Gantz is a manga that is able to draw from every genre imaginable and somehow still tell a cohesive story. There are elements of sci-fi, horror, romance, drama, gore and mystery. All of these genres flow together seamlessly, this means that there is something enjoyable for everyone in Gantz. The mangaka is a master of analysing elements of other popular works of fiction and implementing them into his own work, all while putting his own spin on these elements which in turn elevates them.
Gantz has a very large and diverse cast of characters, for the most part these characters are fleshed out well and give you a reason to care about them, and if the time comes, mourn for them. There is a lot of death in Gantz, at times this makes it hard to get attached to any particular character, this is remedied by the cycle of characters that replace those who have died. The nature of Gantz’s plot lends itself well to having a revolving cast of characters with great backgrounds. The variety of backgrounds also does a great job in providing many different ideologies that often lead to intriguing conflicts between characters.
The art is also superb, it’s perhaps the best art that I have ever seen in a manga, beating out even Berserk and Vagabond. The art is digital and I believe they created 3D models to base the art off of, this gives Gantz the most realistic art I’ve ever seen in manga. This realism also works wonders in telling the story, the fact that the art is so realistic gives the horrific things that happen in Gantz a lot more impact than if they had been drawn in a more unrealistic art style.
Gantz also has a lot of interesting philosophical ideas, this is not the best thing about Gantz but I still thought it was worth mentioning, just to show the sheer amount of content that is present in Gantz.
You may have heard that Gantz has a rather lacklustre ending, don’t be fooled. I would say that the ending is the weakest part of the manga but when it’s going from a 10/10 to a 9/10, I for one am not too upset by that.
I highly recommended Gantz to everyone. Score: 10/10.
