Gantz Anime

Gantz (Gantsu) is a manga and anime series created by Hiroya Oku. Gantz tells the story about a teenager named Kei Kurono who dies in a train accident and becomes part of a semi-posthumous "game" in which he and several other people who have recently died are forced to hunt down and kill aliens - the missions in which they take place are often dangerous, and very few members of the team survive (only to be replaced by others who have recently died). The Gantz anime ran for 13 episodes and had a direct sequel called Gantz Second Stage, which continued the series for another 13 episodes. Both seasons make up the 26 episode series. It was licensed in North America by ADV Films. The anime series is distributed in Australia by Madman Entertainment. Though the manga has no license in the U.S., scanlation groups have released all chapters to date, over the Internet.

Gantz Latest News

Vos mangas SEINEN préférés
GamerZ.be
Par contre, j'ai un peu plus de mal avec les shonens (en manga, je trouve que tout ce qui est action passe mieux en anime, mais c'est personnel). Excepté certains que je qualifierais de "A la lisière", comme Death Note entre autres.

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The Fandom Post

'Gantz' Creator Wants Ending in 2012
The Fandom Post
The series has proven to be exceptionally popular over the years as it was adapted into a two season anime series first by ADV Films and then by FUNimation that in the US sold nearly 200000 copies and it was also adapted into a pair of live action ...

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Anime Boston 2012 announces first round of guests
Crunchyroll News
His first project at studio was the hit anime musical comedy The Nerima Daikon Brothers. His other voice acting roles are Kei Kourono in Gantz, Suitengu in Speed Grapher, Von Kampher in Trinity Blood, Hayashimizu in Full Metal Panic? ...

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Capsule Computers

Gantz manga is at it's end
Capsule Computers
Back in 2000, the debut Gantz manga was released in an issue of Young Jump, and the 33rd manga volume will ship in Japan next month. The manga also inspired a television anime series animated by Gonzo as well as two live-action movies. ...

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Gantz Anime

The Gantz anime is divided into two seasons: (1) the first season is known as "The First Stage" and (2) the second season is known as "The Second Stage", which is a direct continuation of the first season. The Gantz anime is often criticised for its ending and pacing problems. The anime was made while the manga was still in early production, and so the anime version had to improvise its own stories and stretch out the pacing (in the hope that more manga volumes would be released by the time the anime caught up to it) - consequently, the anime's ending took place after the Buddhist Temple mission, where the Shorty (or Chibi) Alien mission took place in the manga. Many fans felt that the anime's ending was rushed.

Gantz Manga

Gantz is still ongoing, being serialized in Shueisha's Young Jump. Gantz currently has 237 chapters out. The manga is better-received than the anime, and has more content and stories than its counterpart. The manga's art was created by using a technique that combines CG backgrounds with hand-drawn characters, and is also used in the Gantz anime counterpart. The manga has not been licensed in America.

Currently Gantz manga is put on a hold, with chapter 237 ending "Phase 1". Gantz is set to start again in Japan with "Phase 2" on November 22nd, 2006.

Gantz Plot

Beginning

The story begins with a pair of high school students (Kei Kurono and Masaru Kato) who are both run over by a subway train after saving the life of a homeless drunk who had fallen onto the tracks. Following their untimely deaths, they find themselves transported�alive and well�to the interior of an unfurnished Tokyo condominium, from which the Tokyo Tower may be seen, with a number of people who have also just died. At one end of the room is a featureless black sphere we later learn is called "GANTZ". By way of green text that appears on the surface of the sphere, GANTZ informs those present that their lives have ended. The following words appear on the black sphere's surface: "Your lives are ended. What you do with your new lives is entirely up to me. That�s the theory, anyway." The ADV translations have it as "Your lives are over, you bastards. What you do with your new lives are entirely up to me. So there you have it." This translation makes GANTZ seem a bit more controlling. The sphere then opens up (its openining indicated by means of music - a postwar Japanese exercise radio program to be precise) to reveal suits that amplify strength, speed, and have various powers. Along with the suits are various high-tech weapons with different uses for different situations. Next, information on the target aliens appear on the surface of the sphere, shortly before the Gantz Team are transported to the location of the mission.

In addition to the weapons, suits, and scanners, Gantz holds what appears to a muscular bald man on life support in the center of the ball. Who this man is is never revealed, but there has been no small amount of implication that he is in some way responsible for the running of the game, selecting players, scoring the individual players' performance, and monitoring the team both during missions and during the 'off hours' in between.

The Rules of the Game

GANTZ forces them to participate in what at first appears to be a reality game show, in which they hunt aliens who are secretly living among us. GANTZ provides them with strength enhancing-skinsuits, guns, and radar. Each participant has a miniature explosive implanted in their brains that prevents them from wandering outside the designated area, much like the explosive collars in the series Battle Royale. The designated area is roughly one square kilometer; if the participants cross this boundary or tell anyone of the secrets of GANTZ and the apartment, the explosive will detonate. Curiously, it appears that this trigger only works when the player talks to someone about it, as Nishi developed a web site with written reports of his missions and apparently no harm was done to him because of it.

Those who are killed by the aliens die for good. If they manage to survive the mission, however, they return to the room in perfect health (even if they were nearly dead, missing limbs, etc). GANTZ then tallies individual scores based on kills and sets them free, only to have them return to play another time. Points are awarded both according to the number of kills achieved by the player and by the equipment used by the player. On two occasions, Kei Kurono is forced to fight without his Gantz Suit. On both such occasions, he earned a large number of points, causing some to assert that kills made while suit-less are worth double points. Some also believe that the live capture of an alien is worth the same as a kill, although there it has been implied in both the manga and the anime that the point reward for a capture is worth less.

Those who manage to accumulate 100 points are given one of three choices:

In the event that the one-hour mission duration is reached without all targets being eliminated, all of a player's points are revoked and he goes back to zero (as happened to Kurono in the Chibi Seijin mission). Prior to this the players had assumed that failing to complete the mission in the time allotted would result in the immediate death of the entire team. The following mission, Kurono was informed by Gantz (who addressed him by name) that if he did not achieve 15 points in the current mission that he would be killed.

It is not known for sure if this 15 point requirement is a hard and fast rule, since some missions do not appear to have 15 total available points to be earned, but it seems pretty clear that this was a penalty imposed by Gantz for Kurono's failure the previous round.

Perhaps the most important thing to note about the rules of Gantz's deadly game is that none of the rules are actually explicitly given to the players, with the exception of the 100 point menu, which is either given automatically when a player reaches or exceeds 100 points, or is requested by a player, and the 15-point requirement given to Kurono at the start of the Kappe Seijin mission. In every other case the players have learned of their rewards and penalties only after they have been earned.

Instead of being given any training or a list of rules, the participants are simply told to kill their target, and are only shown one or two enemies that are not representative of the full compliment of their opponents. They are not given any useful information on their enemies' capabilities or weaknesses, or the number of enemies to expect. Unfortunately for the players, the rules of the game (as well as the capabilities of the suits, the use of the weapons, and the scoring system) are learned by one of two ways: either by institutional memory (i.e. a veteran explaining to a newcomer how the game works), or by trial and error, the latter usually resulting in the death of one or more players. In the days before the beginning of the series when Nishi was the only surviving veteran, the newcomers were forced to rely solely on trial and error; the result-- as Nishi indicated following the Negi Seijin mission-- was that Kurono, Kato, and Kishimoto were the only other people to survive to the end of a single mission in "a long time".

The end result is that the newcomers are entirely dependent on the goodwill of the veterans for crucial information that may be their only hope of survival; in the hypothetical event that the entire compliment of veterans is wiped out, any future group of newcomers would be almost completely at the mercy of their enemies. Without the knowledge of a veteran to help the newcomers, we are left to wonder how many months or years it would take before a single person capable of surviving on sheer instinct and luck might come along. We are also left to wonder how long after the original inception of Gantz's "game" it took before anyone survived to teach his successors and build a team.

Development

The series introduces new characters constantly and most of them are killed off just as quickly, though a stable cast has begun to form. As the series progresses, the viewers are left to ponder what GANTZ is and how it is able to provide the characters with such fantastic weaponry and technology. This along with questions (such as who the aliens are or even if they are pure evil) are still unanswered.

Later in the manga, most of GANTZ's participants have obtained over 100 points and many used their points to revive various fallen persons, like Tae Kojima and Masaru Kato. Kei Kurono, however, was convinced by his comrades and Kato to use his points to set himself free and had his memory erased. Kurono is now back to his usual self, before he met GANTZ. Ironically, however, Kurono stumbles upon various clues of his past life (like Izumi did previously before coming to GANTZ a second time) such as photographs of him and Tae and rumors of him going out with Reika. These forgotten memories begin to haunt him immediately after his return.

It is later confirmed in the manga that GANTZ teams of other nationalities exist in the world. It is stated in Issue 229 in a dialogue between Izumi and Nishi when the latter asks if they should leave it to the other countries, with Izumi answering that he wants to show the world Japan's greatness. There also may be a central sphere located in Germany, but nearly all information regarding it is still in speculation.

Influences

The last episode pays homage to a scene in the classic anime Cowboy Bebop. When Kei Kurono raises his hand in the shape of a gun and says "BANG".

The Future

In chapter 237 it was announced that the first phase of the manga was completed and future chapters will start only in November 22, 2006. This new arc is named "GANTZ 2nd Phase: Catastrophe". Apparently the initial focus of the series will be at Masaru Kato and his struggle to survive the Gantz game, as the main character from the previous arc, Kei Kurono, is now deceased. There is a possibility that Kurono will be later reintroduced to the story as in a preview of this new phase, there is a panel where Kato swears to bring him back at any costs. However, the girl who's in love with Kato is also named Kei. Kei Kishimoto was killed during the Buddha Temple mission, and Kato had sworn that he would bring her back at all costs. The only piece of information that seems to distinguish who Kato is looking to revive is his use of the name 'Kei-Chan' - the nickname he has had for Kei Kurono since they were children.

Gantz Targets

In each mission, Gantz informs the Hunters about the current target which has to be hunted. This information include an image of the target as well as its characteristics, things it likes, and favorite quotes. Most of the time, Gantz doesn't give the whole information because almost always the "boss" is not the original target or there are more than one specimen for each class. While in the anime version, there are four targets including a "Kurono alien" (after The Buddhist Temple Aliens mission), until this moment, there have been eight different targets in the manga:

Also, there is a Panel at one Point in the Manga showing the severed heads of several Ogre-like Aliens (a previous mission target) and in the preview for 2nd phase, the face of a sharp-toothed monster (presumably an Alien) is show as saying, "Your eyes look soft..and your brain looks delicious..." while a panicked-looking face of a man in the panel closest to it shouts, "No! No!". Apparently, these cannibalistic Aliens could be the first villains faced in Second phase.

Gantz Video Game

On March 2005, Konami published a game based on Gantz series for PlayStation 2. It was named simply as GANTZ: THE GAME.

Gantz Latest News

Gantz Anime

Gantz Manga

Gantz Plot

Beginning

The Rules of the Game

Development

Influences

The Future

Gantz Targets

Gantz Video Game

Gantz Trivia