Cinnamon Ass - Reborn Like a Zombie

GANTZ Episode 5 - I Did It!

Whoops, messed up a screencap and deleted the episode too soon, sorry!

Kishimoto moves in with Kurono because of her doppelganger taking her place, causing him all sorts of hormonal problems which he eventually has to set aside. Katou has problems at home, where his grandma beats his younger brother, and we see a thug alternately beat up a man in the street and care for his baby child.

Obviously the thug will be more important next time (aside from Kurono vaguely passing the prone body of his victim), but otherwise another slow, interesting episode. The show is curiously beautiful in places, too - I really like the distinctive character designs, and there's a sort of vibrancy about the colouring I wasn't expecting.

Kurono really is a horny little prick, if you'll excuse the term, but he's got some shred of human decency in him somewhere. Kishimoto is still whining, and her breasts are improbably huge, but she's not so bad I guess. More editing perhaps in this episode, there was certainly the implication of rape (both hetero and homo-sexual) in here, but the editing was slightly classier if indeed there was any.

GANTZ Episode 4 - Speaking About That Time

Isn't Kei a first name, not a second name?

Kurono gets involved in a dispute with a sophomore who's extorting vast sums of cash out of freshmen, and ends up beating him up using the suit when he has pervy thoughts about Kishimoto. Meanwhile, Kishimoto discovers there's a doppelganger in her place and ends up sleeping outside Kurono's apartment, and Katou's little brother gets suspicious when he sees his umbrella on the telly at the scene of the train accident. And Neji screws with Kishimoto's mind a little.

I re-iterate - Kishimoto needs to do something worthwhile soon, or she's going on the Female Characters I Hate list. Having enormous breasts and turning Kurono and Katou on is not a valid enough excuse for existence. Even though this wasn't quite as dramatic as the first three episodes I still think it held together well, although I'm slightly bemused as to why they not only replayed the "score" scene from last episode but completely changed it in dialogue and animation. I thought it might be Kurono's recollection of it being different from what actually happened, but I don't think it quite came across like that.

GANTZ Episode 3 - Now Then, Time to Present the Scores

Kurono refuses to kill the leek alien, so Neji (that WAS his name, right?) takes it into his own hands and "sends" it away, thus completing the mission. Kurono, Kishimoto, Neji and the dog are all beamed back to safety with plenty of time to spare, and after Neji says some cryptic stuff about Gantz and their existence Katou ALSO gets beamed back - seems he was still alive. Points are distributed - apparently you need 100 before "you're done" - with Neji taking three and the others getting none (Kishimoto - "too much running around with no panties", Kurono - "too many boners from looking at tits") - and Neji fills them in on a few things - you're healed completely if you survive the mission, and are then free to go until Gantz calls you back. He shows them pictures of all those who have come before and died - Neji's been at it for a whole year already. They then all part their separate ways and Kurono contacts his mum, before waking up in the morning and discovering it wasn't all a dream.

Much less choppy than the last episode, thankfully, and thus more understandable. Perhaps Kurono isn't such a bastard after all, although he's certainly a complex chap, now isn't he? One can only hope that Kishimoto grows a spine at some point.

GANTZ Episode 2 - They're Not Human

The black sphere presents the collected dead people with various weapons and special skin-tight suits to wear, and a target to kill within an hour - a rather pathetic alien obsessed with leeks. One by one they are beamed to the outside world in order to hunt down the alien, and only Kei gets his suit on (not without being caught completely starkers by the Mystery Girl, of course - the guy never gets a break). They track down the alien with the aid of a radar which Nishi, the sullen 8th grader, has on him, and dither over shooting him before their decision is made for them - another large, powerful alien creature kills him and starts killing off the others. Masaru makes a valiant attempt to stop the alien and seems to actually understand what it's saying, but it eventually tosses him over a hill and leaves him to die. Kei and Mystery Girl run away, but Kei goes back to find Masaru - for some reason the alien avoids Mystery Girl and carries on pursuing Kei.

Kei's suit strengthens his muscles massively so that he can leap improbable distances, and thus he manages to defend himself against the alien for a short while - not without it appearing to kill Masaru for good, though, when he comes to help Kei. Suddenly Nishi appears out of nowhere - it appears he was wearing his suit the whole time, and can cloak with it - and captures the alien, ordering Kei to kill it and "get the points", although Kei struggles with the idea of killing it.

Hmmmmmmm. I see what the manga fans mean about GANTZ being censored now. There's some really shoddy editing work in this episode which makes it quite difficult to follow quite what's going on - Yakuza B's explosion is quite obviously cut, for example. All the same, though, I'm still quite interested in what's going on in GANTZ - I'd assume that those who "died" fighting the alien are properly dead (which would support my assumption that the OP is going to change)? Plus there was the politician, who decided to go home and promptly died when he stepped out of the sphere's area of influence. What's the deal with Nishi? Will Mystery Girl get a name - or a reason to be there? My enthusiasm is admittedly somewhat muted by the jarring edits, but we'll have to see if they keep that up.

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.