Related Titles: Gravitation (anime) | Gravitation (OVA)

Warning: If you are homophopic, stay away from this title. You were warned.
Alternate Title: ぐラビテーション
Genre: Shounen-Ai | Yaoi | Romance | Drama | Humor | Pop
Company: Sony
American Liscensing Company: Tokyopop
Format: ??? On going (recently ended according to rumor actually)
Dates: ????
Original Creator: Maki Murakami
Age Rating: 15 and up
How much I read: First 4 to 5 volumes plus quite a few further story arcs

Synopsis: Shuichi is a very normal boy finishing up his senior year of high school, but his mind is not on girls or grades...he wants to make a famous band! Shuichi works on his band, hoping to get a chance in the public eye, with nothing on his mind but his fame and musical ambitions. However, one fateful night when Shuichi is working on song lyrics, his paper with his lyrics get away from him, and a stranger picks them up. The man is Yuki, a famous romance novelist who tells Shuichi that his writing skills are that of a elementary kid. From that moment on, Shuichi is determined to find Yuki and have him explain his rudeness...he just doesn't realize that it was love at first sight for him! When Shuichi finally finds Yuki (after he actually ditches a girl he was on a date with; oops!), it's a journey of obstacles, frightening experiences and haunting pasts trying to keep them apart! But, it's just the gravitation of fate and love that always pulls these lovers back together everytime!

SCORE: 75%

I never thought I'd like a series about a girly pink haired boy and a cold blonde jerk...life is full of surprises!

Plot: I know nothing about how any kind of real male gay couple may act (and I won't pretend I do know), but if this series is any indicator, its just as much of a challenge like any other relationship ^_^ and there may be even more obstacles...espcially if you're trying to become famous and your partner already is. ^_^

Probably one of the things I actually found the most interesting about this series is that Shuichi denies several times during his first few encounters with Yuki that he's gay (in fact he yells at the top of his lungs that he isn't gay!). Shuichi is just unique; he seriously doesn't know if he is gay or not and it never ever crosses his mind to think about it, since it just isn't important to him! Wow, talk about having an amazing amount of confidence in your feelings and for the one you're feeling them for! He just loves Yuki unconditionally, whether they're both guys or not! Talk about a little weird and a tad obsessive...but it's most certainly not just a crush, thank goodness. That wouldn't be good.

This is a very boyxboy type of story. This manga is just as much about the pop music industry though too. I'll admit that pop music business affairs really don't interest me, but I do like this manga anyway. I just like this series for it's angst and the undeniable love Yuki and Syuichi have for each other, and how they help each other through hard times. And, the humor is a good amount of silliness! I haven't laughed this hard at manga for a long time!

Well, this plot works, but I'm really curious to see how this will all end; that will really determine if this series' plot held out or not. But then again, it's kinda hard to have an ultimate ending to a series like this that is centered around the pop music industry (after all, pop music affairs drag on forever in real life). However, Yuki and Shuichi's relationship and their pasts are what hold this story together, and especially the other colorful characters. So, this series is good; we just have to see how well Yuki and Shuichi will be in the end!

True, Yuki's an ass and Shuichi gets annoying, but the story is good and the characters are definitly varied and different!

Visual: This artwork is undeniably good. However, it does have its downfalls.

For one thing, characters aren't varied much sometimes. It's not like I can't tell characters apart, I just wished it had a tad more variety.

Also, about halfway through the material I read, the characters changed design and stylization, almost drastically (especially stylization, and especially Shuichi). The new stylization was cute, but I thought unneeded, and it ticked me off a little. Sure, the characters look more different from each other now (I mean, afterall, Shuichi and Yuki looked almost identical in some pictures of them in early story arcs, since they had about the same amount of maturity look to them), but I didn't appreciate Shuichi being made to look more childish and more girly than he was before. I mean, I know he was kinda petite and girly looking before (and characters in the story would occasionally ask if he was really a guy lol) but I still didn't like the change, since it was so typical of a gay male anime couple.

Also, while the art was good, Maki seems to have a little trouble drawing profile. I'm not good at profile myself (it's harder than you think) so I understand, but a couple times I winced.

But, even with all of this happening, the art is still good! It has a good amount of girliness without going extremely overboard. Intimate scenes are delicately rendered. Humor scenes are hilarious. I never thought the use of so much blood would be so funny quite like this!

Extra Rants and Bitching: Like I said in Visual, the somewhat drastic styization change ticked me off in this series. Oh, well.

I'm an idgit! (and no, that's not mispelled) I went through 4 different sites to get all I could of this series to read. Wooh! It's an addictive series! (at least for yaoi fans I suppose; this series sometimes doesn't offer much else!)

Score Comments: The score fits well. The plot may end up being a bit iffy, and the visual has been in dire straits a little. So considering that, this score is pretty good. I recommend this as a good shounen-ai/yaoi series. If you're just starting out in the yaoi area however, I don't suggest this title first. Try something like X (pretty boys and very vague hinting), then Yami no Matsuei (shounen-ai, maybe a couple same sex kisses) and then this series (shounen-ai, yaoi, but nothing hardcore).

Websites:
Mangadegon (has the most translated, but not translated well)
Gravi Scanlations (not as futher along as the site above, but translated better)
Gravitation (fan site)
Gravitation Fan Station

Have a website about this series, or do you know of a good one? Want me to link to it on this review? Well, the feel free to email the sucker to me! Just make sure to put "Review Link" in the subject.