Gravitation

Publisher
Tokyopop
Writer
Maki Murakami
Artist
Maki Murakami
Country of origin
Japan
Length
12 volumes
Year
1996

Gravitation Vol. 1 - A MUST for newbies to shounen-ai

By cabbit-chan
5th Aug 05

The first shounen-ai manga I ever read was a scanlation on the net by the famous Kaori Yuki, called "Boys Next Door" and although beautiful and deep and powerful enough to make me cry, I had to admit it scared me. I almost dove in at the deep end with that one.

So I had to admit that when I first spotted "Gravitation" on the shelf of my local bookstore my mind shot immediatly to what I read in "Boys Next Door". To think I almost chickened out of buying one of my now favourite mangas.
"Gravitation" is the story of young Shuichi Shindou, a late-teen musician and lyricist for his band, Bad Luck. Which is a fitting name since that is all he seems to have. Sappy Shuichi needs some lyrics but when one evening his lyric-scrawled paper flutters to the hands of the mysterious romance author, Eiri Yuki who labels the work as "drivel", then leaves Shuichi feeling rather down, fate plays a part and destines them to meet again.

To quote the blurb "The force that brings them together is like gravity and there is nothing they can do to stop it."

The first volume is setting it all up. We meet the characters who are well created, each having distinct personalities. Shuichi is a whining wuss who is easily depressed, providing a bit of angst but also a bit of comedy, Yuki is cold, sexy and intelligent fighting Shuichi's feelings all the way. Hiro is the comedic best friend/ band guitarist, Maiko the easily annoyed younger sister and Toma Seguchi is the cute and cool former idol who could make Shuichi's dreams come true.
The artwork is average-good mostly with some really beautiful pages and some rather funny SD panels.

The cover isn't very eyecatching but is still better than some I've seen.
If you are new to shounen-ai then I reccommend this. Nothing in the first volume goes furthur than a kiss, and even then it is tasteful and romantic. This even pokes fun at the modern yaoi-fangirl culture at some point which was quite funny. It is a graphic novel about accepting sexuality, since the characters are not homosexual at the beginning of the novel.

As my first purchased shounen-ai manga, this will always hold a place in my heart, but it will also remain in my list of favourites because of it's romantic story and wonderful characters.
The manga is by Maki Murakami, distributed by Tokyopop and costs the average £6.99. It is rated "older teen" (age 16+) and is a must-read in my opinion.

8/10 - Good story, great characters, average artwork, average cover

-- cabbit-chan 5th Aug 05