Gantz is split into two separate seasons, and the 2nd Stage continues directly from where the first season left off, following our three protagonists on their quest to survive through the twisted game devised by the thing in the small black ball while at the same time trying to deal with their sexual frustration, and inability to come to terms with the situation they're in.
The second series introduces an entirely new host of characters, that are all different from the last bunch invited to take part in the twisted game. As usual, there's the typical conflict of interests and wide spread confusion about what's actually going on, creating a bit of hilarious dialogue between the characters and a few horrible jokes from the big man himself.
Things become a little more bad ass through parts of this series, where we have feature length sex scenes to highly improved action scenes where we can actually see the protagonist kicking it to all of these weird and strange aliens but sadly, it's a shame to see him become just like them as he continues fighting for his life. I did become a little more attached to him as time went on.
I would say that the first three quarters of the plot are well constructed and enjoyable to watch, but the final arc of this series drifted away from the manga and is animé original material. Now usually, this isn't always a bad thing for a short series like Gantz but the last few episodes are terrible to say the least, in my opinion. They take away everything you've enjoyed about the series, alter the principles entirely, throw in barely humorous characters with meaningless existences and then rip off one of the endings to one of the best animé in existence. It's so far up there, I don't think it's coming back down anytime soon, and not where the sun shines.
I think the art is fine, the visual construct of the aliens are all interesting and dynamic as per usual; sometimes a lot more than what you would expect. Whoever produced the art for this series really knows how to handle their gore effects. If there's one thing I dislike, it's essentially how ugly the characters are. Now that usually wouldn't be a problem for me in a series like Gantz but when you look at the manga, they're significantly better drawn to the extent they almost look like twisted abominations in the animé or badly made clones.
As for the sound, most of the audio comes through internal monologue, with significantly less time for the characters actually speaking. I listened to both the Japanese track and the dubbed sound-track. I think they're both alright but neither of them or perfect, someone will like them. I would avoid the dub altogether though, the voice acting is horrendous for this show. The Japanese sound-track definitely had a 'proper' feel when it came to confronting the horrific situations, but I didn't feel as strongly about the action packed scenes.
Our characters haven't really changed all that much. Our protagonist picks up some bad-ass in this series and kicks the action scenes into overdrive, but he's still got a long way to go before he can develop a better personality. Our other characters aren't that interesting, but the new additions can be quite hilarious at times, mainly when they're moaning or being slaughtered. In-short, there's really not much difference between this series and the first.
It's enjoyable but it could be a lot better. If they had stuck to the manga, the series would have been much better. If they had just left it open for a continuation or a movie, I think this series would have gotten much better responses from the fanbase. I don't think all animé original material is terrible, but the ending for this show really is just up it's own posterior and it leaves an awful aftertaste behind.
But yeah. Gantz is a good series for a mature audience that enjoys action packed scenes, blood and boobies. Toss in some serious humor and we've got ourselves a pretty nice show. I recommend the manga strongly to people who enjoyed this.
