Gungrave

Brandon Heat and Harry MacDowel, two friends so close they could be called brothers, receive an abrupt and violent reminder one fateful day of how appallingly merciless the world around them can be. Their whole lives before then were simple and easygoing, consisting largely of local brawls, seducing women, and committing petty theft to make a living and the time. What they failed to realize is that in this cruel world, happiness is fleeting, and change is inevitable.

Enter Millennion, the largest and most infamous mafia syndicate in the area, which accepts Brandon and Harry into their ranks and starts them at the bottom of the food chain. Harry has ambitions to ascend the ranks and one day replace Big Daddy as the supreme leader of Millennion, while Brandon only wishes to his friend and appease Big Daddy who has taken custody of the woman Brandon loves.

Based off the third-person shooter video game under the same name, Gungrave is an epic story of friendship, betrayal, and avarice that spans the course of several years, ultimately tying back to the gripping and foreboding first episode, all the while building up to the story's thrilling conclusion.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Heat, Brandon Main

Seki, Tomokazu Japanese

MacDowel, Harry Main

Hamada, Kenji Japanese

Kugashira, Bunji ing

Tachiki, Fumihiko Japanese

Walken, Bear ing

Ootomo, Ryuuzaburou Japanese

Big Daddy ing

Kayumi, Iemasa Japanese

Poundmax, Bob ing

Chafurin Japanese

Asagi, Mika ing

Sakuma, Kumi Japanese

Lee, Balladbird ing

Koyasu, Takehito Japanese

Jolice ing

Kase, Yasuyuki Japanese

Burns, Widge ing

Houki, Katsuhisa Japanese

Kitayama, Shigeru Producer

Kubo, Tooru Producer

Gotou, Hideki Producer

Tsuru, Toshiyuki Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation

Reviews

Feb 9, 2025

TheAnimeMobster

Recommended

Gungrave – A Hidden Gem That Deserves More Recognition

If you’re looking for an anime that blends intense action, deep storytelling, and raw emotion, Gungrave is the hidden gem you need to watch. Overshadowed by bigger names in the early 2000s, this masterpiece delivers a gripping tale of loyalty, betrayal, and the cost of ambition.

What starts as a stylish sci-fi action anime quickly unfolds into an unforgettable crime drama, following the journey of Brandon Heat and Harry MacDowell—from street punks to high-ranking of an underworld empire. The character development is phenomenal, with a slow-burn narrative that pays off in ways few anime manage.

Madhouse’s animation work ... is top-notch, and the soundtrack perfectly complements the show’s melancholic tone. The action is intense, but Gungrave’s real strength lies in its storytelling—deep, tragic, and beautifully executed.

i beilove most will get a sense of satisfaction not only from the anime itself, but from wondering what they have been missing!

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Feb 12, 2023

xOsiriaRose

Mixed Feelings

Gungrave has a unique flow to it that comes from being transcribed from a video game story and setting to an anime, and for the most part it navigates that pretty well. It can be very edgy at times with some over the top eye-rolling dialogue, but does what it sets out to do well overall. The strong parts of the show are it's narrative during the first section, and the payoff for it during the second. The art and voice acting (in the dub at least), however, are definitely the weakest aspect of the show, and are distractingly poor at times. Overall, I would ... only really recommend it to interested fans of westerns, action, and shonen.

*Light spoiler story synopsis*
The story is divisible into 2 major parts, past and present, following the main protagonist Brandon Heat. The first half of the story follows a starting-from-the-bottom mafia plotline which is well done, and the second half is a revenge story. Many ing characters from the first half return after a time skip into the second, and it's done well enough to be enjoyable seeing how it's handled. The second half is definitely the weaker part though as it turns more towards action, you can tell that this was originally a game from how the fights play out.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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May 30, 2025

mugens_sandals

Not Recommended

Gungrave is a rags to riches story of two friends, Harry and Brandon.

This show starts off in the middle of a big action scene before jumping back in time, unfortunately it takes most of the series to arrive back to this more part of the story that I was hooked on.

The two main characters of this show are very cliche and play heavily into male fantasy, trying to be edgy/cool. This is par for the course for a show from 2003, so I don't think that can be entirely held against it.


I'll get the good out of the way first.

First, the designs of Grave, his ... weapons, and the superiors in the final quarter of this show are really a treat. Now and especially for their time the style and presentation of these things are the highlight for me.

Secondly, the themes of loyalty and betrayal are used reasonably well, but at other times feel overblown.

Thirdly, there are some solid funny moments in this show which are definitely unintentional. For example there are multiple scenes of the characters at gun ranges, and almost every time they are dual wielding pistols unloading as fast as possible like it's totally normal to do that *crying laughing emoji". Another funny scene is when two executive guys touch tips with their guns at sunset in a somewhat homo-erotic way and hug very sensually, it's just kind of out of nowhere with the themeing of the show up until that point.

The music is ok.

Oh, I also like the guy who eats the chicken wings and stuff, he's the blonde dude who is supposed to be an intelligence person the organization. I don't care enough to look up his name. He was the only comic relief in the serious/edgy themeing.


Now for the bad

Harry is the most insufferable cliche character I've had the discomfort of watching in a long time. This dude kills his own family, friends, dozens of leaders of the organization he has sworn loyalty to on a whim, he then creates a sort of bio weapon to make his followers slaves, and the cherry on top, he is shown having intimate relations with a child which he then marries. And when everything finally comes crashing down on him he has the balls to say "where did I ever go wrong?". I am absolutely disgusted that they give him a noble ending *3x skull emoji*

Brandon is the counterpart to Harry, conflicted with his loyalty to Harry and also the organization, this results in Brandon having a lot of internal struggle. Unfortunately, seeing how ridiculous and terribly written Brandon is it ruins his character arc when he chooses to side with him over the organization. One of Brandon's other main motivations is a woman named Marie, who he is absolutely obsessed with because she's pretty and they hung out like one time lol. Marie is swept up by the head of the organization and Brandon for real becomes one of the biggest cucks in anime history, so much so that when Marie has a child with the head of the organization, he actually goes out of his way to protect their child. What a loser *clown emoji*.

The escalation of events in this show is nearly comical, people are dying non-stop and a lot of the time it feels like it's practically for no reason. There is no order in this organization which is supposed to feel powerful and competent but they literally just keep having their executives/ murdered without any way to stop it.

Although there are a couple cool fight scenes, the animation quality is almost always bad. Between 2000-2007 I deem this a sour spot for animation as a whole, the anime industry during this time was adapting from hand drawn techniques to more software driven techniques. I think a lot of shows had their visual quality impacted from this including Gungrave.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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