Gantz 6/10

This show is the splatgloriest, character killingest, big brestesest, erection jokiest show I've ever seen. I was also going to give it a 5 but I'll explain that below.

Dating back to aught-four, Gantz is a Gonzo show so we see CG goodness splattered all over these 26 episodes. Most of the large areas are CG as are all the statue monsters in the 3rd arc and it all looks amazing. The rest of the show looks terrific with great character designs and good hand drawn backgrounds and such. I liked the score but the OP and ED didn't really catch my fancy. I really didn't like the OP. The VAs were about average.

This show is about a grade 10 student named Kei Kurono who dies after he gets hit by a subway train. His head comes flying off and everything. He was helping to get a homeless man off the tracks with a guy named Masaru Kato that he used to be friends with. Of course Kato bites it as well and they both wake up in a small apartment, alone with a large black sphere. Pretty soon other people start arriving by being "printed" with 3 light beams including the naked and very well-endowed Kei Kishimoto. Eventually everyone learns from the one person whose been there previously that the sphere is called Gantz, they're all dead, and have been brought back by Gantz to fight aliens.

Gantz offers cryptic messages displayed on the sphere instructing the people what alien to kill, how long they have, and provides weapons and a type of power suit to help even the odds since the aliens are crazy powerful. The players aren't given any information about how the weapons or suits operate and the guy who's been there before isn't forthcoming with any info though he does eventually cough up the details.

The suits grant super-human strength and protection from things like fire but aren't effective against blades, lasers, bullets, and the weapons they're given. They also run out of power after they've suffered enough damage. When fired the weapons simply flash a light then after a delay whatever they're pointed at explodes as if some type of explosive projectile hit it but there's no smoke or fire. They're given a time limit to defeat all the aliens and are not permitted outside a 1km radius from where they arrived or their heads will explode. Once the battle is over they're permitted to return to their normal lives but Gantz may teleport them back for another battle at any time.

The show basically covers the first 3 battles as according to the manga then has a final original battle for the TV series. Each battle consists of the new people having to be convinced that the whole thing is real. The new people who don't believe it being horribly killed. The people in suits with weapons being horribly killed with the alien dying at the end. Other rules of the game are that if you're dead you stay dead but if you survive any injuries you suffered are gone upon arrival back in the apartment. Some episodes deal with Kurono, Kato, and Kishimoto's lives outside the game and these are a nice respite from the splatfest of the battles. This allows Kishimoto to have a shower, have a bath, change her clothes, and be in Kurono's fantasies.

This show never really gets into the details of what Gantz is, why it does what it does, what happens if the aliens are killed within the time allotted, and what the real meaning of the scores Gantz gives at the end of the battles is. I WAS going to give this show a 5 since it's just a violent killing show with little redeeming value. Everyone but Kurono is killed in the 3rd mission and there seems to be no point to the whole thing.

Once I took a look at the manga's story things make alot more sense so I increased the score (+4) accordingly. Once you get 100 points you can either be set free from the game with your memories of Gantz wiped, bring someone from the game back to life, or get a super-weapon. If you don't kill the alien within the allotted time you just lose all your points. This makes all the killing of the main characters make more sense in the big picture. The last battle also really contradicts the spirit of the manga because it makes Gantz out to be something out to teach Kurono that you shouldn't kill just because you're ordered to. Gantz in fact couldn't give two shits about Kurono and because of the odd nature of these episodes I dropped the score back a bit (-2).

I really hate how they fucked up a cool concept with some dumbass morality in the last arc. This show would get a 10 if it continued along the lines of the manga. You may consider my score artificial because it relies on knowledge of the manga so this show gets a 5 as a standalone show but the concept is so good I have to give it a break. It's good if you like watching alot of people get spattered. This is easily the goriest anime I've ever seen. There's also some large breasteses along the way that are pretty good too.