This review is also coming from a big fan of the original Manga which runs looooooong past the end of the anime and is still ongoing so this definitely factors into some of my criticism.
Story: Gantz's story is one i find highly entertaining. Basically its about a mysterious black ball in a random appartment building. At the moment of certain peoples deaths, they are instead instantly transported to this appartment where they are made to stand around for a little while, conversing with each other and trying to figure out what the hell is happening. The ball then begins to play excercise music and displays text on its screen telling these people that they are dead and their lives now are up to Gantz (the name of the ball) to decide.It opens up and give people the option to grab any weapons (which are guns with a time lag that make things explode...yeah really you kinda have to see it yourself) and a suit that give you the ability of super strength agility and what-not. It then teleports them to random parts of tokyo on missions to kill Aliens for points, once you reach 100 points you are set free. If you die while in the game, you die forever, if you live then you can go back to your ordinary lives until Gantz teleports you back to the room for another mission.
This is really the entire plot of the series and it is for sure a love or hate type of anime. If your expecting an extremely deep and compelling plot that will make you think this is not it, there is no real mystery to solve and there are no real hints as to whats goign on, this is pure adrenaline pumping entertainment. Unfortunately it end with a filler arc which sucks if you have read the actually manga and wanted more awesomeness but in an ongoing manga serise, such is expected. Other filler though was completely not needed, such as with Nishi's death and the events leading up to it, i swear it took about 2 episodes while it took only a few pages in the book, it was absolutely ridiculous but you just have to grin and bear it.
Art: There isnt alot to say about the art, it looks good for when it was made with both hand drawn art and CG animation for different segments and it doesn't look THAT awkward. If anything it adds to the zanyness of the serise. It is clear at segments where corners were cut but this can be found in many anime. There are some segments where i litarally rolled my eyes at the recycled animation though which was kind of a downer.
Sound: The sound fit the series just fine, nothing that stood out as bad really, the theme song alone was awesome and i hardly ever skipped it, another time where i recalled the music being quite good was when the green onion alien was being killed. It was very dark and grungy yet new sounding and "hip" it was very interesting and fit the situation perfectly.
Character: I thoroughly enjoyed the characters, you will be hard pressed not to find a little bit of yourself in at least a few of them and they all have interesting personalities. Its also very nice to see that they react to these bizzare and crazy situations in very realistic ways, such as wanting to run away from the aliens most of the time or just walk away from the mission thinking its stupid. Without giving too much away there is developement ( at least from the main character Kei) while the rest tend to stick to their morals and ideals. Its also nice to see that the author really doesn't care who lives and who dies. This is quite refreshing seeing as how in most stories you can tell whos major and whos going to make it quite far but with Gantz you never know. Also with each mission there are many deaths, which means Gantz has to bring in many interesting characters each new mission.
Enjoyment: The pure crazyness of the plot and the way characters act is the best part of this series. Some of the lines said (especially in the dub) just make you laugh out loud at how ridiculous they are. Its got gore, comedy, hot chicks, crazy aliens and powers....all i can say is its highly enjoyable (just make sure you don't read into it too much).
Overall i'd have to give this series a 7 and thats coming from a huge Gantz fan, the filler and pacing is simply bad at times and if you have read the original material you will be rolling your eyes at some changes and the ending. If you enjoy this series i HIGHLY reccomend you check out the manga, it is way, way better.
