So, I have decided to do a little challenge, one that was inspired by the “List of Recommendations” section in this image (http://imgur.com/a/3TJov). It’s 72 shows, and I’m using a random number generator in order to start watching a show. Any show I’ve already previously seen will be skipped. After drawing the number 30, the first show I ended up with was Gungrave. Let’s see how it turns out.
— AFTER WATCHING THE SHOW —
Well, that was absolutely nothing.
Gugrave, from what I could tell, is about a really, really muscular, white-haired gentleman who likes to shoot zombie-like creatures for 1 minute, and then immediately fall unconscious.
Because of this, the rest of the episode becomes a super dragged out, utterly boring series of “lore-building” non sequiturs, which does nothing to establish the mood of the show, or display any sense of action or excitement, and instead show us some brutally forced pathos for the main character girl, who lost her mom to some strange revolution or civil war or something, as well as a flat, speechless action badass that does nothing active in the ENTIRE episode.
It baffles me to have a show of this ilk (a Madhouse show no less) not demonstrate it’s capacity for action in the first episode. That would at least be able to entertain, instead of trying to be some sort of slow-paced, emotionless and drab stretch of 24 minutes.
There is some interesting direction and color usage in the cold open, but after the averagely animated action sequence, the show changes it’s show composition to be as generic and uninspired as possible, becoming a chore to even look at sometimes. Not to mention the world these characters inhabit has become drowned in a brown palette, with occasional spurts of the main girl’s red coat.
Honestly, a waste of an episode. By minute 5, I was already bored.
DROPPED: 1/26 episodes.
The Spiral of Madness 