Gantz

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 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 one 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 can't make up for it. In contrast, if they are believable and enchanting and fresh, even a classical and otherwise overused story becomes equally enchanting.

So!

Enter Gantz

In the first chapters, we are introduced to the premises 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, yet he is a misanthropist. He oozes with contempt for humans in general in 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 restraints 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 who 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 at 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 are his heroic friend and yet another anti-hero, a cool expert on Gantz warfare, and above all, a survivor who has experienced Gantz from before the protagonist gets 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 - Alien Invasion

The story loses much of its 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 end up? I have no idea, and obviously, neither do the characters.

The only thing that happened in our beloved anti-hero protagonist's life that may have changed him was that he acquired a girlfriend. Now, a first girlfriend may be a major event in every man's life, but what we see isn't actually the protagonist we knew affected 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 who preferred the protagonist's friend instead of him, is out long ago.

The cool and expert warrior/survivalist is shown to be completely stupid and weak, revealing his character in his last moments as a truly lame and powerless child - a change of character that really surprised me since he was built 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 made the original protagonist beat himself (and probably the author) up if he could.

Plus there was a plotline 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 be 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.

It contains spoilers. Why, what did you expect? You can't make a nuclear destructive criticism without proof. Series commit genocide against them is right and necessary.

Start fast because I die in my own bile. Gantz is a work overrated..... BUT AS YOU SAY PORQUEeEee OH GREAT THING GIROGE?

For those who know animuz, my assertion cares an egg. For those who enjoyed something related to it, perhaps they are in d u d a.

To make it practical, I will say that print has each arc.

Phase 1. Introduction. It shows that the protagonist is a cynical guy, then brings him the obvious counterpart: a friend of the past willing to help anyone in need. We move with the black dial, and the pillar of the story is set: we have this group of people now being controlled by an omnipotent apparent that forces them to fight epic battles for no apparent reason.

Kei Kurono, Kato Masaru, Kei Kishimoto, Nishi and appear to be good for this. Others just die in dramatic and bloody ways.

Fight with scallions. Useful and necessary. Advances the plot and it is revealed that there are clones.

Fight bird child. Shows a tiny development in our characters. Now we have the question of how Nishi is apparently a fanboy great connoisseur of Gantz. Also, they mention: the battle gear cannot be seen by many people outside the game.

Buddhist temple. One of the most dramatic battles, as many characters die and potential Kurono inspiration. He now he is bordered to live with this new trauma.

Kishimoto died and was not resolved as the clones work, if you can recover your place, and whether Gantz is so powerful as to create humans at will, or take them out of the other side (Wed Thu its asterisk perhaps) is more, the clones are human?

Mini introduction of superhumans. For some reason nothing came Ichigo's father and Cherry (sadboy you want suizidarks but canceling all because it invites telekinesis one way with ugly glasses).

Kei fights alone. Here our story progresses to a point where it seems that Kei acquires more enemies are not only the aliens. We do not say that penalizes Gantz (being an active player) to transmit its existence through writing. Another thing that makes us nervous is that the aliens now emerging from the exclusive view of the gantzers to attack in normal soil, where any human being sees them and gets hurt, does this is a harbinger of the growth of an imminent threat? Introducing... Izumi and girlfriend girlfriend... just not excited then it gets intense.

The famous massacre occurs in the center of the city. Not much more than to kill the aforementioned and superhumans ps go so organically Gantz.

Fight Jurassic Park. Something long and centered to be Kei as the badass here. The same was presented in previous battles, but less in others we were given crumbs of the mysteries we put to the beginning of the story. Only the end shown us that a mysterious sect has come to fuck the situation a little more. Introduction of Reika.

James bigs fight against Baxter. Nothing major, just, is revealed to take pictures also affects participants, as evidence leaves you in the normal world and die at that moment.

We want to kill Tae (swallowed). I do not see how useful this arc is to the same as above. The downside to this is that it is just illogical drama. Drama because they kill Kurono's girlfriend (if I wanted to mourn this did not work). Illogical because:

While Tae had a photo of a photo Gantzer, the involved died, she did not pass anything because she should not participate in the game.

Ok, she has already seen the suit Kei (wtf is that was not supposed rules), and now with this picture she could relate more things, however Kurono who would die. Since she is the one who revealed to him in a way to Tae the existence of Gantz.

In fact the battle with the Bojacks was drawn just for that: "UHHH MATEM0Z A SAD, BUT THERE IS A REASON TO GIVE K K CEA Orgániko SISISIS"

Oni fight with the alien. This battle has just a slow pace (lasting many chapters), but the least significant progress brings us to the end: the resurrection of Kato and Nishi. Kurono is back to normal, which means we the problem: KEI RETURNS Mammon. The aforementioned aliens and are shown to us again. Will they be perhaps a potential threat? For just paint it (since they have taken the trouble to give them a place in history. Weon already so we told the brother Kurono belongs to them).

The Battle of Osaka. For many: the host. For me: I got bored.

Nada, a lengthy battle where focus much in characters that do not interest us, they do not reveal anything outstanding for the plot. Kurono's brother, in his desire to catch the gantzers, ends up joining them; Long story that doesn't matter.

Another thing: the gantzers because: EGGS, they became visible to the public... hehehe now if Tae's death was useless.

Mini battle in Rome. We have visually reached the beginning of the end. You have a graphically violent battle. It works because luckily it's short. The truth serves to: really show us strong enemies to the point of being terrifyingly indestructible, that and sweep members of Gantz who no longer contributed physically or argumentatively XD

We see how Gantz has stopped working, to also announce the soon arrival of the end of the world. And for those who are wondering, why if clone Kei is a CLON did he come back with memories of Gantz and clone Kishimoto didn't? It's because, precisely one was a Gantz product specially created for that, and the clone Kurono was a resurrection. It's the most logical, I suppose.

The catastrophe. We have reached the final arcus.

Interestingly, it begins with a mini-resolution of what Gantz is: a machine created to prevent invasions, invasions predicted by the deformed otacahiperconsumista daughter of a millionaire. They are made in Europe and purchases by Amazon Prime.

It begins with the normal life of our characters, enjoying their last days, and then summarizes everything that follows: intense fights until they reach the final boss of the invaders and then the manga ends. That's not all though, what really ruins this arc are the episodes where they meet some sort of guide to the universe. It is really a pretentious, illogical meeting, and it ruined the experience of the end.

The problem begins when the gantzer team discusses with that thing whether or not humans are "things", to which the entity tells them that yes, logically, we are all things, what makes us different from a rock is how we react. We are all things but with different value.

Then the team whimpers and says that noOOo, that we have feelings and something "else". The entity, RE INTELLIGENTE EL BOLUDO, to prove otherwise, brings to life Kishimoto, the old man, Kurono and Reika's former fuck, only to make them bloody explode in front of everyone. If you think about it, the entity has just agreed with the gantzers, obviously they began to cry, if we have feelings... IT DID NOT SHOW/SAID ANYTHING. In any case, it was rather demonstrated that humans are FRAGILE THINGS (everyone knows that), that they can be created and destroyed (die). If the author's intention was to demonstrate that we are simple objects because he did not achieve it, he ended up bringing up a different topic. Things get worse when a gantzer directly asks him: "what about our SOULS?...........AND THE ENTITY ANSWER: "IT IS A THING THAT MEASURES 21 GRAMS"......... THAT'S WHERE YOU WOULD HAVE STARTED!!!!!! I would have preferred 1000 times that you gave that invented explanation (normal in a manga, it's fiction guys) than that you tried to make yourself pretentious with that cheap shock of blowing the guts out of Kishimoto, Reika and the others I know Gantz is GORE but it's better just GORE than GORE + FOOLISH PHILOSOPHY.

Total, Kei and Kato kill the strongest boss in his entire universe, despite not having been able to against those of Rome, which takes away the logic of the matter and it pisses me off.

Well well, ending with the story, let's talk a little about the characters.

Kei Kurono. Protagonist of the story. To be honest, I liked the development it had. We clearly see that he started badly and ended up being a charismatic protagonist. In addition to being the one who largely makes you want to continue reading the manga. He is a two-dimensional character (he has aspirations, they dig a bit into his past, but he has a limited way of responding to situations) with the gift of deus ex machina, leaving him standing well, but crushing the other characters.

Kat Masaru. One dimensional character. He only has one reason to be in that story, besides the fact that since it started, it ended, it doesn't develop and his only function is to be the vigilante. Sometimes the one who wants to be soft with all the enemies annoys and is counterproductive, since being like that harms his friends, since he never wants to hurt even the bad guys.

Kei Kishimoto. Nothing, it only serves to show his skin and be a resource that is used to show us Kurono's progress as a character. It's not bad as many believe, it's just useless. And no, his past where they pressure her doesn't matter because it quickly loses relevance.

Reika. Same as Kishimoto but she helped out from time to time. Still not significantly.

Nishi. It was created only to give Gantz information, which ironically it never does (we ended up discovering by third parties that it messed with the sphere), it is also not developed and for that matter it is just as helpful than Reika. He is our edgelord on duty.

Tae Kojima. Character that they overexploit to make Kei feel strong emotions, in addition to the fact that they want to kill the poor thing every so often. Still, she's just there for us to physically see Kei's progress. Although of course, she is more of a motivation for Kei, which makes her superior to Reika and Kishi.

Izumi. The worst character. He is bad, he is useless. At first she arrives because she wishes to return to Gantz through a murder perpetrated by Kei. She could have committed suicide at any time, there was no need to fuck the main character. Besides the fact that she never contributes anything to the story, they could have easily revived Kato before and it would be the same. It seems to me that her creation was to serve as a rival with Kurono, but she still never achieves it because she only competes with him in unimportant battles.

You know, they even introduced Kurono's brother, but they fucking dismissed the idea of vampires, so much so that they forgot about them so that they were left as a totally unnecessary resource. Note: Izumi fights them a lot, but plotly none of this helps because they don't reappear in any significant way gegege

In conclusion: Gantz is unnecessarily long. Arcs like the one in the battle of Osaka can be removed from the manga and nothing happens.

Gantz at first presents us with interesting mysteries. Add this to the gore fight scenes. It is not something innovative, but it definitely hooks you.

As the confrontations progress, little secrets are revealed to us and the protagonist develops. What I said will seem obvious, but if you notice, progressively the manga is making arcs where they do not provide useful data, and this is what makes it long and boring at times.

Gantz hit early, but it was spoiling.

His characters lack depth, but at least they drive the protagonist, they serve as steps so that at least we like him.

I must say that I have seen worse stories, therefore Gantz is only recommended if you are a student of manga. Don't read it for fun, you're going to die.

Needless to say, this was my irrelevant meta critique of Gantz's main series genialis. Until next time AaaaaAAaaAAAAa. Farting*

Gantz is widely considered one of the most overrated manga series ever created, and anyone who views it as a literary masterpiece might need to reassess their taste. Here's why:

From the outset, it's clear that the author treats the manga like a personal fetish journal. Sexualizing high school students isn't new in Japanese manga, but Gantz takes it to an extreme. The early chapters are riddled with unnecessary sexual scenes and fetishization, particularly involving characters still in high school, which severely disrupts the mood.

The situation worsens when the author includes explicit fanart at the beginning of each chapter instead of keeping it on platforms like DeviantArt. These inappropriate images ruin any tension or atmosphere built up in previous chapters. You might be reading about gruesome deaths and emotional turmoil only to turn the page and find a Playboy-style nude model. Although the final chapters have more appropriate cover art, for most of the series, you'll encounter these unwelcome visuals.

This rampant sexualization highlights a deeper issue: the portrayal of female characters. I've never encountered a manga where women play such insignificant roles despite comprising a large portion of the main cast. They're helpless, lack independence, and exist solely to admire male characters. A female character can be introduced in one chapter, then reappear five chapters later having fallen in love with a male character without accomplishing anything meaningful. After finishing the 387-chapter manga, I struggle to recall any significant achievements by the female characters, except perhaps Reika's actions near the end, which felt more like plot convenience than genuine development.

Moving on to the male characters, they aren't much better. Most are bland and unrelatable, appearing briefly to perform cool stunts before dying off. Kei Kurono, the protagonist, starts as insufferably selfish but eventually undergoes a redemption arc. The only characters I found somewhat likable were Nishi, Suzuki, and Sakurai. In fact, Sakurai would have made a better protagonist, even if he fits the clichéd shounen archetype.

Gantz tries to break conventions but fails miserably. It’s akin to an emo kid trying too hard to look cool, ending up looking foolish. There's excessive gore, casual mentions of rape and sexual assault (SA) that don't influence the story, and gratuitous sexual content. For instance, the manga attempts to portray a pedophile heroically towards the end, which is deeply unsettling.

As you progress through the series, there's a sense that the mangaka intentionally tortures readers with gore, suspense, and cliffhangers. This is especially evident in the ending, which I personally dislike. While some level of reader torment is acceptable, Gantz takes it too far.

Despite its flaws, Gantz excels in world-building, offering a dystopian perspective that feels eerily accurate. If not for the other issues, I'd rate it higher purely for its world-building.

The artwork is another strong point. The detailed illustrations, including fluidly animated "boob physics," showcase the author's skill. Some backgrounds are stunningly intricate, making me pause to appreciate the details. The monster designs are also impressive, as noted by Connor in his podcast.

I appreciated the ending, despite its clichés and rushed feel, though this seems to be an unpopular opinion. The plot was decent but not enough to redeem the accompanying problems. Action scenes were well-executed but not my primary focus when rating manga.

Gantz has some redeeming qualities but is generally a dumpster fire. If you're into edgy content, you might enjoy it. Otherwise, avoid it unless you want to get hooked on something terrible.

4/10 - It's bad. Read at your own peril. You’ve been warned.

It's 2020 and I'm writing a review about Gantz. That's how remarkable this manga is!

To truly appreciate this unique masterpiece, you need to be comfortable with a lot of intense themes: mass genocides, blood, gore, the dismemberment of cute girls, hot girls dissolved in acid, love stories that end in death, sex, interspecies sex, every kind of brutal demise imaginable, drug abuse, ultraviolence, rape, nudity (A LOT OF NUDITY!), well... the list goes on.

Why? Because Gantz is merciless; there's no room for good things or a hopeful future. There's only an endless cycle of fear from one battle to the next, one horrifying monster after another, while your companions vanish into clouds of blood or are used to paint the walls red.

But Gantz isn't just pure violence and combat. It’s also a mystical journey into human nature, its boundaries, and the sheer force of will when given the tools to succeed. Because Gantz is, at its core, a love story.

Romance amidst a deathmatch? What's next, love stories inside a WW1 trench? The brilliance of Hiroya Oku lies in his ability to create deep, evolving, complex characters and place them into an orgy of death and horror. Actually, love stories are one of the cornerstones of Gantz, acting as powerful engines driving this train of genocides toward a solid conclusion.

I adore everything about Gantz—the level of detail, the complexity of the plot, the suspense, the surprises, the plot twists. And Hiroya Oku's approach: normality is merely a thin veil, easily ripped away to reveal something extraordinary beneath.

Thirty-seven tankobons scream with the lives of hundreds of millions and drip with the tears and blood of many more, questioning the meaning of life and the value of an individual. They tell the struggles of heroes and idiots, businessmen and yakuza, suicides or victims of abuse. And love. Unexpected, overwhelming, heart-wrenching love.

Embark on the journey of your life with Kei Kurono. And make some friends along the way, just in case you happen to die.

Gantz is a widely acclaimed manga that has been in circulation since the year 2000. The creators wrapped up the series with its final issue in August 2013, leaving fans largely dissatisfied with how it concluded. Gantz was known for pushing boundaries, combining elements of gore, sex, and philosophy into an intriguing blend within each volume's pages. It delved deep into the essence of human capabilities, sometimes portraying characters performing heroic deeds for others, but more often highlighting our innate selfishness and survival instincts.

This series compelled readers to ponder over profound topics such as religion, mortality, and the nature of the human soul. Despite these weighty themes, the narrative maintained a brisk pace peppered with action sequences and a diverse cast of characters whom readers grew to root for. The creators were unafraid to eliminate key characters unexpectedly, even including the main protagonist at one point (technically). Whenever a well-coordinated team emerged, they were often decimated by the story’s progression.

As the years went by, the storyline became increasingly intricate until certain plot points started losing coherence. An instance of this was the sudden appearance and subsequent disappearance of vampires without any meaningful impact on the overarching narrative. Although these plot holes existed, they didn't significantly detract from the overall quality of the series.

That is, until the final arc.

The conclusion was a major letdown. It failed to do justice to what was otherwise nearly flawless manga, forever tarnishing its legacy with a subpar ending. I'd still rate this series a nine out of ten, but it falls short of perfection due to its unsatisfactory finale. Regrettably, Gantz won’t join other series like Great Teacher Onizuka (GTO) that I’ve rated perfectly.

I penned these thoughts immediately after finishing the last chapter and reflecting on it briefly, yet I believe these observations hold merit. I’m curious to hear your take on this ending, particularly if you can challenge any of the points I've raised here.

A manga masterpiece and quite possibly Oku's crowning achievement. I'm astounded by finally completing this manga, so I'll share my thoughts on what I found remarkable.

The artistic skill displayed here surpasses much of what I've seen before. It's hard to fathom the effort required from the artist to create such work. While a compelling story is paramount in any artwork, the dedication poured into this cannot be overlooked. Truly fantastic.

The manga consists of three major arcs, each significantly escalating the stakes and almost reinventing the series' landscape. These phases of Gantz evolve from a close-knit survival sci-fi horror into something grander and more profound.

The portrayal of humans in dire circumstances is both cynical and straightforward, making for an intriguing read. Though I dislike cynicism, it's undeniable that the truths presented add depth. Kei Kurono initially seems like a pitiful protagonist, yet his humanity makes him relatable and engaging.

This undeniably qualifies as an 'R18' work, but I prefer to describe it as unfiltered.

While the story does take time to transition between its phases, if you're not captivated by the art and situational developments within the first couple of volumes, then this might not be for you.

An incredible piece of work from Hiroya Oku, I hope to see more spin-offs (anime adaptations, movies) and further creations from him. This is the kind of manga that leaves you applauding upon completion.

This was the most disappointing manga I've ever completed, and one of the worst comics overall. It showcases all the pitfalls a manga can fall into. Promising ideas and mysteries introduced at the beginning are either left unexplained or resolved with clichéd, simplistic nihilistic answers. The characters are absurdly stupid and prone to overreactions. The main characters' development halted just a fifth into the series. Characters face troubles due to contrived circumstances and are sometimes saved by convenient plot devices. The powers displayed are inconsistent.

Save yourself the frustration and avoid reading this. If you must, stop after the third fight; it only gets worse from there. The ending arc, which comprises nearly a third of the entire manga, is excessively drawn out with meaningless, confusing, and visually unappealing action sequences. I found myself longing for Michael Bay's Transformers, just to escape the tedium.

Originally, in the world of Gantz, when people die, they are transported to a game orchestrated by an alien named Gantz. Here, contestants must fight and kill aliens, earning points for each one they defeat. Upon reaching 100 points, contestants face three choices:
1. Have their memories of the game erased and receive a second chance at life.
2. Revive someone who has died during the Gantz game. This option resets their points back to zero, requiring them to continue playing to reach 100 points again.
3. Exchange their 100 points for a more powerful weapon. Similarly, this resets their points to zero, necessitating further participation in the game to regain 100 points.
Yes, all these rules apply. The world of Gantz is populated with a diverse array of characters and personalities, making it intriguing to observe how each spends their 100 points. Unfortunately, some characters never make it to 100 points, dying permanently within the game.
The main character was a total badass. It's one of the best manga reads out there. Highly recommended!

Gantz is a manga that swings between being one of the best I've ever read and one of the worst. So, without much ado, let's dive straight into it.

Story:
There isn't much to it. A black ball transports dead people to its room at night and makes them fight aliens. Eventually, there is some explanation for why the black ball does this, but I'll let you discover that on your own. I'd give it a 4/10 in this category.

Art:
This is probably Gantz's biggest strength. Oku used 3D CG to assist with some backgrounds and a few monsters, but most of it is hand-drawn, and wow, it's beautifully done. The characters' faces are perhaps the weakest point in the art, as they can sometimes look like blobs, but all is forgiven during the action scenes. The gore in this manga is incredibly visceral, and there are panels where I could spend 5-10 minutes just admiring the detailed carnage. It's great stuff. 8/10

Characters:
Another relatively weak point for Gantz; most of the characters are bland and don't develop much beyond getting a girlfriend and losing their virginity. In the early chapters (around 100), the main character, Kei, is so unbearable that it might make some readers drop the series. It's also hard to root for Kei's girlfriend in the final arc when nearly every word she speaks is just yelling for Kei. However, there is some development, and with a 400-chapter manga, you do develop some attachment, so it's not as bad as it could be. 5/10

Enjoyment:
NOW THIS IS WHAT GANTZ WAS MADE FOR! This manga is basically an extremely R-rated Michael Bay movie. Just turn off your thinking cap and enjoy teenagers in black costumes killing anything that moves. I guarantee you'll be entertained.

Overall:
In almost every category besides art and enjoyment, Gantz struggles under its own weight. This detracts quite a bit from its overall score, but the art and the sheer craziness of the story prevent it from being a total disaster. If I could give it no rating or just a neutral one, that's what I would do, but sadly MAL requires a real objective score. 5/10

One of those long-running, oft-discussed series that initially thrills but ultimately cannot sustain itself, Hiroya falters in delivering anything beyond striking imagery and edgy, subversive death scenes laced with gore. He bombards us with frantic, shrieking bystanders and onomatopoeia ad infinitum. The story becomes much more engaging when the stakes are confined to the key players and the core mystery surrounding Gantz itself, which has yet to unfurl. The manner in which the full-scale invasion unfolds feels a bit slapdash, serving primarily as padding as things trudge along. Once likable characters become detestable, and once detestable characters become even worse, all while repeatedly asking the same question and intermittently screaming about God's nonexistence as others similarly scream incessantly. Do I comprehend the gravitas and utter fear associated with a doomsday scenario such as this? Not entirely—this is, after all, speculative fiction—but I CAN admit that being this incredulous ("This can't be real!") at every interval is futile. I'm at the point where nothing can or will surprise me, up to and including total worldly annihilation as characters cry and lament impending doom amidst footfalls, collateral damage, and countless other forms of imposed carnage from machines and otherworldly beings. Their noises go ROAAAAARRRRR, SKREEEEE, THUDD, RMBBLL, or KABOOM whenever bodies aren't going SPLOTCH, weapons VWEEN, and humans "KYAAAAAH!" when they're not panting during a dead sprint or evasive maneuver. Kei shouts for Tae and vice versa in a resplendent alien metropolis, where stark naked survivors selfishly browbeat Kei into helping them because he SHOULD, given his humanity. Rinse, repeat, observe, report. Root for no one out of sheer annoyance, or arbitrarily root for someone. Root for love? The survival of all mankind, perhaps? No, maybe we'll just hold out to see what happens, as is customary. Mourn the dead? No, that doesn't feel right—the stakes are higher now, and we're already aligned with a new batch of flesh fodder and their momentary saviors, who are just as susceptible to the wildly unceremonious chopping block. All in all, this devolves from its promising beginnings into an occasionally striking dystopian disaster fantasy plagued by a poor, unbelievably sparse and repetitive script, questionable plotting, and characters turned into husks, leaning on a one-note M.O. for far too many pages, chapters, and volumes. Personally, I find myself committed to pushing through because of how far along I already am, much to my chagrin.

My review of Gantz: At first, I thought, "Yeah, it's a good sci-fi manga." But as you delve deeper into the manga, you start to appreciate the story and the characters more. It reflects today's society, showing how people think and react.

Each character has their unique personality, making you feel attached to them. There are also all these mysteries surrounding the "Big Black Ball" called Gantz. The artwork is excellent; it's really well-drawn.

I've watched the anime but haven't finished the manga yet. The anime is pretty good too, with soundtracks that fit the atmosphere well. However, I recommend reading the manga. The manga is far superior to the anime.

Although I haven't finished the manga yet, discovering such a great manga like this was quite a surprise for me.

Even though there are some aspects that haven't entirely convinced me (which I'll address later), giving Gantz anything less than a 10 is simply out of the question for me. The enjoyment I derived from reading this manga is almost indescribable. Starting with its protagonist, Kei Kurono, he stands out as one of the best main characters I've ever encountered. His development and evolution are remarkable, and the empathy you feel towards him might be the strongest point of the work, in my opinion. His relationship with Tae is another significant success story, undoubtedly one of the most natural relationships depicted in manga.

The negative points (none of which truly ruin the experience but are worth mentioning) seem to include the lack of information on certain elements, such as telepaths or vampires who appeared poised to be the final villains. The limited exploration of Kurono's brother's storyline also felt underdeveloped, given its potential. Additionally, the somewhat rushed ending leaves something to be desired. While I don't consider it bad that characters like Tae survived until the end, repeatedly putting her in danger lost its impact over time. It’s not the same to see Tae in peril during Izumi's attack, where genuine concern arises, compared to seeing her endangered excessively on the alien ship.

Without a doubt, the standout feature of this work is its characters: Kei, Reika, Tae, Izumi, Sakurai, Kato, Nishi, and Sei, whom I would have loved to see more of; I really liked them. Even one of my least favorites, Kishimoto, isn’t bad by any means. Gantz is a masterpiece that makes nearly 400 chapters fly by effortlessly, leaving you wanting even more.