Anime Speed Grapher

[Hittokiri Zero]

Well, well, well it looks like I am still alive and watching anime :rolleyes:. Gonzo's newest anime series SPEED GRAPHER (not to be confused with everybodys favorite "Speed Racer") is an anime series that is not for the faint of heart. Only one episode into the series I can honestly say that this Mystery-Action-Supernatural series almost made me turn off the computer twice, the story summary taken from Anime News Network pans out like this:

"Ten years after the Bubble War, the dichotomy between the rich and the poor in the world becomes more prominent and Japan is no exception. The rich seeks to satisfy their desires and derive pleasure for themselves, and Tokyo has materialise into such a city as a result. Saiga, once a war photographer, works for Hibara Ginze in the capitalist state of Tokyo. He infiltrates into Roppongi Club, a secretive base located in the red district area of the city, to collect information about them. He was caught in the process which leads to his first encounter with a girl called Kagura who was in the midst of a ritual. His contact with Kagura awakened his special ability later and he soon realised he's under the pursuit from the Roppongi Club assasins. In order to unravel the mystery behind the Roppongi Club and Kagura, Sagai begins his solitary battle."

While i'll admit that i'm not quite sure where this anime is heading (all though I did read some interesting tidbits about the "Euphoria Factor" which were both comedic and disturbing alike) despite the fact that I watched the promo a multitude of times, this dark and gritty anime seems to be very promising and it's unlike any other anime i've ever seen before. The realistic portrayal of mans deepest (often sexual ._.) desires and cold hard facts of life are done to a point where it's just plain creepy but keeps you intrigued to the point where you're wondering what's going to happen next? Speaking of what's going to happen next my only complaint about the anime aside from the few disturbing scenes spaced through out the episode was the fact that it ended to early and on a nice cliff-hanger that really has me wondering what is going to happen next.

I won't name the things that "freaked" me out because that would spoil a good episode but i'd reccomend that you give the first episode of this series a try and see if you can stomach some of the scenes yourself, as if you get past the gore and some of the uncharacteristic story (the main character Saiga has a fetish for taking pictures of dead/dieing people for crying out loud .-.) line I think you'll notice that with an interesting setting, a slew of realistic characters, and an eerily entertaing plot already developing Speed Grapher could turn out the next big "sleeper" anime of 2005.

Also here's an interesting animated .gif I got from the official Speed Grapher site, while the clip really has more action than the entire first episode combined I think it's just showing us a little preview of things to come ;) --->

(My guess is that while Speed Grapher is going to start out a little slower than other animes as soon as Saiga's Euphoria factors awaken thinks should start to quicken up a bit).

[size=3][b][URL=http://img227.echo.cx/img227/7305/gifani011fd.gif]SPEED GRAPHER ANIMATED GIF[/URL][/b][/size]

[Dagger]

I've been interested in Speed Grapher for a while, ever since the official website first went up. I was quite surprised when I saw the trailer, as I definitely hadn't expected it to be so gory/sexual (at first all I knew about it was that it was supposed to be some kind of "anime about photography"), but that's not necessarily a strike against the show.

Hopefully I'll be able to watch the first episode sometime tonight or tomorrow. The artwork in general looks great, and that .gif you posted is just awesome. I've heard... er, interesting things about Takehito Koyasu's character, so I'm also looking forward to seeing what all of the fuss was about regarding him.

Do you know how many episodes it's going to be?

~Dagger~

[Hittokiri Zero]

I haven't been able to find the episode count but considering the fact that this is GONZO i'd say that somewhere in the 20-30 range seems like it'd be the norm. The only sub I found was from Shinsen subs though and while it wasn't bad they normally aren't my first choice for fansubs >_>...

[Dagger]

Wow. The first episode is quite... well, it was definitely different from the other shows I've been watching lately. A lot of anime deal with the whole "corrupt city" theme, but Speed Grapher takes that to an entirely different level. I like the outlandish images and the animation style--it's smooth enough, but also kind of loose and free-flowing, which works well with the character designs.

The scene where the [spoiler]rubber assassin snapped the little girl's arm[/spoiler] was what I found most disturbing. That and the [spoiler]implied branding.[/spoiler]

I loved [spoiler]the very end of the episode. It was really raw, if you know what I mean--totally unlike most anime kiss scenes.[/spoiler] Actually, the sexual parts somehow reminded me of Melody of Oblivion, except that they were made to look a lot darker and more depraved than the sexual content in MoO (which is pretty blatant, but also kind of comedic).

The cliffhanger was a little annoying, but oh well. I wonder whether the next episode will have a real OP. Speed Grapher seems like a shoo-in for a quick license, at any rate.

~Dagger~

[Hittokiri Zero]

Well I just watched episode 3 of Speed Grapher a few hours ago, and I think it was a nice change of pace and direction from the gruesome first two episodes of the series. The fact that the cliffhanger was finally resolved and we get to see Saiga and his killer camera in action was a big plus, because since watching the animated gif I posted in one of my posts above I was really looking forward to this part of the series :rolleyes:.

Oh well i'll be back with more comments later... As soon as I finish my homework =x... But first... It's off to watch the king of all cheese "Sousei no Aquarion" coming in at a close second by Inoue Takehiko's Buzzer Beater (which actually had one scene the past episode that made me want to continue watching the series =D!).

[Dagger]

[quote name='Hittokiri Zero']Well I just watched episode 3 of Speed Grapher a few hours ago, and I think it was a nice change of pace and direction from the gruesome first two episodes of the series. The fact that the cliffhanger was finally resolved and we get to see Saiga and his killer camera in action was a big plus, because since watching the animated gif I posted in one of my posts above I was really looking forward to this part of the series :rolleyes:.[/quote]
Yeah, the action in episode 3 most definitely did not disappoint. I love how the concept is executed, and it's nice that Saiga is already surprisingly powerful. Although I also found it pretty amusing that Saiga was [spoiler]so shocked to discover his own "secret desire." I mean, given the fact that photographing multilated bodies seems to be his biggest turn-on,[/spoiler] he probably should have been able to figure it out on his on.

At first I wasn't sure if I would like Ginza (at least, I think that's what the silver-haired woman is called), but she's actually rather cool in a dysfunctional sort of way. Like she implied, her fetish kind of matches up with Saiga's. Personally I prefer her to Kagura, who's a bit annoying in that she's supposed to have [spoiler]divine powers or whatever[/spoiler] but cries and dithers a bit too much for my tastes. Well, I'm sure she'll improve, since she's supposed to be an important character and all that.

~Dagger~

[Kenshin DX]

How did this thread die? Speed Grapher rocks. After viewing the whole series I can safely say it is one of my favorite series of all time. The [spoiler] SeuTengu episode was easily the best in the series[/spoiler]. And I agree the series is quite disturbing but oh so good. I found the ending to be very anti-climatic and [spoiler]Saiga going blind was sad[/spoiler]. I love this series to death the battles were very creative not to mention it has one of the best dubs Ive ever heard.