Critical: Gantz

Having finished Gantz, I can only call it a flawed effort. Back in September, I referred to it as all sorts of f'd up, and that was only after having watched the first volume. Having seen them all, I can proclaim the entire series is monumentally f'd up (if the thought of a character threatening to desecrate a corpse, only in more graphic terms, is intrinsically offensive to you, this probably is not something you would enjoy watching). But being f'd up is not necessarily a bad thing, as there are plenty of series that pull off that sort of thing by compensating with likable characters and an intelligble plot.

At its heart, Gantz is about the redemption of Kurono (or, if not an actual redemption, it's about his growth from an immature, insensitive pervert to someone people actually look up to) and on that level, it works quite well. Comparing Kurono from the first episode to the Kurono seen in the last 3 episodes is like comparing night and day, and I went from despising him at the beginning of the series to actively cheering him on by the end; quite an accomplishment. It's a believable arc and it would almost be enough for me to recommend the series on the basis of that. However...

The series is flawed in numerous ways. For one thing, at the start of the series, Kurono IS despicable. He cares for no one but himself, and his mind is pretty a stereotypical teenage male's, and it takes a long time to even reach the point where you don't actively want him to get shot in the face. In addition, the majority of the characters are either just as despicable as Kurono (the mafia guys, the biker in the verbally abusive relationship with his wife, the wily veteran who happily lets people get slaughtered if it furthers his own goals), borderline retarded (the old lady and her spoiled son, the majority of people in the 3rd game), or simply pacifists beyond all reason (I understand an aversion to killing, and wanting to resolve a conflict peacefully, and that is to be commended, but only up to the point where self-defense is necessary; once an alien has murdered three people right in front of you, talking MIGHT NOT BE AN OPTION). And all of those characters spend what seems like hours and hours arguing and debating; the series could easily have between a third and half its runtime excised and all the main plot points would still hit their marks. There are a few decent characters, mainly in the second half of the series, but you have to sit through most of the show to reach that point, and even then there is still too much talking. Finally, the ending is a Gainax Ending, and those always suck. I don't mind endings that leave open questions, but there is a major difference between leaving a two-hour movie open-ended and leaving a 9.5 hour tv-series without ANY resolution. Once you hit a certain threshhold, you need at least some type of closure, and with Gantz, you get none.

One final point caveat; there is definitely for kids only. It's full of violence, gore, cursing, and sex. None of it bothered me, but it's definitely over the top in every aspect, and could easily offend.

At its core, it's a good idea, but the presentation just wasn't what I was needing. If some of the elements had been skewed just a little bit differently, and the "arguing the room" episodes shortened dramatically, this would have been good. As it is, however, it's just not. Not really recommended.