First Glance: Gravitation

Gravitation is an 18-year-old anime about gay people making music, but whoever's writing the script doesn't know the first thing about making music and probably also doesn't believe gay people are real. Even here, in the first BL anime to make it big in the mainstream, with a serious story that will ostensibly revolve around a teen's first homosexual romance, sexuality is a comedic prop used primarily for punchlines. It doesn't help that absolutely nothing is established about the characters in the first episode besides the most basic of databasic traits—songwriter, producer, author; this one's got pink hair and is loud; this one's blonde; this one's blonde but in a hot way—leaving the audience to puzzle over questions like, "what does the red-haired guy contribute to his band?" and "where are this pink-haired boy's guardians?" There is little rhyme or reason to be found between the melodramatic moments with which this show is obsessed.

I've seen some academia present the idea that BL isn't really about gay men; it's a fantasy used to prepare young girls for their invariably difficult, invariably heterosexual relationships later in life. The female viewer can see herself in the more submissive, effeminate characters, and through them come to love the more dominant, masculine characters—as a gateway to MEN. (Who, again, aren't gay, but ARE cruel and handsome.) This interpretation of the genre seems pretty condescending toward women, but then condescension toward women IS historically common in visual media. Whether or not we can paint all BL with so broad a brush, the fact that Yuki's angry face and harsh words attract Shuichi had my mind on all the ways in which women are socialized to deal with male anger, and my heart was heavy as I finished the episode.

Recommend: No.

Rewatch Disclaimer: I have in fact watched Gravitation in its entirety, back when I was in high school. At the time, the best thing about it was an AMV mixing Gravitation footage with Tenacious D's "Tribute." That video has vanished from the internet, and with it, the best reason to be familiar with Gravitation. Also, the visuals have aged *terribly*.