GANTZ: Game of Death (vol.1)

Reviewed By: Carla Land

ADV DVD

Review based on first disk (episodes 1-2)

Rating TV-MA

What it’s (basically) all about: Kei is having a bad day. He got teased in class for some very embarrassing bad timing, got annoyed by some old lady asking for help in the subway, and got peer pressured into jumping on the tacks to save some homeless guy- which is why he’s now dead. He and his childhood friend, Kato, are now stuck in an in-between Nether-World where aliens abound, true death is right around the corner, and no one seems to know what’s going on.

Nitty Gritty: First of all, there are only two episodes on the disk, and there aren’t too many special features, either. The disk opens with ads for Anime Network and Newtype Magazine, which is status quo for most ADV releases.

The special features that are included are pretty basic- clean opening/ closing; an interview with the Japanese director, Ichiroh Itano; DVD credits, and ADV previews for Shinobi (live action samurai film); Saiyuki, Mezzo (fan service and language); Chrono Crusade (nuns with guns banishing demons in 1920’s America); Kekko Kamen (an older anime featuring a totally naked female superhero); and Elfen Lied (sci-fi that looks a little on the disturbing side.) Needless to say, Kekko Kamen should not be viewed by anyone under the age of 18, and the rest are teen or above.

The interview with Ichiroh Itano I want to mention in more detail, because he talks about how Japan is censoring more of their anime, following America’s lead. He flat out calls it censorship, and discusses how there are several scenes on the DVD version of GANTZ that were edited out for television when it originally aired in Japan. Also, the interview is in Japanese, with English subtitles.

As for the show itself, there is excessive violence and nudity. Before the first commercial break Kei and Kato are graphically decapitated by an express train before landing in the “one-room afterlife.” When another character arrives in the same room, she does so in pieces, and until she is whole you  can see her insides as well as her outsides. As for the sexual content, Kei imagines his teacher and female classmates naked (and suffers an ill timed hard-on in the middle of class for it), and the only female character in the “afterlife” shows up after slashing her wrists in the bathtub, so she spends all of her time in the first episode completely naked. She also almost gets raped by one of the other men in the room (who is a part of the Yakuza, or Japanese Mob) and molested by a dog that also happens to be there.

Language (which at this point may be the least of your worries) is pretty foul. The F-bomb gets dropped more often in the dubbed version, but it does appear in the subbed version as well. There is a lot of crudeness in the language as well, not just four letter words.

There’s not a lot of character development for anyone but Kei, and he is made out to be the worst kind of teenager. He’s shallow, complains incessantly in his head, and has little compassion or feeling for anyone but himself. His friend Kato, whom Kei hasn’t seen for years before running into him at the subway station, is the exact opposite. Kato cares very much about others, and he’s always trying to help them. It will be interesting to see what happens between them as the story unfolds.

Survey says: This belongs on the adult side of the library. No doubt about it.

Personal Ad: Well, what can I say? I’ve only seen two episodes. (That was very disappointing for me, considering that ADV is usually better about that sort of thing than most other companies.) Still, from what I’ve seen, it will be interesting to see if Kato’s goodness rubs off on Kei and makes him less of a jerk, if one can get past the strong sexual content and violence.