Common Name: Gravitation
Score: 7/10, 3/5
Length: 13 Episodes
Genre: Romance, Drama, Comedy, Music, Yaoi
Summary: It has long been Shindou Shuuichi's dream to follow in the footsteps of his idol, Sakuma Ryuuichi, lead singer of the band Nittle Grasper. While Shindou is still lacking as a professional, he has gotten a band together and has the tenacity to take them to the top. The only issue getting in the way of that dream: he's terrible at writing song lyrics. At least that's the criticism of Yuki Eiri, a romance novelist offers when he Shindou meets him one fateful night. Frustrated by Yuki's criticism, Shindou sets out to destroy his writer's block just to spite the smug novelist. As the two keep running into each other, a tempestuous romance begins to develop between the musician and the author. As much as they might act like they hate each other, though, it is very likely they are each what the other needs to overcome the past and face their uncertain futures.
Review: While I admittedly don't recall much of the Gravitation anime, I do recall it being the exemplar of yaoi titles from around the early 2000s. Full of drama, melodrama, sexuality, and chibi deformations that allowed the show to cut costs along the way--these are the things that highlighted Gravitation and many other shows like it. For me, however, this show stood out as an interesting twist on typical melodramas I watched and read throughout middle school and high school. Fruits Basket, Fushigi Yûgi, Mars, Planet Ladder, Vampire Knight, the list goes on and on but they all have one, key thing in common: they are all melodramatic romances that are mainly heterosexual in nature. While those titles were my bread and butter during those years of ceaseless angst and near insanity, Gravitation offered me a glance at a very similar world but from a homosexual stance. Is it a particularly flattering stance? By no means. Is it exploitative? God, yes, just as much so as most ecchi shows targeted at men. Questionable as it is, though, it still stands out in my mind into a look at something different from what I normally liked and, despite the lamentations of humanity's hatred of new or different things, I found that I really liked it anyway.
To be clear, though, it was also a product of a VERY different period in media, one in which
"Guns, sex, and rock and roll!" was still very much the youthful cry of a generation.
An interesting thing to consider when looking at a show like this is pondering whether or not this show would still hold up today. In the case of Gravitation, dear god I hope not. Being very much a product of the late 90s, early 2000s, Gravitation is a concept that I hope the industry has grown out of. It simply just isn't PC or appropriate on any level, and that fact isn't made any more clear than with the dynamic of the show's romance between the spritely "uke," Shindou Shuuichi, and the smoldering hunk of man-meat with a dark and troubled past that is the "seme" of this relationship, Yuki Eiri. Equally willing to physically and emotionally tear one another to shreds as they are to tear the clothes off each other, Shindou and Yuki's relationship is one of those ones that is clearly meant to be unhealthy but fulfilling for the both of them. Through their hurricane-esque romance, the two find a place to vent their frustrations and anger as well as a place where they feel secure in themselves. The reason their relationship holds up though is because the two eventually grow to become codependent. Without the shining innocence that radiates off Shindou, Yuki returns to being a sad sack of problems and angst due to the sexual trauma he suffered as a child. Without Yuki's cold, analytical evaluation of his work, Shindou simply loses his talent as a performer. Can't live with him; can't live without him is the very literal mantra of this relationship so I'll reiterate--this isn't what a healthy relationship looks like.
No good relationship can be built on a mentality of "maybe he'll shut up if I fuck him senseless"
or, alternatively, "maybe he'll let me have things my way if I let him fuck me senseless."
Again, I acknowledge that this kind of toxic relationship isn't necessarily the show's fault, per se. It is, after all, the product of its generation. Back then, every yaoi-themed anime you could pick up at Blockbuster was basically built on this same dynamic because people didn't know how to express homosexuality any other way. Half the reason I love Yuri!!! on Ice so much is because it followed a similar character trend and then blew that mentality out of the water. It stated that romance can be built on competition and shifts in dominance while still being a healthy and nurturing environment for both individuals. Gravitation, however, doesn't come even remotely close to that kind of revelation. By the end of the show, Shindou still latches on to Yuki to satisfy his creative and emotional needs and Yuki still treats Shindou like garbage he just can't be bothered to take out to the curb. Sure, this is just meant to be played like some kind of tsundere act since he's certainly mellowed over the show, thanks to Shindou "solving" his issues with the past, but still ultimately leads to a kind of relationship I can neither root for nor believe in. So, would I recommend it and be willing to put it on a plinth like other classics? Fuck to the hell no. While expressing homosexuality in anime still has a long way to go, giving this show a recommendation would be a step in the wrong direction in my opinion. I'm sure it can still be enjoyed and can offer some A+ criticism of that particular period of anime but it isn't something I think other people should bother with unless they REALLY want to.