Anime Gungrave: Beyond The Grave

[SLIGHT SPOILERS FOR GUNGRAVE VIDEO GAME, BUT ALAS, 'TIS NECESSARY]

Another gift from the god of Yasuhiro Nightow (who was responsible for Trigun as well as some character designs for Samurai Spirits), he is also responsible for the character designs for the characters in the Playstation 2 game, Gungrave, which completely and utterly bombed over in America (which really must've been a kick in the bollocks for him).

Ho-o-o-owever, that didn't seem to stop things as not only is a second game released in Japan (or is to be released, haven't checked up on that recently) but also, an anime series based upon the video game created by Nightow himself has recently finished airing the full 26 episodes in March of this year (and as far as I know is still airing reruns).

Now, for those of you who haven't played the video game, Gungrave, allow me to go into just what it is about (and the story, or lack thereof, was one of the more larger complaints among players)...

You play as the character who goes only by the name Beyond The Grave (at least for the first bit of the game) and, things get a bit shifty; as far is led on, in the game, Beyond The Grave was once a man named Brandon whom was a member of 'The Syndicate' with his best friend, Harry. Harry devised a plan to assassinate the current leader of The Syndicate (Big Daddy) and take over himself; Brandon, as faithful as he was to Big Daddy, decided to try and sucker-punch some sense into Harry. Not a good idea considering Harry proceeded to pump approximately eight handgun bullets into Brandon's abdomen, then finished the job by shooting him through the left eye, point-blank range, out of a glass elevator and sending him plummeting to the streets below. Can you say ow? Needless to say, Harry's plan went off without a hitch. Bu-u-u-ut, it seems as if our friend Brandon was compelled to reach "Beyond The Grave" and come back (your typical vengeance storyline). I think you can see where I'm going with this...

Long story short... after having viewed several episodes, fansubbed, it seems as if the one area that was lacking in the game was picked up in the anime and that was the plot, as we spend several episodes being introduced to how Harry and Brandon made it into the Syndicate and learn about those that have been dubbed villains in the video game (Bob Poundmax, Balladbird Lee, Bear Walken and Bunji Kugashira). Anyway... it being Nightow should be reason enough for you to go and indulge yourself with this anime. Or if you're a fan of the whole "vengeance" theme, definitely give it a look. Or if you played the game and are just looking for more.

The first DVD of Gungrave has been marked for a July 6th release in America. Not sure of release in other countries, however.

(Though after typing all this I realize I am probably the only one psyched abotu this But bah, you can piss off, you wankers).