Merry Christmas! I'm going to celebrate this cheery and wonderful day by ripping apart a shitty, old anime from 10 years ago that nobody cares about and new otaku have probably never even heard of! Why? Because I am an odd man! Today we look at huge #2! Gantz 2: the filler season.
Plot and characters: 2/10
Is it possible to have a REALLY stupid plot that absolutely revels in its own absurdity, but is still entertaining and awesome? Of course it is! A few series that actually pulled this off well would be: Hellsing Ultimate, Afro Samurai, FLCL, etc. Then there is Gantz, which tries to go this route and fails hard! One problem with Gantz the anime is that it often takes itself too seriously for a series that is so poorly written and completely idiotic. What do I mean by this? I mean that this is a series about a giant 8ball with a naked man inside (never explained) which orders recently dead people to put on gimp suits and fight random monsters, for...reasons using ridiculously stupid and inefficient guns. Most of these things do get explained eventually in the manga, but this is NOT a well written series. It is supposed to be a big, dumb, action series and not a sophisticated psychological one. The manga actually understands this fact, but the anime...does not. This is especially true for the 2nd season, which abandons the manga and creates its own final arc. Gantz 2 creates a bunch of god awful filler episodes that desperately try to cram in some morals and philosophical depth to laughable effect. Gantz 2 is like a hybrid of a porno and a Michael Bay film trying to randomly stop mid-explosion or mid-orgasm to spew some freshman level existentialism. It seriously gets so bad that they couldn't think of a real ending, so the assclown writer of this series shamelessly ripped off the Cowboy Bebop ending... WHY?!
If you have an absurdist plot that is supposed to be stupid, you need great characters to make up for it. The plot of Hellsing is seriously Count Dracula saving England from Nazi vampires. As amazingly stupid as that is, it works largely because Hellsing has highly likeable and amusing characters. Gantz on the other hand has 2 types of characters: bland and boring, or unlikeable assholes. That is fucking it! None of the characters are cool or badass! None of the characters inspire empathy. None of the characters are even funny! There is not a single...fucking....remotely likeable character in this piece of shit cast.
Art: 3/10
The art was made by Studio Gonzo in 2004. Be prepared for HORRIBLE CGI, bad backgrounds, and repetitive character designs. This series looks like shit, which is appropriate because it is shit!
Sound: 3/10
At least the corny J-rap in the beginning is charmingly stupid. I actually do find the Gantz opening amusing. Seriously, I have it on my itunes and laugh my ass off whenever it plays.
Overall: 2/10
The first series of Gantz was pretty damn bad, but Gantz 2 is just absolute shit! I wouldn't even mind that the series isn't well written or thought provoking if it could actually be entertaining. Unfortunately, it is entertaining in the way that accidentally hitting your thumb with a hammer is entertaining.
