Gantz

It has come to my attention that the last reviewer for this Anime series must have been someone between the ages of 12 and 14, still stuck on the "DragonballZ fight, fight fight!" mentality and simply ignored the bigger picture. While this show has it's fair share of action, the show focuses on the inner livings of diverse human types being put through varying dangerous situations. The show presents humanity for what it (in the mind of the creator, that is), a huge group of cowards, glory seekers, murderers and all together selfish people. Among them are thrown a few gems, innocent bystanders (children and the elderly) and people that follow a humane moral code; of course, their only role is to provide hope to the viewer, to show that humanity does have it's good sides, however insignificant.

I am left with the impression that Gantz is in itself, purgatory. Passing judgment on the humans he "saves" from absolute death by forcing them to go through a series of trials. Those worthy, the ones that "survive" the trials, regardless of past crimes, will be rewarded, and those that fail will continue their lifeline by resuming their deaths.

Gantz tells the story of people finding themselves revived after death and forced to battle aliens. It's hyper violent and full of gratuitous nudity, and grabbed me right away. I bing-watched all 26 episodes in a few days.

The protagonist of the story is Kei, a sex-obsessed high school student, Kei, and he's one of the most self-centered, jerky protagonists I've seen in anime. The hero of Gantz is actually his friend, Kato.

After dying and finding themselves in a room with a bunch of other dead people, they are thrown into crazy action with futuristic but oddly flawed weapons.

The action is intense but also hesitant, because a lot of these folks have never killed anyone and don't want to start. This makes sense at first, although this hesitancy of the main characters continues on into season 2 by which time it seems pretty ridiculous. How long does it take people to adjust to a new reality.

In fact, a lot of what people do is stupid, but to be fair, these aren't trained fighters and while it's easy to watch them and say, "why don't they do this?" I probably would be just as stupid if people were trying to kill me.

In between fights, these folks lead their normal-ish lives. Part of this involves a romantic-ish triangle between Kei, Kato, and and a girl also named Kei. Boy-Kei is hot for girl-Kei, who is hot for Kato, which is inexplicable to boy-Kei even though Kato is kinder, braver, and far less creepy than incel boy-Kei.

I was riveted by Gantz. While episodes can sometimes drag with long philosophical discussions about whether to kill people and arguments about what's going on (since there is high turnover with new confused people constantly arriving) the show does a good job of ending each episode on a cliffhanger that forces you to keep going.

Unfortunately, there are issues with the series that become more annoying in season 2. Watching confused people argue over what to do gets more tiring each time it happens, as does the constant, chatty indecision of the main characters. The season also becomes bleaker, with increasingly shocking deaths and an increased misanthropic emphasis on how Kei's awfulness is far more typical of humanity than Kato's nobility. I really should have stopped binge-watching in season 2 and just watched maybe an episode a day.

I wasn't surprised that the series didn't really explain what was going on by the end. If you're curious you can read the manga or just do what I did and read the wikipedia entry on it, which actually does explain things.

The series ends in a very odd way that you can find much animated discussion of online. It's clearly saying *something* but it's unclear what (there are good theories online) and it's not entirely satisfying.

I absolutely loved the first half of Gantz, but was so exhausted of it by the end of season 2 that I was actually relieved there wasn't a season 3.

I highly recommend watching this, although you might want to space out episodes more than I did.

This is an awesome series unlike some people think. Yeah i think they could have taken it farther since the Manga goes on Forever, but i think it was a great series altogether. The voice actors a well done and the animation is great. Nothing is forgotten by these animators and i think that is great. I would recommend this DVD series to the most die hard Anime fans (meaning the like more then Naruto and Inyuasha great but not the best anime's.) So if you like blood, death, and maybe a little sex in an anime this is the perfect one for you. just know you have to watch the last episodes a few time before you completely get what happens unless your some1 who catches on fast.

The story revolves around a changing group of people (other than the main characters) who die but find themselves reassembled in an apartment they can't escape with a large black sphere (Gantz) that provides them with weapons, a power suit, and instructions to kill an alien target within a time limit. Those who survive are free to return to their lives until they are summoned again, with increasingly poor odds of survival each time.

The animation is reminiscent of the R-rated anime more common back in the '80s, with uncensored graphic violence, nudity, sex, and generally mature themes, and it's refreshing to watch an adult-oriented story that hasn't been watered down to receive PG rating (though it does have a jarringly out-of-place JPop theme song). The series covers about half of the story from the manga before concluding with an open-to-interpretation ending that, but that's better than ending on a cliffhanger that never gets resolved.

Gonzo Studios has a tendency to use unnecessary flashbacks or simply cut animation quality when they run out of time and/or money, and I can live with that, but they made a lot of choices which may or may not have been in the manga that simply that make no sense. Why is the population of 2004 Tokyo 95% Caucasian and why would they all look forward to seeing someone get run over by train and refuse to help? How can high school bullies, who look like they're in their 30s, get away with pulling teeth out of their victims? Why would a group of people, including a guy who easily beats up the biggest of the aforementioned bullies, stand around and do nothing when a guy carries a teenage girl away into the next room to rape her? Why do people who just died and see other people being reassembled in front of their eyes act like nothing strange is going on and refuse to listen to the main characters who are trying to save their lives?

The thing that will really have you shouting at the screen is all the times (and this happens a lot) when the characters stand around talking about how they should shoot the monster despite the time limit and immediate threat to their lives, yet no-one actually starts shooting. Two or three people will die before even one of them starts shooting while the rest still just stand there. Then, when half of them do finally join in (the rest still standing there watching), they charge towards the monster, guns in hand but still not shooting, until a couple more people are killed.

Overall, I do recommend Gantz, but it's frustrating to watch something that could have been so much better brought down by things that should never have been allowed into the series in the first place.

Gantz otherwise known as cringe, is a very frustrating Anime with a somewhat brilliant concept however the way the writers decided their annoying characters should behave really tested my patience, you got extremely menacing aliens charging at characters armed with a powerful suit and ultra effective weapons (albeit still kind of stupidly designed since there's a huge lag between when you fire the laser guns and their impact) but all they do is stay baffled, reluctant to shoot or/and make the most illogical choices, it doesn't help that all of the group of humans basically stay still and rarely ever engage or do something of merit when the alien monsters are ripping one of them apart right in front of their eyes, either fight or run like hell! besides you'd think this kind of behaviour would change later in the show but no these guys are still acting so dumb even after their previous experiences. I have a very wierd relationship with this Anime series since despite of its endless flaws it still has something that hooked me on it, I consumed this piece of sleazy dumb action/horror in a matter of 2 days, I don't think that the creator intended for it to be goofy but I think I was approaching it in the same way I would approach an exploitation B movie, not to mention that this is the most Japenese Anime you'll probably ever see containing alot of perversion and brutal brutal violence, so there's plenty to like here for all you weebos out there.