Series Info:

              Speed Grapher

            Episodes: 24

            Originally Aired: April 2005

            Studio: Gonzo

            Licensed by: FUNimation

 

 

Story Synopsis:

 

        Saiga Tatsumi is a well-known photographer, best known for his stirring frontline pictures from a war ten years ago.  Now, he is stuck in Tokyo as a journalist with nothing but politicians and celebrities to photograph.  Saiga’s newest assignment is to dig up information on the mysterious Roppongi Club, a club for the elite members of society, and it’s leader Suigentu Chouji.  After infiltrating the club, Saiga witnesses a “Goddess” descend for a bizarre ritual.  The photo opportunity is too tempting to resist, and Saiga is caught and brought to the Goddess’s pedestal to be executed.  However, the Goddess gives him a kiss and awakens a strange power within Saiga.  He is given the kill by photography and he makes use of this new power to escape with his life… and the Goddess!

 

The “Goddess” is 15-year old Kagura Tennouzo, daughter of Shinsen Tennouzo, the head of the multi-billion-yen Tennouzo Corporation.  However, Kagura has never experienced freedom.  She is subject to a strict ‘diet’ that borders on starvation and is only able to leave her house to go to school, escorted every step of the way by her mother’s servants.  She is forced to become the Goddess for the Roppongi Club by Suitengu.  When she is the Goddess, she is under a hypnotic spell and only remembers the events as a mysterious recurring dream.

 

       Saiga vows to give Kagura the freedom she yearns for, but it won’t be easy.  Suitengu has billions of yen, a servant with an inhuman sense of smell, and various Euphorias (people who have received the Goddess’s gift).

 

Warnings/Objectionable Content:

 

       The show is very violent and brutal (though not as much as, say, Gantz or Elfen Lied), and contains explicit sexual situations (namely orgies in the Roppongi Club), but no explicit nudity (when there is nudity, naughty bits are conveniently covered, or, in the case of male genitalia, its just not there).  The fansub had some swearing, but it was inconsequential compared to the violence and sex.  As such, this show really shouldn’t be viewed by anyone under 17.

 

Plot:

Speed Grapher has one of the most original stories I’ve seen in quite a while.  The story takes a look into the darker side of human nature, namely Greed.  And a wonderful story it is.  It drags a bit around episodes 5-10 as it seems to head towards a Euphoria-of-the-week formula, but after that there aren’t any real problems in terms of pacing.  The Euphorias are all bizarre, which is suitable as each of their powers represents their deepest desires and fetishes. Unfortunately, the first Euphoria is one of the coolest, and most of the others just don’t compare.  This doesn’t hurt things much, but I wish they saved the first guy for later.

 

       I was a bit worried about how the series would end since it was a Studio Gonzo project.  Hellsing’s second half was just crap, they screwed up Kiddy Grade in the last few episodes, and I hear even Last Exile had ending issues.  The only Gonzo series I’ve seen with a decent ending was Full Metal Panic!  Fortunately, Gonzo did this one right.  There where no sudden plot twists out of left field, no planet sized robots, and everything was wrapped up very nicely.

 

Characters:

 

       The main characters are Saiga, Kagura, Suigentou, and to a lesser extent, Ginza.  With the exception of Kagura, all of the characters are at least in their late 20s.  Saiga and Kagura where basically covered in the plot synopsis.  Ginza is a hot female detective who loves to shoot people and is also Saiga’s lover, more or less.  Needless to say, she isn’t thrilled when her man picks up a girl about half her age.

       Suigentu runs the Roppongi club and is Shinsen Tennouzo’s right-hand man.  If you borrow money from him, you better pay back every single yen on the exact date he says.  If you’re a yen short, you’ll find yourself hanging from the rafters.  Without getting into spoilers, I will say that Suitengu is a badass and has become my favorite villain.

 

Art/Animation:

 

       The art is pretty good.  Sometimes it goes into an odd little style, which I liked but isn’t for everybody.  This odd style is more common in the early episodes and occurs less as the series goes on.  The animation is pretty good for the most part.  Some of the non-action scenes could use some improvement.  Maybe it was just the fansub-quality, but there were times were people would talk but the mouths weren’t moving.

 

Music:

 

       The opening theme, “Girls on Film” by Duran Duran, is an English song but is catchy and fits quite well. The background music ranges from mediocre to really good, but nothing I’d buy the soundtrack over.

 

Miscellaneous:

 

       Since the domestic DVDs are not available yet, I can’t comment on the dub track.  However, the Japanese has some English dialogue in some flash back scenes.  The early episodes have some laughable Engrish, but the later episodes have some well done English dialogue.  They’ll have to be dubbed over for the dub track as they don’t sound natural at all, but the subtitles for them were almost unnecessary.  The words were understandable and they used proper grammar.  It was as if they were reading the subtitles.

 

       On another side note, there are a couple of silly moments.  And by silly, I mean, “Yeah, riiiiiiiiiiight.”  For example, in one episode, Saiga took four or five consecutive pictures in about one second, without advancing the film.  The most ridiculous scene, though, was when Ginza going about 90 miles, errr, kilometers (since this is Japan), and shoots a single bullet into the hood of a police car, which, naturally, blows it 50 feet in the air and onto the police car right next to it.  I guess that will teach the Tokyo police department to store dynamite under the hoods of there vehicles.

 

Final Thoughts:

 

       This is the best Gonzo production I’ve seen to date.  It’s not perfect, but the flaws are pretty minor.  If you’re old enough, and you’re looking for a dark and mature series, you should give Speed Grapher a try.

 

Rating:

 

(This review was written by HitokiriShadow)