Looks like we’re approaching mini-arc territory, as the girl from the intro shows up. Abel was reassigned by the Vatican to the neutral city of Istavan, which sits on the border between the Vampire empire and the Terran terrain. In Istavan, the vampires and humans live in an uneasy peace under the rule of the vampire Gyula (as opposed to his basketball-playing cousin, Gyuma?), who agonizes over his deceased human wife. Abel has his work cut out for him; things are a bit of a mess due to the mysterious murder of the vampire Count Radcon, and behind the scenes Gyula is secretly plotting to attain a power greater than both the Empire and the Vatican. Abel, in his typical bumbling way, is penniless, hungry, and lost, but manages to be apprehended by the police as a “suspicious looking person”. Eventually he is picked up by Sister Esther, and over dinner the two discuss the circumstances surrounding the person whom Abel is filling in for. Apparently she was like a mother to Esther, but was arrested and executed for breaking the city “rules” (which we are still left in the dark about).
Later in the night Abel wakes up to get some grub, but overhears a midnight conversation between Esther and Dietrich, one of Gyula’s human workers. They had conspired to murder the Count Radcon, and now they aim to go after Gyula, against whom both have a grudge. Abel tries to stop them with some high-minded talk of forgiveness etc., but like the Gen-X brats they are, they pay him no heed. Dietrich dashes out of the church with gun in hand, only to find the police arrayed in firing formation and is riddled with bullets. Esther attempts to avenge him, but Abel stops her from certain suicide (although if she had just worn a cocktail gown, I’m sure she would have been invincible). Esther is arrested for the murder of the count, and Abel voluntarily is taken along with her.
Is it just me, or is Gonzo really crapping out on intros lately? Both Trinity Blood and Speed Grapher just reuse episode footage, and it’s sort of getting on my nerves. It’s done fairly well in Trinity Blood, but I would still like to see some original animation.
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I can only comment on Speed Grapher but I was thinking the same each time I watched it. I’d say that they even owe a much better intro to Duran Duran. On the other hand, there are series where the animation is much better than the opening song (e.g., Samurai Champloo or Baku-Ten). It’s seldom that both is perfect (e.g., Monster - actually it looks like recycled footage but AFAIR it’s not and it’s much better arranged anyway.) BeeTrain shows have good OPs usually even if the show itself doesn’t live up to it. Regarding GONZO, well, Last Exile had a great opening song and animation - albeit with a couple of recycled footage.
Actually, Speed Grapher seems to be rather low budget. There are quite a lot of graphic glitches and heavy inconsistencies, IMHO.
Gonzo does have some great intros in their past series; I hope that their recent ones aren’t the start of a bad trend.
I also wondered if Gonzo was getting lazy. :/ I rather liked the Last Exile OP sequence…