Gantz

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A Japanese teenager waits at a train station, reading a trashy magazine featuring an idol enticing the reader with her big boobs. An elderly lady approaches the teenager, asking for directions. The teenager quickly mumbles a non-informative reply while thinking to himself what an annoyance the lady is, why should he give a shit about her? Oh look, a drunken tramp just fell onto the tracks and no one is going to help. Why should they? It’s none of their business, just look away and pretend you didn’t see it happen.

This is Gantz. Hiroya Oku's exploitative, violent and cynical ... depiction of the Japanese and their behaviour when confronted with moralistic situations. There's also a bunch of ever-increasingly ludicrous battle royales with aliens and vampires that destroy various parts of Tokyo and other cities, but that all comes later.

Back to that train station and that teenager: Kei Kurono. Instantly unlikeable, but oh so real. You either know kids like him, or you recognise your own traits in his character. You'll probably be lying to yourself if you don’t see yourself in some of these characters, its human nature to recoil from awkward situations. Gantz seems to gain great pleasure from thrusting its many random characters into awkward situations, sometimes involving nudity, usually violence, usually spontaneously.

Gantz is about a room somewhere with a black ball and a very infantile presence who gives out childish nicknames to unfortunately-recently-dead and usually unwilling participants in a 'game' that requires them to kill aliens in a kind of real-life recreation of a First Person Shooter. The brilliance is in the mystery and its ridiculousness.

People die and are transported to the room to pick up their suits and weapons, and if they survive the subsequent battle they're free to wander off and return to their lives...until they're transported back to the room for another battle, and so on until either they reach 100 points and are released from the game, or they die for real. Author Oku continually ups the stakes, regularly throwing bigger obstacles in characters' paths, and it becomes a case of “can he top this?” The answer is always: "yes he bloody well can!”

There is a massacre in Shinjuku, Tokyo that beggar’s belief in its astounding ambition to shock the reader with its scope, creativity and viciousness. Once I read this sequence, I knew any anime adaptation would either fail completely at bringing to motion what this manga gets away with, or it would follow it faithfully and probably be banned/censored. Obviously at the time of writing this review, the answer is the former, there aren’t many anime studios in the world that are as crazy as Oku.

This is Gantz's best asset, its secret weapon, the reason for why it's so memorable. It's outrageous. Because it's happening in such a familiar world. Oku's attention to detail, the way people behave and react, either as individuals or as a collective, or even on the internet, is spot on. Whether it's a massacre on a street or in a school, or a small squabble in an apartment or a train, the tension is reminiscent of real life, because the dialogue and body language is grounded in reality, no matter how out there the action and sci-fi ideas are.

The art of the manga is economical and precise; computer aided graphics help keep the locales detailed. The costumes, props and weapons design is a nice deviation from the typical 'dress the characters in black leather' trend that The Matrix seemingly rejuvenated in entertainment media. Kudos to Oku for using his imagination and not dragging the manga down with anything generic. It’s one of his many traits, taking existing ideas that are ripe for generic rip-off but putting his own spin on them. In this case the battle suits are humiliatingly tight, and regularly attract scorn and mockery from bystanders.

The action sequences in this manga are some of the best I've ever read. Oku has a real eye for framing the action from the right angles and positions. His action pay-offs always bring a smile to the face, the audacity and enormity of what occurs on the page, is a sight to behold. The destruction to urban property gets exponentially bigger throughout the manga, no structure or vehicle is left spared. My review is intentionally vague to save the surprises for the reader, but if you like guns, swords, urban environments chopped, sliced and blown up to bits, then you're going to have a blast with Gantz.

The ideas in Gantz are to do with the narcissistic state of 21st century living, the materialism of the masses, human relations in the face of ever disturbing circumstances. There is almost a Hitchcockian vibe in the way ordinary people are pushed into extraordinary situations and thrash around desperately trying to get out of them. The great mystery of Gantz is a sci-fi conspiracy that is always just bubbling under the surface. In the forefront of the story is the cast of lowlifes and nobodies. School kids, street punks, idols, yakuza, tourists, businessmen, random passersbys, random aliens and vampires.

Would you jump onto the tracks and drag the drunken tramp back onto the platform? Oku's humorous retort to that is a train decapitating your head for your troubles. Welcome to Gantz.

Here we have a manga that I cannot help but loathe and love all the same. Gantz being a thrilling Seinen, Sci-fi, Action manga that would take the reader on a gory rollercoaster ride, featuring amazing battles for survival. Yet it also happens to be riddled with poor dialogue and spontaneous plot developments that may stem one's enjoyment.

It all begins as two young Japanese high school boys, meet their end by a homicidal underground locomotive. And that would have been the end for them, if this wasn't a manga. So having been semi-posthumously transported to an apartment, along with others in the same situation; they ... are now forced by some giant black ball, to partake in missions and kill random aliens, in what seems to be some kind of sick game.

And that is Gantz in a nutshell... a manga that can be both straight-forward and random. The plot, revolving around people forced into these high mortality mission, is simple at its core and honestly it is a bit too simple that those who yearn for more substance in their reading material, may initially be turned off by Gantz. I know I was and it wasn't until a particular mission that I got completely hooked; onto the graphic, gory, intense, vulgar manga that is Gantz. And since Gantz is so good at grabbing the readers by the balls and never letting go, it can easily get away with having some glaring issues with its story. Like how so often it seems there's little to no direction in the storyline and how readers had to journey through over 30 Volumes, to understand and get some sort of explanation regarding the overall plot of Gantz. Unfortunately the basic reasoning given, simply could not fill up all the plot-holes that were left unattended.

Yet even when littered with the kind of issues that could greatly lower the score of some lesser manga, Gantz still remains as one of my all-time favourites. Kei Kurono is a large factor in all this, which is somewhat remarkable given how much of an annoying prick he is at the start. As the story progresses, so does Kei Kurono, along with a lot of the other characters that aren't basically cannon-fodder. And that is where the mangaka does a good job. In creating perilous situations for these characters to develop and also knowing how important it is to utilize the downtime for some more character development. However even though the mangaka tries to provides us readers with an interesting collection of characters, I can only give him an A-. Simply because a lot of the dialogue he had these characters spew could be mind-numbingly stupid at times.

At least it doesn’t completely affect the overall enjoyment of the manga and it is the artwork that contributes a lot to this. The artwork can be described as a technical masterpiece, since Hiroya Oku does a fantastic job of utilizing 3D renders to create a uniform look to the world. So that both the real life & sci-fi elements look like it's all part of the same manga. Not to forget the attention detail, where even the odd blemish or decapitation looks as though at lot has been put into it. However artwork is largely a subjective matter, so what I like may not be the same as what you like.

In the end Gantz is a violent, gory, lewd but overall an enjoyable manga. However in order to enjoy it, the reader must do one simple thing, turn off their brain and accept Gantz for what it truly is... some lengthy piece of mindless entertainment. Kind of like a Michael Bay movie. If you cannot do that then you simply won't be able to ignore the numerous plot holes and the various plot elements that were shoved in, because Hiroya Oku must have watched some Western Movie/Show, which inspired him at the time (Buffy: The Vampire Slayer & 2012 comes to mind).

Gantz is kind of awesome, but in a weird way. A really weird way. Not "weird" because of any kind of originality, but because of how it manages to be awesome.The plot is extremely lazy with blatant holes throughout. It's mostly about the overblown/unrealistic action, and holy mother of god, is it overblown/unrealistic. Ammo clips are infinite, when actual guns are used. The masses are weak, brainless, and easily influenced cannon fodder, to an absurdly exaggerated degree. "The masses," of course, including just about all side characters. In the world of Gantz, gangsters hang out in toilet stalls and collect people's teeth like baseball cards. ... Characters lose limbs and just joke about it without bleeding to death. At one point, the crew fights off an army of massive evil Buddha statues. No societal or theological commentary there, just shits and giggles.


This was clearly the product of a creative mind, at least at the outset, but a lazy one as well. It falls apart towards the end, it's full of terminated sub-plots and forgotten characters, and it constantly re-writes its own rules. So why was it not bad? Well, it is self-aware to an almost hilarious degree. Okay, it is absolutely to a hilarious degree. I can't imagine Oku (the mangaka) wrote this stuff with a straight face. The aliens are often ridiculously comedic in their odd design, although they got less so as the series went on. They have zero personality besides some funny quirks and rage buttons. Gantz plays with the idea of "hey, what if they're just misunderstood," and then, for the most part, tosses that idea out of the window along with all possible ambiguous morality or subtlety. Gantz first dons a façade of depth via things such as cynicism and death, but it acknowledges this and subverts it over time as if its playing a joke on you. This is actually enjoyable if you have the right attitude and observe it like you would an Ed Wood film or something of that ilk. The amount of tropes it ultimately evokes may be record-setting, and this is, in a way, impressive in and of itself.



Terminated subplots are probably the biggest issue. At one point vampires are introduced. They are never explained, their exact abilities and motives are unclear, they just look like humans, and their whole diabolical vampire organization is forgotten. At one point psychics are introduced. Their abilities are never explained and the limits vary, the origin unclear. Things in this same vein happen again and again throughout the manga. That said, it's somehow a bit refreshing to have a poorly written series that just does not give a fuck about silly little things like "plot," if only in that it harbors no illusion as to its quality and just focuses on delivering good action and fanservice instead. The series is actually near-pure fanservice, in one way or another. At a certain point, if the plot gets bad enough, the author would be better off just not trying anymore. Gantz knows this. It knows where to focus its energy and how to play to its strengths. I wish manga like Bleach were more like that. Hilariously enough, the attitude the mangaka had while writing this manga epitomizes the nihilistic themes surrounding it far better than anything within the work itself.


Unfortunately, the action is marred by inconsistency. Really, the entire manga is, but I think we've established that. The way the weapons and suits work changes inexplicably from chapter to chapter. Hell, even the way Gantz beams people in varies, in more ways than one. Not to mention all of the rules and limits. As the combat lacks proper consistency, it consequently lacks proper tension. It can be pretty entertaining, like some cheap Hollywood popcorn blockbuster, but it doesn't offer much in the way of substance or emotion. Tension is further reduced as more plot points are introduced that make fatal injuries and even death negligible. There is the whole "what if the world is destroyed" thing, but the general populus in Gantz is so stupid that you kind of like it when they die.


The characters are all either one dimensional or they ended up having development that was completely contrary to everything we had learned about them previously. They sometimes work as semi-clunky plot devices, but they are hit or miss overall. Any development they experience is to serve the plot, contrived, and spontaneous. They all invoke the "parents do not exist" trope to some extent, because Oku considered the prospect of writing more characters and was all like "dude, fuck work" and then I imagine he smoked a joint or two and had a marathon Idolm@ster watching session with Kentaro Miura and Yoshihiro Togashi. That said, a lot of the characters do manage to be entertaining, and, due to the high body count, only a few of them overstay their welcome. The few that do, I want to stab, but I also get some kind of masochistic pleasure out of watching them succeed and I imagine Oku bestowed plot armor upon them for this very purpose.


The art is, surprise, surprise: inconsistent. Some faces are far too similar, or just generally not well drawn. Early on especially, they often looked really wonky. Landscapes are usually lackluster in terms of scope, and creativity during battle. I remember in a scene that took place in Italy the art was just chaotically beautiful, and repulsive simultaneously; the atmosphere was incredibly unique as well and I found myself wishing it was like that all the time, but alas, it was not. The different settings were usually not disparate enough, atmospherically. The aliens are mostly creative and detailed, with some exceptions, such as the entire final arc. The action is sometimes a bit hard to follow, but is generally fluid and well executed from panel to panel. The fanservice was generally alright, albeit forced as all hell, but I found myself thinking that Oku believes all titties are identical and are all the size of basketballs. I was gonna fly out to Nippon with my porno collection to teach a nigga about the vast spectrum of areolas and give him a tit diversity tolerance course and shit, but he eventually learned the concept of "DFC" and I was reasonably satisfied.


The rushed ending and drawn-out final arc is where Gantz went completely wrong. Expect to hear a lot of name-yelling by tragically separated lovers, expect the concentration of plot armor to reach unprecedented levels, expect one of the least subtle manga ever to get even less subtle, and expect to watch the only truly interesting character in the series turn into an annoying and generic Hollywood hero. Every single character morphed into a complete cliché, for that matter; even if they were somewhat cliché before, they still had some individuality. In the end, there isn't a single compelling character.


If you want answered questions, then this is not the place to go. The plot points that were resolved (most were not) were all resolved with a ridiculously random deus ex machina evoking the age-old maxims of "it was [more] aliens" and "don't read too much into it." The ending itself is not only a complete shift from everything that came before in the manga, it is completely devoid of all logic to an extent that I had never seen before this manga. Trust me, no exaggeration, wait until you read it.


If you want mindless—and I do mean mindless—action, then you're in luck, because that's all Gantz really delivers on. That said, it delivers on this somewhat well and with a sense of humor. It is actually at its best when it's overblown, unrealistic, exploitative, and absurd. If you go into it knowing what to expect then you should end up enjoying it somewhat. I have to admit, the only other manga this length that I have reread as many times is probably One Piece. The final arc and horrendous ending drag the final product down pretty significantly, but it's still not bad


Additional comments:
I said "Hollywood" three times in this review, but don't get me wrong, it isn't really like any Hollywood film. There are just some similarities in the intent.

If you are looking for a series that is 'good' in any way, i urge you to avoid Gantz like the plague.

I should clarify that i'm not necessarily offended by violence or sex; i'm a huge fan of other violent seinen such as Berserk and Vinland Saga. However, the author's main goal seems to have been to shock the audience as much as possible in order to give the illusion of quality.

In Gantz, people who die are faxed into a room by a black ball that hands out weapons, talks in 'leetspeak', and tells them to kill aliens. That is literally all the ... story you need to know or will be told.

The first 100 or so chapters of Gantz are nothing less than loathsome, and this begins with the characters. The main character Kurano is an unlikable douchenozzle, and that's his only character trait (besides his misogyny, which we'll get to); his friend Masaru is equally shallow but is instead a 'white knight' to contrast with Kurano. The worst example is Kei, whose appearance is as a naked suicide victim and is shamelessly exploited by both the author and by the other characters. Kei is seems more like the author's blow up-doll than an actual character; she is constantly being molested or threatened with rape, and each of the early chapters is preceded by an official drawing of her in an explicit pose.

Characters don't have to be deep for a series to be good, but Gantz goes out of its way to make each character as shallow and unlikable as possible. Most of the minor characters that come to the Gantz room are gang rapists, and the main characters aren't much better. Somewhere around chapter 120 the main cast becomes somewhat interesting and likable, but at that point the series is caught in a vicious cycle between being really dumb and really offensive. The only character with a real arc is Kurano, and it can be summarized by 'got a girlfriend and became slightly less despicable'.

By far the worst part of this series for me was the way the female characters are treated. Even after the 100 chapters of exploiting Kei have ended, each female character introduced after that is completely defined by their crushes or codependency on one of the male characters, who treat them like garbage. This trend only gets worse as the series goes on.

Almost as bad is the relentless, naive cynicism at play. Every person who isn't a main character is portrayed as mean, stupid, and pointlessly cruel, especially the teachers (gives some insight into the author's life, possibly). Horrible things happen in this series for no reason other than to shock the reader. When a mass shooting occurs, it's because the author wanted to draw a bunch of people being machine gunned to death, not for any narrative reason (it is barely mentioned later on). In short, the world of Gantz is one that is frankly not worth saving, and this becomes tiresome to read.

The sole high point of Gantz are some of the intriguingly weird alien designs, especially early on, and the level that the art gets to later on. I personally found the art to be uninteresting, but you can't complain about its overall quality.

Against all of these criticisms, the other nitpicks i have seem irrelevant. The lack of any narrative flow, the poor pacing of each chapter, and the out=of-place story elements (there are vampires and psychics introduced that have nothing to do with the aliens, without any explanation at all).

If you want to read violent schlock, go read Hellsing (which is REALLY GOOD violent schlock). If what i just described sounds like your cup of tea, then god help you. If you like story, character, or investment on the part of the author, then find something else to read.

What can I say about Gantz? This dark seinen has been hailed a masterpiece by some, and utter trash by others. I would say that it is a bit of both, having some extremely good qualities and some glaring flaws which is enough to warrant the hate that it gets. However, it is not a bad manga at all, and I'll do my best to point out its pros and cons.

The thing that really stands out for me in this manga is the level of creativity on display. Seriously. It's goddamned glorious, from monster designs to all the crazy situations our characters find themselves in. ... This is a rare and fascinating glimpse into an extremely inventive mind, and I guarantee you that some of these vivid images will stay with you. Crazy, crazy things happen in this manga that you will not soon forget, and some of the monster designs seen will undoubtedly crop up in your nightmares sometime. It's that remarkable.

Another great strength is the art. A lot of it is done digitally, and this creates a unique feel not seen in many other manga. Environments, faces, monster designs, everything looks pretty amazing, especially towards the end. There is the occasional visual clutter or stuff-up of human proportions, but overall the art is really really great.

I also liked the characters, which is something of a controversial opinion, given that many of the complaints regarding this manga has to do with the characters. Protagonist Kei Kurono is a complete douche-nozzle, but we see him evolve greatly and change as the story goes on, until he's a pretty great dude. Many other douche-bag characters exist, but I believe that these are deliberate social commentaries made by the author. He is trying to bring out the worst in people, highlighting the kind of scum that exists in society. I don't want to bring out any specific examples, but overall the use of characters in this manga is very good.

Now let's get to the story, which is the most bumpy element of this manga. At first, it was amazing. It genuinely felt like a horror to me, with shocking unpredictable moments at every turn. The social commentary was in full swing, and there were plenty of moments of complete badassery. I consider this the best stage of the manga, a kind of social horror that is full of moral choices and dilemmas that make even the reader question their own morality. The social commentary and badassery continue for a long time, but after a while you begin to notice the bad planning of this manga. Many story threads are picked up and then suddenly dropped, creating plot holes and too many unanswered questions. Things are left poorly explained or simply not explained at all. After a while, it feels like the author was really just freestyling the story. Sure, a lot of creativity and badassery remains, but it never recovers fully to the standard of the earlier chapters. I kept reading for the sake of it, frequently getting bored and not feeling the same kind of excitement I did before. Eventually it loses its horror edge and becomes more like a Michael Bay film in the last hundred or so chapters, which allows for some great action but overall is quite dull. Some extremely awesome moments still remain, but you'll likely be yawning frequently, despite the badassery on display. At this point the series has lost it's edge, becoming nothing more than dull gore and occasional sex.

Now don't get me wrong. This is still a great manga. However, given the length and the dullness of the later chapters, it does become kind of hard to recommend. This series contains some of the most awesome, creative monster designs, chaotic, mindblowing situations and really gripping, emotional drama, but it becomes increasingly more 'meh' as the series comes to a close. It's still pretty cool, just nowhere near as gripping as it used to be. Despite ending this review on a quite negative note, the manga's good parts are enough to warrant this a solid 8/10.

This has to be one of the worst storys I've ever read period.

An intresting premise with death and a game to "come back to life". Seems cool right? Think again. This story goes all over the place (like this review will)

First off we get the mc. He's am angsty horny douchebag. People think his charachter is "so realistic" well if I knew anyone like that is tell them to fuck off. A hot girl gives him sex for no reason at all. He litteraly just met her and asked to have sex and next thing you know she loves him. Lol

This story has ... no idea what it's doing. Fight aliens to get points to come back to life? Cool. Wait what is this crow monster? Meh whatever. Wait is this jurrasic park? Eh whatever keep reading. A trex that can breath fireballs? This is fucking ridiculous. Oh now vampires out of the blue? That can see the dead guys? .........

Now we move on to the gadgets. There seems to be no limit to what the gadgets that gantz gives the contestants. Or they're too dumb to figure it out. One guy uses invisibility. No one else does. One guy makes a long sword. No one else does. They didn't dven know there was a lock on button of course until later.

The Charachters are almost all shit. Majority just come in to die I guess to show "danger" but the mc is always safe. Even without his supersuit. More Charachters = more deaths = mature right?!? The girls are all sex dolls apparently. Just there to get horny teenage boys to buy it. Every cover page is a provocative girl

Oh yeah and a guy paints his face to look exactly like a black guy to do a mass killing where apparently he dosent need to reload until after 1000 bullets have been shot. Oh and no one screams or anything when 5 gunshots go off killing 5 people. They just walk right past the guy like nothing happened. Did I mention he made himself fucking black?

This is terrible no offense if you like it but I think we read a different story

Gantz is a masterpiece in my opinion. Even though I love this manga, this manga is definite not for everyone. This manga contain sex scenes, blood, blood and more blood, naked girls/monsters with supernatural and technological twist to everything.
However if you can stand all of the above then, this manga is for you. The manga is about killing aliens with incredible suits, weapon, vehicles and with everything you can think of. The alien are not just standing there doing nothing, the monsters are strong and sometimes, they are way to strong, and makes you wonder if they can be killed or not. From human size ... alien that move an uses crazy fire or thunder power to dinasaurs with thousands of eyes to temple statues.
Gantz is about a ball that save randomly the memory of someone that dies in any particular way and transfer the memory and created a clone and used it to fight the monster. Its like giving you a second chance but with one mission in mind, Kill and Survive.
All the characters that stay long enough all they think is surviving. They all fight to survive not because they are afraid of dying, but because they still have something important to accomplish or they still have someone waiting for them every day or night.

I see Gantz as a test for survival. If you really really cant die now, then you fight, you fight like never before, like there may be no tomorrow for you. You will fight as a team or fight alone, its the same but you should just stay alive for just one more night.

This manga story is very complicated and even though it has +274 chapters, most of the facts around Gantz is still unknown. If you like all of the above, you should give it a try to this masterpiece =P
Oh btw, Gantz starts with a very unliked character but at the same time with a tremendous will to survive.

I'm going to make this short and simple. Gantz is quite questionable and confusing, because it doesn't make sense at all until you keep progressing throughout the story. Gantz is basically a black ball who chooses who he wants to fight for him. The series is not completed therefore many questions are yet to be answered. When the characters die in the anime, the chosen people appear in front of a black ball given a task to assassinate a certain type of alien/leader. They use futuristic motorcycles, to swords, to extreme never- before - seen guns. The setting of this manga is like a ... video game and for every monster you kill the more points you get and the main goal of Gantz is to get 100 points. If they do not complete their task, they lose all their points, or they are all killed. Kurono Kei is the main character and he's selfish and looks down on everybody. Throughout the series he changes and you''ll see him change through drastic experiences. This manga is quite thrilling. The story is intense and makes you want to continue reading on all day. The art is quite interesting and gorey. It has all the elements you could want in a manga. The love stories, action, comedy. The only downfall of this is the way some characters act. If someone were to pop in front of you with a knife with blood covered all over them, you wouldn't just stand there and be like ''Hey why do you look like you want to kill me'' and let them kill you without wanting to avoid the person. Some characters act illogical and seem to have zero common sense. To wrap it up this manga has more to offer then what is written in this review. I suggest you read a volume to figure out whether you would like to continue or not to. I give this manga a 10

Great story, first manga I've been addict too. Good thing about it, is that you cannot predict anything. Some caracter will die, new will come... I always asked myself what else will happen next page. If you want a gore, bloody, nasty manga, this is the one.

Fight, Monster, Sc-Fi, Sex, Blood... and many dead, many many many !!

I start reading after I saw the anime. If you have seen it, the Anime is just a small part of the story, the plot is going much farter. Anime story stop near #5-6... If I remember correctly.

One of the greatest mangas I have ever read, I found gantz to be one of the most outstanding mangas out there. I've never been so hooked on a story ever since Berserk.

Story - I gave Gantz a 9 because the story is just magnificent and very different I mean how many mangas start of with the character dying, but it does have some flaws. One being the beginning of the story to go on a bit slow, but once you get through the first mission the story will get clearer.

Art - The art for Gantz is also one of the best I've seen, the ... characters really look real and the gore is fantastic. Oku has one of the greatest imaginations I've seen from an author, Gantz art is pretty much like Berserk without the medieval theme.

Characters - The characters in Gantz is also one of the best, an example is the mangas protagonist Kurono, in the beginning of the manga Kurono is more like an idiot who cares about nothing but himself, not really the kinda character you'd think to be the main character. Then through out the series we see him develop from a punk into a "hero". One of the bad things about the characters though is Oku tend to kill them off rather quickly though most of em you won't care about some will make you feel rather sad.

I'm not gonna put an enjoyment cause it's pretty much clear I enjoyed this manga and overall Gantz is a great manga that will make you want more.

Gantz is manga's equivalent to the Lost TV show. That's the short version.

If you don't know, Lost was heavily talked about show with a lot of attention and focus on it for five years, many mysteries surrounding it include "Wtf is going on" and at the final season ended, people stopped talking about it, and most people seem to generally dislike the show after that ending. That is the fastest way to describe Gantz...

You're still here, so I guess you want to know more. Well, let's go for the long version... I'm going to avoid as many spoilers as I ... can however Gantz is a 383-chapter journey. It has multiple spin-offs, tons of fans, people who think it's amazing, and... I don't like it.

At least not enough to give it higher than a 5 (maybe a 6), not enough to recommend it, and not enough to think of redemption, and while that sounds fully negative, it's not. There are good points, but in every way Gantz is good, it also finds a way to be bad... I'll attempt to be brief, I won't recount the story, the synopsis and other reviews do that enough, and I won't go deep into the spoilers, because I don't have to. But I do want to start with two interesting admissions from the artist in the omake from early volumes.

Early on in the series, Oku mentions two facts. First, he used 3d modeling software to help him with the art, and because of that, they import the characters to 3d, position them, frame a shot, and then draw it as it is framed. This is an interesting technique and in fact, is probably one of the reasons Gantz was made popular. Gantz constantly has large-scale battles with giant creatures with tons of action and detail. Rather than use an exaggerated action scene like in a typical shonen manga, Gantz can show every attack, blow, and scene of a battle rivaling a full-production live-action movie. The detail of the enemies is amazing and the style can be amazing.

But as I mentioned every good thing ultimately ends up bad, and I feel like the art removed something important from a manga artist's requirements. Gantz has numerous chapters that are just parts of an action scene. 14-18 pages of just action and characters uttering the same thing over and over "Fuh" or "Ha" or showing their exhaustion. Many of these feel empty of real content other than the art, but I could only be more upset about it if I was waiting for that chapter for weeks or reading an entire volume of the manga I paid for with my hard-earned money and that's all that was included in the entire volume, I'd feel more than a little cheated out of it. Luckily it doesn't happen often in a row, but it's still all too common.

The thing is because of the ease of using 3d Modeling for action, much of the action in Gantz is slower and more deliberate but it also means those scenes go on longer because the artist isn't being selective of what he can/wants to slow. Many mangas show a single attack in a panel, but Gantz wants to show every motion of the attack and can take pages or multiple pages for them. There are entire chapters that almost feel like they could be omitted. While the action and visuals ARE amazing, ultimately Gantz tends to err on the side of too much action, and after many chapters of slow pacing in battles, that kind of rubbed me the wrong way. But to be honest, this is probably the strongest part of Gantz, the Art is truly impressive at times, and it's the reason people get excited about the manga. It's just sad that once you step beyond that Gantz feels shallow.

Speaking of it, I didn't mention there was a second piece of an omake that I wanted to reference and that is when Oku mentions he likes drawing sexy women on his title cards, He may have said busty, or some other word, and on its own, I had no problem with this. It's a title card, it's not the story, and many of the women he drew were attractive.

The problem is this is another comment that stuck with me, and by the end of the manga, I asked myself a very simple question. "What did any women in the series do?" There are multiple women, at least 5 that I remember, and sadly they mostly amounted to sex objects. People to have sex with, people to look at, people to barely do anything in the show. There's one major character in the manga that feels like a strong female figure... she even is one of the manga's "Warriors" who fights and I literally can't think of a time that she did fight. Even when she gets a major moment, it's done off-screen. And that's a problem.

While I appreciate the bluntness of the author's admission that he likes to draw women, I question if that's all he thinks of women, because in his work... they are little more than plot devices, and while many will point to the major character... I looked, I waited for her to stand up like all the other characters in the manga, and the fact is I don't feel like she rises to the level that people act like she has. She like many of the background characters are just stand-ins that people can fight around... In fact, that's a common issue. Often, a few characters fight a battle, while the majority of the team stands and watches lifelessly.

With the two major pieces out of the way, I'll go to a bit more of a lighting round. Starting with the fact that if you think you might be offended by that... there's so much more to be offended by. There's an absolutely brutal scene that goes on far longer than it should, that is designed to shock people and terrify people but struggles to do both because it's just blatant and lingering. Gantz tries to do this often, shock the audience, but it comes off more as an "edge lord" trying to get a rise out of people than a necessary part of the story, and often it's done and... immediately hand waved away. There's also a bit of Lolicon baiting late in the series... Again more groan-inducing than rage but I'm someone who enjoyed it, it's just not something that feels right... And this is beyond several horrific violent deaths, though at least those feel like they were pulled off correctly.

Speaking of, the main character in the story is unlikeable, and many people will jump and say "He's not supposed to be"... however I feel like many people see him as having redeemed himself by the end and I find the opposite, he's an unlikable character, but worse when he actually could step up and shine, he instead remains selfish, and even when he does step up, it's far too late, and only because he's forced into. Again, maybe that's the point, but sadly after reading it all, I find it's hard to even be interested in him. And that's before we talk about his main romance and how ultimately uninteresting his paramour is. She is a plot device instead of a character and sadly is around for entirely too long for it.

So with many of the smaller issues out of the way, I guess we come to what I said at the beginning. How is Gantz like Lost?

You see, Gantz is a strange and weird manga. Our main character dies, and instead of being dead, he's teleported to a room with a black sphere we ultimately learn is called Gantz. He and a group of 'players' have to kill an onion alien. They go off, kill him, and then for some reason have to kill a second alien, teleported back to the sphere, graded, and then freed.

Obviously, most people will wonder "What's going on?" or "What's the purpose of all of this?", and at the heart of Gantz is often the mystery of what is going on, who is behind the power, what are the ability, and even is there something greater at play? That's how the manga will leave readers after 20 chapters... More questions will be proposed and the mysteries will tease the reader...

And then the manga answers the questions... Over 300 chapters later. There are no hints, no slight reveals that lead to further questions and no foreshadowing. Even questions of "Who are the targets being killed?" or "Why are there more targets than we expect." are discussed. It's just an unspoken promise that there's a reason for this.

Ultimately the answers for everything come as a rather weak exposition dump in literally a location called the room of truth. It's almost like the artist was forced to give answers, and did it because someone was forcing him to, but it's also done in a way where the characters "Ask questions and get answers" and it's just a recitation of answers to common questions.

However, so many of these answers feel as basic as possible, unsatisfying and blunt, again as if he had to answer these questions for the fan without a desire to. And perhaps worse, so many of these questions lacked answers to the majority of the manga. If the manga was 3 major arcs, the entire middle arc feels out of place and isn't even brought up, and perhaps that answers an important question... One that links back to our omake answers before.

Why does Oku draw big-breasted women? Because he likes to draw big-breasted women. Why did Oyu give special human powers to one of the characters? Because he felt it was cool. Why are there the characters from the second arc? Because it was cool. Why did those characters stop appearing? Because he was bored of them.

Gantz is a manga that was created and popularized because of its art, and style. The characters felt meaningful and the struggle felt real. No one was given plot armor, and there were so many mysteries about what was going on, and why?

And I think I figured out the real answer. "Because it was cool." And "Because it sold comics". That's the why.

The problem is once you realize the story never really wanted to bring together everything that happens into a cohesive story, and it's only bringing in elements to draw interesting art, Gantz falls apart. People will still love it for the art, but even there I don't know if it's truly epic. Some people will enjoy it for the shock value, and that's ok. People claim to have read it four or more times. But I question why?

Gantz is a shallow facade in front of nothing. It's edgy and cool, and mysterious, but ultimately you realize that's all Gantz is. Perhaps that's enough for some people, but if so, my review is probably not for you because I look at manga as an entire concept. I need a purpose to the story and the art and just "Being cool" isn't enough for me. For Gantz, I spent 383 chapters hoping there was a reason I read 383 chapters, and now that I've reached the end I can tell you, there was not.

The worst part is I have gone back and looked at some of the loudest and most positive people who praise Gantz and realized something. Many reviews praise Gantz from people who are not yet done with the story, and suddenly I understood. 200-300 chapters in I too hoped there was an ending that would pay off and thought everything was building to that epic ending.

Now that I'm at the end, I'm here to tell you it wasn't. And if you're chasing a resolution that will hopefully put everything into content, you're better off reading something else. You're probably better off not starting Gantz, unless you're hoping to be built up and let down in the worst possible way. But now I've gone and ruined the question of "Will the story be worth it", haven't I?

And before someone rushes in and says "Well you have to read..." no. You see I've given my time to this already, I've read the main series, a series that has failed to give the answers once, and let me down. Even if there was a complete book of answers in another form of media, it can't fix the original media, nor can it give meaning to what has been proven to be a meaningless grind. I'm done with Gantz, and sadly that may mean I'm done with Oku's work. Hopefully, I'll find purpose in my next choice.

Seeing as most reviews praise Gantz wholeheartedly i find it worthwhile to express my opinion which is different .My review will contain some minor spoilers as i ll need them to make a point for my opinions .

Gantz up to chapter 280 seems like an entirely different manga when compared with what came next .That will be my main point .
Let's take it from the beginning :
The story is a story of horror,mystery,survival and - above all- character development .
And as every story it is mostly dependent on the charm of the characters to be successful-if the characters are unnatural or boring even the best ... story cant make up for it , and in contrast if they are believable and enchanting and fresh even a classical and otherwise overused story becomes equally enchanting .

So !

Enter Gantz
At the first chapters we are introduced to the presumes of the story and the characters that will unravel it.Our protagonist is like nothing you ve ever seen before : he is not a total loser and yet he is a misanthropist-he oozes with contempt for humans in general with a way that is more emotional than logical : he doesn't support misanthropy for the sake of an ideology , he feels it and one could say that even himself isn't entirely conscious of the fact .
He is human , he is one of us , he knows how to love but living in a real world he knows better how to hate and how to become disappointed . He is truly a teenager in a rebellious phase with the true meaning - he is disappointed, alone , conflicted and with a rampaging libido that as is natural to real rebellious teenagers , ignores restrains and ethics if given the chance .
He is a real person and a one of a kind protagonist .
He is jealous of many things and his heroic self-titled friend seems to be like an open wound for him : something that reminds him of himself and of the lofty ideals of childhood .He lusts for a girl that clearly is yet another real person-conflicted,good and evil,painful and harmful and still beautiful .

I have just described the protagonist as he is for at least the first arc , let's take a look on the rest of the cast :
We have the aforementioned girl , who is a great character but unfortunately doesn't stay in the story for long as a main character .The two main characters besides our anti-hero protagonist is his heroic friend and yet another anti-hero , a cool expert on Gatnz warfare and above all a survivor that has experienced Gantz from before the protagonist get's thrown into it .

One quickly learns to identify and love almost every character of the cast and by doing that , experiencing a truly humane experience : the love is human and the good and heroic ideals and morals are human but so is rage,despair,sadness,disappointment and lust and evil .Life is humane but Death is too , even if we would like it otherwise .
And as the story progresses their emotions constantly renew themselves - they outgrow themselves sometimes to overcome challenges while other times they retreat to their fears because of them .
They learn to appreciate life and truly despair about death , they learn their limits and they learn the pleasure of breaking through them .

And then the setting slowly changes along with the characters .I may not be an expert but either the character of the author and his ideals changed with time or some marketing advisers had their say .

Enter Arc Two-Allien Invasion

The story loses much of it's mystery as many things are revealed . The horror continues but on a much grander scale , as whole countries get wiped off the map .The secret survival story turns now to open warfare and battle with the invaders .
Much of the original cast besides the main characters has died and new people have filled the gaps time and time again .

But here is when things went sour : the characters are not themselves anymore .
Up until chapter 380 we will see our anti-social hero becoming yet another knight in shining armor , ready to save his newly acquired damsel in distress , always winning heroically after overcoming huge difficulties .Where did the inner conflicts go , where did the contempt and the rejection of the world ended up to ?I have no idea and obviously neither the characters do .
The only thing that happened in our beloved's anti-hero protagonist life that may have changed him was that he acquired a girlfriend .Now,now a first girlfriend may be a major event in every mans life but what we see isnt actually the protagonist we knew effected by his girlfriend : it is someone of the much overused characters from industrial Anime-not even manga- that is overpowered , deeply troubled and saddened by the world yet eager to serve and protect everyone , cool and dressed in black , faithful beyond comparison to his love and unbeatable ( except when it gives a chance for his damsel to save him , thus proving once more her love to him )
And what about the other main characters of the cast you say ?Well as i already told you the most interesting girl that appeared since the beginning , the one that preferred the protagonist friend instead of him , is out long ago .
The cool and expert warrior/survivalist is shown to be completely stupid and week , revealing his characters in his last moments as a truly lame and powerless child - a change of character that really surprised me since he was build as the cold and cautious murderer type for all the past story .And it was a bad surprise .
Finally the only one to remain somewhat faithful to himself is the heroic friend of the protagonist that still appears as a hero - only this time he is more of a sidekick or the hero of a minor plot line if compared to the truly epic feats of the incredible and godly reborn protagonist .

And finally - the author makes some very sad attempts to fill the gap caused by the lack of character consistency with some pseudo-philosophical touches that literally would have maked the original protagonist beat himself ( and probably the author) up if he could .
Plus there was a plot line about the brother of the protagonist being a vampire or something that gets completely forgotten for the time being - he doesn't appear EVER again , something that makes him look like he was from some filler chapter/episode that an assistant came up with because the author was sick in a hospital in the meantime .
The only thing that improved in the second arc of the manga was the background art , with grand scenes of carnage and technological sci-fi environments.But i suspect that could mainly attributed to the money spent on assistants and not on the author or anyone else .



To sum it up i ve got to say that Gantz is a truly unique manga and it is worth reading .It is good and that is a fact .
The reason i am disappointed is because it started out (and continued for quite some time ) as a masterpiece .
There are really few manga that can compete with the first arc of it and even if you take the second arc as a given , it still remains a good manga .Just be prepared for the second arc - who knows depending on what you like you may even like it more than the first .
But that was surely not the case for me .

Story: 4
The story revolves around these 2 kids who faced a unfortunate mishap in the train station, but the story as a whole moves from arc to arc without never getting the feeling of any real progression. In short you wont be reading Gantz for its story.

Art: 8
The art is pretty good, When i first saw this my thoughts where "WHOA I CANT BELIEVE SOMEONE HAVE THE TALENT TO DRAW SUCH DETAILED LOCATIONS BY HAND" The characters, guts & gore, boobs & muscle tone are well detailed. It'll leave you in Awe at times. But my only gripe is it was not drawn by ... hand.

Characters: 4
Characters Gantz are very typical. the main character Kei is feels somewhat like a Shonen main character his past shows how good he was @ things when he was younger & his over fearlessness gave me the overall Shonen vibe. The only reason he isn't one to the core is because it is a Seinen manga so the character can change @ any given point in time & can be put in a endless amount of traumatic experiences then other Shonen characters.
Theres also generic character archetypes in this series. The quiet strong guy, cute popular girl (In this case famous) the wimps the scheming characters & so on. Characters in this series are not a breed apart & can be seen in many other series.

Enjoyment: 7
If you can stomach half of the gore nudity and other strong content in this series its rather easy to get into. Most of the chapters can be read in 3-5 minutes because the pages don't have to much dialog and the pictures are just eye candy. The down side is you cant stay emotionally attached to the supporting characters because there most likely going to get killed off. The amount of fan service is endless i mean boobs is cool every once in a while but this series has it like every other page and it gets old quick, if i wanted to see boobs ill just watch pronz.

Overall:6
Gantz is a good series if you want a quick fix of mindless fun.

I've been reading Gantz for the past 2.5-3 years and finally on aug 9 2013, a week after my birthday, I've completed reading this amazing series. I've at least read the first 200 chapters three times over and I still love it just as much as the first time going through.

My biggest take from the manga is the character development. I feel like I grew onto the characters. Each character, good or bad, has their own distinct features that make a lasting impression and make me feel like I'm reading an original masterpiece. As soon as you cling on to a character and you appreciate ... who they are, suddenly they die or another plot twist takes you down the roller-coaster, taking you up and down, rising climax after one another almost like a rush. I want more, to the point that I catch myself reading consecutive chapters until I become too tired to go on. THAT is what I rate as a 10 manga.

The only downside to such a long series, like many other long series, is consistency. The story has multiple arcs, each with its own lil theme but the arcs don't tie into each other very well. It's not like One Piece where it's well thought out from the beginning and EVERYTHING is meticulously placed giving you hints from the beginning to future events. It's barely a complaint in my opinion, no series is perfectly great. Even One Piece has its flaws considering it's a benchmark of story-line lineage.

Gantz

- A story about a horny teenager.


Upon reading the first pages of this manga, many people would consider Gantz's story, to be a simple and straightforward one. A tale about Kurono Kei, a horny teenager, that is selfish, self centered and obsessed with sex, and big breasted women.
That is until he dies, gets revived, and forced to partake in a alien killing death match, with futuristic suits and weapons. From that point on the reader starts to understand that Gantz story is nothing but straightforward.


Story: 9
...
One of the things that i like the most in manga, it's how a story is focused on it's key elements, but still offers something for everyone. And Gantz does just that, while you could read just for the action scenes, which are great, Gantz is much more than mindless fights.
In fact if someone were to ask what exactly is Gantz, a complete answer would be something like : it's a Psychological, survival-horror, action/gore, seinen, etchi, drama, slice of life, Sci-Fi, Supernatural, romance story. And Gantz really is all that
While might be confusing at first, Hiroya Oku does a great job at putting more and more elements to the story, at a comfortable pace, giving you a feeling that it's continually growing, but without breaking immersion.

That growth means that you keep getting more and more hooked into the story and the fate of it's many characters.
In fact if there's a "but" to Gantz story, it's how it normally gives you a question and answers with another question, almost like watching a episode of "Lost".By the end of several volumes, you still won't know what exactly is Gantz, who's that guy inside it, why it can revive people, why does it make people fight aliens, where the hell those aliens came from and why are they in Tokyo.

In the end, Gantz, is about survival. How people behave and react in extreme situations, and their ability to continue to live their lives and build "normal" relationships, despite all the death and destruction they have to endure in every hunt.


Characters: 8

One of the things that set's Gantz apart from other manga, it's how almost every single characters dies, and that no one is safe in the world of Gantz not even the main characters.

This element means that you never know who's going to die, so having good characters that will not easily be forgotten, becomes very important. And in that aspect Oku delivers, while not perfect, every character have completely different personalities, and personal dramas behind them, always giving them a sense of purpose and importance.
While some characters are just despicable, other are simply psychopaths, while some live only to fight, other live only to rape, and so on. Of course there is the good and pure characters, but Oku's specialty really is with extreme deviant behavior.

In general the cast of characters, is complex and diverse, which is great, the main problem is that some secondary characters that get sent to Gantz, always come from the same formula of psychopaths, sadists and rapists. In fact most of the people in the world of Gantz are very negative, cruel and evil. While it does show how many people really are in reality, sometimes it seems Oku does it simply as a gimmick.
Another minor thing that bothered me, it's how some characters almost look the same, similar faces with only slightly different hair, while others look completely different, which can make for confusing scenes.


Art: 9

The art in Gantz is very detailed, with great action scenes, while it might not compete with, berserk or kuroshia ichi, it's still very good.

In fact if there's a problem with Gantz art is that Oku uses CGI, in almost everything, from characters to scenarios, to the weapons, the suits, and the special abilities of the aliens. All of this is made with or with the help of CGI, so Gantz art really is a double edge sword, for the most part i like it, and it doesn't bother me. But for some other elements, i would have preferred a more "classical" approach, since some times it's just to much CGI in just one scene.




Fan Service: 9

Even thou Gantz is mainly more drama, than exactly comedy, it does have comic reliefs, normaly in simple and dry dark comedy, involving either sadistic killings or as in most of the time sex. That's right, Gantz has a lot of fan service, and when i say a lot, i mean that almost every chapter comes with some hot, nude, big breasted young woman, doing sexy poses.
Which normally is fun and serves, to lighten the more chaotic and violent scenes, the problem is that sometimes is just too much and can get silly.

To give you an idea, 9 out of every 10 women in Gantz not also are hot, they all share the huge breasts gene, and sooner or later you will see them naked and having sex with someone.
So you might think that, hot women and sex is great Fan-service . There is, until you see a guy having sex with an alien in a middle of a battlefield while his friends are getting killed.

And finally ,to show you that Oku really takes his Fan-service seriously,as he realized he was upsetting the lolicon's , Oku made a lolita as a main character, and of course she will appear naked and have her very own sex scenes.
XD (lol)

Enjoyment: 9

In a word, "addictive", not many manga kept me , devouring every chapter and volume, until there was no more to read. Having read 31 volumes in 2 days, not also means that a have a lot of free time, it also means that Gantz became one of my favorite maga in just two days.
If there's one thing that made my enjoyment a 9 instead of a 10, was that Oku's along with other seinen,/gore manga authors overuses certain elements, like extreme violence/gore, sex and rape just for shock value, or silly fan-service, which after awhile can becomes almost routine,
Apart from that, Gantz is overall a great experience, that delivers in almost every aspect.

Overall: 9

Anime/Manga have a lot of genres, but the more prevalent ones (at least for westerners) are the battle shounens and the slice-of-life's. Said that, another pretty important genre is the seinen, marketed to older men and can even feature gore and more sexual elements. One of the most famous manga of the genre is, without a doubt, Gantz.

Gantz began serialization in 2000 and finished in 2013. It has 383 chapters and was created, written and illustrated by Hiroya Oku, who had previously created Hen and Zero One.

In the start, Gantz has an unusual and (mostly) unpredictable story. The protagonist is not your usual hero and ... the action is pretty well-thought. An atmosphere of sadness and uneasiness surrounds every interaction of the cast. The ambiance is dark. but natural. The characters die, but it rarely feels forced. But this only characterises most of the first part.

Thing start to go downhill when the vampires are introduced (yes, there also are vampires), and it only gets worse in the second part. The protagonist becomes a regular hero, a knight in shining armor, if you will. The atmosphere becomes just a whole lot of crazy with no clear sense of identity. The new characters are instantly hateable and die as soon as they are introduced.

The conclusion actually goes against everything shown during the rest of the manga. It just so boringly predictable you would have thought it was taken from one of the hundreds of generic battle shounens that already exist.

But the one thing that really annoyed me was how the shocking moments were all ridiculously forced and there just to shock, with no logic reasoning behind it. The design of the aliens becomes progressively crazier and more explicit and the gore reaches insane levels. The shocks eventually become just a laughable attempt to make the reader uncomfortable.

To make matters worse, the second part tries to be philosophical. That is, only tries, but never accomplishes to do it in an interesting way. The approach is simply just too on-the-face to make it work. Also, it is hard to be philosophical when it also includes casual nudity, insane amounts of gore and nonsensical imagery only there to shock.

Kei Kurono is the only truly interesting character in the gigantic cast between main characters and supporting members. The only one who truly presents a conflicting personality and evolves during the course of the series. The rest is all boring archetypes that are there either to die or to fall in love with the protagonist, most of the times. There were two particular girls who were crazy about Kei and constantly repeated the now-hated phrase: "Kei-chan! Kei-chan! Kei-chan!!! ...". You will be surprised by how much that you will dread this phrase, that is, if you get there.

If there is one thing that Gantz excels in is the action. Intelligent and unpredictable, the fights have a real sense of danger and intensity that is not accomplished everyday. It is pretty gore-intesive, but that is to be expected from the genre. Whenever the characters use swords, the intensity receives an impressive boost, and so does the sense of speed.

A huge part of that is the unusual art. Its process is also quite unique: after the initial story board, Hiroya Oka and his team creat a 3D representation of the scene in the computer, print it and draw over it. This creates a very particular style that is instantly recognizable, if a bit unnatural. This highly influences the design of everything from the humans to the aliens. Despite the lack of liveliness in the art, this not only fits the atmosphere of the manga, but also enhances it.

Even after all that, I still managed to enjoy Gantz. Its action managed to keep me interested enough and it first part was not only enticing, but also highly entertaining. I even enjoyed a bit reading the second part, in a glorious trainwreck kind of way.

Gantz has a great start and an incredible first part, but, sadly, the second part can't hold a candle to the rest. My advice, read the first part and then just drop Gantz. It is not worth reading the second one.

Fans of seinen manga should give it a try, as it pretty important for the genre. If you are looking for an unusual story, this manga will probably interest you.

PT - BR
A obra promete muito incialmente, mas é só algo repleto de sexualização das mais baratas e parca reflexão que o mangá proporciona é ofuscada pelo alto número de desfoques que o autor faz ao leitor: sexo e nudez a todo momento, violência gratuita e personagens mal trabalhados, o tempo todo! A arte é até diferenciada(creio que o autor inverta algumas cores usuais(o que é branco fica preto e vice-versa). A explicação de como tudo acontece é fraquíssima e é apresentada em "poucas pinceladas", enfraquecendo ainda mais um enredo que prometeu muito e não cumpriu. O final é extremamente arrastado e seco. Fuja ... deste embuste, não acredite nas altas notas dadas a esta obra. Nem tudo que é altamente graduado pela massa, é bom(geralmente é o contrário, certo?)

EN - US(from Google Translator)
The manga promises a lot initially, but it's just something full of sexualization of the cheapest and little reflection that the manga provides is overshadowed by the high number of blurs that the author does to the reader: sex and nudity at all times, gratuitous violence and poorly crafted characters , all the time! The art is even different (I believe that the author inverts some of the usual colors (what is white becomes black and vice versa). The explanation of how everything happens is very weak and is presented in "a few strokes", further weakening a plot that promised a lot and didn't deliver. The ending is extremely drawn out and dry. Run away from this hoax, don't believe the high marks given to this work. Not everything that is highly graded by mass is good (usually it's the opposite, right?)

A manga masterpiece and quite possibly Oku's Magnum Opus. Sort of blown away by finally finishing this manga, so I'll just share my input on what I found amazing.

The technical skill in the art here far outsripts many things that i've seen. I can't imagine how much work it would take for the artist to make something. As always, story comes first when enjoying something in art, but the effort that this man put into this can absolutely not be denied. Fantastic.

The manga has 3 major arcs, and they truly, truly up the scale and almost change the whole landscape of the manga. 3 phases ... of Gantz, and you find yourself upgrading from a close-knit survival sci-fi horror to something more, something greater.

The cynical and no-nonsense portrayal of humans in a tough situation is interesting to see. I hate cynicism, but you can't deny the truths he's trying to show, and it makes it all the more interesting because Koruno Kei at a first glance is such a pathetic main character, and so very much human.

This is undoubtedly what you'd call an 'r18' work, but I'd rather call it undiluted.

The story does indeed take a long time to switch between phases, but from the get go (perhaps first two volumes) if you're not hooked by the art and the development of the situation then this is not for you.

An amazing piece of work from Hiroya Oku, I hope to see some more spin-offs from this work (anime adaptation, movies) and especially more work from Hiroya Oku. This is the kind of manga you finish and applaud at.

What is a good attention grabber to immerse the reader into the story? Gantz, like Yu Yu Hakusho, starts out with the main character getting killed. Kei Kurono and his childhood friend Masaro Katou are run over by a train and are iinstantly transported into a war zone where people are violently slaughtered by strange aliens.

The man who wrote this story, Hiroya Oku, is truly a genius, as he heavily immerses the reader into a breathtaking story. Whenever I read Gantz or any of his other works like Hen, I find myself unable to stop reading. Gantz has an amazing story and is very unpredictable, ... as characters you bond with can be killed at any moment. This manga is still ongoing and I have yet to witness the closure to this manga.

The art is one of my favorite aspect of Gantz. The weapons, the armor, and the vehicles are completely original and add depth to the story. The aliens, likewise, are completely innovative and have intricate designs. This show has tons of gore and sex, yet none of it seems disgusting or repulsive and actually adds to the story.

There are a lot of interesting characters to be found in this manga. Kei Kurono, the protagonist, starts out as a pessimistic and horny high school student who only sees the negative in society. As he fights in more battles, he transforms into a hero who values human life, but is not blinded by justice, like his friend Katou (who has trouble even fighting the aliens). Other characters, like Nishi and Izumi, tend to be a lot darker (antiheroes), yet I found myself cheering for them.

Overall, this manga is a masterpiece and anyone who wants to read a great and original story, should give Gantz a try. The amount of gore and sex scenes can put off some people, but it really isn't that bad. This is one of my all time favorite mangas, so give it a try!

First off, let me start by saying that I believe the manga should have two reviews: A review for the story up to about chapter 280, and a review for the rest up to 383.

Up to between chapters 280 and 300, I'd give the manga a fantastic rating. The art is good, the plot is good, character development is good. It keeps me entertained and wanting more. Then it falls off a cliff. Between chapter 280-300, or maybe even the start of the final (3rd) phase, it feels like the author just wanted it to end. He also seemed to force the romance between ... the main character, Kurono, and his girlfriend Tae, even though the vast majority of fans (including myself) despised this as it detracted from the plot. In fact, the entire final phase (the final invasion) is simply to get Tae back - forget his missions, the Earth, and all of the other people he loves, he just has to save Tae!

But the worst part, which is what utterly ruins the grade of this manga, is the ending. The final chapter (named The Final Chapter) is a short than normal chapter, and answers few if any questions. For those that have seen the anime, I would compare it to to the anime's ending if not worse. The author goes from the final battle to the end of the manga in half of a chapter, a quarter of which is simply crowds cheering and Tae crying.

Overall, if you're ok with an absolutely abysmal ending then this is a great manga. I would argue it should have ended after the Osaka arc, which would have been a great ending albeit still with questions unanswered.