GANTZ has arrived in the UK with a reputation for controversy; you may have heard it described as mindless violence or overly sexual- those comments are not wrong, but what separates this series from the countless other gore-fests is the way it explores, and exploits, its painfully human characters. When confronted with tragedy, there are few true heroes out there with the courage to stand up and fight, and it is this ultimate cowardice that makes GANTZ such an uncompromising, yet compelling experience; it is not just violence for the sake of style, running throughout this strange story is a cynical social commentary.

Kei Kurono is your average disaffected teenager with sex on his mind all day, every day. He doesn't care about anything or anyone but himself.
One day on his way back from school, he is waiting for his subway train and reading a "girlie" magazine when a drunk, homeless man collapses on the tracks near him. Everyone (Kei included) stands off, preferring not to get involved until brave young punk Masaru Kato jumps down.
As fate would have it, Kato is an old school friend of Kei (they lost contact years before) and even though it is against his selfish instincts, Kei is soon helping Kato drag the "smelly" drunk man back onto the platform. Unfortunately for them, a fast express train is just about to storm through the station and despite their best efforts, both men are hit by the train and killed (in bloody slow motion no less); all the while, people (young and old) are just standing and watching this happen, some even taking gory pictures with mobile phones.

The next thing Kei and Kato know is that they are standing in a small room somewhere in Tokyo with 6 or 7 other supposedly dead people. As they all struggle to grasp their hectic situations, they fail to notice the big black ball in the middle of the room, an apparently intelligent device that is just about to tell them that in order to live, they must hunt and kill an ugly alien creature!

Just to put you in the right frame of mind for this visceral experience, the director of GANTZ is a man called Ichiro Itano, someone whose previous work includes infamous, extremely violent anime like Violence Jack and Angel Cop. Basically, there is no point in watching GANTZ if you don't like the sight of spilt blood; this is a series that gore hounds should lap up. We are talking severed heads, exploding bodies and unfettered intestines the likes of which have not been seen since Fist of the North Star.

I have already talked about how GANTZ inspires social commentary, but rest assured action fans- this series is hardly a subdued philosophical essay on human nature. These characters are put into extreme conditions, given super-powered cool looking suits, handed powerful guns and told to hunt down aliens. This is first and foremost an exciting action series filled with an enjoyable sense of mystery. Why were these characters saved from death? Who is controlling them? And are the aliens innocent victims in a sick, twisted game? This is nothing if not an intriguing show.

Unfortunately, GANTZ is not without faults. Uncharacteristically for them, Studio GONZO's animation isn't up to their usual high standards; the character design and animation is particularly troubled and the likes of Kato often look too stiff and unnatural, their movements choppy and distracting.
Director Ichiro Itano does tend to linger in the heavy emotional moments for too long, the scenes of tearful apologies left me feeling uncomfortable rather than particularly heartfelt.
That said what he does do right is capture GANTZ's cynical characters with some unique camera movements and interesting personal monologues; this gives us a vital insight into Kei's disaffected teenage mindset without the need of unrealistic dialogue or out of character speeches.

In Summary

GANTZ is an exciting, violent and thought provoking anime series; horror and gore fans will love the unlimited potential for severed limbs and weird monsters, but there is a lot more to this story than immediately meets the eye. GANTZ has a dark streak of cynical social commentary that engages the brain in a way that is immediately reminiscent of a vintage George A. Romero (Dawn of the Dead).

While the animation could have been better, this is a solid and intriguing debut for one of the most controversial horror anime to hit the UK in recent years.