Gantz Volume 7: Fatal Attractions - Anime Frontier
- Anime Frontier
- Jared Elswick
- 08/29/05
- click here
"...I only wish I had the next volume to satisfy my need for more of this series."
Audio
For the audio here I went with the English 5.1 track after already experiencing some of the Japanese track. Overall, things sound pretty good here, although there could be a bit more rear directionality, but there is enough to satisfy me for now. Compared to the Japanese track though, I think the voices here are a bit weaker overall, but for the most part everything comes across in a crisp and clear manner, even if the voices are a bit less impressive than those on the Japanese side.
Video
Coming from GONZO, I was expecting a show with fantastic animation, and Gantz delivers on that note. For starters, the actual animation itself is quite good, as it almost has a slight grittiness to it, but in an intentional fashion that helps the characters stick out a little better. The colors in this show are fairly real world-like, so there aren't too many wild colors outside of an odd shade of green and red hair, but for what it is, the colors look quite nice in this show and they come across really well. As for the transfer, ADV has yet again done a great job and has released a series with a near flawless transfer. The only thing I can find is a scant amount of cross coloration in a few scenes, but there isn't any aliasing and even though this series is a relatively dark one, there isn't any macroblocking either.
Characters
Kei Kurono - The main character here, Kei ends up being more of the muscle of the group and gains a great sense of anger after being so frustrated with the situation between himself, Kato and Kishimoto.
Kato Masaru - Love interest for Kishimoto and great source of angst for Kei, Kato comes off as the leader of the group, althoug he's not too keen on killing anything.
Kei Kishimoto - Love interest for Kei, Kishimoto is the main female to this series and has a serious connection to Kato.
Hojo Masanobu - The newest addition to the group, in a sense that he actually survived the game, Hojo is a model and is constantly referred to as being gay.
Sei Sakuraoka - The new woman in the game, Sei instantly becomes the love interest for Kei, and vice versa.
Story
Kicking off the second half of the series, this volume offers up a nice mix of game and non-game oriented episodes that work quite well in this four episode volume. Things start off here in the real world with Kato and him finally losing it in regards to his aunt and her constantly beating his younger brother. He nearly beats the hell out of her, but regains his composure just in time to finally get kicked out by his aunt. Of course, Kato has been waiting for the chance to get out of his aunt?s hell hole, it just occurs sooner than expected so he and Ayumu have to move into an apartment ahead of schedule, although Ayumu doesn?t seem to mind one bit.
We get a lot of real world time with Kei and Kishimoto as well, as he finally loses it over the fact that Kishimoto can?t seem to find the same feelings for him as she does for Kato. His anger really comes to the surface here and it all culminates in Kishimoto leaving because she thinks he can?t stand to have her around, although his problem is really that he can?t stand the fact that she won?t have sex with him, as he?s sure she would do so with Kato, and he feels entitled to it since he saved all of their lives during the last game. And just to help you visualize his problem here, we get a rather intense dream sequence involving him and Kishimoto?I?ll let you figure out what I?m talking about.
When the newest game starts up here we find Kei, Kato, Kishimoto, Hojo and his stalker entering the room along with a host of new players. Of them all there?s one new woman to the group who instantly hits it off with Kei, in the hallway in a very physical manner?twice in fact. Among the rest of the players is a priest who somehow knows a bit about the room, although his view on it is skewed towards it being a spiritual place, but that soon changes when they?re all transported out of the room and placed right in front of their alien targets who are in a dormant state as giant Buddhist statues.
The group feverishly decides what to do about all of this, with Kato wanting to trap the aliens and Kei wanting to kill them outright. Of course, before they can actually do anything the aliens come to life and the battle begins, but the aliens are much faster than one would expect huge statues to be. Making matters worse, hardly anyone took Kato?s advice to put on the suits, but most of them have the guns, so everyone starts blasting away which only manages to complicate things when the two worlds collide so to speak. During the battle with the aliens, two street punks walk into the battlefield while they beat the hell out of a homeless man. Normally this wouldn?t matter but the two men notice the explosions from the guns, so everyone has to be extra careful when fighting the aliens. The battle really doesn?t get too far underway though, despite the long fight scene it really just sets up things to come in the next volume. Although we do get to see the televangelist priest get crushed by one of the aliens.
Afterthoughts
Overall, this volume of Gantz offers up a good mix of real world and game world material while also introducing an interesting new character in Sei. There could have been more action here, but overall things turned out pretty well here as the story always gets more interesting whenever a new game starts up, and this one promises to be quite exciting, I only wish I had the next volume to satisfy my need for more of this series.
Posted on Monday, August 29, 2005 (Archive on Thursday, September 29, 2005)