, and corruption than even Saiga had imagined...it's only a chance encounter with "the goddess" that is the catalyst for his changing. [In more ways than one.]
A young innocent struggles to be free. A reluctant hero stuggles with himself and the environment to give a damn about more than just his personal desire. A middle age woman stuggles with aging, being surpassed in beauty by a daughter that serves as a constant reminder of a lost love. Then there is the sinister character that seems to focus only on feeding the evil and greed that has control of the city.
Speed Grapher is not a series for the faint of heart. It is in no way a shojo anime. It is definitely a series striving for maturity, and I give it credit for that. My only complaint is its ending...it's quite lame in my opinion. When you get to the end you will understand what I mean. With all of the other taboos that the series address and even places prominence on, Speed Grapher should have ended in a much different way.
The ending is the only thing that isn't manly about the series. I'll give it a 4 out of 5.
Labels: Anime, FUNimation, Nekkie-Time, Ninjasistah, Shojo
