Gun Grave – DVD 2 –The Sweeper

Armed with "CERUBERUS," his twin handguns, and a coffin filled with heavy weapons on his back, Beyond the Grave returns, cloaked in darkness and smelling of the grave on his deadly mission of vengeance!

Harry's continuing thirst for power is magnified upon the arrival of Bob and Lee, the two newest members of Millennion. Brandon continues on as a sweeper for the organization until the mystery of Maria's whereabouts soon lead him to Big Daddy's villa. Five years have passed, and Millennion is stronger than ever. Harry's motives are still in play while Brandon continues on as a loyal confidant. A grand garden party reveals conspiracies among Millennion's members while old friends in the "family" face off to deliver justice to the murderer of one of their own.

The second Gun Grave DVD contains four episodes:

5. Millennion – Brandon and Harry have joined Millennion, a criminal organization that stretches deep into the heart of the city, with thousands of employees, dozens of companies and millions in illegal gains. Harry plots his way into the Millennion inner circle when Brandon continues at his new job as an enforcer. Brandon was given information concerning the whereabouts of Maria, from his friend Harry, as well as a warning, what will the consequences be if Brandon decides to met her?

6. Big Daddy – Brandon has broken ranks and met with his love Maria, but has also been met with a warning from Big Daddy. If he violates the rules it can lead to removal from Millennion and possibly be killed. Harry is trying to earn status within the organization; his thirst for power is only out weighed by his ambitions.

7. 5 Years – Many years have passed since Brandon and Harry have joined Millennion, the longer they are in the organization the deeper they get in. Harry is leading a team of go getters, with Brandon at his side, as a deadly assassin he is used to murder those who stand in the way of Millennium or Harry’s ambitions.

8. Family – Brandon and Harry are welcomed into the family, a close group of inner circle that are trusted followers of Big Daddy. Harry is still as ambitious as ever; find out information on the various members of the syndicate to gain favor, and making advances on Bear Walken’s daughter. Will Harry’s ambition’s pay off, or will they finally come back to haunt him.

Thus far with the Gun Grave experience the video quality has been nothing short of amazing, with the transference done from the small screen format to what was issued to me was seamless, there were no hints of a bad job done here. Each of the main story characters seemed to have there own unique style about them, from Brandon, tired often emotionless face, to Harry’s smooth charismatic yet cold persona. The audio features included with the DVD are Bilingual 5.1 Audio (English and Japanese). Also, 2 streams of English Subtitles: Dialog and signs or signs only.

As for the special features for the disc, an attempt was made to give the viewer a little extra, included is a conceptual art gallery depicting the characters in several different poses. Additional features found in the discs were, previews for upcoming Geneon releases, the original text less opening and a preview of the upcoming Gun Grave game for Playstation 2. The remaining bonus material featured with the disc is a small poster of Grave.

As we see in the second Gun Grave disc, as in the first, the story continues the story in the Grave’s past while he was still Brandon Heat, and we follow him as he grows older and more indebted with the mob. This method of story telling introduces the characters, allows for a better understand of who, how, why there are were they are, without having to constantly jump around later on in the story in a rushed approach to give more details. Definitely like what I am seeing so far.

Another enjoyable aspect of the Gun Grave series is the short monologue by Beyond the Grave between each episode, a sort of recap of Grave’s life, questioning not only what he’s doing, but where he is and for what reason’s he’s set himself down on the current path. It’s a nice touch to help bring home the idea of a series which starts at the beginning of the story and doesn’t start in the middle then jump all over the place without rime or reason.

Animation: 8 / 10
Story: 8 / 10
Audio: 8 / 10
Video: 8 / 10
Extras: 6 / 10
Impact Rating: 7 / 10

Overall 45 / 60

By Matt Capranos