Speed Grapher

Ten years after the Bubble War, the dichotomy between the rich and the poor in the world becomes more prominent and Japan is no exception. The rich seek to satisfy their desires and derive pleasure for themselves, and Tokyo has materialized into such a city as a result. Saiga, once a war photographer, works for Hibara Ginza in the capitalist state of Tokyo. He infiltrates the Roppongi Club, a secretive base located in the red light district of the city, to collect information about them. However, he was caught in the process and brought forward to a girl called Kagura who was in the midst of a ritual. His contact with Kagura awakens his special ability: the power to make things explode when photographed. In order to unravel the mystery behind the Roppongi Club and Kagura, Saiga begins his solitary battle.

Saiga, Tatsumi Main

Takada, Yuji Japanese

Suitenguu, Chouji Main

Morikawa, Toshiyuki Japanese

Tennouzu, Kagura Main

Shindou, Kei Japanese

Ginza, Hibari Supporting

Honda, Takako Japanese

Tsujidou Supporting

Yuuki, Hiro Japanese

Bob Supporting

Ishii, Kouji Japanese

Ryougoku, Genba Supporting

Koyama, Rikiya Japanese

Tsurumaki, Miharu Supporting

Okamoto, Maya Japanese

Niihari, Ginji Supporting

Tsuda, Kenjirou Japanese

Makabe Supporting

Egawa, Hisao Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Nishiguchi, Naomi Producer

Shibata, Tomonori Producer

Hashimoto, Taichi Producer

Reviews

Nov 3, 2008

Bishounen_Hunter

Recommended

Main
No matter which site or forum I go to I see very mixed reviews for this show, Speed Grapher. And it's usually because the show looks good and dark and gritty but then it's disliked because it's not as action packed as___ “insert your favorite anime here.” So based on that I think a good review should point this out. It should also state that if you want an anime that's good and dark and gritty but is also character driven and therefore will dedicate a few episodes to building and defining the characters' personalities, then you will like this show....if you ... want a show that's gritty and dark but has low character development and more shootings and bigger explosions then watch, Black Lagoon.

Art-Style
The animation is very good....it's by Gonzo [I'm actually starting to remember these company names]. Gonzo is the company that did "Last Exile", which had very awesome art and animation, so Gonzo is a good company to base your art/anime standards by. Speed Grapher is very dark and gritty. Even grittier than Black Lagoon because there was really nothing that seedy about Black Lagoon. Black Lagoon tried to make their town [what was it....Roanapour?] seem so bad ass and dirty, but the art style contradicted that image they were trying to portray, it was too clean, too slick and polished. With Speed Grapher, you got the true sense of being in those respective environments; in the fancy mansions you felt it was fancy and high-class, in the seedy parts of town you got that feeling, seeing the trash and hookers and stuff. Also as I said earlier the animation was excellent, good fight scenes, no corners were cut and no looping.

Sound
The OP, well I never really liked Duran Duran, hmmmm OK well maybe except for the song they did for the James Bond movie also I liked “The Reflex” but I didn't go wild for this song “Girls on Film” it's just not my thing. But you gotta respect any anime that's willing to make that their OP. The ED songs were forgettable even if the art was nice. The Japanese voice cast did a good job [I don't think the Japanese have ever really done a bad job....except for Inuyasha's voice, where the US voice was waaay better!]

Story
OK so this is where it's crucial in the review, and this is where I diverge from the reviewers that didn't like the show or at least the story part. Because I really was impressed by this story. Like I had said in the animation part, this story is gritty! It gives you are real no-holds-barred account of how truly seedy and disgusting is the underbelly of the world's richest top 2%! Well at least within the fictionalized world of Speed Grapher. And you see the sleaze up close and personal, right down to the funky drool and the raunchy sex-orgies. This story depicts just how the real world works, that those in power feel then can do just about anything....that since they MAKE the laws, they are ABOVE the law. Sure a lot of things in the story are make-believe fantasy and science fiction but make no mistake that the very core of this story carries a kernel of truth! Political rants aside, will also be entertained [again as I said in the first part, you have to love character-based anime] by the various inter-relationships and dynamics between the characters as well as character development episodes, that lets you know some of the good guys aren't so good and some of the bad guys aren't so bad.

Cast/Characters
I have to say the bad guy, Chouji, stole the show for me! He was tall with long hair, sleek and impeccably dressed....oh and he has a kick-ass power! No doubt in my mind he's merciless, just for the simple fact that he allowed or even orchestrated Kagura to be subjected to all of that sick shit so I can't say I condone his behavior or even understand him on a moral level. He's simply on my radar because he scored high points when it came to the coolness factor. The main guy, Saiga, is an alright guy. I mean he has no 'razzle dazzle' qualities or anything, but he's cool. I guess you would have to look at it from the story point of view, he's supposed to be a normal citizen, he's not rich or anything....even though he's considered high-profile. Also he's supposed to be a bit on the older side and has been though a couple of wars and has seen and experienced a lot of hardcore shit so it wouldn't seem right for him to be this young fetchingly hot bishounen—right? Kagura, is the princess—or in this case goddess—so there really is no need to talk about her, she's cute she skinny and beautiful with long locks. OK, the last person worth mentioning is the blond chic with the gun. I think she's cool, she became a little bit scary and obsessive for a while......and I wasn't feeling that whole 'let's rape an unconscious dude thing' I don't care if he's your man—it's creepy! OK there are some gay dudes in this show that were not only there to be funny but were actually kind of vital to the plot.

Worth it or NOT?
This is a keeper. I would recommend this to people because it is more on the 'hardcore' side of anime, lots of sex and blood. I wouldn't consider this one of the anime greats but it is cool, intelligent and picks up the pace when it needs to. I can see my self re-watching this.

Reviewer’s Rating: 8

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Apr 21, 2011

Mouse2010

Mixed Feelings

Speed Grapher initially seems to have a lot going for it. The plot is semi-episodic, with an overall story arc that binds the individual episodes together. While some people complain about the art, I had no objections there: it is a grim, gritty setting, and the art has a film noir look that fits that setting. Likewise with the sound: while I don't have much to praise about the series's music, I don't have anything to complain about.

Where it really failed for me was in the category of character. To give the show credit, both the heroes and the villains have well-developed back stories. ... These are people who have suffered, and it seems like we ought to care about them when they are fail or triumph, as the case may be. And I have to say that the story arcs for all significant characters have satisfying endings: whether the characters live or die, you feel that their stories are wrapped up well. That was one of the things I liked about the series.

The problem is that I simply didn't care that much about any of the characters, not even the two central characters. Saiga was a passable hero. In my opinion, he lacked an appealing-enough personality to carry the show on his own, but he could have worked as a hero given the right pairing. Unfortunately, he was paired with a girl who had virtually no personality at all. Under the circumstances, I wouldn't expect a young girl like Kagura to be a fighter, but she should have at least shown some sense of humor, or charm, or wit, or emotional depth . . . or, well, anything other than the naive sweetness and vulnerability that characterized her. A sweet, vulnerable heroine is not always a bad thing (such a character can give the hero a reason to protect her), but Kagura needed some additional spark of personality in order to function as a likeable protagonist or a believable potential love interest.

Ultimately, this meant that the relationship between the two main characters --which COULD have been one of the strengths of the series--was, from my perspective, shallow and uninteresting. At the end of the series, I was relieved to be done with it, but while I could abstractly note that the finale was a solid one, I just didn't really care about the fates of any of the characters. And, in my book, that's a major failure on the part of the series, given that it tried so hard to develop both villains and protagonists as well-rounded characters.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Aug 24, 2019

Lampington

Not Recommended

Funny

What if you had a gun? The entire premise and synopsis of this series is about a photographer who anything he takes a picture of dies... but this isn't quite accurate. Garnering several comparisons to Death Note regarding "supernatural object that kills people efficiently and powerfully from a distance" one may think they are in for another analytical thriller where the protagonist can carry out undetectable assassinations, or perhaps some sort of monkey paw-esque cursed object scenario where a photo is taken of a large group of people and they all start dropping dead 1 by 1 and he has to find a way to ... undo the curse before it reaches his loved one who was in the picture. This series is nothing like those scenarios that may have been brought to mind.

The titular camera upon interacting with the supernatural powers will fire a ballistic concussive blast directly forward at the first thing in its line-of-site. Literally like a gun. It isn't a special "cellular lifeform degeneration" effect that leads to certain death either, several characters receive multiple 'shots' at point blank range and continue to remain alive. Like a gun. This anime is largely about political corruption and conspiracies so perhaps if it was in a setting where the protagonist has the only 'firearm' trying to take down legions of bad guys without being mobbed down knowing a single mistake would be certain death, sadly that is not the case. Every episode has easily 12 bad guys who all have guns and have no qualms shooting them. The supernatural element draw of this anime is immediately nullified. Granted they do follow up with some interesting limitations of the camera shots ability - it won't focus correctly in fog, if something is transparent it can't be focused on, there needs to be adequate lighting before a picture can be taken, etc.

I'm writing this review 14 years after the series came out so I'm being mindful of conventions in the medium that may now seem dated. It comes from an era where studios were getting experimental and finding what works in this field and the products can be hit or miss sometimes. I finished this series feeling like I really wanted to like it but I just couldn't. I'm told this genre of anime is considered "ecchi" - there is a lot of sexual content, and a lot of dark themes. However instead of coming off as mature and distinctive it just comes off as weird and out of place. A criminal mastermind couple will be talking about their next step in their mafia empire and then the guy will just grab a boob out of nowhere. A fugitive who escaped numerous hitmen and survives deadly injuries passes out and the detective who takes him to the hospital starts licking his face. It's not erotic, the mood isn't there, it often just feels thrown in to be edgy. There was one scene where it was used effectively but it was in tandem with bribery in exchange for sexual pleasure and abandoning your moral duty so the complexity of everything made it more effective than just 'random boob'.

The characters are hit or miss. The main protagonist Tatsumi Saiga is the main character and the series won't ever let you forget it. In the very first episode we get to see how all the women want him, but he's too cool with his cigarettes and being the only male to have a popped-collar shirt. Even the men want him too, in case you forgot that he's super awesome. He isn't given any real flaws so it's hard to relate to him or truly care about his struggles beyond a surface level.

Hibari Ginza is the main police detective who has a history with Saiga, but the writing seemed to forget to ever make her likable to the audience. I absolutely hated this character. Whenever she was getting shot at I hoped she would die, when she gets kidnapped I hoped she would stay gone. It is ridiculous how obnoxious this character ended up being. I think in 2005 she was intended to be a "sexy" and "cool" character similar to how Bayonetta is today but instead EVERYTHING just comes off as cringey. She's supposed to be a detective but constantly brandishes extremely flashy and gaudy gold-plated pistols that would be highly impractical in detective work. She constantly has tantrums and shoots people with no repercussions, including someone literally walking out of a hospital after recovering because they are interested in another woman more than her. The intros have her running a pistol slowly along her crotch and then licking the other one but as you learn more and more about her personality it just makes you think "gross" instead of "hot".

Suitengu is one of the villains who has a fairly interesting and complex backstory (one of the parts of the series I did enjoy). Unfortunately it is lacking somewhere as we eventually learn that both Suitengu and Saiga share a common enemy at one point but instead of teaming up or even taking them down separately, Suitengu continues to fight Saiga for no explained reason. It's like that part of the storyboard got moved to a later episode and they forgot that they have no reason to be enemies at this point.

The real crowning character is Kagura Tennouzu. One of the only characters the series gives you reason to care about, grow on you, and actively want to be safe, taken care of, and overcome all kinds of obstacles to have a happy ending because she deserves to be happy just for once. She was the reason I watched the series to the end because it made me invested in her struggle. If you've ever known a kind person who tries their best in the world but keeps getting beat down over and over Kagura should remind you of them in some ways.

A large focus of the plot is on a super rich crime organization that lets powerful people indulge in their desires to a supernaturally hedonistic degree. While this could have been done well, it comes off as very "monster of the week" style with each super power villain being dispatched in the very episode that are introduced, if not the very next one. There were some interesting ideas explored here (especially for a 24-episode series) like someone who loves diamonds gets the power to become pure diamond, someone who loves food gets the power to devour anything, etc. but they didn't get to be fleshed out much more than that which would have been fun I think. A lot of the bad guys seem a little TOO over the top - a guy that likes girls hands literally collects sawed off hands in a room, a guy that likes teeth literally collects teeth, a guy that likes girls legs literally collects sawed off legs in a room, etc. While there are depraved people like this we see too much of the same kind of depravity to be believable.

A major complaint I have is that the series appears to only have 3 songs. I'm not talking about the 2 openings and endings, I mean the music that plays during the episodes. You will recognize the tunes quickly because there are literally only 3 and they play a LOT. I didn't realize how much it would be fine for characters to just speak without music playing in the background until I had to hear the same song over and over and over and over every episode. It feels like they were trying to be jazzy-artsy like Cowboy Bebop from a similar era but they didn't quite have the budget for it. On the other hand the sound effects are quite effectively used. Some of the high-pitched whirring used when a bad guy is using dentist drills had me physically wincing with sympathy pain. The disgusting villain that can devour anything made some super gross slobbering noises as he devoured stuff that left me feeling grossed out too.

I don't have a strong closing summary for this anime in mind. I watched it because someone had recommended it as similar to Death Note (which I love) and this is nothing like it, so I created an account to give my perspective on this series. It is a very interesting attempt and you can see that the team gave it some effort at some points but overall I can't recommend it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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