Gantz

The Gantz anime series is an amalgamation of events that occurred in the first few volumes of the manga. It's an introduction to the Gantz universe and its inhabitants--most notably, the aliens and their human hunters. Like the manga, the anime centers around the growth and emergence of Kurono (Chrono) as a hero and his effort to win and survive at all costs. There's a good deal of sex and violence as well as long stretches of philosophical banter and social critique, but it often comes across as being so self-righteous and ultimately defeatist that most messages would only be appealing to audiences that already had the same beliefs.

The artwork is dark and is true to Oru Hiroya's concepts down to the intricately detailed weapons and power suits. The characters range from the sexually eager and aggressive Kurono, to the gallant Katou, to the buxom Kishimoto. The animation is mostly satisfying. Since Hiroya's artwork uses 3d models for scale and proportion, they can seem stiff and often lack fluidity. That same flaw is evident in the anime as well.

The story is intriguing, at the least, and seems to be inspired by movies such as The Cube. The sci-fi aspects are cool and even I would like to run around in a power suit for a day or two.

Altogether, it has some great ingredients that are marred by plodding progression and preachy characters. The fan-service is there, though not to an excess, but this is certainly not for children or those that are easily offended by violence, gore, or opinions diametrically opposed to your own. It's definitely worth watching and depending on who you are, you might just like it a lot.

I don't like to use the word 'masterpiece'...but it wouldn't be an insane adjective to use to describe Gantz. This is one of the best all around anime I've ever seen.

It has an extremely interesting and rather unique concept that is thoroughly explored and discussed through the characters. It has the surface level 'low brow' entertainment like extreme amounts of violence and a pretty hefty amount of nudity. It does an excellent job of going against the typical story clichés. Moments of character empowerment are shot down in the flash, people who seem like throwaway characters come back later, and none of the characters are safe from harm.

Speaking of the characters, they are very dynamic and what makes this show last. Good guy heroes often come off as cowardly, douchebags save the day, etc etc. The characters also come across plenty of moral dilemmas and have plenty of discussions about the nature of society.

Some say they hate the ending, or that it is confusing. I don't see why, if you just pay attention a little bit to the visuals and how the fundamentals of the whole thing works...it's quite clear. Yes, there are some things that aren't fully explained...but the end result, what happens to our hero(and/or heroes) is quite clear.

In conclusion, it's an anime with a great concept, great characters to explore it, great animation, a ton of violence, plenty of nudity, a decent amount of action and some good social commentary. Regardless of the manga, if you've read it or what you think of it, Gantz is a fantastic stand alone anime...and I think I'd prefer THAT to a seemingly endless story.

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.

Gantz actually got my adrenaline pumping throughout the series and in effect almost made me feel like breaking in the television screen at some points. It kind of gave me that same feeling that GunGrave did. You feel for the characters that you do not even know just for the sake of wanting him/her to survive Gantz evil game. The series is quirky in the beginning and later on turns disdainful on the viewer. I started to feel hopeless towards the end and although I wanted the best to happen for everyone that's not what necessarily happened. If you plan on watching this then plan on watching cool action scenes that feel like they came straight out of a video game and non-stop violence. Yes, there is much graphic violence and sexual content on this one, but if you are old enough then try to endure it for the sake of enjoying an action packed anime. The only thing that got me kind of mad ws how the characters took forever to actually shoot a villain/alien/evil human. Inside my mind I was like, "Come on already!!!! Don't get yourself killed!" Check this out. I dug it.

Pretty awesome when I saw it for the first time. A decade later it was fresh again when I saw it with a new girlfriend. It sticks with me and I'm troubled by the hints of lunar occultism. Another case of an anime teasing you with something beyond the veil and doing it with the style you can't get anywhere else.