Friday, September 16, 2005

Speed Grapher Review

Speed Grapher - 4/5

I was somewhat skeptical about this anime when I first read about it. I had just finished Full Metal Alchemist, and all the episodes of Trinity Blood I could find, and was looking for another series with more action in it to sate my bloodlust, and I stumbled across this series on narutofan.com . At the time it was rated #1 anime series there, so I decided to give it a shot.

Overall, this series is pretty good. The basic premise is about a photographer and him suddenly stumbling upon the ability to blow things up by taking a picture of it. This is actually what gave me pause the first time I was looking at it on narutofan...I mean, I'm all for innovative combat, but killing people by taking their picture?...that's just...weird.

Fortunately, Speed Grapher has a lot going for it besides the action (which admittedly isn't bad at all...it's actually pretty interesting how the guy manages to do it...and there are a lot of other characters who have cooler abilities too. Noteworthy is the main bad guy, who has the ability to use his blood as a weapon. That was really cool, if a bit gross). The plot is suitably interesting...a lot of political intrigue, if you're into that stuff...and then there's the whole thing with how the heck did these guys get these powers.

There are some flaws...some episodes just aren't that interesting, and the female lead can get kind of annoying. Also, personally I just don't like the main character's power. There, I said it. Camera-exploding powers just aren't that cool to me.


...that doesn't look fun...or does it?

The series is still ongoing, so I have yet to see the ending...I'm sincerely hoping that somewhere along the way the main character will have his power...improved. We'll see, I guess.

Oh, and just to warn you if you want to check this series out, there's a lot of graphic...er...well, everything. Nudity, sex, violence, there's even a scene where the guy's girlfriend has sex with him while's he's comatose...i'm not sure if that counts as rape or not...but anyway, be warned.

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