# Speed Grapher (2005)

> A burned-out war photographer in a decadent near-future Tokyo is drawn into an elite underground ritual after a kiss from a mysterious young woman.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/18857

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 24
- Episode runtime: 23 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: animation, crime, science fiction
- Network: tv asahi
- Cast: Kei Shindo, Yuji Takada, Toshiyuki Morikawa, Hiro Yuuki, Hisao Egawa, Kenjiro Tsuda, Takako Honda, Mahiru Konno
- TMDB rating: 7.0/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0805960/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: extreme
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: graphic
- Tone: lurid, suspenseful, sleazy, psychological, claustrophobic, decadent

## What critics say

Reviewers generally see Speed Grapher as a stylish, lurid cyberpunk thriller whose shock imagery outweighs its mystery plot.

## Synopsis

Speed Grapher is a Japanese adult animated crime thriller produced by TAP and GONZO and broadcast on TV Asahi as a single 24-episode season. Burned-out war photographer Tatsumi Saiga is working in the tabloid wasteland of a near-future Tokyo where every fetish has a face, and he is sent to dig up dirt on the underground elite. His search leads him beneath the city to a depraved ritual, and a single kiss from the young Kagura Tennouzu sets off a chain of events that could bring the ruling class to its knees. Each episode pairs a photographer's hunt for a hidden story with escalating conspiracy and disturbing spectacle, building a suspenseful psychological mystery around jealousy, greed and a fractured family. The atmosphere is lurid, sleazy and claustrophobic, blending noir investigation with erotic grotesquerie. Viewers who enjoy Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex, Perfect Blue and Mirai Nikki will find resonance in its dystopian city, psychological unease and corrupt power.

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