April 08, 2005
Speed Grapher Episode 1 - The Corrupt City
OP - Girls on Film (Duran Duran) - seriously. No, seriously. We haven't seen the OP itself yet, but I have to mention the song because it's so inspired. You MUST know it.
ED - Hinageshi no Oka (Shione Yukawa) - the singer sounds a bit like a Japanese version of Bjork, somewhat oddly.
Saiga was once a war photograher, but now works for the manipulatively sexy detective Hibari Ginza in a dystopian, overly capitalist Tokyo. He is obsessed with photography to the point of fetishism. After some mysterious assassinations of politicians opposing a new drug law (which we learn were committed by Shirogane, a rather disturbing ballet dancer whose body is literally like liquid rubber), Saiga is assigned to follow Suitengu, the man responsible for ordering the assassinations, who is a member of the ultra-secretive Roppongi Club, dedicated to hedonism. Saiga sneaks in to their masked gathering, where they await the arrival of the "Goddess". Saiga, struck by her beauty, photographs her and gets caught as a consequence, and as punishment she gives him some kind of kiss of death which makes him flashback to his war work - and while he is paralysed, Suitengu orders his guards to kill Saiga...
Well, I wasn't quite expecting a cliffhanger after the first episode. But I am DEFINITELY tuning in for the next one! Speed Grapher played to all of Gonzo's strengths - fantastic 2D animation with visceral thrills - coupled with an intriguingly weird plot and an interesting lead character. I even thought what fanservice there was was well done! Although it looks to be a thinly veiled superpowered fight show in some ways, I don't care when it looks this good and has this kind of spin on it - hopefully the camera will be picked up on thematically as well as dramatically, I like cliched stuff about life through lenses or whatever. As long as the Goddess character (whatever her name turns out to be) isn't too annoying, I can see myself in this for the long haul.
Please, Gonzo, don't mess this up. PLEASE.
Posted by BluWacky at April 8, 2005 05:29 PM | TrackBackHaha..."Girls on Film"? How appropriate. I was wondering what song they chose. I was just distrubed to see their name in the opening credits. Nothing like hearing a band that was the rage with all the girls in your 3rd grade class to make you feel old.
I too liked this show a lot..especially the artwork. I'm curious to see in which direction the story goes
Posted by: Hephador at April 8, 2005 10:09 PMAAARGH. The raw refuses to download for me. :(
Posted by: wao at April 9, 2005 02:51 AMOkay, I finally watched it. Wow, this was good. Definitely better than Gankutsuou - it reminded me slightly of Cowboy Bebop in some parts. I'm definitley watching the next eon as well. It looked very good and actually had some substance. I'm surprised Duran Duran's doing the OP>..
By the way, I wonder why Saiga isn't a war photographer anymore. I think he's been confined to Tokyo by some law or something.
Posted by: wao at April 9, 2005 08:51 AMHibari said that if he tried to leave Tokyo she'd kill him, right? And there was something about his passport, too, which I didn't quite catch.
My only worry is that there won't be much substance to go with the style, as usual. But Saiga is a really interesting hero for the moment, and it's only the first episode after all.
Posted by: BluWacky at April 9, 2005 05:03 PMIt's interesting in that there aren't actually so many typical anime cliches in this ep. A lot of people have said that the Roppongi Club reminds them of the club in Eyes Wide Shut - which is what some Japanese posters have noticed as well.
This is getting very popular, it seems. I can understand - it has a hint of Cowboy Bebop around it and people loved that. I'm surprised this isn't pre-licensed. It's nice that the main character isn't too abrasive, has his weak points but is also not some angsty teenager. Oi oi, he's 33 years old! I can't believe it. Heh.
As for the passport thing, from what I read he got into trouble in one of his war photography thingamajigs and his passport was taken away. So he can't run away from Japan. The official site says that Hibari and Saiga have some sort of relationship that they don't want but still have anyway...
I hope to see how his encoutner and escape with the girl (who is 15 years old... that's my age...!) will change him. ANd change her. And I'd like to see what Saiga will do when his fetish gets realized by Kagura (the girl) and he can kill with his camera, just like Kurogane's fetish with rubber got realised.
Posted by: wao at April 10, 2005 03:20 PM