Quarantine Control #58: Dreams and Treasure Far Beyond the Grave

These Quarantine Control ledes are somehow starting to sound even more predictable than they were during the pandemic’s height in western countries. US COVID-19 deaths are the lowest they’ve been in a good while, to the point that the CDC now says it’s fine for fully-vaccinated people to go without masks in most settings. But cases are still high in countries like India, with more spreadable variants around. This ruins the anti-vaxxer narrative of the vaccines being ineffective, but if they actually believed in the slightest logic and weren’t too addicted to Facebook, they wouldn’t be anti-vaxxers. The good vaccines should ideally be made available in the countries being hit hard sooner rather than later.

---

Geoffrey Barnes

Gungrave (2003)
Source: Funimation
Episodes: 26 (the whole series)

I have a weird history with the Gungrave anime adaptation. I picked up the first volume of the series when I was still in college way back in 2004, during the hell time when anime TV shows were still being released by single DVD volumes with about three to five episodes each. Its quality, I felt, was impressive for a series based on an arcade-style PlayStation 2 action game, which tackled the gangster story that led to the tale the first game starts and ends with. But it was one of the many series where I only purchased the first volume and never got around to buying the rest, and I’d rather not share the overall number of shows I did this with (nor do I want to take the time to count them). There’s a reason why I focused on complete collections after being an anime fan for a few years, in addition to them being cheaper.

This is even less of a problem with streaming. Funimation still owns the rights to the Gungrave series years after acquiring it following Geneon Entertainment’s closure. Now that I’ve finally digested the full series, I can say that it’s very good. But assorted problems hold it back from achieving greatness.

After a bizarre first episode seemingly in place to attract anyone familiar with the Beyond the Grave character and largely contextless action from the game, the second episode starts documenting the lengthy background of the main characters. It starts with a group of friends, chief among them Brandon Heat and Harry McDowell, who start at the bottom but start working their way through the top of the Millennion mafia for a good chunk of the anime’s first half, making new accomplices and enemies along the way. The shy and silent Brandon becomes the company’s best sweeper. Harry, however, is the more ambitious of the two, and desires to quickly climb to the top to be the new head of Millennion.

The first episode and the game provide hints as to what will happen down the line, with Harry stabbing Brandon in the back and killing him, leading to him becoming Beyond the Grave. But it’s worth seeing the events that led to the moment. The story provides an always-interesting tale about how friendships are made and broken, at least for the mob parts. The first episode also hints at how the show will shift into a sci-fi action series with the zombie-like creatures of various sizes seen in the games. It segues from one genre to another well enough, but the mob tale is the more interesting of the two. The gangster content is deemphasized in the latter half with Harry having reached the top with few people to backstab left, but it’s not entirely dropped.

Even though I know why it was done, presenting the first episode in the way they did was a bizarre idea. The production team tried to go for the same effect as the 1997 Berserk adaptation, with an introduction that focused on cool stuff over providing a reason to care about everything happening on screen. But it doesn’t work as well here. The narrative sacrifice might have been worth it on their part to rope in viewers who were familiar with the game at the time the anime started airing, but this doesn’t excuse it. Making this worse is how a later episode is a redo of the first one with added scenes, making watching it pointless. Feel free to start at the second episode.

Even then, however, there are occasional pacing issues where nothing special happens for minutes at a time. Quieter moments are necessary in action-driven shows for character development and world establishment, but the pacing struggles to a point where it felt like the producers had to make this a 26-episode series. It doesn’t help that the animation is often subpar, a common trait among many early digitally-animated anime from the late 1990s and especially the early 2000s. (This one ran between 2003 and 2004.) It’s also sadly clear when the budget started running low.

Gungrave wasn’t quite as good as I was hoping from its start. The mob parts were good, but the shift to sci-fi was lacking. The series could have made up for any storytelling shortcomings in the latter half with the same kind of stylish action the games present if the production team was given a larger budget. The problems didn’t prevent it from being a solid series that stands well above most anime adaptations of video games.

---

Joseph Daniels

As I write this, Delta Goodrem’s new album has literally just been released, since it’s after midnight in Australia.  Later on this month, TPR is releasing an album of Xenogears cover songs.  May 2021 is going to be my new November 1997.

The Far Meridian (2017)
Source: Podcast
Episodes: 28 + bonus material

Have you ever found yourself adrift in a moment of time?  Lost, not knowing where you are or what you’re doing there?  Peri woke up one morning and found it had literally happened to her.  Like, actually, physically happened.

The Far Meridian is a podcast about a lighthouse that one day decides that it wants to live a nomadic existence and it takes its sole occupant with it.  Peri suddenly starts to wake up in different places around the world and must deal with the realities this brand new lifestyle introduces into her life.  She starts to have random conversations with people and gradually realizes that this might be the perfect opportunity to solve one of her own personal mysteries.  Along the way, she accidentally kidnaps someone, catches the attention of a potentially malevolent supernatural being and finds herself in situations that are gradually more and more… shall we say, out of the ordinary.  Early episodes have her experiencing conversations with ordinary people, like the woman who wanted to experience the feeling of falling, but by season two, she’s tricking a ghost, talking with her past self and accidentally helping create robotic life.  Even in season one, the supernatural gradually crept into the podcast, with one especially memorable episode featuring a duet with a cave.

What’s interesting to me is that these supernatural elements gradually reveal themselves to Peri as she grows more and more comfortable with them.  That said, I don’t think anyone’s ready for a malevolent being who steals your song from you and continually harasses you and messes with your memories.  Peri does the best she can, though.

The series makes liberal use of flashbacks to help tell its story, and once you realize this, it shouldn’t be too hard to follow what’s going on.  It also doesn’t take long to listen to an entire season since episodes are typically short, usually less than twenty minutes each, but episodes in season two sometimes run longer.

There is eventually going to be a season three, but as with most things, COVID-19 has proven to be a bit of an interruption.

Thinking about how COVID-19 has affected the entertainment I like brings to mind another series that I can’t wait to return.

Blood & Treasure (2019)
Source: CBS All Access Paramount+
Episodes: 12

Ugh, I don’t like the new name of CBS All Access.  It’s like they’re trying to copy Disney+.

Blood & Treasure originally premiered in the summer of 2019 as a fun adventure romp CBS could use to entertain us for a few months while waiting for the 2019-2020 season to begin and it was popular enough to earn a second season.  Unfortunately, due to the global pandemic, it’s taken more than a year to film and has yet to return to the schedule, but given it was originally supposed to be a summer series, it’s possible I’ll have to wait until June or July for the season to begin.  The first season began on May 21, 2019, but with no announcement of a season two start date yet, the chance that I’ll have new episodes to watch about a week from now is very, very slim.

The series features Danny McNamara, a former FBI agent, and Lexi Vaziri, a thief who shares a complicated past with Danny and as a result, the two find themselves teamed up despite their differences.  Danny and Lexi investigate an international conspiracy involving the remains of Cleopatra and Mark Anthony, as well as a terrorist that Danny has a personal history with.  In a way, this series is a love letter to adventures like the Indiana Jones movies, complete with comedic moments (“Who’re you?”  “I’m his mistress.”  “…wh… I’M HIS MISTRESS!”), Nazis trying to find supernatural artifacts in order to rule the world, secret societies and at least one Wilhelm scream in each episode.

The hunt for stolen treasure causes Danny and Lexi to travel all over the world, including locations in Europe, Africa, and even a town in Quebec where the pair meet the most hoser Canadian I’ve ever seen.  Honestly, she had such a hoser accent, it was like she was deliberately trying.  It reminded me of Paul Hogan’s performance as Crocodile Dundee, where he deliberately sounded like a Northern Territory bushman and thus skewed how non-Aussies think about the Australian accent.

Two episode titles for season two have been revealed so far, and it’s the second title that intrigues me the most.  “Tales Of The Golden Tiger.”  I get the feeling season two is going to be a very special season, and I hope it’s on the summer 2021 schedule.

Anyway, in conclusion… I’ve just finished listening to Bridge Over Troubled Dreams and it is amazing.  Well worth the wait!  In fact…

Bridge Over Troubled Dreams (2021)
Performed by: Delta Goodrem
Source: Spotify, Apple Music, etc.
Songs: 11

Now you have to listen to it.

 

There isn’t much to say here outside making sure you make an appointment to get vaccinated should you live in an area lucky enough to have vaccines, assuming you aren’t fully vaccinated. Also, avoid taking in too many dumb conspiracy theories, even if they’re getting creative.