Gravitation

An attempt at a novelization of the manga series that has also been reworked into an anime, I think this does a pretty good job, but isn't to be read without any prior knowledge of the manga or what it's about. It takes place somewhere in the middle of the series, where Shuichi and Yuki have already established their relationship, and Shuichi feels as though Yuki doesn't appreciate him and his love is really one-sided. Includes all sorts of things from grenades to singing in port-a-potties. ( )

At first I didn't pick up this book because it had an identical description to the "Gravitation: Voice of Temptation" novelization and I thought it was the same story with a different cover. However, as it turns out the publisher must have made a mistake and stuck the wrong summary on the back of this, because it is a completely different story! In this story Bad Luck is poised on the brink of success and if only NG would stop sticking them on game shows, they know they could make people fall in love with their music. However, Shuichi has a mysterious enemy determined to bring down Bad Luck no matter what it takes.

As a whole my feelings on Gravitation fluctuate almost as much as Shuichi's moods do, going from one extreme to another. I thought that this particular story was really very well done and enjoyed it much more than "Voice of Temptation". It had some lovely serious moments as Shuichi does inner soul searching not only about Yuki, but about Hiro, music and life in general. I loved that we got to see a little of the inner Yuki's POV (and that he wasn't as vindictively mean as he sometimes can be) and that both Hiro and Ryuichi got a decent amount of page time. I especially enjoyed how Shuichi wound up making his stage appearance at the end which was a wonderful LOL moment!

I have to say that outside of the Gravitation Vocal Collection CD (I've been listening to it incessantly); this is probably one of my favorite Gravitation tie-ins yet. ( )

My first professional translation. I am clearly not the target audience, and the book is glorified fan fiction, but I managed to have fun with it. ( )