Cinnamon Ass - Reborn Like a Zombie

GANTZ Episode 1 - A New Morning Has Dawned

Opening - Super Shooter (RIP SLYME) - at first glance it seems kinda cheap, mixing together lots of scenes from forthcoming episodes, but the swirling computerised imagery reminds me in part of Lain, and it's really quite well edited (it's not all forthcoming scenes stuff). And they may replace it later, like Gonzo did with Chrno Crusade. The song really works with the imagery, too.
Ending - Last Kiss (Bonnie Pink) - yaaaay, a great Bonnie Pink song makes up for the single shot of the three central characters with that black ball thing.

I don't care if everyone who read the manga hates the GANTZ anime adaptation, as I seem to have gathered from most forums. I can honestly say I sat here enthralled, concentrating and thinking about this episode the whole way through. AND it's from Gonzo!

Kei Kurono hates the world. He doesn't look out for anyone, not even himself. After an embarassing incident in class where he imagines all the girls are naked and is mocked for getting aroused, he's standing at a train station when a drunk falls onto the railway line. No-one goes to help him as we hear their thoughts ranging from apathy to disgusting fascination, until his former best friend, Masaru Katou, leaps onto the tracks and asks him to help. For some reason he accepts, cursing himself all the way, and they get the drunk onto the platform, but are themselves knocked down by the train...

And into a room filled with other "dead" people, from a politician suffering from cancer to two Yakuza men and a dog. Plus a big shiny black sphere. After briefly introducing themselves, another person joins them - a naked girl, who slit her wrists in the bath, appears in Kei's arms. Again he gets a hard-on, and seizes the opportunity to kiss the girl before one of the Yakuza drags her off to rape her. Masaru, however, goes to stop him, and puts up a damn good fight before the Yakuza member winds him in a moment of confusion as a strange, perky song starts playing from the black sphere. Green text appears on it - "Your lives have ended. How your new lives will be used is up to me. That's the theory."

Kei is one of the most interesting lead characters in anything I've seen yet, because he's basically a bit of a prick. He's obviously not without redemption, but he truly hates everything about the world, is completely apathetic (when the girl is being raped, he wants to help, but just can't be bothered to do it until Masaru does so, and even then just stares on in amazement) and constantly spits insults at everything and everyone. Masaru is obviously going to temper him, but will the girl come between them? It seems there's nasty monsters that the gang are going to have to exterminate, and Kei's obviously going to be good at that since he seems to be super-speedy, but I hope Masaru and naked girl get to be cool too. I'm really looking forward to seeing the next episode of this, but I'm not going to read the manga just in case.

Posted by BluWacky at April 23, 2004 10:59 PM