Anime: Gantz #2
After killing the Green Onion aliens and being returned to Gantz’s apartment, the surviving contestants are released - allowed to go home. But none of them has much to return to; Kurono has a tiny, empty apartment; Kato goes back to protect his little brother from a violent aunt; and Kishimoto finds herself faced with a terrifying development: she didn’t stay dead after Gantz took her. But it can’t be long before Gantz has another mission for them - how long before their freedom is cut short?
In my review of the first volume of Gantz, I spent a while talking about how much I love Kei Kurono. He’s a breath of fresh air when all anime protagonists are trying to Do The Right Thing; everything about his hateful, selfish personality makes him stick out - and I’m so glad those traits haven’t been toned down any. In fact, his base instincts (especially the carnal ones) seem to have been kicked up a notch, making him even more despicably lovable than on the first disc. Even his repeated brushes with death, including the actually-fatal first one, haven’t done anything to give Kurono a spine and only push him further away from anything resembling common human decency - which is fine with me.
One major change in this volume is the shifting focus - whereas the first mission’s episodes concentrated almost exclusively on Kurono’s actions, giving the audience a disturbingly frank look at his inner thoughts and moral trainwreck of a personality, the events here are split more evently between Kei Kurono and the other main players in Gantz’s game, “Miss Melons” Kishimoto and Kato. It’s a tough call who’s got the least-enviable situation, though - Kato’s return takes him back to a violent aunt who’s been looking after Kato and his little brother since their parents died. Going back to school doesn’t make thing any better either; the bullies have decided to get rather nasty with Kato - but Kato’s pre-emptive strike against the gangleader doesn’t hold back either. The most harrowing turn of events is Kishimoto though. It turns out that after her suicide was discovered and she was taken to hospital, medical personnel managed to bring her back - but not before Gantz brought her into the game. As a result, when she gets home Kei discovers that there’s another version of her, and that Gantz’s version of Kei is a copy with no place in her family anymore. With nowhere else to turn, she comes to Kurono’s tiny apartment and asks if she can move in as his pet - prompting vaguely disturbing fantasies in her would-be landlord’s head.
Kurono’s attitude towards Kishimoto after she comes to him is another one of those utterly-despicable but somehow funny traits that I love about him. It’s really horrible to think just how selfish he is; he wastes no time trying to put the moves on Kishimoto, regardless of how emotionally distraught she is after losing her place in the world; and when she breaks down in tears after explaining what’s happened, all Kurono can think about is how disappointed he is that he’s not lost his viginity yet, after having such a ripe opportunity.
I’m a big fan of the dub for this show, and honestly I think it’s a large part of the reason I enjoy the show so much. Some people might not appreciate the profanity, although anyone who seriously thinks 16-year-olds don’t really swear that much is kidding themselves. The delivery from the main cast, especially Chris Ayres and Shannon Emmerick as the two Keis, is fantastic. Kurono’s euphoric hopefullness when Kishimoto shows up on his doorstep and the subsequent crash into disappointment and frustration is handled brilliantly, and Kishimoto’s attempts to hide her sadness and general feelings of being lost during the same scenes come across perfectly from Emmerick.
There’s very little in the way of action this time round so the animation isn’t all that spectacular, but things still look very good all round. There seems to be a lot of effort put in to make things like Kato dealing with the bully as grotesque as possible, and the exaggeration of his muscular structure when Kurono’s suit activates is no exception. The sexual stuff, what little there is (to Kurono’s disappointment) isn’t quite as graphically disturbing, but there’s an selfish emotional openness to it that makes it just as difficult to watch in places.
Verdict: 18/20
The faster pacing works very well for character development, and the broader range of events covered helps the general atmosphere of the show as well. These episodes aren’t as in-your-face grotesque or potentially offensive as the first disc - at least, not at first glance - but it’s still a pretty dark look at what lengths people will go when they’re given the opportunity.
Episodes 5-8 (100 mins approx). Released by MVM. Rated 18.