If you haven't already started this series, don't. EVER! If you have and suffer from the same obsessive-compulsion to complete things that I do then I can only offer my sympathy and hope that the next anime you pick up is not quite so soul-crushingly, moronically, and perversely juvenile in it's utter wasting of your life.
I read some of the review titles for this series and I had to keep checking the top of the page to be sure they were talking about the same series. Words and phrases like 'amazing', 'great', 'best anime ever', and 'my favorite' should NEVER be applied to this utterly worthless pile of refuse. I actually had to stop mid-episode multiple times and go do something else just to cool the frustration that was unavoidably and constantly generated from trying to relate to the undeveloped characters (both one-dimensional and infantile) and enjoy the undeveloped story (again, both one-dimensional and infantile). Only my obsessive-compulsion to always finish any story I start, reinforced by some perverse need to find what one reviewer called 'some shining moments' got me all the way to the end of it. I found maybe four or five of those 'shining moments' throughout the entire 26 episodes, and they really were just brief moments. I only picked the series up in the first place because the movie "GANTZ-0" presented such an interesting basic premise and story idea that I felt compelled to find more material to fill in the massive gaps of character and story-telling that exist in that title (once again NOTHING [characters, plot, story] gets developed at all). What a colossal mistake that was. Hours of my life that I will never get back. There was never a single moment in the entire series that suggested anything other than perverse, slow-witted, socially apathetic juveniles were involved with the project and only perverse, slow-witted, socially apathetic juveniles could possibly enjoy it. Now for some specifics:
Plot: The plot is disjointed and often frustratingly unrealistic. Characters are constantly put into tense, life or death situations and (after WAY too much internal conflict and monologue) end up finally taking action (or not) based on the weakest and most juvenile motivations, or no apparent motivation at all. For example, faced with a gruesome death from a horrifying creature a character might finally do the dumbest thing possible just to try to impress a huge-boobed girl or because someone called them a 'fag'.
Story: The story is at times incredibly slow (think Dragon Ball Z) and sometimes basically non-existent (because for minutes on end literally NOTHING actually happens). These moments are filled with the freaked out, horrified, confused, or just plain blank expressions of the various present characters with no dialogue or internal monologues at all interspersed with moments filled with nothing more than said dialogues or internal monologues, all of which are simple, unsophisticated, and juvenile. Worse still, many of the episodes end in such moments then the next episode actually replays the last five minutes of the previous episode before adding another five minutes or so of the same drivel before anything actually happens so the whole thing can FINALLY move forward to the next of these brain deadening pauses in the action.
Characters: There are only three characters that even persist long enough in the series to have the opportunity for real development and even they are still left one-dimensional and emotionally infantile at the end of 26 episodes. Sex, power and survival seem the only real motivations for any of the characters, with the possible exception of Katou who naturally ends up being the only character of interest by default. Even these very basic motivations are dealt with on the most simple level and in the most juvenile terms.
Action: Even the action (when it FINALLY happens) is left seriously wanting. It is visually fun at moments, but often utterly idiotic in it's execution (I was regularly screaming in my head, "You just did WHAT?!?", or even worse, "Nobody would do that!! NOBODY is that stupid!!"). Even if you disagree with my take on the execution there simply isn't enough of it. Considering the premise this should have been an action-packed and action driven story, but there is nowhere near enough of it for that.
I read some of the review titles for this series and I had to keep checking the top of the page to be sure they were talking about the same series. Words and phrases like 'amazing', 'great', 'best anime ever', and 'my favorite' should NEVER be applied to this utterly worthless pile of refuse. I actually had to stop mid-episode multiple times and go do something else just to cool the frustration that was unavoidably and constantly generated from trying to relate to the undeveloped characters (both one-dimensional and infantile) and enjoy the undeveloped story (again, both one-dimensional and infantile). Only my obsessive-compulsion to always finish any story I start, reinforced by some perverse need to find what one reviewer called 'some shining moments' got me all the way to the end of it. I found maybe four or five of those 'shining moments' throughout the entire 26 episodes, and they really were just brief moments. I only picked the series up in the first place because the movie "GANTZ-0" presented such an interesting basic premise and story idea that I felt compelled to find more material to fill in the massive gaps of character and story-telling that exist in that title (once again NOTHING [characters, plot, story] gets developed at all). What a colossal mistake that was. Hours of my life that I will never get back. There was never a single moment in the entire series that suggested anything other than perverse, slow-witted, socially apathetic juveniles were involved with the project and only perverse, slow-witted, socially apathetic juveniles could possibly enjoy it. Now for some specifics:
Plot: The plot is disjointed and often frustratingly unrealistic. Characters are constantly put into tense, life or death situations and (after WAY too much internal conflict and monologue) end up finally taking action (or not) based on the weakest and most juvenile motivations, or no apparent motivation at all. For example, faced with a gruesome death from a horrifying creature a character might finally do the dumbest thing possible just to try to impress a huge-boobed girl or because someone called them a 'fag'.
Story: The story is at times incredibly slow (think Dragon Ball Z) and sometimes basically non-existent (because for minutes on end literally NOTHING actually happens). These moments are filled with the freaked out, horrified, confused, or just plain blank expressions of the various present characters with no dialogue or internal monologues at all interspersed with moments filled with nothing more than said dialogues or internal monologues, all of which are simple, unsophisticated, and juvenile. Worse still, many of the episodes end in such moments then the next episode actually replays the last five minutes of the previous episode before adding another five minutes or so of the same drivel before anything actually happens so the whole thing can FINALLY move forward to the next of these brain deadening pauses in the action.
Characters: There are only three characters that even persist long enough in the series to have the opportunity for real development and even they are still left one-dimensional and emotionally infantile at the end of 26 episodes. Sex, power and survival seem the only real motivations for any of the characters, with the possible exception of Katou who naturally ends up being the only character of interest by default. Even these very basic motivations are dealt with on the most simple level and in the most juvenile terms.
Action: Even the action (when it FINALLY happens) is left seriously wanting. It is visually fun at moments, but often utterly idiotic in it's execution (I was regularly screaming in my head, "You just did WHAT?!?", or even worse, "Nobody would do that!! NOBODY is that stupid!!"). Even if you disagree with my take on the execution there simply isn't enough of it. Considering the premise this should have been an action-packed and action driven story, but there is nowhere near enough of it for that.