| about
trismugistus.com
and digital-bondage.net
are my web sites.
trismugistus.com
is where I upload my anime, manga and tv&film reviews,
and also where I occasionally post short stories and longer
works I've written.
digital-bondage.net
is my wallpaper site and provides anime, manga and other
desktop wallpapers in a variety of resolutions. I also
have a few tutorials and some resources, such as psds
for you to download.
I also run a site called scan-city.org,
which provides scans from the latest japanese anime magazines
for you to download and use in your wallpapers.
You can also read my blog here
or check out my anime list here. |
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| details |
| The Genre: 13 eps across 3 DVDs from ADV |
| The Format: giant mech |
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| The plot: Sandman and his ragtag crew of misfits
and loners are back at it again, saving the earth
from the deadly Zeravire invasion… only this
time, they won’t be the only ones on duty!
Enter the elite G-Soldier Squadron, the first unit
of the government’s attempt to mass-produce
Gravion technology. Led by ace pilot Faye, will
the G-Soldiers push the Earthgertz gang out of a
job? Meanwhile, facing a series of stepped up Zeravire
attacks, Sandman decides his team needs some time
off at a hot springs resort!? What better way to
form a cohesive fighting unit than to see everyone
in their skivvies? Towels fly and karaoke maids
abound as the Gravion team battles a hidden danger
deep within a nearby volcano. |
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| opinion
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| Just recently I seem to have been quite surprised
by, well, everything.
I was surprised that ten ten was as enjoyable as
it turned out to be, I was very surprised that Godannar
became my new favourite show and I was taken about
as far as surprise can go (possibly even making
it into “shocked”) that Divergence Eve
was actually good.
So I’ll cut to the chase – I was surprised
by Gravion Zwei too. But why was I surprised, I
hear you cry?
Well because it’s actually pretty good. |
This surprise revelation itself surprised
me a bit too and I must admit I started to
wonder if my tastes might not be changing,
or indeed whether my standards could be slipping.
So I watched the first series again and it
turned out that no, Gravion Zwei is just plain
better than Gravion.
I got the 1st Gravion series on a whim. I
fancied a bit of Giant Mech action and Gravion
was a bit of Giant Mech action. It was also
nicely squeezed onto 3 great value disks and,
also it was a UK release so I was helping
the whole UK DVD sales thing.
What I didn’t get from Gravion was
anything challenging, or in any way different.
Don’t get me wrong, it was okay, but
Gravion had nothing to make it stand out from
the crowd, if you will. It was as if someone
had taken every single Giant Mech series ever
made, stuck them in a huge metaphorical blender
and cranked the speed up as far as it could
go. |
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The mush that resulted was Gravion. It was spectacularly
average. Our hero, Eiji Shigure, is an average boy
who is looking for his sister, but actually turns
out to have some (unexplained) special ability that
lets him pilot one of the components of a Giant
Mech. And its the sort of Mech where in order for
him to use any of the Mech’s weapons, the
name must of course be shouted out at the top of
your lungs, which as special abilities go, shouting
seems fairly rudimentary.
The Giant Mech is made up of a series of modules
that are independent, but then both transform and
combine together to form the Gravion of the series
name. Gravion is imbued with some ability to control
gravity as the source of its power and the guy who
invented this system is one Klein Sandman who is
a rich, eccentric multi-billionaire who lives in
a great big castle. Not that I was aware there were
any medieval European style castles in Japan, but
apparently I was very wrong.
The rest of the robot team is all girls, with the
exception of the leader, Toga Tekuji, who is a socially
retarded boy about the same age as our hero. There
are various crushes and secret loves kicking about
between the pilots and assorted castle occupants,
who are mostly young, with the exception of one
or two who are grown in more ways than one –
perhaps having a collection of some of the world’s
biggest breasts in the one place helps with the
gravity control, who knows? Oh, and cue fan-service,
obviously. |
 |
Stop me if you’ve heard anything
that can’t be found in a dozen other
Giant Mech shows. So there’s lots of
other clichés that get their boxes
thoroughly ticked, but perhaps the most genre
defining one is that each ‘monster of
the week’ they encounter proves impervious
to the move/attack that destroyed last week’s
monster and hence some new awesome mega-move-that-might-destroy-us-all
must be used in its destruction.
I think the only thing the first Gravion
had going for it was that it was fully aware
as to just how predictable and average it
was. There were more than the occasional nods
of “yeah, we know this is in every other
show too, but c’mon, it’s still
kinda cool ;)” and it just about saved
it from being poor. Although it was still
nothing spectacular.
However, Gravion was one of those half-series
(13 eps) that ended without actually answering
any of the questions it posed, so a second
series was obviously always expected and planned
for. |
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However, Gravion Zwei is not like Gravion.
It’s a little difficult to articulate, but
there are some subtle shifts and some not so subtle
shifts that alter the impetus. Where the original
show was very much about being average with a wry
smile showing that they knew it was average, Gravion
Zwei is definitely more about poking a playful finger
into the ribs of average and running away giggling.
All Giant Mech shows are overblown. Even something
like Eva, with its predominantly serious tone is
melodramatic in its presentation. Everything is
exaggerated, because it has to be in order that
the enormous robots don’t seem out of place.
Everything has to be big so that the Giant Mechs
are in scale.
However, Gravion Zwei takes that bigness and goes
one step further with it. But it’s not the
same step as that taken by Godannar. |
Godannar takes everything to the max and
hits just about every cliché from both
angles – it gives you the perfect example
of it, and parodies it at the same time. Gravion
Zwei just over blows everything, and pokes
fun at it by doing so. It’s not done
in a nasty way, though – it’s
all good natured and fun.
Sorry if it seems like all I’m doing
is talking about other shows, but the whole
of the Gravion approach is to do what other
shows do, so it’s inevitable to end
up comparing it to other stuff. So what can
I tell you about the show itself?
Well, Gravion Zwei thoroughly explains all
of the mysteries and questions that were presented
in the original series. Some of which are
predictable and some of which have taken the
idea of a “twist” to previously
unknown extremes, mainly for comedic effect.
It also maintains the reasonably high standards
of animation and sound design and is entertaining
in its own right, although it isn’t
stand alone as you’ll need to have seen
series one to even have the foggiest idea
about what Zwei is on about. |
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There’s also plenty to laugh at and, if
you let it, the good natured ribbing of Giant Mech
shows makes it worth purchasing both the first series
to see how it crams in every single cliché
imaginable and the second series to take the piss
out of that.
What else is there? Oh yeah, extras. Having recently
purchased a few Geneon series, I’ve really
come to appreciate the extras that ADV normally
give us. Yes, they don’t exactly affect the
quality of the show, but it’s nice to have
them and nice to know they care. Also, 6 disks for
26 eps isn’t bad value for money.
So recommended, but don’t expect anything
ground breaking is the message, I think; and hopefully
in my next review I won’t be quite as surprised
^^; |
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| summary |
| The Summary: Actually not that bad – certainly
better than the first series. |
| The Score: 4/5 |
| The Pictures:
(click for larger versions) |
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