History Manga / Gantz

Imagine the bastard offspring of the wanton gore and nudity from the 1990s [=OVA=]s with ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''[='=]s disturbing nature and ''Tabletopgame/Warhammer40000''[='=]s outright insanity. [[ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs Put that on crack and toss it in a septic tank]]. Finally, throw some heavy [[HumansAreFlawed social]] [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone commentary]] in to justify it all. That's ''GANTZ''.

''GANTZ'' is a SciFiHorror action series by Hiroya Oku. As it begins, Kei Kurono, a [[{{Jerkass}} rather unpleasant]] teenage student, is run over by a subway train after he and his childhood friend Masaru Kato rescue a hobo from the rails. Instead of being dead, Kurono finds himself trapped in a small apartment along with Kato, a bunch of weird people (including a hot naked girl, a dog, and a middle-school boy who seems to be the only one who knows what's going on) and a mysterious large black sphere.

* BlandNameProduct: In chapter 189, there's a closeup of a UsefulNotes/PlayStation2 controller with "[[Creator/{{Sony}} CONYY]]" printed on it. In chapter 204, there's a large ad for [[UsefulNotes/KentuckyFriedChicken PFC]], and chapter 373 has ads for [[Franchise/IndianaJones Endiana Burns]] and [[ComicBook/TheIncredibleHulk The Incredible Marc]] with... someone as the respective characters.

* CloningBlues: [[spoiler:All of the hunters are duplicates created just before the death of the originals. Sometimes the original actually survives - just ask Kishimoto.]] Things get even more interesting when [[spoiler:Reika revives a third copy of Kurono when the second is still alive (the first clone of him has been killed earlier on)]].

* ExtremeOmnisexual: Kazuo Kuwabara will screw anything with a wet hole, to include [[spoiler:''literally'' fucking Nurarihyon in the face when it became a [[ShapedLikeItself giant woman composed of naked women]].]]

%% * MadeOfPlasticine.

%% * MsFanservice: Kei Kishimoto.

* OneSteveLimit: Averted with Kei Kurono and Kei Kishimoto.

* AnythingThatMoves: Kazuo Kuwabara will screw anything with a wet hole, to include [[spoiler:''literally'' fucking Nurarihyon in the face when it became a [[ShapedLikeItself giant woman composed of naked women]].]]
** [[spoiler:A Gantzer gets it on with a Giant in chapter 368. And then his friends from the British team kill the Giant when she throws the guy off for ejaculating in her.]]

* DeathMeansHumanity: Over the course of the manga, dialogue and interactions between the AliensAndMonsters who are the main enemies for the bulk of the series implied some troublingly human characteristics (family bonding, interpersonal connections) as well as the idea that many of them just want to exist in peace. Some of the monsters even accuse the main characters of HumansAreTheRealMonsters. But given the life and death situation they're in, none of the humans seem to care or notice. In the final arc, the team has to fight humanoid, alien giants invading the planet. When his girlfriend is killed, Sakurai goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge and uses his PsychicPower to kill a horde of them. Then he sees two giant corpses that look like a grandmother holding a child and he [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone screams in despair]]. He goes on to later [[HeroicSacrifice sacrifice himself]] in order to save two giant children mourning their mother, cementing this change of view.

*** This troper seems to remember that that particular alien could see through the cloak of another fighter, though it's been a while since I've read that part.

* BilingualBonus: Far more than being only "bi"lingual, in later chapters, there are characters who speak in German, Italian, Portuguese, various Asian character-based languages, and possibly more than this troper can currently remember, usually without a provided translation. A reader would either have to understand the language or look up what is being said through a translation book or software, and even then you're usually only getting a rough, literal translation, which is often disjointed and awkward.

%%* PandaingToTheAudience: Hoi Hoi.
* PapaWolf: Kaze to Takeshi. When one of the Nura aliens' attacks hurts Takeshi, Kaze goes apeshit and attacks it, dealing more damage than Oka Hachirou did, even with his PowerArmor.

''GANTZ'' is a SciFiHorror action series by Hiroya Oku. As it begins, Kei Kurono, a [[JerkAss rather unpleasant]] teenage student, is run over by a subway train after he and his childhood friend Masaru Kato rescue a hobo from the rails. Instead of being dead, Kurono finds himself trapped in a small apartment along with Kato, a bunch of weird people (including a hot naked girl, a dog, and a middle-school boy who seems to be the only one who knows what's going on) and a mysterious large black sphere.

* ButtMonkey: Kurono's classmates think he's a "Daytime Lantern", i.e. completely worthless, and generally treat him like crap and start calling him "Mr. Lamp." One of the highlights of this is when an old bully brags to Kurono's face about how he scored the girl Kurono had a crush on when they were younger. [[JerkAss In front of both said girl AND Kurono's girlfriend.]]

* CharacterDevelopment: Kurono changes from [[JerkAss a perverted teenager who only helps someone to save face]] into a [[TookALevelInBadass powerful leader that inspires others to keep living]].

* JerkAss: Kurono is an ''asshole'' in the early parts of the story, but gets better thanks to his girlfriend Tae and excellent CharacterDevelopment. Nishi and Izumi also apply, especially after the latter gets back into Gantz.

* RunningGag: Before he stopped being a JerkAss, Kurono would always be teleported into the Gantz room in compromising positions.

* TeensAreMonsters: Most teenagers in Gantz are either dangerous and cruel or just plain [[{{Jerkass}} jerkasses]], although this is averted with some characters like Kato and even Kurono after his character development.

* MadeOfPlasticine.
* MakeMeWannaShout: The "Mr. Tanaka" aliens.
* ManChild: Gantz has an 11-year-old's sense of humor.
* MessiahCreep: Kurono.

* MistakenForGay: Hojo. [[AmbiguouslyGay Maybe.]]
** According to the LicensedGame, [[spoiler:he is gay. His ending involves him developing a crush on Kurono.]]
*** The game ending's not canonical. Furthermore, his and his stalker's endings suggest he was at least bisexual to some extent. Anyway, he died kissing a girl...not mumbling "Kei-chan" while clearly not referring to the Kishimoto one.

* MsFanservice: Kei Kishimoto.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Along with a fairly hefty dose of LaserGuidedKarma. A good amount of the people who wind up in Gantz's room are either rapists, murderers, or both. Most of those guys end up being eviscerated within chapters, if not pages of their introduction.

* RealMenDontCry: Averted. Just about every major cast member sobs at one point, either due to the stress of the situation they're in or because of some other revelation. This goes best for Kaze, who is an incarnation of RatedMForManly, and yet cries numerous times in the story because of his love for Takeshi.

* FollowTheLeader: the anime plays up Kurono's internal monologues a lot, like a more well-known DeadpanSnarker [[LightNovel/HaruhiSuzumiya whose name starts with K.]]

* DeathBySex
** [[spoiler: Sei Sakuraoka]] is killed the mission after she joins and has sex with [[spoiler: Kurono]]. To be fair, ''most'' people died that time.
** Kuwabara Kazuo, one of the members of the Osaka team, is so sex-crazed that he decides to rape the Nurarihyon's giant feminine form as some sort of goodbye ritual when it's obvious he's about to die. Despite having his arms and legs melted down by the alien, he does manage to survive when the monster, [[spoiler: repulsed by his semen]], spits him out and Kato orders Miho and Sumiko to carry him away.

* TheChick: Kishimoto, early on.

* TookALevelInBadass: Kurono, after a disastrous mission.

** Reika started out as TheChick of the team, and then became the first person to [[spoiler:"clear", i.e. win the game twice in-story, without dying even once in process]].

* GagBoobs: Kei Kishimoto. She's not too happy about that. Gantz, who tends to give players unflattering nicknames, refers to her as "Tits" (and while the portraits it displays of most players are just stylized representations of their faces, the one of her includes a substantial portion of her boobs also). Also, Gantz likes to mock the well-endowed Reika, whose breasts get bigger ''during the series''. Gantz itself even lampshades this at one point by mentioning that she "spends too much time growin' boobs." [[spoiler:Her rack actually saves the team from getting killed; see MexicanStandoff below]]. And then there's Sei, who's a [[Franchise/TombRaider Lara Croft]] {{Expy}} with all that implies ... you know, it might actually be easier to list the named female characters who ''don't'' have GagBoobs.

''GANTZ'' is a SciFiHorror action series by Hiroya Oku. As it begins, Kei Kurono, a [[JerkAss rather unpleasant]] teenage student, is run over by a train after he and his childhood friend Masaru Kato rescue a hobo from the rails. Instead of being dead, Kurono finds himself trapped in a small apartment along with Kato, a bunch of weird people (including a hot naked girl, a dog, and a middle-school boy who seems to be the only one who knows what's going on) and a mysterious large black sphere.