I've been waiting for Gantz to come along since sometime in 2003 and when January 2005 rolled around and Gantz Volume 1 (entitled Game of Death) was finally released, I was eager to get my hands on it. So I bought it, watched it and did the same for following five volumes so I can, in all honesty, tell you this: it's fucking cool.

Let me tell you just what Gantz is about. A couple of dudes get killed (or so it seems) by an oncoming subway train while trying to save a drunk bastard that fell on the tracks. These two guys are Kei Kuruno, who can't quite be the asshole that he wants to be, and Masaru Kato, who is always trying to do the right thing, but has violent tendancies. After being decapitated by aforementioned subway train, our two heroes find themselves in a room with other people who may or may not have died and a large black sphere only known as "Gantz."

So the game begins. Gantz assigns the group an alien target, gives them weapons and armor and sends them on their way to hunt down the alien menace in the streets of Tokyo. Upon defeating the target, any surviving members of the group are transported back to the room and left to go about their normal lives for a limited amount of time until Gantz calls them back again. By the way, there is another main character. It's this chick with big tits called Kei. Kuruno wants to bang her, but she wants to bang Kato and sometimes I think Kato wants to bang Kuruno, but that's neither here nor there.

That is the basic plot of Gantz. It's not deep, but it works well as an excuse to show T & A, excessive violence and gore and to set up opportunities for Kurono's fuck you asshole dialogue. Fucking cool.

Some people might think that this sounds a little juvenile and immature, right? Well, those people are jerks. Of course, you who are reading this review are not like that, right? You probably like seeing people's heads blow up and aliens ripping the arms of hapless combatants. Oh yes, there is a lot of death in this series. But what do you expect from a series whose DVDs are entitled things such as Sudden Death, Process of Elimnation and Terminal Dispatch?

The only problem I have with this show is that it can take too long for things to happen sometimes. At points they will sit and talk and talk and talk and I'm just like, GOD DAMMIT GET TO ALREADY! Anyway, it's ok because of such things as: lots of profanity, people insulting eachother (with lots of profanity,) the brutal beating of big black dudes that threaten to assrape people, the line: "Aaaw, Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!" and dogs who like to eat pussy.

By the way, because of the nature of the show, I strongly suggest watching this show in english. I don't care if you are a retarded sub-purist, it's just not going to be as funny subbed. 5 gunblades because it's damn cool.

-Cockadoodledoo, mother fuckers,
ES

Gantz: The First Stage
Volume 1: Game of Death
Volume 2: Kill of Be Killed
Volume 3: Aftershocks
Volume 4: Terminal Dispatch
Volume 5: Process of Elimination
Volume 6: Sudden Death