Ranked #1497

Gantz 2nd Stage

The anime version of Gantz is split into two seasons, and I'm reviewing the second season; Gantz - Second Stage. Check my earlier reviews as I have already reviewed the first season of Gantz and the manga version of Gantz.

Gantz - Second Stage is a mixed bag since it contains one of the best missions that Gantz has to offer (the Buddha mission), but also contains a lackluster ending to the anime that makes people scratch their heads.

The Buddha mission continues where the first season left off, and is highly addictive and kick-ass to watch. It contains everything I love about Gantz; the unpredictability of who will live; no one is truly safe in the world of Gantz even if you are a main character. The music is even more intense than the first season as you listen to heart pacing guitar licks as the characters battle against the aliens. Everything about this missions is great!

Now lets talk about the filler arc. First of all the filler isn't terrible, but it wasn't necessary either. The filler arc is actually pretty good, but left off with a strange ending that most people hated, which leaves the viewer confused with many questions unanswered.

A lot of people of people who watched Gantz tell me the same thing: they loved the first three missions featured in the anime but hated the last mission/ ending.

*My recommendation is to watch up till episode 21 of the anime series and go straight to CHAPTER 90 in the manga; trust me on this. *

The manga will provide you with the answers you didn't have in the anime and becomes even more epic.

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I think overall, the second season of Gantz was my favorite. However, I watched it without even realizing there was a second season at first (I watched all 26 episodes straight.) There wasn't really a break in between the first and second season, at least I could barely tell. If it showed in the opening song, I didn't really watch all of that. Otherwise, this is really a great series.

I started watching this only a few days ago and I finished yesterday actually and I really wanted to write a review for it but I couldn't access the site for some reason. And going to work in between watching this series only made me anxious to continue it yet again. In other words, it was good enough for me to want to go home immediately and watch.

Story: The story was good. The characters may irk you but the concept of the story was great. It talks about death and sex a lot and with the topic of death, it certainly gets you thinking, well, if you care about it at all anyway. There's a lot of blood, guts, violence, and gore in this. So...if you're liable to vomiting, get sick, or something like that, then you shouldn't watch this. Otherwise, the story's good besides it's only flaw: the ending. And you all know how that goes usually. Starts out great but ends in a questionable manner. Yeah. Of course, I've heard that the manga is better.

Art: I liked the art for the most part. It was good. It wasn't choppy or anything like that. However, when compared to the manga, I guess it just didn't make your stomach turn as much. A few years back, I read the first chapter of the Gantz manga. I was a lot younger but I remember it being quite graphical that I didn't like it and I put it down. But I think it was mostly because the drawings don't move like an anime in which you see the scenes for merely less than a second. Since the drawings don't move, you focus on certain images and it makes it more gory and disgusting. Anyhow, I certainly liked the art went it got further making Kei look really cool.

Sound: To be truthful, I don't remember much of the sound effects they used but I'm supposing they weren't using effects that made me cringe with incompatibility. I loved the opening song by RIP SLYME.
By the way, I watched the Japanese version and I though the voices were compatible.

Character: This is one of those series where you really hate/dislike the character at first (at least in moral sense, some may find them amusing instead) but then later you start to really like them. Well, I'm mainly talking about Kei, the protagonist, who went through the most character development. You start to like certain characters but they soon die off making you mad or sad but they are soon replaced by new members of the Gantz team once again. The most puzzling character is Gantz, and this is also a flaw in the story which doesn't tell us what exactly is going on in the Gantz world.

Enjoyment: If you can take blood, guts, violence, sex, immorality, and anything related to that then it's all good. (You might hate some things, but you'll get over it)

Overall, I give a 9 because I really liked this anime. I hated the ending since it's so obscure but this certainly helped me give a shot at the manga once again. read more