Now, what do I actually know about Gravitation? I know it's a shonen-ai series (original characters, more plot driven than your average yaoi) that's subtle enough that some people don't even realize it's yaoi while reading/watching it, that's it's about a band (hence the chapters being referred to as tracks) and is known for its music, and...that's actually it. Huh. I thought I knew more about it. Anyway! Let's begin with the cover of the first two volumes.
The back of the manga gives us a synopsis: Shuichi Shindou is determined to be a rock star. Eiri Yuki is his most brutally honest critic. When their paths collide, the two find their futures inexorable intertwined...The force that brings them close together is like gravity--and there is nothing they can do to stop it!"
...Okay, I'm officially going to forget that people claim this thing is subtle because it clearly is not. Moving on!
Shuichi is showing the lyrics to his friend Hiroshi, shortened to Hiro, who advises him to "skip to the dirty stuff" which is actually a pretty hilarious commentary on yaoi even if it wasn't meant to be. While the two boys banter a bit, another new character enters the stage, described as Shuichi's "secret crush" whom we see is a woman who has made him lunch. Oh, but this woman is actually his sister...Oh no, this isn't going to be one of THOSE kinds of stories is it? I mean, I don't mind a good old fashioned love triangle, but between siblings? Nooo thank you. Thankfully, this isn't the case as Hiro's comments are said in jest. Okay, so Hiro is the joker of the group. The light hearted comedy relief. At least for now.
It turns out that Shuichi and Hiro are trying to get their nameless band entered in the school talent show even though they haven't actually finished writing any of their songs. Shuichi's sister, Maiko, tells them they have two days to be ready or they're SOL. During class, Shuichi attempts to work on the song he's writing only to discover that something is wrong on his keyboard. We're not told what that something is, but it's bad enough that it causes him to scream so loudly it can be heard throughout the school. Later on, during lunch, Hiro informs Maiko (who is on the committee organizing the talent show) that Shuichi and he won't be participating because Shuichi lost all the data on his keyboard relating to the song he was writing. Wow, Shuichi is off to a pretty rough start. Strangely, there's also some kind of author's note that is spread out in a side column on page 20 discussing the troubles the author had writing the first chapter, namely in characterizing Shuichi and Hiroshi. I...don't know why that's there. It's almost like she was worried we wouldn't be able to see what kind of characters Shuichi and Hiroshi were so she put this in to make sure we got it. It's a bit distracting to be perfectly honest.
As it turns out, Shuichi is depressed about the whole thing and Maiko goes to try and cheer him up. Shuichi has a gig coming up in a month and the talent show was supposed to be a warm up. Then, out of nowhere, Maiko asks him why he doesn't have a girlfriend and I suddenly have traumatic flashbacks to high school. Maiko is one of those people who thinks you need to be in a relationship, that you need one to be complete. That's the impression I get anyway, especially because she herself has a boyfriend. My sister was the same way, always asking me when I was going to get a girlfriend (until I came out to her. Luckily I was already in a relationship so she didn't get a chance to start hassling me about finding a boyfriend). Shuichi is passionate about his music. It's what he wants to concentrate on and people should respect that. Maiko is trying to look out for him, as a good sister does, but she goes about it in the wrong way, saying spending his time in front of a computer screen is "wasting his time". I knew people like this when I was in high school. Just because you don't go after drooling after every girl you see doesn't mean your life is incomplete. But we're not here to talk about me!
We next see Shuichi as he finishes up his shift on his job where we once again see how dedicated he is to his music. He works hard there and he has a lot of support from his coworkers and his sister (in a kind of roundabout way as sisters can be) but he can't seem to find a girl who will agree with that. However, he also starts to think it would be nice to have someone who would support him and understand him, someone to read his lyrics and tell him how great they are. It's at this point Shuichi sneezes, causing his lyrics to go flying away and are picked up by an extremely pretty looking man. For two pages, no one says anything. We just...look.
We move forward again to the day of the talent show which appears to be part of some kind of larger school festival. In order for Hiro and Shuichi to be able to watch it they need to wrap a few girls into watching the front desk for them. This is, hands down, my favorite scene in this chapter.
After getting reprimanded by Maiko, Shuichi tells them both about what happened with the strange man who told him he sucked. Much like any normal person in this situation, they both think Shuichi is overreacting. Why should he care what some random guy thinks? They think he's nuts for caring so much and Shuichi even questions his coworkers about it. No one can tell him who he is and everyone is telling him to just give it up. Shuichi just can't though. Despite the fact that he was a jerk, he can't let it go because he was "kind of cool". So there's just something about this guy that gets to Shuichi. I understand where he's coming from. I've met people like that before, people who just get under your skin for some inexplicable reason.
The next day, Shuichi finds out Hiro set him up with a girl. Being blindsided by this, he tells her he'll call her and goes up to his room. Now that he's actually presented with the opportunity to be with a woman he knows this isn't something he wants. However, he still wants to try it. So he goes on a date with her and she claims that he's being more moody as opposed to his regular happy go lucky self that she sees at school. The girl sees his lyrics and she tells him she thinks they're amazing. Ah, so Shuichi has exactly what he wanted before he met Yuki: a girl who supports him and tells him how awesome his lyrics are. Now, it doesn't mean anything to him. As a writer myself I understand what he's feeling here. It's always nice to have support and have people telling you what you're writing is good, but it doesn't help you improve. Now that Shuichi thinks his lyrics may not be up to snuff (although he has no idea if Yuki actually knows what he's talking about or if he was just being an asshole) he can't accept the compliments.
As luck would have it, the girl he's with (who I'm just now noticing was never given a name...guess she was just here as a plot device) spots a car rushing by driven by, of course, Yuki. Shuichi runs outside and shows just how obsessed he is with meeting with this man again as he throws himself in front of the car, forcing Yuki to stop. Yeesh! Talk about desperate! The chapter ends with Yuki and Shuichi facing each other in the rainy street.
Okay, so this was a pretty standard start for a first chapter! We've been introduced to the main characters, gotten a feel for their personalities, and the world has been established. Right now the only conflict seems to be Shuichi getting Yuki to take back what he said about his lyrics, but I'm sure...something else will come up or else this is going to be a very boring manga. So far I like Shuichi, Hiroshi, and Maiko. They're varied, interesting, and fun to watch interacting with each other. Yuki...yeah he's a prick. I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt for now though. He's not making a very good first impression though.
That's Track 1 of Gravitation! Tomorrow I'll be tackling Track 2! See you then.
No comments:
Post a Comment