GANTZ Volume 1 DVD Review

By sothis Published: January 24, 2005

PACKAGING AND MENU

8 / 10

The packaging for this DVD is pretty cool. It has a fairly effective grungy look to it with a very sci fi edge. The cover depicts the main character Kei striking a pose, with a shot of Kishimoto Kei to the side. Gantz (the black sphere) brings people from death to its hotel room by transporting them via a process that seems almost like faxing. In the pose, Kei is halfway through this faxing stage. The title is set in a glowing large font which is flashy and interesting.

The back is filled with screenshots surrounding a black sphere that contains the description text in a chunky and pleasing font. The bottom has the typical specifics about the DVD. The insert could have been better, showing a repeat of the cover art on one side, and the background of the back art on the other side. The black sphere was placed at the bottom for good measure, at least.

The menu is also pretty cool. It’s a simple menu system that has the black sphere with the menu items inside it. The first time you view the menu, it pans in to the sphere from the back of the hotel room, but nothing is shown after it's zoomed in. The only strange thing about the menu was the way things were worded -- specifically, certain letters were listed backwards. For example, Episode 1 was listed as EPISOD3 1, which could confuse people making it look like episode 31. Also, if you look closely, all of the sub-menus show very faded but up-close shots of Kishimoto's breasts. Overall, the use of the extra black space wasn’t all that effective, which would lower the score for the menu, at least.

FEATURES

7 / 10

This DVD didn’t have a lot as far as extras, and considering it only had 2 episodes, I thought there would be more. In any case it had the clean opening and closing clips, which are pretty standard, and then an interview with director Ichiro Itano, which was actually pretty insightful. He went into deep discussion on the social affects of Gantz, and the messages behind it. It was really quite interesting to see what people are thinking when they put together an anime such as this, explaining the risks they face.

VIDEO

10 / 10

The video on this DVD is awesome. The transfer was very good and the video is extremely clean. The coloring is done quite well, and the detail in all of the shots is picked up well. It looked sharp on both a standard TV and a computer monitor. The coloring was also transferred very well, as it was quite vivid.

A note on the actual video component of this anime: If you are new to Gantz, the style is a bit different, with a lot of layered camera shots, where things tend to move a lot when the camera moves. Many shots were also very close and had a ‘handheld’ feel to them. (Sorry, but I don’t know the terminology as I am not a cameraman) This can sometimes give people motion sickness, but it was pulled off quite well.

AUDIO

8 / 10

The audio was also a very clean transfer. The Japanese stereo was clean with a lot of use between the speakers during different scenes. This made it seem a little more like surround sound, however the English 5.1 was a bit fuller, although they do not make use of the rear speakers as much as they could have, so it is more similar to the Japanese stereo. The English Dialogue version is fairly convincing, and definitely more ‘Americanized’, complete with random profanities where necessary.

CONTENT

7.5 / 10

When I first heard about Gantz (as it was being aired on Japanese TV), I remember hearing about how incredibly violent it was. Indeed, Gantz lives up to its title of being very, very violent as far as blood/gore, and content such as attempted rape. We join our very angst-ridden and obnoxious hero Kei as he is coming home from an embarassing class. A drunk falls onto the train tracks, and due to a series of events, him and his friend find themselves dead by decapitation (have no fear, we see this in explicit detail!). They find themselves in a room with a varied bunch of folks (and a dog), including the very naked Kei (yes, another Kei, but female) who consequently is almost raped by a male yakuza. Fun! Also in the room is a giant sphere which eventually sends them off to do his bidding: in this case, to kill the Greenonion alien.

Violence and gore abound yet again on the quest to kill this escaped alien. We hear plenty of annoying inner thoughts of the male Kei, as he picks apart everyone and can't seem to think of anything positive at all. I remember hearing from folks who have finished this series that he easily is one of the most annoying characters ever that you grow to HATE, and I can understand why after only two episodes.

The animation style of Gantz is beautiful with solid vibrant colors and very new looking character designs. I especially liked the design of the suits that Gantz gave the team, they looked very cyber-ish and slick (reminded me of Tron, actually). Interesting music provided a great background, and the voice acting was well done.

Character-wise, the varied cast definitely was a motley crew of vagrants and elders, though I didn't really like any of them. Kei, as mentioned, is incredibly annoying, and the almost-raped Kei seemed to be fairly brainless and useless to boot. The other members of the hotel room all seem to have a history of sorts, but after only two episodes, we don't know much. I'm hoping in further episodes, we learn a little more about why each character got there, or what part they have to play in Gantz' plans. I also hope to learn more about Gantz in general.

Overall, Gantz seems like a very interesting watch, and I'm looking forward to the next episodes. It's definitely violent in the realm of Elfen Lied, and pushes the boundaries of good taste by all means, but still an interesting viewing if you like that sort of thing. The only downfall is that this is being released on six DVDs for some reason, which feels absurd. I really hope 13 episode series don't all start going the way of R2 releases, making fans shell out countless dollars for multiple volumes that could have been consolidated on only two or three.