Story:
Gantz-O takes place in Osaka, Japan, while it is under attack by various and violent monsters who kill indiscriminately. The people fighting these monsters are common civilian plucked from near death by GANTZ, a mysterious black orb inside an apartment. After the rules of this “game” set up by the orb are clumsily explained by the other characters, our protagonist Katou is whisked away on his first mission.
In Osaka besieged by chaos, the group will attempt to survive as best they can by relying on their own strength. Unfortunately, this strength does not amount to much and as such only Katou takes charge to face
...
the monsters and save civilians miraculously still alive in the mess.
The problems in this narrative setup are twofold: Katou is a complete novice and doesn’t really understand what’s happening to him, but the people who could be supporting him are completely passive for a large portion of the runtime. What he does is admirable, but the overall feeling the story leaves you with is that it could have been so much more had capable characters banded together instead.
Salting the wound, we are presented with a large group of characters who seem particularly adept at managing the game’s challenges, but they come with their own baggage of problems. The narrative for example is content to use these characters simply for padding the kill count and nothing more.
Compounding these issues is bizarre pacing in which action scenes slow down to a crawl for characters to talk it out while a monster waits a few feet away; and seemingly random inter-character developments that could amount to sweet life changing moments if they were actually backed by something of substance.
Overall the story is disappointingly empty and instead of leaving us with the feeling of wanting more, it leaves us with the feeling of what could have been.
Art:
(Viewed from Netflix – art design only)
The movie makes use of CGI for the animation, and the result is quite excellent.
The textures or materials used for rendering surface details are all high fidelity bar a few handpicked examples (which are due to reuse itself on various proportions). Reflective properties accurately handle reproduction of the various materials things are made out of, such as stone, metal, wet or the almost titular latex suits.
The various effects that populate the picture such as smoke, debris, sparks, blood sprays or sci-fi weaponry effects are also expertly made and perfectly integrated in the environments. Each will appropriately obscure, obstruct, or on the contrary create or modify the lighting due to its presence.
The lighting is also well rendered with even the tiniest of glowing things having some form of specular reflection on its nearest neighbours, and the more global illumination never lets the picture get too dark to see.
Skin and character faces are probably the only noticeable minor downside to this animation production. The overall style aims for a realistic look that it achieves quite brilliantly, but the more stylized faces do not seem to mesh as well with the rest of the decor. They are quite expressive in their own right, but the skin tones and various skin associated animation effects reflect more of a deformable putty look rather than actual skin. The problem also exists for the more stretchy monsters, less grit is applied to the surface materials and some sections look like red or green sludge with some subsurface scattering that seems to make the overall shape glow and pop out of the picture.
Overall the animation production is excellent with minor details that could be ameliorated. It is easily watchable and pleasing to the eyes, pursuing that one is not bothered by litres of virtual blood being spilled.
Sound:
(JP dub reviewed)
The sound design for the movie is extensive and well produced. Weapons sound like various types of plasma or laser weaponry when fired or active, explosions have quite a bit of depth, monster roars are layered and so on. However, perhaps due to lore that I am not familiar with, what seems to be the heavier weapons do not sound that much more powerful than the basic pistol. The most impressive sounding one is probably the gravity squash effect, but even then it seems quite subdued compared to what monsters can eventually dish out.
Music wise, the movie is very disappointing. The trailer uses [Ningen Video] by The Dresscodes as backing, however that song is never played once during action sequences. The rest of the musical score is competent but I found it unremarkable.
The voice talent for this movie includes quite a few high profile actors in the Japanese anime industry. Unfortunately a lot of the character acting is very flat. The most flagrant offenders are probably the few Osaka team members that have speaking roles, with very unconvincing “この野郎” uttered multiple times. However even main actors such as Daisuke Ono, Saori Hayami or MAO, whom I know can put out convincing emotional performances, are found lacking. Daisuke’s pretty much reduced to an emotionless robot who “has to do it because no one else will” while MAO is a flat and failed tease (even with that local Osaka accent) and Saori somehow unable to vary in pitch and tone despite dire straights or cause for celebration.
Characters:
Probably the biggest failing of this movie, the characters are all extremely unidimensional. The members of the Tokyo team are all passive spectators (or completely absent) for the majority of the runtime except for Katou. He decides he has to do things because no one else will and because he wants to be reunited with his little brother. A somewhat admirable goal if it was declared with a bit more conviction behind the acting.
The Osaka team fares no better. The vast majority are laid back stereotypical Japanese “Yankees” or “punks”, and this is made known to the audience through the frequent use of colourful language, extremely laid back smoking breaks, and “yeehaws!” while riding motorbikes. The game is really a game to them, and while they declare to function as a group they are in fact all self serving single minded idiots.
Somehow the movie wants us to view these buffoons in awe due to the machinery they’re packing, but the mentality they adopt during fights is what apparently rubs off on team Tokyo and transforms them in the passive spectators that they are while someone else is fighting to the death meters in front of them.
Anzu from the Osaka group is the only one that makes some form of step forward, but it is supposed to come from Katou’s robotic involvement with her and thus feels completely artificial. On the other hand, I suppose a robot learning to imitate human responses from a database would respond like he did in that situation.
Enjoyment:
The movie is very middling in terms of enjoyment. There’s some nice action sequences here and there, some funny looking monsters, it always looks pretty, but it’s such a bore and so very bad in terms of characters that it’s hard to say there’s any point in looking at it besides the CGI.
I personally took a pause in the middle of the movie to freshen up my mind before continuing along the dreary path it pointed towards (And it went there). It’s not so far gone that it’s insultingly stupid and completely wasting your time, but I didn’t think the time I spent watching it was that well spent on the other end of it.
Overall:
Bland and poorly paced story; great visual production; middling music, sound and voice performances; and atrocious characters.
If these sound like your idea of a good time, go ahead. Otherwise, try something else. I’d personally recommend doing the latter.
Feb 22, 2017
Story:
Gantz-O takes place in Osaka, Japan, while it is under attack by various and violent monsters who kill indiscriminately. The people fighting these monsters are common civilian plucked from near death by GANTZ, a mysterious black orb inside an apartment. After the rules of this “game” set up by the orb are clumsily explained by the other characters, our protagonist Katou is whisked away on his first mission. In Osaka besieged by chaos, the group will attempt to survive as best they can by relying on their own strength. Unfortunately, this strength does not amount to much and as such only Katou takes charge to face ... |
