This show's core concept -- random strangers are assembled to play a game in which the rules are not clearly stated -- had great potential. Unfortunately the anime itself was painful to watch. I committed myself to marathoning the whole series over a couple of weeks, and I wish I hadn't.
What's there to like? Well there's:
- Gore. People and aliens blow up and die in horrible ways. I couldn't shake the feeling that this manga/anime was a direct influence on Psycho-Pass.
- A bizarre survival plot. Like the 1997 film "Cube", strangers are placed in an inexplicable situation, and are forced to save themselves while struggling to understand and work with each other. Gradually characters discover the rules that bind them, and as they play the game again later, they learn even more.
What's not to like?
- The main character. He's unlikeable, in large part that we're subjected to his sex-obsessed inner-monologue for the entire show.
- The main heroine. Completely useless. Sexualized and victimized in unnerving ways.
- Missed opportunities. So many situations could have been solved if one character would've said one obvious thing or grabbed one known useful item, and its frustrating to watch the characters repeat stupid mistakes when they don't. This could've been a cool, meaningful feature of Gantz's story, if only the characters recognized their mistakes after-the-fact.
- Unbelievable reactions. Characters will think, say, and do things that are inconsistent with their surroundings or recent events. Main characters and side characters stand like a deer in headlights, stupidly ignorant of the mortal threats right in front of them. The main character may see someone die horribly right in front of him -- despite this, he'll be thinking about boobs instead. This might've worked if the anime were a slapstick-comedy, but that tone isn't used here.
- The tone. There really isn't any. Music is notably absent from some scenes. Animation relies heavily on panning and zooming, like a clumsy homage to The Maxx (1995, MTV's Liquid Television)
- The pacing. Dear god, it's abysmally slow at times. In one episode two characters run away from the same alien with the same crappy 4 frames of animation for 10 minutes. (the pacing does improve notably for episodes 14-26)
