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Speed Grapher
Manga Review
In the Tokyo of the future, a second Japanese economic bubble has propelled the city into a feeding frenzy of desire. The epitome of this new ethos is the Roppongi Club, and elite society serving Tokyo's most privileged citizens with fantasies beyond their wildest dreams.
 Meet Saiga, intrepid photojournalist intent on infiltrating the Roppongi's shadowy, secret world. But when he gets there, he discovers much more than just a glamorous hostess club -- he meets Kagura, a modern goddess whose touch transforms Saiga into the Speed Grapher, a man with the supernatural ability to make anything and anyone he photographs explode. And that's just the beginning...
Speed Grapher is a dark, violent, sexy, and disturbing manga based on the anime of the same name.
Reviewed by Brian Cirulnick, October 2008
Speed Grapher
Anime DVD Review
If you're looking for the killer series in the current crop of new anime out there; Speed Grapher probably meets or exceeds your needs. A plot with plenty of twists and turns, it also has a Cowboy Bebop feel to it, with a run-down look to the technology and society.
This high-caliber production, set in a dystopian near-future, tells the tale of Saiga, an ex-war photographer, scrounging for a living in Tokyo: Ten years after the "Bubble War," the city is divided between the super-rich and the wretchedly poor. Saiga stumbles onto an underground sex club where the corrupt elite meet to realize their kinky fantasies. A kiss from goddess-dancer Kagura gives him the ability to make anything he photographs explode, and he quickly puts this talent to use.
 Speed Grapher pulls no punches to deliver a grisly reality of perversion, greed, lust and death. In short, keep this series far from the kiddies, as the graphic horror and gore may even turn the stomachs of some hardcore anime fans.
However, for those of you that can look beyond the surface level, this series represents the kind of storytelling you don't get to experience often in anime, or any film-making genre for that matter -- where the moral center of the story, the main character himself, is a morally ambivalent, even unlikable anti-hero. Only Paranoia Agent and the director's cut of Blade Runner have dared to make the hero so depraved.
The show takes morbid joy in showcasing its freaks, but does so through the unblinking eye of Saiga's camera, keeping us at arm's length so as to not be overwhelmed. Some fans might shy away from owning a series that showcases the lowest forms of humanity, but if you can stomach its worst moments (and even enjoy them), Speed Grapher makes a great addition to that "other" DVD collection, the one you only show to the kind of friends who are willing to share a glimpse into the dark depths of human depravity.
Reviewed by Brian Cirulnick, October 2006
Below: Scenes from Speed Grapher.
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