Gungrave: Is Addictive

Gungrave's Brandon Heat and Harry MacDowell

The story editors for Gungrave manipulated the whole series masterfully from the beginning right to the end.  I'm quite impressed.  For me the most unique part of this series was that the story points weren't driven by revenge - they were driven by forgiveness that resulted in irreparable damage to the merciful.  Idealistic individuals would continually commit to ideals that their humanity and their familial bonds would rarely let them live up to.

Here's a list of betrayed ideals because of family/friendship bonds:

• Cid's son messes up and instead of killing his son, Cid helps him escape and as a result Cid is assassinated by the family to save the Millennien Organization face.

• Bear Walkin is unable to assassinate Cid, who is like a brother to him, so Brandon steps in to save Bear from betraying the family by not carrying out the order.

• When Harry breaks the Millennion's code of iron, by planning to assassinate Big Daddy, Brandon is unable to bring himself to kill Harry, because Harry has been his closest form of family since they met at the orphanage.  As a result Harry, who is afraid of Brandon's code of honour, murders Brandon immediately after.

• Big Daddy betrays what's best for the Millennien Organization, by approving Harry's role as the organization's boss, to protect Maria and her unborn child.  Eventually, Big Daddy's ideals force him to confront Harry and demand that Harry live up to Big Daddy's ideals at which point Harry shoots Big Daddy and puts a hit out on Maria and her unborn child.

• Bear Walkin sides with Harry even though he knows Harry has betrayed the organization, because Harry is married to Bear's daughter, Sherry, and hurting Harry will hurt her.  Bear then finds himself pitted against Brandon to protect Harry and it ends up to be in vain as Sherry is shot during an assassination attempt on Harry.

All of these story points escalate the conflict and bring the story equilibrium further and further out of harmony until the final showdown between Harry and Brandon.

Harry's pattern of forgiveness in the face of betrayals & danger is consistent up until he murders Brandon while they are ascending the elevator.  Before that Harry always acted benevolent in similar situations - consider how Harry dealt with Balladbird Lee who betrayed him to help his brother Cannon Vulcan.  Because Harry's killing of Brandon, his oldest friend, would be so out of character the story editors took great care in crafting  the entire episode to build up to it and make it believable.  That episode alone makes watching the entire series worth watching.

Maybe this is one moral to this story.  No matter how strong an organizations hold is over people, no matter how they attempt to replace your family, real family bonds always take precedence over procedural doctrine.  The only way this does not apply is when a person has no close friends or family.

Cowboy Bebop: Post-Betrayal Tragicomedy with a Wistful Score

I just finished watching the final episode of Cowboy Bebop. To me it's a post-betrayal tragicomedy, in a semi post-apocalyptic interplanetary world, set to an epically wistful score.  The main Cowboy Bebop characters, who have all had traumatic events happen in their past, struggle to lead their lives with a sense of humour and compassion rarely seen in the adult-skewed animation of the North American continent. 

Here's a brief synopsis of the Cowboy Bebop universe:
The series is set in the year 2071 with humanity settled throughout Earth's Solar System, which has been made accessible through hyperspace gates.  Interplanetary colonization was spurred on by the explosion of an experimental hyperspace gateway in 2022 that severely damaged the Moon and sent moon debris flying down to earth and wiping out most of Earth's population.  Moon debris now orbits around Earth and as the orbits decay meteor bombardments continue to rain down on Earth making it barely habitable.  As a result Mars is now the new central hub of human civilization.  The various pockets of humanity are ruled over by governments, which are often controlled by powerful interplanetary crime syndicates.  There is an Inter-Solar System Police force (ISSP), but due to the power of the syndicates ISSP effectiveness is limited and criminals are often dealt with by a bounty hunters, often referred to as cowboys, who deliver their catches to police stations for the posted reward. 

Main Characters on Cowboy Bebop:
Jet - Previously part of a crime syndicate was betrayed by his partner.
Spike - Previously part of ISSP was betrayed by his partner.
Faye - Am average person who was cryogenically frozen after an accident was betrayed by her doctor. Edward - A talented child cyber hacker was forgotten/deserted at a daycare by her father.
Ein - A brilliant dog, who may be able to talk to Edward, was tested on by doctors as a lab animal.

The main characters (aside from Edward) are decidedly grown-up in their interactions with people outside their inner circle, although they often act childish with their shipmates.  They also all have hope.  Hope that one day they will find someone they can believe in, trust.  Someone to protect them - someone that won't abandon them.

I'll write more as my thoughts coalesce about this engaging series.