Gravitation volume 2
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(quoted from the back of Gravitation volume 2)
Just when Shuichi Shindou's rock star dreams seem to be coming together, everything falls apart. His gifted guitarist Hiro quits the band, the new manager wants to take Shuichi off the keyboards, and Shuichi finds himself constantly berated by their producer. The one person he can fall back on is his biggest critic, the cynical and abrasive Yuki. But in love, as with mucic, the more serious things become, the greater the pressure, and gravitation takes its toll.
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Gravitation Volume 1 contains:
Track 5
Track 6
Track 7
Track 8
The Tragedy Of The Narcissist
Storyline:
The second volume of Gravitation's pace starts to slowly pick up. Shuichi finally graduates high school and that is like an omen for the series to get a lot better. Not only does this happen but the relationship between Shuichi and Eiri is finally starting to get good. Overall, the story was a lot better in this volume, yet that isn't saying a whole lot sense the last volume had so many problems. Thankfully, the story starts to get to the point where you can't put it down sometime in volume 3.
Artwork:
Still, Maki Murakami is delivering the same shitty drawings from the first volume. Although, maybe it is slowly getting better. Sad part is that the readers have to suffer while Maki Murakami is pulling her stuff together. The artwork will gets a major face lift, just be a bit more patient if you really want to get a real treat because soon the art gets irresistable. You'll no longer have to suffer from the crappy character-side drawings, pathetic backgrounds, and just overall horrid artwork if you can persever through the next few volumes.
Characters:
All the characters start to get their own feel in this volume. Hiro is struggling trying to figure out his future, Shuichi gets plenty of scenes to show off his stupidity and dedication to Eiri, and Eiri gets plenty of scenes to show that he is a cold-hearted bastard. Not only that, many of the other characters that start to play key roles in future volumes get their introduction here: Tohma Seguchi (president of NG records), Ayaka Usami (Eiri's fiance), Tatsuha Uesugi (Eiri's brother), Noriko Ukai (Nittle Grasper's keyboard player), and the Ryuichi Sakuma (Shuichi's idol and Nittle Grasper's lead singer). The characters have improved a lot this volume and many of them will only get better. Still, the characters aren't great at this point, they just have drastically improved from the last volume (which sucked).
Summary (Warning: May Contain Spoilers)
In the beginning of this volume Eiri is leaving his dad's place and makes a visit to Shuichi's home. Once he's there he watches over Shuichi and after a while Eiri makes a move on him. Shuichi refuses to have sex with Eiri and then faints. Eiri is completely lost because he doesn't understand what Shuichi really wants from him if it's not sex or his money.
In between scenes, Sakano (Shuichi's future producer for Bad Luck) gets fired as a manager for speaking up against Tohma while trying to persuade him that he should really invest some time into Bad Luck. At the end of track 5, Hiro sees Shuichi at school the next day and tells him that he's quitting the band to concentrate on being a doctor.
In track 6 Hiro and Shuichi get into a fight because of Hiro's statement. He tells him that his parents don't want to have another kid become a failure (like his brother) so he's giving up on his dream to play guitar and he's going to be a doctor. After some talking they end up kicking the shit out of eachother. Shuichi goes crying to Eiri, and Hiro ends of going out to see his brother (the failure). His brother tells him that he should do what he loves and then Hiro decides that maybe he should do things for himself. At Shuichi and Hiro's graduation, Hiro admits that he failed his entrance exam and that he would love to be Shuichi's guitarist. They play a farewell song for their high school and then Sakano shows up and asks them how they would like making a CD.
In track 7, Sakano tells them that Shuichi has a great voice and Hiro is an excellent guitarist but Shuichi sucks at lyrics and keyboarding. Shuichi gets angry and after leaving with Hiro, he's persuaded to go along with Sakano's plan. Then, Shuichi goes to Eiri to tell him the news and Eiri tells him it sounds like the end of Japanese quality music (such a great guy). Shuichi also finds a Nittle Grasper CD (which is his favorite band of all time) and watches it with Eiri. After some talking Eiri tells Shuichi that he'll be his lover, only if Shuichi stops trying to get out of the sex. Shuichi is slowly persuaded and they have a very, very crappy humping scene while watching the Nittle Grasper movie (I wouldn't call it sex). At the end of the chapter Tohma goes to the airport and picks up one of his old bandmates, Noriko, and the next day she goes down to NG records and tells Hiro and Shuichi that she's going to be their temporary keyboard player.
In track 8, Shuichi and Hiro are having a hard time adjusting to her (probably because she's a slave driver). After that meeting, the two of them leave and end up saving a young girl from two men. They take her out to eat and find out her name is Ayaka Usami and that she's traveled from Kyoto to find someone. Shuichi leaves Hiro and Ayaka by themselves and runs over to Yuki's house. At the house Shuichi runs into Eiri's younger brother, (who could be his twin except for the hair and eye color) Tatsuha Uesugi. Shuichi gives back the Nittle Grasper video that he barrowed from Eiri and Tatsuha says that Shuichi looks a lot like Ryuichi Sakuma and then he throws him down and tries to put the moves on him. Eiri comes in at that moment and Shuichi goes flying over to him, and after some talking Tatsuha says that he was looking for a young girl and holds up a picture. Shuichi notices that the girl is Ayaka and the next day he drags Tatsuha to NG records to pick her up. Ayaka then tells Shuichi that she's Eiri's fiance (of course she doesn't know about Shuichi and Eiri yet).
Extras:
This volume of Gravitation gives the short story, The Tragedy Of The Narcissist. The short story was alright. Nothing super or amazing about it, but it wasn't bad either. Also, the author gives the basic commentaries during the beginnings of the chapters and a preview of volume 3.
Content Warnings:
-Language: Yes
-Violence: Yes
-Nudity: Eh...
-Sexual Situations: Yes
Overall:
This is a hell of a lot better then the first volume, but it is still far off from the greatness that it will later achieve. The story is stronger, the artwork is a tad better then before, and the characters are starting to come together. Gravitation volume 2 is definetly the true start of a series that will blossom into something amazing. For now, if you can put up with the first few "okay" volumes then keep it up. The great volumes are coming up soon. But, if you are too impatient to wait it out (or you are against yaoi, which if you are then you're probably not reading this review) then you might as well just give up on this series now.
+ Drastically improved everything in this volume...
- ... but it still isn't nearly as good as it will eventually be.
Score: 7/10
