Shuishi Shindou is a young kid trying to get his band, Bad Luck, to be the next biggest thing in Japan. The path to success is not an easy one as Shindou discovers, especially after meeting a very cool but mysterious stranger who rubbishes his work. Unable to get the criticism out of his mind he tries to find him. He meets and moves in with Eiri Yuki a romantic novelist, but their relationship is less than smooth...

Gravitation: Volume Three holds the remaining five episodes of this Shounen-Ai anime, although there were two other OVA’s produced the show itself only ran for thirteen episodes, therefore what we are looking at here are episodes nine through thirteen.

Although the show had tried to be something different, in some ways it succeeded, the plot does little to raise it above the level of a soap opera. There are too many scenes of people talking about their feelings and their relationships to actually keep the story moving forward - so much so that the other half of the plot, which is not about Shuishi and Yuki’s relationship, is relegated to the background leaving the audience completely indifferent as to the fate of his band.

The show does have some nice touches, especially the occasional imposition of colourised real shots into the animation. Characters are well draw and there is some interesting aspects to the characters relationships.

Episode nine, The Deepest Brain, and Shuishi is taking a week off pretending to have a cold, which is not going down well with the band whose record is doing well in the charts. Shuishi’s relationship is also not going well, with Yuki spending a lot of time out of the apartment. Things look up when Yuki returns home with a ticket to an amusement park, but he will only take Shuishi if he sells more than a million of his first album. Obsessed with going to the park Shuishi throws himself into work doing anything to promote the band, but not all exposure is welcome and when the press discover the relationship between Shuishi and Yuki they descend upon their apartment.

Episode ten, Heads or Tails: Hiro drops a bombshell on Shuishi by announcing that on the eve of their success he intends to leave the band. With a press conference set to announce Hiro’s departure and a concert tour, can Shuishi deal with the loss of his best friend because for him the band contains both of them or it is nothing?

Episode eleven, Secret Day: Both ying and yang seem to have hit Shuishi. On the one hand the band have sold the promised million albums which means that he gets his date with Yuki at the amusement park, on the downside Yuki is in hospital having coughed up blood with Shuishi convinced that Yuki has some serious condition. Unknown to Shuishi. Yuki’s friends are counselling him to move away from Suishi, because of the stress of their relationship.

Episode twelve, Breathless: Returning home from his promised date with Yuki, Shuishi finds the apartment abandoned and Yuki gone. Having spent a long time trying to discover his whereabouts he learns that Yuki has gone to New York and left him the apartment key as a way of saying goodbye. Needing to get on with his life, Bad Luck plays their first concert only for Shuishi to loose his voice at the close of the show.

Episode thirteen, Got it all: Shuishi’s voice is still missing as is Yuki. In New York Yuki is on a journey of his own trying to come to terms with his past. Shuishi finally finishes the song he was writing when he first met Yuki and runs off to find him.

The show is presented in its original 4:3 aspect with a nice clean print with audio options of either a Japanese or English 2.0 track with subs. The extras are a little thin on the ground, consisting of another art gallery and the clean closing titles. I presume that the OVA’s pick up the story as it didn’t feel like the show came to a proper ending having left so many of the plot threads unresolved.

7

Charles Packer