June 12, 2004
Gravitation is a MUST!
(Please remember that these illustrations are read starting with the panel on the right- In other words, read right to left please)
There are many manga at the top of my "most fabulous" list. From Blade of the Immortal with it's beautiful artwork and fantastic story, to Rurouni Kenshin's epic tale and great characters. Stories like these are works of art, meant to go down in manga history as "the best". So how does a story like Gravitation still manage stay at the top of my "most fabulous" list? Why do I wait impatiently for the next graphic novel to come out every two months? Why is this probably one of the only manga I'm willing to pre-order and have it ship in two days? The art work is messy, if not downright confusing somtimes. The story is chaotic and completely insane with characters who are so spastic it's hard to keep up with them sometimes. It's a romance, but with very little romance.
So why?
Because if it was anything less, it wouldn't be Gravitation.
Shuichi Shindou is our hapless little protagonist. He's probably the most chaotic, hyperactive, ignorant, spazfastic character I've ever seen in a manga. He definitley gives Excel Excel from Excel Saga a serious run for her money...The artwork, the crazy characters, the weirdly spun story all are the embodiment of what Shuichi is...a freak. Point blank. It would be impossible to put someone like him in a normal environment and make it interesting. If that was done, we'd be reading another dull, cliche love story that would probably end in a suicide because Shuichi can't thrive without drama... However, Maki Murakami has done something wonderful. She's done something other romance manga-ka don't do. She's taken her hero and turned him upside down, then created a world that fits him...Gravitation is about Shuichi...it's about him living life, not life living him...A stroke of genius, if you ask me.
Nor is this the typical romance either. Nope...this isn't about going through the motions of falling in love, over coming obsticals with each other, then living happily ever after. Sure, Shuichi meets someone who is special to him, but the romance becomes the driving force behind Shuichi's drive to succeed. He want's to prove himself to his lover that he can be something...other than an idiot...the results are fantastically halarious. So, we see our hero fall in love, and then persue his dream of becoming Japan's number one rock and roll star with a new born fervor.
Of course, Shuichi doesn't know the meaning of the word simple. He falls in love with a bitter, moody romance novelist named Yuki Eiri....who really hates Shuichi's guts...at first. And when I say falls in love, I mean Shuichi makes stalkers look tame...the boy is obsessed...but his relentlessness pays off and somehow, he finds a nook in the cold, icy heart of Yuki. However, Yuki will never be the doting lover, and more often than not, we find Shuichi sitting on his front steps with a dresser cracked against his head...
Juggling a music career and a volitile boyfriend, Shuichi's life only gets more complicated as he trys to make his dreams come true. He discovers that the music business isn't what he thought it was. He learns that despite a natural talent for singing and an inborn trait for writing lyrics, music is more than just all that. He finds himself trying to sell records, appearing on third rate gameshows, trying to keep his guitarist from quitting over and over again, hiding from fans, trying to stay alive and appease his gun weilding, crazy American manager, dodging rivals who literally want to "take Shuichi" out of the picture, and avoiding conspiracies that seem to revolve around his simple-mindedeness.
This, of course is where the bedlam begins...and our story becomes a condundrum of chaos...
Why? Because our hero isn't much of a coper...he's more of a survivalist and 99.9 percent of that ability is sheer instinct...and luck... That's what makes Gravitation so damn funny. This series is HALARIOUS. I can read the novels over and over again and just laugh my head off at the absurdity. This material is truely funny...and anyone who likes a good story with a lot of humor is missing out by not reading Gravi.
My only complaint is I'd like to see more of Yuki. He's always there in spirit, but he gets very little "air" time, so to speak. The story focuses mainly Shuichi's obession with Yuki as while he works his way to the top of the charts, so our sour novelist makes limited apperences. Still, I am glad that this story isn't the typical "shonen-ai" story, with angsty characters (Yuki can be a little angsty, but he's damn funny too), explicit love scenes, and wimpy little boys who cry all the time. Okay, Shuichi does cry all the time, but it's funny when he cries because it's impossible to take him seriously...Nor is he a weak hearted wimp like most protagonists in shonen ai stories (Shuichi's crying is usually caused by a sensory overload). I like Shuichi because he has spunk, he has balls, and he's relentless...
(for those of you who don't know what shonen-ai is, it means boys loving boys)
At anyrate, Gravi is a great comedy. This manga will always hold a place in my heart as one of the most well written, well thought out, well illustrated series I've ever seen. Simply incredible.
