Tonight the Independent Film Channel premieres the anime´ series Speed Grapher [11 p.m. EST] – a series that features an ex-war photographer who stumbles onto the story of the century – a kind of Hellfire Club for the rich and powerful of Japan.
Tatsumi Saiga was a war photographer of some renown, but now he’s hawking photos of celebrities and politicians to the tabloids – and is involved with a beautiful but corrupt police special services officer, Hibari Ginza, whose enemies have a habit of being “self-defensed” to death.
When Seijiro Togoshi, an editor for the East West News Agency sets Saiga on the trail of The Club – a kind of Hellfire Club for Japan’s rich and powerful – Saiga follows his instincts… to his eternal regret. An encounter with The Goddess gives him his greatest desire and manages to keep him from getting himself killed – but that just where the story begins…
The series premiere, Depravity City, follows Saiga as he discovers The Club and is put into a life and death situation. Episode two, Goddess of Greed, follows the life of Kagura Tennozu over roughly the same period covered by Saiga in the premiere. In this episode we learn the secret behind The Goddess and more about Club manager Choji Suitengu’s connection to Kagura’s mother, Shinsen Tennozu.
The world of Speed Grapher is Tokyo, Japan just over a decade after something called the Bubble War – a time when the rich somehow manipulated the world’s economy in such a way that they became exponentially richer and the number of genuine poor skyrocketed.
The Club is a place where members can attain any pleasure they seek – even if it’s illegal – in perfect safety. Loyal members who can afford the VIP dues are granted their greatest desires by The Goddess. In the case of a freelance assassin named Katsuya Shirogane, a dancer by profession, the ability to turn in an evil Mr. Fantastic in bondage gear and sling himself from building to building, or turn into a giant ball and ricochet off walls to evade problematic interference. For Suitengu’s right-hand man, Tsujido, it is the ability to follow the scent of his prey – like a bloodhound.
This is the world into which Saiga injects himself – a world of magic and the mundane; a scared girl and The Goddess; a world where a camera can become a deadly weapon in more ways than, and a world where morality and law seem to be nearing extinction.
Speed Grapher is beautifully designed. The marvellous building in which the Tennozus live is as unique as Wayne Boring’s vision of the spired cities of Krypton, and the underground Club site is quite magnificent. We don’t get more than glimpses of the less fortunate parts of Tokyo, but there are enough suggestions of their poverty to create an effective contrast to parts of the city that house, or cater to the rich and powerful.
Saiga is one of the more intriguing characters in anime´ – he’s burnt out when we meet him after a brief prologue in which we see him in action as a war photographer. His relationship with Ginza appears to be more at her insistence than his, and he doesn’t really begin to engage in his own life until the events at the end of Depravity City put him on the edge of death.
Kagura Tennozu is another intriguing character. She has, it seems, two lives that are mutually exclusive – a condition is helped along by her mother who – jealous of her daughter’s blossoming beauty – contrives to keep her from eating much by manipulating her into oversleeping and sending her to school with lunches that consist of empty boxes.
Shinsen Tennozu may, or may not know what goes on at The Club, but since Choji Suitengu is her right-hand man, there is a connection there that can’t be overlooks – making both of them far more than your run-of-the-mill villains.
Then there’s the question of something called The Euphoria Factor – the manner in which The Goddess gives her chosen [well, Suitengu’s chosen] their deepest/greatest desires. The gift [or curse] is given through a kiss – and not a peck on the cheek. The question is how did The Goddess come to be The Goddess and how did she gain the ability to grant these [frequently totally warped] desires?
With its combination of intrigue, violence and sex, Speed Grapher is not for kids – or the squeamish. What it is, is inventive, freaky fun for grown ups. It may go a bit further over the top than the average anime´ but its worldview and its David versus Goliath struggle are highly entertaining all the same.
Final Grade: A
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