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Plot Synopsis

High school student Kei Kurono meets up with childhood friend Kato Masaru one day by chance encounter. As the two are in the subway chatting, Kato notices a homeless man on the subway train tracks. Kato goes down on to the tracks to move the man off the tracks and persuades Kei to help. But soon after helping the man, they are hit by a subway train and killed...

Or maybe not.

Immediately after being hit by the train, the two suddenly find themselves in an apartment from which they can't leave, along with some other people who were also in some near death experience. In this apartment there is also a black sphere called Gantz.

Kei and the others have to obey Gantz's rules if they want to live. They have to participate in missions in which the objective is to eliminate aliens. But who or what are these aliens? are Kei, Kato and the others alive or dead?

Written by boojitsu.

Story & Characters

I normally do a quirky little opening paragraph to open all of my reviews. I can't do that this time as I need to get the word out as quickly as possible about how truly horrible Gantz is. On with the review.

When someone is about to die they are whisked away a split second before they actually do to a small apartment from which they can't escape. In the middle of this room is a black sphere with a man inside who appears to be on life support which everyone refers to as Gantz. After a large group of dead people have gathered, the sphere activates with a creepy tune and a mission; kill an alien and you come back alive. Everyone gets weapons and suit up for an alien hunt. If they make it back and have done what Gantz has instructed, they get points towards their ultimate freedom. Get 100 points and your free... maybe.

It may sound complicated but I can break it down into a simple, easy to follow plot. Lot's of people die for whatever reason. They end up in the room and all bicker about what they are doing there. They all go into Gantz's game and hunt an alien and when they think they've won, a bigger one comes out... and then a bigger one... and sometimes an even bigger one. Most everyone dies. Kei Kurono gets out and tries to get laid before the next time he has to play the game again. That is this 26 episode abomination of an anime in a nutshell. It is all mindless chatter for episodes at a time, over the top violence and sex sex sex.

Rating

2 (very poor)

Art

The animation of Gantz is one that takes getting used to. Most anime that we all know and love consists of big eyes and crazy hair colors. Gantz goes for a more realistic approach to animation. The characters are much more properly proportioned than their usual animated counterparts from their bodies to their average sided eyes. The only disproportionate part would be breasts; they love their breasts in this show and you'll see em' naked at every turn. Once you get used to the animation it is actually quite good and when it gets gory it is show in an even better light.

My only gripe is the overuse of CG. Granted the entire show looks like a computer mash up from hell, but the animation portion is quite good. But some action shots and character animations are poor CG scenes that are spliced together with the pretty impressive animation. It sticks out way too much and is far too often used.

Rating

7 (above average)

Sound

Music was passable at best and usually drowned out by the vocals. The opening, in my humble opinion was terrible even if the lyrics were fitting for the show. Maybe I'll never like Japanese versions of hip hop so this score could be a skewed. The closing song faired a bit better than its counterpart but is still average in the overall sense. As for the BGM, it shined at times but the vast majority of it was a bit too simple to be pleasing to the ear or any of the senses at all. If I gave any reader out there an electronic keyboard and said write a song, chances are they would come up with something better.

The vocals of the show are a sad thing to have to score. It isn't that the vocals were all that bad, and as they stood, every actor did a fine job portraying each character. But what killed it was the terrible script written for the show. Because of this every character ended up being extremely one-dimensional. Almost the entire show consisted of yelling and idle chat that accomplished nothing. It's a shame though, it could have been so much better if the actors were allowed to actually ACT.

Rating

4 (below average)

Presentation

This show will have you feeling deja vu all the time. This show will have you feeling deja vu all the time. (Terrible joke I know, moving on). By the end of Gantz you will have relived the same scenarios at least 3 times only with different aliens. Gantz will start a game with a one hour time limit that goes on for about four episodes. During that time there will be a lot of gun pointing and talking about that gun pointing. Finally someone will kill an alien, and then another will pop up. A bunch of people will die. The game will finally end. Rinse and repeat. Worse yet, it goes absolutely nowhere. There isn't a plotline to follow at all. It goes nowhere and ends with absolutely no closure as to what the hell has gone on for 26 episodes. But hey, at least our hero Kei gets laid at least once. If he didn't get his I don't know what I would have done.

I cannot in my right mind recommend this to any soul on this planet. If you have a can of paint sitting next to the DVD set for Gantz and you are bored, I highly recommend that you put some of that paint on the wall and watch it dry. That will prove to be far more entertaining than Gantz will be.

Rating

2 (very poor)

Final Verdict

3.17 (poor)

Reviewed by shoujoboy, 1y 23wk ago