GANTZ is a unique anime to say the least. It makes me question a lot of things. I would say its seinen but it feels like it was aimed at adolescent boys. At first I hated it, being so shocked, but the story just kept on getting better. The second half has an amazing turn of events, I didn't see things coming. The story gets pretty intense. It is shockingly explicit, going beyond what I've seen in an anime. Elfen Leid was more reasonable than GANTZ and I loved Elfen Leid. After the first few episodes I was thinking a more graphic version of Kick-Ass. It grew on me, in a similar way that Elfen Lied seemed initially shallow, but later turned out to be awesome. There is excessive mature themes, including violence and gore on the level of Elfen Leid. I can kinda understand why some people would say this is like Elfen Lied, but I didn't agree. Elfen Lied had a different, more sensible atmosphere, while this anime is more gritty and could be an 80s Hollywood movie. But afer watching it all, especially the end, I'd say the comparison to Elfen Lied is fair, but this is different in many ways. Should you watch this? If you don't get easily offended and can look past bullshit for an interesting story, then go ahead. Or you could watch the more tasteful live action movie for less time and less offensive crap. Also, before you read this review, please note that I hate ecchi and any nudity and explicit content that is present for no valid reason.
Animation
For a 2004 anime the quality of the animation is shoddily bad. A real shame given the style of the anime is actually rather unique, complete with interesting camera angles and a slightly different style of character animations. At times I felt like this was a western animation, but after a while it sinks in that these characters are animated very similar to most other animes. As I mentioned, unique shots are used, the camera flicks around at different perspective, often giving a better view of the action. There is one other thing to talk about here. Portrayal of very graphic themes. Is the nudity done in a sensible and mature fashion? I'd argue it isn't. The first real scene was very similar to the start of the Kick-Ass movie, but going further with the nude fantasies. There are other ways to show that the main character is a hormonal pervert. But things go further, there's a dog that (ugh sorry for this) eats pussy. I'm sorry but that is appauling behaviour and I'd put that dog down if I were it's owner. Moving on to other things, the sexual abuse refers to attempted rape. In the first episode a Yakuza member tries to rape Kei Kishimoto. I'm not comfortable with such a subject matter myself, but I have overlooked it in the past in films and such and ended up enjoying the rest of those stories. Here it is arguably fine, just because of the context of the situation, it kinda makes sense and it's not just put there for shock value. There are relatively explicit sexual scenes, which in addition to the stuff, I've mentioned already, takes things too far. Then there is the sheer gore. Brains splattered all over a lot of things, the blood is quite normal. Theres even a bit where a guys eyes explode, ears pop and neck breaks, exploding heads, decapitation, etc. Personally, I deal with gore just fine, I'm a bit desesitised to it since it is an animation. Overall, the animation was just shocking due to the sexually vulgar and purile content.
Sound
The music is okay, but not to my taste. The intro song is a bit of a rap song, but nothing that sounds like music to my ears. The music during the anime itself doesn't seem to stand out too much, though its generally quite fast paced at times to match the action. The outro music is much better, but again, not so great that it would want to make me get the soundtrack. The anime is available in both English and Japanese. Surprisingly, the dub is fairly decent. If the main character sounds a tad like Greg Ayres, you aren't far off. The VA for Kei is actually Chris Ayres (the brother of Greg) and another major name in the dub business is Chris Patton, who does the voice of Joichiro Nichi, also did many voices including Greed from FMA, Asura from Soul Eater and even Tatsuhiro Sato from Welcome to the NHK, one of the earlier animes I watched and I feel nostalgic about. Funnily enough, Greg Ayres has a small cameo role as a very minor background character.
Characters
Kei Kurono is the typical perverted high-school student. So much so that, like at the start of Kick-Ass, he gets 'excited' during class fantasizing about his (young female) teacher and female classmates. He is somewhat selfish, though this anime seems to show that this is actually a trait shared by pretty much every human. He had a history of being a bit of a badass kid, so much so that his friend Masaru Kato looked up to him and wanted to be like him back when they were kids. Nowadays Kei is a perverted coward who can't stand up for himself like he once did and often cries, which is a bit weird for a teenager. Instead he is jealous of his friend for gaining the attention of the girl and he really wants to bang her, like any perverted adolescent would. To actually explain this character, he is rather shallow for the first few episodes, therefore a bit of a disappointing main character. But later on, this character becomes very interesting.
The more interesting character is Masaru Kato, Kei's old friend, therefore also a highschool student. This guy is the opposite of Kei in some ways, not a wimp, not a pervert, naturally buff and strong and he has a big sense of pacifism. He live with his younger brother at his aunts house, after his parents died. His aunt actually treats them like shit and his pacifism means he doesn't fight back. But of course so much shit happens to him in this anime, that he begins to question his philosophy. He seems perfect, but he isn't, in a realistic and well done way. He doesn't feel that violence and killing is the right answer and this gets him in harms way. This isn't kept to as religiously as you'd think however, while there are bits that could have viewers shouting at the screen for Masaru to act, there are other buts that will have us shocked and reconsider his personality. The best character in this anime, not simply one sided as he might appear to be.
Kei Kishimoto, a frequently naked big breasted high-school student. This immediately screamed terrible character, but then I got the backstory in later episodes. There is major bullshit in the lack of modesty with this character, she can't even defend herself from a snatch-licking dog. She also SPOILER< moves into Kei's place as his pet >SPOILER but this is also due to the intersting history and personality this character actually has. She isn't exactly psychologically stable, explaining some of her actions and her situation is a potentially controversial (Asian parents...) one. It's mentioned in the anime that she is reliant on other's too much and this is actually a fair point. She is infatuated with Masaru, despite the fact that Kei, the main character, is the one who wants to bang her most and gets the closest opportunity to, but she is able to control the situation there. If only she could do the same with the stupid dog.
There are various interesting side characters, like the douchebag Jouichiro Nishi, who knows what's going on and is a veteran of the whole situation. The biker character Tetsuo Nemoto is also interesting, this thug actually has a wife and baby in need of his support. There's also a suprising addition of a gay character and a stalker girl, who looks like the grudge girl (also said in the anime itself) stalking a pretty boy model. There's a martial artist Sei Sakuraoka who provides an interesting plot development with romance. Kei's techer is more than just a minor side character, especially towards the end and many more simple characters get surprisingly major roles throughout the story.
Story
There is definitely a somewhat unique plot here, I've never seen anything like it and like Elfen Lied, it get's better ther further in the anime we get. Kei and his friend Masaru are killed when they are hit by a train and they are bought back by a mysterious sphere, the titular Gantz. There is a lot of gruesome deaths in this anime and they really aren't afraid to kill off characters, since despite the ambiguity of death in this anime, there is a legit death status and characters can die properly. They find that they have been put into a survival game where they must hunt down and kill alien creatures to stay alive.
There is much more to the plot than this, each character has their own agenda and side-story going on, Kei has his issues being a hormonal adolescent, Masaru must protect his brother and deal with his abusive aunt. The female Kei also lands in a very unique position, one where she has nobody to depend on. However, the overall plot is rather slow and certain arcs of the story take too long, in my opinion anyway.
But the second half is where it all happens. The anime takes many unexpected twists and turns, characters actually have some progression, despite the small time period during which this anime takes place. There are needed gaps in between the action, but I can't help but feel there is some filler in there in the first half. There are various mature themes depicted in this anime, though the manner in which this is done is questionable. The second half made me question my very own beliefs about the morality of many issues. Right now I want to list the many mature themes that were present in this anime like I did with Elfen Lied. There were many aspects of the story and things happened that made me shout WTF out loud for the neighbours to hear. However there are some very tense moments in the second half. The plot just gets so erratic, in a good way. I wouldn't say this is a spoiler, but the alien enemies get more and more challenging and difficult as the story progresses. And the final enemy, is the most difficult of all and it is the most interesting. I feel like this anime is trying to give some social commentary. The only downside to the story is the occasional bullshit and the initial slow pace.
Conclusion
This is one anime that gets much better in the second half. Gantz is not going to be everyone's cup of tea. The shocking vulgar content seems like it would appeal to teenagers who enjoy that sort of stuff, but to the ordinary person, may just put them off. I wasn't drinking for this one, I didn't think I'd need to. But I didn't like the manner and atmosphere with which some things were dealt with, especially with both the male and female Kei's. The story made this anime for me and for the interesting story alone, if you are an adult capable of looking past some terrible bullshit, this is a must watch. Just like Elfen Lied this is an anime that improves over the series and it also similarly depicts some mature themes and makes the viewer think.
Family-friendliness Rating: 5/5 The absurdity of this anime (I'd give it higher if possible)... it goes places where no other anime does, not even Elfen Lied (lower is better)
Overall Rating: 7.5/10 (higher is better)