One of the few anime where the dub made it 1000% more entertaining.

I'm still crushed that the anime didn't reach the alien invasion arc from the manga.

I actually discovered Gantz in April (watched Gantz O), and it weirdly fascinated me. I chewed through the manga in a week, and while I agree with a lot of Bennett's points about the anime, I think the manga has a different takeaway. I was captivated by the art stye of the manga, and I had a creeping feeling the whole way through that Oka had a point; there was just too much effort on in every panel for this to all be about pointlessness. I think the series really gets going after everyone dies in the temple mission, and Kuruno has to face the fact that he's not hot shit, Because after that he meets his girlfriend, grows the fuck up, makes the hunts (and fellow hunters) his responsibility, prioritizing saving lives and getting people the points needed to free themselves. All the while, there's a new representation of what the audience thought the story was about, the pointlessly cruel and violent Izumi. I feel that the overall point of the manga is that: yeah the cosmos is vast and uncaring, and yeah you the individual don't really matter in the face of all that... but you matter to the people who love you, and you should try your best for them. That's why despite consistently showing us the worst in humanity, I really liked Gantz.

7:45 It's interesting to note that often people in high stress situations will use sex or fantasy as an escape from the torment and pain. Hyper sexuality often being a lingering side effect of anxiety and depression.

The Manga actually did make an attempt to show the brighter side of man later on in the series, but then it got really dumb near the end.

And yes the Lara Croft look alike IS based on Lara Croft as the manga-ka confirmed

"Gantz: O" is a lot better. It tones down the edgelord writing, the heroes aren't homicidal assholes, and Kurono dies five minutes into the movie while Kato is the protagonist.

I recommend the manga way more than the anime (especially that weird arc where they fight Japanese mythology), but that scene where Nishi begs for his mother still haunts me. And I hated that guy. However, it makes zero sense (they casually include vampires!) and most of the time you feel miserable reading it.

Gantz was made in 2004? That actually explains a lot.

Gantz hasn’t aged well, I preferred the manga for all its hang ups. I do love the new Gantz Film which covers one of the best story arc’s. Shame it’s almost impossible to get the manga these days.

Fun fact, Hajime (the villain of this anime) is voiced by Greg Ayres...who also voiced Monokuma, who is essentially the same nihilistic sorta character but 100% more entertaining.

God, the memories here. I loved Gantz! I remember sharing this anime with a friend of mine in freshman year and we bonded over it. Good times.

Here's a cute animal fact for you: When a male waxwing wants to attract a mate, it brings her a berry. Then she passes it back to him. And they just keep passing it back and forth. Sometimes the berry goes uneaten. It's "noooo, I luv YOU more" Bird version Also, my b-day is Aug 26th. And I love dogs. I am very happy about this BTW Hearing Greg Aryes do evil just always sounds wrong.

If they could remake it closer to the manga then that would be great. I was super intrigued by the manga and has a lot of potential.

11:36 basically, Kato is a cinnamon roll to good for this series

"5 rounds with Mike Tyson". Really, REALLY Sage? you honestly think you'd last 5 rounds , :~/

"The biggest horndog in anime history"? Debatable. In my opinion that title goes to Ataru from Urusei Yatsura

Poor Christopher Ayres, he gets one lead role, and it's Gantz.

So Hiroya Oku is basically Japanese Frank Miller.

The manga was better. You get attached to the good characters and their desire to survive and be with their loved one.

Personally, I got into Gantz only a couple years ago with the CGI film/sequel "Gantz:0"... It has a strong element of cynicism, as the arbitrary point-system of the game remains intact and the people are overwhelmingly monstrous. However, it's a lot less heavy-handed and a touch more fair. One sect are those who did care, but have learned to adapt. The world doesn't care, the world doesn't reward caring, and caring about others will inevitably result in emotional pain. This is the truth about the Gantz "game", and it's pretty obviously the message which "Mission Control" wants to present. Similarly, but distinct, are those who see this as their afterlife or, more aptly, as a game. There is no moving on, and life itself is boring. The missions, the challenge, offers some meaning to the players' lives. And since "regaining your life" is such a lofty goal that sometimes seems arbitrarily denied (how many people get within like 10 points and then die on what would be their very last mission? Answer: Most if not all of them.) they accept the game as a form of release, something to just do so they don't go bored, something from which there is no escape other than death. And then a last group are the genuine dicks, who just want to kill things and hurt people. Despite these, it's Goody-Goody getting the team to work together who ensures the protagonists' survival throughout the movie. And while characters criticize his decisions, his reluctance to kill unless necessary, and all that shit he's "too weak" because of, he is redeemed as a demonstrated natural leader and strategic mind. He can beat even seemingly-invincible foes, albeit at great expense to his own physical well-being, with minimal loss. Hell, his ultimate vindication comes when he spends all his points, which he could use to leave the game and go to his brother, so as to revive his fallen love-interest/team-mate...he pulls a sort of "Liar Game"/A-like gambit upon which he tries to accumulate the debt of others to free them of their obligation. And the movie shows this as technically viable, even if it's exceedingly unlikely.

Sage Please Review Black Lagoon

This was one of Mr. Anime's favorite anime, and I can see why. Fits his messed up, murderous, nihilistic, violent, try hard edgy, blood thirsty life style.

The Gantz anime finished while the manga was still over150 chapters from the ending. Considering how the vampire plot was just dropped, I doubt the animators knew about the ending.

10:35 I laughed my ass off. And it sounded very strained and awkward because I was inhaling at the time.

I read the manga, but never saw the anime. It's interesting the anime (and manga) seem against Kato's attempts at teamwork, but what ends up saving people later is teamwork but only after Kato dies.

It is kind of funny because I loathe shows/animes where everyone is a monster. Yet I also hate it when shows try to justify a monster who absolutely doesn't need to be justified. Sometimes just having someone be a monster is actually great... For example in Wixoss one of the characters was very simple to understand: What if someone entered the game with the intent not to fulfil their own needs but to hurt people? This shook up the dynamics and made her extremely dangerous. Then later on, in a sort of redo of the original, they make her some sympathetic hurt person the whole time.

16:08 Oh, Gantz is cynical, no doubt, but at least it had a sort of upturn. You should see the manga Biomeat. Everyone in the entire story is awful, awful, awful, awful, awful.

R.I.P. Chris Ayres. The perfect Kei Kurono and also the best Frieza. As for the vid itself, I'm really disappointed that you didn't put in the Brett Weaver counter, considering that Brett voiced two characters in the series (Tachibana and the soldier hunter in the Buddha arc).

I don't care if it's 12am, I need my pulpy ultra violence

2:15-2:16 Heh, to be honest. I still miss ADV Films... There are still some things they could have done better...

Poor homeless guy :’(

Well, now you HAVE to do Inuyashiki on Oldtaku, New Tricks

This anime seems like it was designed just to piss me off.

Glad you mentioned how trippy the manga was, the last 30 chapters or so were just plain weird. Giant aliens in a city ship, harvesting humans like livestock, an attempt to scientifically explain how there's no soul, etc. It was all really nuts.

Man I remember seeing like, 1 or 2 episodes of Gantz on KZfaq back when I was in Highschool. I never followed up on it and only now has its memory resurfaced... thanks Sage.

18:15-18:29 inb4 OldTaku New Tricks on Inuyashiki

I keep waiting for an explanation why the girl looks so much like the protagonist.

I read the whole manga series

Ive always wondered about this! Thanks a bunch :D

I still have trouble eating green onions because of Gantz.

This is a copy-paste of my older comment and I added a few things now that I finished the video. _____________ In the Gantz manga people aren't as messed up like in the anime. Is weird, but as another comment says, it seems like the anime was made to make you hate the characters. However, I would say that the manga has a more humanistic focus in the plot. It is still violent and has a lot of sexual parts, but you even get to love its character. In the manga you might dislike Kurono at the beginning, but his character develops a lot and you end up loving him even more than Kato. Kurono ends up being a great example of what maturity and leadership is. About the black gay guy and the immigrant stuff: you are overthinking it too much. The manga never stand as xenophobic or homophobic in the whole story. The closest thing to it are the parts you mentioned and as as I say, you may be overthinking too much. I will tell you the things that happen in the anime but not in the manga. 1. Kurono imagining about his whole classroom naked. 2. Kurono activating the suit by thinking in Kishumoto while being beat by the bullies in his school. He activates it, but not by thinking about sex. 2. On the firts round in gantz, that politician guy talking about fucking someone while going at home. 3. On the first round, Nishi telling them that they actually have to kill aliens. In the manga Nishi says that they are in a reality show. 4. In the first round, everyone acting like a bunch of sociopaths (except for the Yakusa guys). The were not aware that that the guns were real or they were actully killing a living being because of what Nishi told them. 5. The bike gangster with black and red hair acting like a virtue signaling bitch. 6. The two guys killing the homeless man and the whole fourth round in Gantz. There are a lot more of little details where scenes are completely the same but the dialogues are different and those little differences contribuite to build our perspective and interpretation of the Gantz universe. In anime's case, that interpretation is completely negative, like your video, for example (with intention to offend), where you even say that its author is misanthrope, when, if you read both Gantz and Inuyishiki mangas, you'll learn that this completely wrong. I really encourage all of you to read the manga, it is a very good story with very likeable characters, and most important, is a story where its author put is heart to give a message.

Loved it. Your best work yet.

Yo, I love gantz the manga was good in my opinion

7:36 I thought that scene was better than the manga's equivalent. But truly, only that one single scene.

One thing I loved about Gantz? The opening theme.

Ok, you got me with the Bumblebee bat. That was fucking precious.

I love your work. The first video of yours I watched was the aeon flux episode. I have been a fan ever since. Thank you for reviewing anime it is not only entertaining but awesome to hear other peoples opinions. I just happen to like your opinions a lot compared to other people's

The Gantz anime had opportunity...but its ending was hallow. Thank goodness the manga ended a little better.....kinda...

Tokyo Ghoul is the teenage angsty of today's anime generation.

If you think that one part of the anime was racist, get this: later in the manga there's a guy named Izumi who completed the game and chose to go free; but as a result he got his memories wiped. But he got a mini Gantz-sphere he keeps in his drawer; and it reminds him that he used to be a part of the game. So he decides he wants to come back; which is a little bit of a problem since he needs to die in order to do that. So what does he do? Disguises himself as a stereotypical black man, acquires a bunch of guns and ammunition, and shoots literally hundreds of people in Tokyo until someone kills him. Yeah...

Good job as always sage

A new review on my birthday. Neat.

Even when I watched this as a teen the "main character' made my skin crawl.

Speaking of Inuyashiki, are you going to do an Oldtaku, New Tricks episode about the anime adaptation?

Hey Ben, are you someday perhaps going to do Texhnolyze? I'd be curious about your take on it.

For the last few years I've been getting berated by someone close to me about how 'great' this series is. Not gonna lie, having read the manga, I rooted for Kato the entire time and cried when he died. Following that, the series genuinely drove me to hate certain people and it took me years to get over that. I'm glad to know there was a reason for that. Though I'm more glad to have been able to put all that behind me and just accept that it was a fucked up piece to start with. ^^;

Even at my most teenage angsty... I never quite got into the appeal of this show. I even liked ultraviolence and sex, but the characters, themes and distressing lack of hope and overall offputting nature of it just made itself so unbearable I couldn't grasp onto it. I just dislike so much about it and that was even before I knew about the prejudices of the author. Fuck. >:[

Can you tell me what is the song at the end of the video? Thanks :)

Should have worn an eyepatch.

I only read the manga. It did present some interesting ideas and I wanted to see the story to completion, but GODDAMN it was a slog to get through. Between reading chapter after chapter where characters were presented as the scum of the planet or just panel after panel of people just standing around, I'm amazed I made it all the way to the end.

Wow...this makes Hellsing Ultimate and Psycho Pass look positively upbeat by comparison.

Holy Toledo! I just turned on this video after a year-long brek in watching Bennett, and he looks GREAT. What's your secret, man?

The saddest thing about this series is honestly I think it could work on its premise alone. The Idea of a bunch of random people being drafted to fight aliens with only advanced technology giving them an edge is a neat idea. Gantz didn't need the weird "Everything and everyone is awful" tone it was going for.

You’re so right. I loved Gantz as a teenage edgelord too, but when I got around to reading the manga a few years ago, I was entirely turned off by it.

I would like to know why most Japanese fiction goes overboard in the nihilistic melodramatic pathos bordering on bathos as thus far it seems that a lot of it has to do with the writers and their respective hangups. Does that say a lot about Japan alone as a culture or just moody creative types in general? I'm leaning towards the latter seeing how Gantz is VERY similar to a lot of bad American comic books of recent memory but it would be nice to get a well researched answer beyond the usual mainstream American assumptions.

Bennett the sage thank you so much for reviewing Gantz. I've been asking you to review against for a few years now and you finally came through. I hate to hear that you didn't like it because I did, but none the less thank you. By the way that dog joke you made was hilarious as fuck

does anyone know the name of the anime that is shown on 20:38 and forward? I'd appreciate the information.

the manga is better than the anime.

21:21 "Sho Aikawa" **Bursts in indignation** **Calms down** Ok, I'm fine, I'm cool....

I have fond memories of watching this anime, I think I was at just the right age when I first found it, and it still sits proudly on my shelf. Untouched since the fist time I watched it, all those years ago. Where it will be staying.

I'm honestly a bit shocked that you didn't even mention the two live action films that came out! They were huge hits and starred big Japanese stars. Even so, great review!

Gantz has it faults, good lord does it have its faults, but the few promising notes shine more in inuyashiki. While it is still a very nihilistic series it feels more mature in how it handles the subject.

I wonder if Bennett will take a look at the author's follow up work with Inu Yashiki for Oldtaku New Tricks

what's the ambient song playing in the background in the last third of this video?

I was expecting like a eye patch or dark sunglasses like ray bands but Bennett put on those Brett Hart shades lol

Ironically, the Gantz manga does have a good ending XD

Gantz. Ah, what a classic

woah boy! Don’t even got me started on the manga, mate.

I first heard of Gantz way back when I still didn't know much about Anime, but was very into Code Geass and asking for recommendations based on my liking Code Geass, and someone suggested Gantz. Base don your review, that person must have been trolling me. I wonder if the Grenade in mouth scene was an influence on The Dark Knight?

Bennet isn't wrong. He hits EVERYTHING I felt when I first watched it years ago.

I loved the manga, I had heard of the name and thought of it as just some big shot manga that ended, but when I started reading it earlier this year, well I finished it in 2 weeks, that's how addicting the crazy story was Side note: I thought the vampires were cool when they joined forces

Hey there could you please tell me the back round instrumental that started at 19:35 in Your video ? It’s was so soothing

Those are really nice sunglasses! Hope you're feeling better now, dude.

I don’t know if I agree with the homophobia or racism part. Maybe that’s the creators jaded view but prior to anyone (or myself) knowing that, I just saw him as a villain, not because he’s black, but because he was going to Sodomize a dude without his consent. Now if every (or sizable amount) of the villains were black then That would sound the racist alarms. But that’s coming from a dude that never fully watched the show, I’m just going by the impression I got from this video. Good work overall dude 👍🏻

6:18 ....so basically he's your average teenager? Lol 😂 .

If I remember right, didn't the last couple of volumes of DVDs have like two episodes per disk?

Loved the review, though my one critique would be instead of sunglasses. You could've done a bit with Gabe about you wearing an eye patch. Though I don't understand his and your schedules, and I understand that the sunglasses might've been the only way to go to get this episode out on time. Either way, loved the review as always and keep it up.

Not gonna lie, i was almost hoping to see you cover the movie that was released a few years ago along with the anime. Its still a gorefest but a little less nihilistic

There's that one scene where the two characters with the same name start living together, the girl is despondent while the guy is thinking with his dick. Really think he should have told her happy people usually don't try to kill themselves. There's a lot about her old life she'll miss, but she has a chance at a clean break from what kept her down and enjoy a fresh start. Might not have gotten him laid that night, but it's what she needed to hear.

Dude... If she is living with you, free rent, free food, and is trying to go after another guy you had no chance to begin with and you're being used... Get her to find a new place and get her out of your life otherwise you're going to regret it.

Does anyone know what the soft sounding music that plays close to the end of the video.

Hey Sage!!! Great to see you again Poyo!!!

Gantz is my #1 favourite manga. I have Kei Kurono tattooed on my forearm. I've written a long article defending it, expressing why I think it's important, whilst acknowledging its flaws. Altogether - personally - I find the manga to a work of art that reflects the journey of a mangaka trying to work out their perspective on the world. And yeah I'm dead serious. The only good adaptation imo though is Gantz:O. I thought the anime got A LOT wrong. Anyways, always good to see people talking about Gantz, and happy to finally see you tackle it Bennett! PS. I guess I'm a 30yr old with a lot of teenage angst XD

What's the anime that is shown around 27:21? Looks rest cool! Please help!

What about the movie that came out not to long ago on Netflix? Did you watch it? I’m talking about the CGI 1 that’s called Gantz : 0

Are you saying dudes with questionable preferences CAN'T play villains? Really?

Don't forget, when it first came out on DVD, ADV originally went with TWO episodes per disc! By way of comparison, every other anime DVD in 2004 had at least 4 or episodes per disc (with the possible exception of 12 or 13 episode titles, which may have had 3 eps). This backfired horrendously, and ADV had to go back to 4 or 5 episodes/disc by the end of the series. Gosh, this title was so overrated back then.

Whatever happened to your eye, I hope you get better soon!

Thought that was Greg Ayres for a sec, then it turns out it's his brother.