anime: Gungrave: finished

[meganbmoore]

So, I'm so glad I ignored the person a few years back who told me this sucked and decided to check it out(though, come to think of it, every anime he praised I only "liked well enough" but the other 2 anime I watched he hated I also loved...)

I covered most of the pertinent parts in my other post, so I think I'm just going to babble a bit about Brandon/Beyond the Grave(as he's called after being reborn)

Interestingly enough, Brandon may be one of the most selfless and heroic anime heroes I've come across, yet he's a ruthless killer.  He's not like Kenshin, who was an assasssin for a government he believed in at the time, or Alucard, who cheerfully kills, but he kills monsters, or the host of other anime and manga characters who kill either because they think their cause is just, or because of an obligation to those they serve.  Heck, even Scar sees himself as performing a necessary evil in what he sees as a holy crusade.  Brandon is a mob hitman, he knew what he was getting into when he joined and he knew exactly what he was doing and what he was becoming, and what he would become as he followed Harry.  Yet, there's something absurdly selfless about him...the only thing he wants is to be able to be with the people he loves-Maria and Harry-and to protect them.  To do this, he has to join Millenion, and become whatever Millenion requires of him to stay by them.  Like I said in the other post, he's a really straightforwad and simple guy.  Who doesn't talk much and happens to be really good at killing.  He doesn't ask for anything in return, not their love or loyalty(and even rejects Maria's because he believes she's too pure for him and deserves better) just that he be allowed to protect them, even if he isn't by their side, as was the case with Maria.  I don't think he ever once asked for anything for himself, as Brandon or as Grave, or even thought of himself except as an extension of them.  Once he's fully active as Grave, as far as he's concerned, he only exists to protect Maria's daughter, Mika, just as he once existed only to protect Maria and Harry.  He devotes himself to Millenion because he knows that protecting Big Daddy means protecting Maria, and that every move he makes to strengthen Millenion will help Harry to achieve his goals.

It's the same selflessness that makes both Maria and Mika love him, though it's a different kind of love(and somewhat ironic, given who Mika's father is)  As  crumpeteer put it, he's their knight in shiny armor...he's an utterly selfless protector who puts them before everything else in his life, yet asks for and expects nothing in return, not even love or gratitude.  With Maria, of course, it gives him "love of my life" status, whereas with Mika, despite her obvious crush, it gives her a serious case of hero worship that, in time would have faded to the kind of platonic, grateful love Maria had for Big Daddy.  Except that Big Daddy loved Maria romantically and Brandon, who knew and thought Maria would be far better with Big Daddy, so he tried to scare her away and, Maria married Big Daddy and had his child.

And on the Harry front: were it not for the fact that he was doing it to scare a 13 year old, I'd say you have to admire a guy who, after the Damsel in Distress rattles off a list of his crimes against her, points out a major one she forgot.  Also, considering that she watched almost everyone she knows get killed off in front of her, I think we needed to see Mika a few years down the road, just to make sure she came through all that, you know, sane...