This show is one of the few that enable You to time-travel. To the times were Transformers were a totally new and one cool-looking show, and mecha looked like Gekigangar from Nadesico or... Gravion from Gravion. And to the times where it was 'oozing' coolness - it had written 'great' all over, etc.
So if You enjoyed those old shows, You might enjoy this one. I disliked those shows. And I dislike this one, which is of no surprise.
So what do we have here?
We have a show, where Earth is fighting off alien invasion (typical for early mecha) and only hope lies in mecha (typical for ANY mecha).
Of course only one mecha is built, and our main hero gets to be... ONE of the pilots. That surprised You did it not? It sure did me. I expected he will be THE pilot, not one of the bunch. Do not worry, there will be Your fair share of cliches even with this exception.
I mentioned how it looks like, let me mention colors. This mecha is painted so awfully it hurts to watch: pink, blue, red, yellow, violet - rainbow at least has STYLE in mixing those, Gravion (the robot) was denied ANY style whatsoever, which unfortunately is also typical for early mecha.
And finally, we have a show which considers any opportunity, where You were NOT shown superb transformation, a WASTED opportunity.
So You will have to suffer through obligatory minute of wasted drawings in every (but one) episode.
Not to mention toxic waste like 'cool' audio track for transformation sequence - which also is mandatory and cannot change for better.
I must say, while Gravion IS crap, if seen now, it is a crap You may get used to. I did.
It had hilarious moments, and my laughs were sincere in it, even when cliches were appearing every twenty seconds.
Animation and Art[/b]
Characters were nothing less than very good drawn, and GONZO was indeed doing their job at drawings females who were beautiful AND sexy.
Movements were done smoothly - as usual, GONZO does well in the department.
Unfortunately, mecha sequences are excruciating experiences. Especially transformations. They are cliched... to the point it hurts. Imagine EVERYTHING that You associate with transformations, and insert few things that escaped You... You are nowhere near, but You know where it is heading, right? Gravion goes even further.
I skipped transformations in Loki (Ragnarok) to save time and because it was boring, here I skipped it cause I felt like drowning.
Colors are used in a way that goes beyond extremes of bad taste. I shivered from time to time, so badly had palette been chosen.
Animation is done well, but it stopped me from enjoying the show whenever the mechas aspects where on screen. Super Robots (see Wikipedia for it) ain't my cup of tea, it would seem.
Sound[/b]
Usually GONZO has soundtracks on a decent level. Here they made an exception.
BGM is forgettable, SFXes (in mecha - priority) are plain vanilla also, and VA are only ones maintaining original level - decent, that is.
Voices of Eiji, Sandman and Raven were especially worth hearing.
Unfortunately Gravion has something VERY bad. VERY BAD INDEED. Transformation song. It hurts. It very much hurts. Even intro/outro did not made me that hurt as half(!) of this scary song did. Well, I am awed. That is called SKILL.
Along with visuals this was the first sequence in anime that got me conditioned on fast forwarding as soon as I foresaw it coming.
Story[/b]
Let us start with positives.
One fresh motive. Usually in mecha we have only female pilots (for some made-up reason) and one boy, who surprises anyone with ability to pilot mechas.
Well, creators of Gravion at some point were so overrun with cliches that they omitted this one. Perhaps they just forgot to add it, but it gets more enjoyable thanks to this.
Our main hero is not the main superpower here, while he gets his five minutes. It is another boy, who leads Gravion (robot) all the time. Though my manly intuition tells me that it will change in second season. More of it in characters.
The rest... is when it gets points taken.
While story isn't original or unique, it could be saved by gracious realization. COULD BE.
Gravion fails miserably at delivering You anything a story should... Excluding some screen time for characters and W-questions (Why, What, When, Where...).
As for anything else - Gravion never delivers. Well, maybe in second season, I didn't bother to see
Honestly, I doubt I will, unless it will come right into my hands without any efforts on my side. Then perhaps I will. Perhaps.
Who are Zeravire? Why are they attacking Earth? How did Sandman knew it? Why Eiji's sister disappeared? What was the reason behind her behavior of late? Why is Lulu piloting Shadow? Why is everyone else piloting their vehicles? Why does Gravion looks so badly and distastefully? It all never gets answered.
Now do not get me wrong, I never wanted pseudo sci-fi jargon explaining me in ciphered blabber why enemy X is right now more powerful than Gravion in beta-zulu-iota-six-mix configuration or why combination 3367 will not be of any use unless [insert more jargon here]. No, that ain't my cup of tea either.
If I am to choose between pseudo answer and no answer, the latter is at least honest.
Well, unfortunately Gravion gives You hints of answer, and never delivers more, and this is where I say BAAAD CHOICE. Curiosity must be satisfied at right time, or it drops and dies. Mine did, right after few episodes. Instead of trying to get into main plot I decided to look around.
And here is where Gravion fails again. Because instead of providing me with ANYTHING to occupy my mind it gave me nothing. No side-story - except OBVIOUS filler. I could predict everything not connected to the fights (a lot of potentially good themes with UN was wasted). Also what would happen in fights was the same thing - always typical to the bone.
Finally, I had to focus on characters, and it was dreaded experience, which I would not condemn my worst enemy to.
Story gets a 2.
Some of You asked me to see Gravion Zwei, saying that W-questions are answered there. I might see it. However I am much more into anime like Berserk, Monster, 12 Kingdoms or Haibane Renmei than Gravion and it's successors.
Characters[/b]
Characters are as follow:
- ditzy girl, with little faith in herself, with best of intentions and full of good-will etc. - of course she is always wearing those big (like half of her face) glasses, and here she's a maid.
- loud-mouthed and energetic girl, with heart of gold and so caring in the inside... oh yeah, she also has this little knack for violence... And is potential love-interest for Eiji.
- mature, full of sex-appeal woman who likes to taunt, and has sad past and huge breast (the latter has bigger impact on story than the first, and that tells a lot about anime).
She also has this one episode which advances the plot and reinstalls 'lost in fillers' motive of search for Eiji's sister (haven't she done it, it would be too late to keep that motive in my memory, so vaaastly it was used).
- silent and shy girl who observes great many things and is traumatized with her past (luckily she is dealt with - the past, not the girl) in one episode, so bear with her, later she gets better... well, to the point where instead of a flat line we have a hill with 3% steepness.
- thousands of maids thrown in for mindless fun-service and cosplay
- some lolicon maids, whose main bliss in life is to undress a man, and look at him naked, thrown in for... for... for... oh You figure it out, I'm not into those things.
- Raven and Sandman, thrown in so to seem smart, be ladies fan-service, and say some quasi-cool sentences ('Gran Knights - Combine!' - argh!) around hundred times. Oh, Sandman is also supposed to be mastermind (yeah right), who has seen it all and foreseen it all as well, and prepared in advance etc. etc. Supposed is the right word.
As You see, archetypes and stereotypes are common things in here, and few things I would like to note are listed below:
- Touya in general. His character, upbringing, at last such person is not a walking angel, but has some flaws as well. I also like that while at first he is greatly better later Eiji somewhat catches up to him (not beats him, but...). It's fresh, at last not main guy saves everyone always. Also the guy attitude was all right with me, it fitted his upbringing and that was for good.
- Lulu's friendship with violent girl. The way it was done also was to my liking, in Your usual mecha-harem anime it would have been resolved by main hero and Lulu would ended as yet another falling for him. Luckily here it's not so.
Still, little for good, and tons for bad, now ain't it so?
Characters gets 4.
Value[/b]
I can't honestly recommend it. I really can't.
Characters are cliche to the bone, not to mention boring.
Animation would be at least decent, had fight sequences been more interesting, and Gravion's design ANY better (it can't be worse, it's on par with this terrible music for transformation).
As for sound, I was hurt by it.
There are few things worth noticing, some laughs, some original ideas thrown in - Gravion isn't the worst out there. But... it comes close.
So... let's say, avoid like a plague, unless You did enjoyed those shows from old, and You do enjoy them now. If THAT is the case, Gravion is Your obvious choice.
Value gets a 3.
