History Manga / Gantz

* AnimeThemeSong: "Super Shooter" by Japanese hip-hop group Rip Slyme (you might remember them from the "Foo-La-La" WebAnimation/{{Animutation}}).

* KillEmAll: To start off, most of the cast die at least once, then most of the major characters die again. And when you think it was bad in the Osaka arc, the Italy arc starts. And then we have [[spoiler:TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt]].
** [[spoiler: With the exception of Kei and Tae, the space tower collapses as it leaves Earth in Chapter 366, killing all of the giant aliens, Nishi and presumably the rest of the Gantz teams.]]

* 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/IncredibleHulk The Incredible Marc]] with... someone as the respective characters.

* BlindingBangs: [[{{Film/Ringu}} "Sadako"]], the creepy girl, until she takes a more active role. Then she gets PeekABangs, then her face is fully revealed. [[spoiler:...and then she gets killed.]]

[[folder: Manga Exclusive Examples]]

[[folder: Anime Exclusive Examples]]

[[folder: Live-Action Movies]]

[[folder: Gantz: O]]

[[folder: Game Exclusive Examples]]

[[spoiler:Then giants invade Earth after about 300 chapters...]]

* CharactersDroppingLikeFlies: [[AnyoneCanDie Everyone is fair game]], and since it's a DeadlyGame we're talking about here, there's always going to be a good bunch of (named) players around to be killed. Also, [[DeadToBeginWith since the players end up in the game by dying in the first place]], many (or most) of them get to die more than just once. [[spoiler:And then the protagonists start to run into [[WeAreTeamCannonFodder other teams with equally named and expendable characters]]... ''[[UpToEleven and then the war starts]]'']].

*** [[UptoEleven Taken Up to Several Billion]]: with the latter portion of the Katastrophe arc. Despite witnessing the deaths of something like half the human race over the course of two days, suddenly all the civilians are willing to crawl out of their holes and embark on the alien spaceship that-and I cannot stress this enough-JUST MURDERED ALMOST EVERYONE THEY KNEW, because of an incredibly obviously false peace treaty, and start treating the hunters-y'know, the guys who they've seen fighting monsters and saving lives-like cockroaches.

* MythologyGag: TheFaceless KnifeNut that killed Kato (and several bystanders) is implied to be [[spoiler:Shion Izumi.]]

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters are killed.

** Or [[{{Bishounen}} Host Samurai]].
* {{Bishounen}}: Early on, a model named Masanobu Hojo (whom Gantz called "Homo"), Izumi, "Host Samurai", Akira Kurono, and Kyou of the Osaka team.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Nearly averted; most characters either have brown, blond, or black hair, but Kishimoto's red and the younger hobo murderer's blue hair fall squarely into this trope. Sei Sakuraoka's dark blue may also count, but it may be supposed to be black. Joichiro Nishi's hair also happens to be green.

* TheIdiotFromOsaka: Daizemon Kaze, and some of the Osaka team members.

The sphere begins to sing an exercise song, and explains the situation: they were dead, but "Gantz" [[note]] an experienced character points out that that's what the sphere's "always been called." [[/note]] not knowing where the name came from) gives them a mission: to hunt down and kill a strange alien creature. The rules are easy: they have one hour to complete the assignment. Any injuries that they sustain during the mission will be fully healed upon completion of the task. So long as they're alive, they will be summoned back to the room in a healthy and fully restored state. But if they die before the mission is over, then they'll remain dead. If they stray too far outside the allowed boundaries of the mission area, they will die. After the mission Gantz will score each participants' performance by assigning points. When any hunter reaches 100 points, they are presented with the "100 Point Menu", from which they get to choose one of three different rewards: Be freed from the "game" with all their memories of it erased, be given an extremely powerful weapon, or choose to revive one human from within Gantz's memory bank. With all that said, Gantz gives them high-tech battle suits and some futuristic equipment and armament and launches them into the mission.

* CartwrightCurse: No wonder [[spoiler:Kato]] prefers to cultivate his [[RomanticTwoGirlFriendship romantic]] bonds with his best friend and {{True Companion|s}}.

Right. 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''.

* MohsScaleOfViolenceHardness: ''Easily'' a Level 10, both for the manga and for its adaptations. If you've been reading anything on this page up to this point, we really shouldn't have to tell you why...

The sphere begins to sing an exercise song, and explains the situation: they were dead, but "Gantz" (which an experienced character points out that that's what the sphere's "always been called," not knowing where the name came from) gives them a mission: to hunt down and kill a strange alien creature (the first of a series, as it turns out). The rules are easy: they have one hour to complete the assignment. Any injuries that they sustain during the mission will be fully healed upon completion of the task. So long as they're alive, they will be summoned back to the room in a healthy and fully restored state. But if they die before the mission is over, then they'll remain dead. If they stray too far outside the alloted boundaries of the mission area, they will die. After the mission Gantz will score each participants' performance by assigning points. When any hunter reaches 100 points, they are presented with the "100 Point Menu", from which they get to choose one of three different rewards: Be freed from the "game" with all their memories of it erased, be given an extremely powerful weapon, or choose to revive one human from within Gantz's memory bank. With all that said, Gantz gives them high-tech battle suits and some futuristic equipment and armament and launches them into the mission.

A three volume spinoff manga, ''GANTZ:G'', was released in 2015. It's stated to be a parallel story taking place around the same time as the original story, albeit this time featuring a group of primarily female {{Ordinary High School Student}}s as the protagonists (hence the "G," for "Girl" or "Girls"). This series has virtually none of the sexual exploitation of the original series and focuses more on character development. A historical spin-off, ''Gantz:E'', takes place in the [[{{Jidaigeki}} Edo period]].

* BadassAndChildDuo: Daizemon Kaze and Takeshi, moreso after [[BadassAdorable Takeshi picks up some moves of his own!]]

* BlindingBangs: [[{{Film/Ringu}} "Sadako"]], the creepy girl, until she takes a more active role. Then she gets PeekABangs, then her face is fully revealed. [[spoiler:...aaaand then she gets killed.]]

* CreatureHunterOrganization: The missions are a DeadlyGame where the players are equipped with alien technology and sent to destroy aliens of various shapes and sizes hiding on Earth. The players' equipment includes [[PowerArmor special suits that give the wearer superhuman strength]], [[AbsurdlySharpBlade absurdly sharp]], blade elongating [[KatanasAreJustBetter katanas]], and guns that shoot invisible, {{Painfully Slow Projectile}}s powerful enough to turn their target into LudicrousGibs. Later it's revealed that [[spoiler: the purpose of the game is to train soldiers capable of fighting an upcoming AlienInvasion by a race of giant-sized aliens. The technology used by the players comes from aliens previously attacked by the invading alien race, sent to Earth out of simple spite]].

*** Cloaked players see all other cloaked persons in their field of vision. Seen in one mission when they actually manage to fight each other on the alternate frequency. However, the only guy to die due to being seen got photographed while switching frequencies somehow, and his head exploded (due to Gantz exploding the bomb in your head if your involvement with the missions is exposed to the outside world). And, also, it seems real world vision is significantly diminished/darkened when stealthed.

* 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 CharacterDevelopment.
* TeleporterAccident: Sometimes it happens that the very slow teleporting process creates a clone of a person. In the anime, one of the girls gets doubled this way, with the original unaware what her clone has to suffer. In the manga, the protagonist gets cloned, and each clone then starts dating a different girl.

* 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.

* BodyHorror: As if there weren't enough horrible ways be killed, eaten and mutilated as a human, in Chapter 347 this takes a more horrible turn when some of the alien lifeforms inhabiting the [[spoiler:giants' space-cities are apparently able to release glowing mutagenic spores]] that turn whoever they touch into a mutating, murderous, monstrous version of themselves with heads, arms, legs and other general appendages and viscera everywhere and nowhere they should be. Interestingly enough this effect seems to apply to nonorganic material as well, as [[spoiler: one of the Gantzers affected by it sprouted extra guns, Gantz suit bits and glasses.]]

** Female vampire Chiaki borders on [[DarkActionGirl Dark]] FauxActionGirl territory, since despite of her [[Film/KillBill badass looks and nickname]], most of her actions end by her ass being saved by Host Samurai.

*** Not only is [[spoiler: Kei-1]] in a bad situation, but in chapter 345, [[spoiler:Kei-2's]] group of merry men [[spoiler:have been transported to an unknown region of the alien mothership described as "hell" in the previous chapter, where they've found a mass grave featuring hundreds of humans, including JSDF members and people from other Gantz teams. To top it all off, the civilians they just rescued showed the standard Gantz-esque display of immediately showing zero appreciation and leaving the team only to encounter another group of aliens which can only be described as large creepy crawlies.]]

*** Then the plot starts flip-flopping at this point. [[spoiler:Turns out just ''one'' is still active, and literally everyone on the ship rushes to get to it, resulting in a very lengthy line to teleport people out. Meanwhile, the Americans decide to arrange one-on-one fights with the special forces giants to the death to kill time... Right up until one of said giants turns out to be a badass war hero that curbstomps the entire American team, and then demands Kei Kurono, the murderer of his brother, to show himself so they can fight, otherwise [[ColonyDrop crash the mothership into the Earth, basically killing off all of humanity.]] Everyone on Earth promptly loses their shit (including mass suicides), before Kei steps up to the plate, resulting in one final showdown. Kei ''nearly'' wins, only for the giant to manage to get the upper hand and nearly steps on him, only for Kei's teammates to step in and pull his ass out of the fire to join the fight.]] The author loves building up the suspense to ridiculous levels, it seems.

* KatanasAreJustBetter: The vampires are capable of creating/pulling from the hand various human weapons, but when a ''serious'' fight kicks in, katana seem to be the only effective one. High tech katanas are also part of the Gantz arsenal, and they remain useful even in the later chapters, when [[spoiler: they can cut through aliens that guns cannot harm]]. Zig Zagged in the Italy arc when Kei and Katuo both break their katanas on a pair of alien statues.
* 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.

** [[spoiler: She feels guilty about it imediately afterwards though and when the [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Alien Invasion]] begins she seems more eager than usual to sacrifice her life in the defense of others as some sort of atonement]]

* AdaptationalVillainy: Due to being CutShort compared to the manga, Gantz is the series BigBad, with the hunt merely being its own sick entertainment.

A three volume spinoff manga, ''GANTZ: G'', was released in 2015. It's stated to be a parallel story taking place around the same time as the original story, albeit this time featuring a group of primarily female {{Ordinary High School Student}}s as the protagonists (hence the "G," for "Girl" or "Girls"). This series has virtually none of the sexual exploitation of the original series and focuses more on character development. A historical spin-off, ''Gantz: E'', takes place in the [[{{Jidaigeki}} Edo period]].

A two-part live-action Japanese movie adaptation was released in the winter and spring of 2011. A CGI film, ''GANTZ:O'', was released in 2016, covering the events of the Nurarihyon Seijin arc of the manga.

A sequel manga, ''GANTZ: G'', was released in 2015. It appears to be a ContinuityReboot with a group of {{Ordinary High School Student}}s as the protagonists. A historical spin-off, ''Gantz: E'', takes place in the [[{{Jidaigeki}} Edo period]].

*** In later chapters, Hiroya Oku increasingly employs 3D modeling on top of real photographs to portray scenes of destruction, to the point where on some pages it [[http://www.mangareader.net/97-34409-2/gantz/chapter-304.html entirely dominates the scene]] and hand-drawn art stands out as perverse kind of ConspicuouslyLightPatch. This technique would lead a reader unfamiliar with the manga to become confused, as the scenes of destruction look like an entirely different comic.

* EnergyWeapon: The Thousand Arm Buddha statue's weapon.

** Subverted with Inaba, [[spoiler:in a certain mission, he feels sick of being a coward and finally becames useful, killing a bunch of aliens.]] Then he is [[spoiler:brutally killed in a single frame, [[http://mangafox.me/manga/gantz/v27/c293/15.html in a very cruel twist along with a cynical sentence]].]]

* NoOneShouldSurviveThat: [[spoiler:How did Tae and Kei escape the dying giant alien ship? Using a Flying Gantz Bike to go through an airlock and enduring '''space''' [[http://www.mangareader.net/gantz/366/16 with all its pressure, cold temperatures, and lack of oxygen.]] And that's before you get to crossing the atmosphere.]]
* OccidentalOtaku: Kikuchi's German interpreter Sebastian seems to be this.

* [[PandaingToTheAudience Panda-ing To The Audience]]: Hoi Hoi.

** George and Knob are [[http://view.thespectrum.net/series/gantz-volume-01.html?ch=Osaka+Chapter+001&page=11 coworkers at a fast-food joint]]. Their dialogue and uniforms even make them seem like expys of WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButthead.
** The three sadists are [[http://view.thespectrum.net/series/gantz-volume-01.html?ch=Osaka+Chapter+001&page=12 amiable clerks at an electronics store]].
** Kuwabara is [[http://view.thespectrum.net/series/gantz-volume-01.html?ch=Osaka+Chapter+001&page=15 a well-liked English teacher]] at what appears to be a middle school.

* InactionSequence

* AliensAndMonsters: The enemies that the team members are forced to fight.

*** Also a case of NotSoDifferent; one of them has a typical human teenage discussion with her mother.

A Sequel Manga, ''GANTZ: G'', was released in 2015. It appears to be a ContinuityReboot with a group of {{Ordinary High School Student}}s as the protagonists. A historical spin-off, ''Gantz: E'', takes place in the [[{{Jidaigeki}} Edo period]].

A Sequel Manga, ''GANTZ: G'', was released in 2015. It appears to be a ContinuityReboot with a group of {{Ordinary High School Student}}s as the protagonists. A historical spin-off, ''Gantz:E'', takes place in the [[{{Jidaigeki}} Edo period]].

[[folder:Multiple Versions]]

A Sequel Manga, ''GANTZ: G'', was released in 2015. It appears to be a ContinuityReboot with a group of {{Ordinary High School Student}}s as the protagonists. There is also a historical spin-off of ''Gantz:E''.

[[folder:Multiple Version Examples]]

The sphere begins to sing an exercise song, and explains the situation: they were dead, but "Gantz" (which an experienced character points out that that's what the sphere's "always been called," not knowing where the name came from) gives them a mission: to hunt down and kill a strange alien creature (the first of a series, as it turns out). The rules are easy: they have one hour to complete the assignment. Any injuries that they sustain during the mission will be fully healed upon completion of the task. So long as they're alive, they will be summoned back to the room in a healthy and fully restored state. But if they die before the mission is over, then they'll remain dead. If they stray too far outside the alloted boundaries of the mission area, they will die. After the mission Gantz will score each participants' performance by assiging points. When any hunter reaches 100 points, they are presented with the "100 Point Menu", from which they get to choose one of three different rewards: Be freed from the "game" with all their memories of it erased, be given an extremely powerful weapon, or choose to revive one human from within Gantz's memory bank. With all that said, Gantz gives them high-tech battle suits and some futuristic equipment and armament and launches them into the mission.

-->''"It’s kind of like the ''Film/{{The Blair Witch Project}}'' and … ''Franchise/{{Men In Black}}'', and Honoo challenge and Franz Harary mixed into one."''

Right. Imagine the bastard offspring of the wanton gore and nudity from the 1990s [=OVA=]s with ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''[='=]s disturbing nature and ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion''[='=]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''.