Characters / Gantz

• Gantz Hunters
  • Tokyo Team^note Kei Kurono, Masaru Kato, Kei Kishimoto, Joichiro Nishi, Rice, Goro Suzuki, Takashi Inamori, Kiyoshi Yoshioka, Hiroshi Hatanaka, Masashi Yamada, Masanobu Hojo, Sadayo Suzumura, Tetsuo Nemoto, Haruya Numata, Kinji Nishikawa, Kosuke Nakajima, Kayo Sugihara, Ryōta Sugihara, Sei Sakuraoka, Juzo Togo, Akitoshi Okazaki, Jiro Tomashino, Yuta Kondo, Kiyoshi Miyafuji, Musō Tokugawa, JJ, Shunichi Ike, Shion Izumi, Yoshikazu Suzuki, Hiroto Sakurai, Kenzo Sakata, Reika Shimohira, Kouki Inaba, Daizaemon Kaze, Hoi Hoi, Bob Morris, Sean Lewis, Nathan Rich, Michael Combs, Hiroshi Okada, Yujiro Kato, Toshiki Yuki, Rika Shiraishi, Izumi Tatsumi, Akira Nishida, Tetsuo Tamura, Keiko Morino, Miki Oyama, Takashi Otani, Haruko Otani, Masaki Otani, Joji Tomioka, Naoichi Mikawa, Ryotaro Haga, Kaoru Iwamoto, Yoshiharu Ueda, Ayaka Uranaka, Houchuu Nagashima, Takeshi Koumoto, Hikawa, Chiaki, Tamio Mizutori, Tessyo Hori, Kinpei Hisamatsu,
  • Other Teams^note Osaka Team, Katastrophe Team, American Teams
• Aliens^note Onion Aliens, Tanaka Aliens, Buddha Aliens, Shorty Aliens, Dinosaur Aliens, Ring Aliens, Oni Aliens, Nurarihyon Aliens, Italian Aliens, Giant Aliens

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Gantz

• Adaptational Villainy: It's the real bad guy in the anime, where the manga's eventual plot is absent, making the hunt simply something Gantz does for its own sick amusement.
• Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Harbinger of death, damnation, and dirty nicknames.
• Big Bad: So it appears... at first. Played straight in the anime.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Assuming it has any morals, they're completely alien to anything resembling human morals.
• Cosmic Plaything: This is essentially what it has in store for the people it collects.
• Crazy-Prepared: It likes to prepare for all eventualities.
• Deadpan Snarker: It's part of its trollish personality.
• Dissonant Serenity: "8 Points! Total 46 Points! 54 to Go!" After Kurono returns as the Sole Survivor of the nightmarishly intense third mission.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: According to the Room of Truth aliens, the bald man in the sphere was just a ordinary human who was cloned to operate it.
• Humanoid Abomination: It is a hairless comatose man wired inside of an indestructible black ball that carries weapons, power suits, teleportation capabilities, and poor instructions on finding and killing deadly alien invaders.
• Heel–Face Turn/Good All Along: When the bald man leaves the black sphere, he turns out not to be the cruel bastard everyone assumed he was. He even tries to help the Tokyo Team during the Katastrophe arc.
• Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: Clueless humans with high-tech weaponry hunting sneaky alien invaders.
• In Love with Your Carnage: Toward the particularly Blood Knight characters.
• Jerkass: Deliberately spites, insults, and degrades the players, even when they are at their lowest.
• Killed Off for Real: You know shit has gotten real when the Giant Aliens attack the Gantz room, blowing the black ball out of the building and into the street, crushing the head of the man inside. Though there's more where that one came from.
• Knight Templar: It only cares about its goals and it will do whatever it takes to achieve them. And in the cruelest way possible, to boot.
• Lack of Empathy: Life, death, sacrifice, loss, even The End of the World as We Know It. It's all a fun game to Gantz.
• Manipulative Bastard: Seems to be part of its programming.
• Meaningful Name: Averted, no one really knows what "gantz" means. It's possibly just a slang term used to address the black ball that got around amongst the Hunters.
  • Given the spheres' origins, it's likely a misspelling of the German adjective/adverb ganz ("complete" or "completely"). Still meaningless in context, though.
• Me's a Crowd: At first one Gantz seems bad. Then you find out there are thousands, if not, millions of Gantz balls on assembly lines and an endless supply of carbon copied men to "pilot" them.
• More Dakka: Gantz supplies its participants with the best in alien engineered weaponry, all of which can be incredibly destructive if used correctly.
• The Nicknamer: Gantz gives all the players nicknames based on appearance or behavior.
• Nightmare Fetishist: It picks the sickest, nastiest, most lethal aliens and monsters for the Gantz teams to kill.
• An Offer You Can't Refuse: Gantz implants bombs in the heads of those whom it recruits; if you turn it down, your head goes boom.
• Psychopathic Manchild: The fact that Gantz has the sense of humor of a twelve year old Call of Duty troll makes the fact that it sends random humans on horrifying suicide missions even scarier.
• Smug Snake: Modest it's not. Neither are the way more powerful beings that made possible its creation.
• Troll: Like no other. Disrespects and inconveniences the players at every turn, delays the firing mechanism on all of the guns, alters the rules of the game on a whim, and targets aliens that are either a) worth next to no points, or b) the least dangerous out of several that are extremely dangerous. Worst of all, it doesn't do it because of programming or anything, it just likes fucking with the poor souls it traps.
• Unwitting Pawn: As much a slave to forces beyond its control as the players it plagues. Although its powers are still near godlike and can be used to deadly effect no matter whose hand is controlling it.
• We Have Reserves: Not just the endless supply of potential Hunters, but there are literally thousands of Gantz balls in production, waiting to make life hell for humans and aliens by the score.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: While it can't be denied that many of the creatures Gantz targets need to be stopped, the methods it uses to achieve these goals are cruel and unusual.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Gantz doesn't really play favorites. Everyone is expendable.
• Your Days Are Numbered: As part of its recruiting speech, it explicitly tells its new hunters that their lives are its to decide.

Vampires

In General

• Ambiguously Human: Their origin is not explained, except for the fact that it was something to do with nano-machines. The fact that they see the Gantz hunters as enemies indicates that these machines may have alien origin.
• The Anticipator: Downplayed. They have technology which allow them to see the Gantz hunters even when they are invisible, it doesn't change the fact they are caught by surprise a few times.
• Daywalking Vampire: It's not the sunlight that is lethal to them, so they have some appearances during daytime.
• Left Hanging: Not much about them is explained, even through they are the antagonists of an arc.
• Our Vampires Are Different: They gain vampirism through an infection with nano-machines which creates a strange sign on their backs; sunlight doesn't affect them, but artificial light does and there's no mention of them needing to drink blood to survive, although some vampires are shown fond of cannibalism.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: All of them wear suits.
• Treasure Chest Cavity: They can store pistols and even katanas in a hole in the palm of their hands.
• Villain Decay: They stop being a treat after the Nurarihyon Mission and are almost completely forgotten during the Katastrophe arc. Justified considering that both Izumi and Kei Kurono killed a lot of them and Host Samurai and Kill Bill are probably the last of their kind.

Host Samurai/Hikawa

• Authority Equals Asskicking: While it isn't clear if he is the leader of the vampires, he is definitely the most badass and has seniority because of it.
• Badass in a Nice Suit: He's practically invincible on the battlefield. And, a well dressed one. He wears a black suit and tie.
• Combat Pragmatist: He has no problem with fighting dirty if it means winning a fight.
• Embarrassing Nickname: "Host Samurai" is how Gantz refers to him, which "Kill Bill" finds amusing.
• Evil Is Petty: Acts this way, but not quite. It seems like killing The Hunters started out as business to him, then it became personal, but after he ends up a member of the Tokyo Team and witnesses what they have to go through from their perspective, he loses interest in wiping them out.
• Hero Killer: Kills Izumi, the series definitive Anti-Hero, and Kei, The Hero. Kei got better, and also a clone.

• Katanas Are Just Better: His main weapon, it's also surprisingly sharp. He beheads Kei with it.
• Lack of Empathy: Though how much he lacks is debatable.
• Last of His Kind: Seems he and Kill Bill are the only vampires left alive after their massive battles with Izumi and Kurono. In Tokyo, at least.
• Lean and Mean: He's quite thin, but very strong.
• Lightning Bruiser: He hits hard, moves quickly and dodges most attacks.
• Master Swordsman: Possibly THE Master Swordsman.
• Noble Demon: He displays some sense of honor regarding his comerades. He also cares for Chiaki far more than he lets on.
• Our Vampires Are Different
• Pet the Dog: When she is mortally wounded, Host Samurai defends "Kill Bill" and carries her on his back to safety, despite claiming to feel nothing for her.

• Recruiting the Criminal: Gantz recruits him and Chiaki after they enter his room.
• Rule of Cool: Seems to be what he lives by.
• Seinfeldian Conversation: Often gets into these with his vampire comrades on their way to cause some trouble.
• Smoking Is Cool: Rarely seen without a cigarette between his lips.

• The Stoic: Not particularly emotive.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: After the Osaka arc, they vanish from the story completely. Gantz doesn't even use them in the final battle against the giants.
• White Hair, Black Heart: White-haired evil guy.
• Worthy Opponent: Izumi, Kurono, and Kato. But Izumi especially.
• You Have Failed Me: Kills Akira when he interferes with his plan to assassinate Kurono.

Kill Bill/Chiaki

• An Arm and a Leg: Gets her sword arm sliced off during the Osaka mission. She survives and gets it back.

• Embarrassing Nickname: Either because she is a female wielding a katana or because she vaguely resembles Go-Go Yubari from the movie. Or both.

• Last of Her Kind: Along with Hikawa.

• Out-of-Character Moment: Hikawa is astonished to hear her giggle at the nickname Kei gave to him.
• Not So Stoic: Has very human thoughts and emotions. For example, when Host Samurai incredulously asks if he just heard her laugh, she appears embarrassed and claims she didn't.
• Recruiting the Criminal: Gantz recruits her and Hikawa after they enter his room.
• Start of Darkness: As a human, she and her friends were led to a club by handsome men in black clothes. These men were vampires who killed her friends and turned her into one of them.

Akira Kurono

Kei's younger brother.

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• Aloof Big Brother: Thinks of Kei as this, despite the fact that he is the younger brother and far more aloof.
• Annoying Younger Sibling: Averted. Akira is conventionally successful in life as opposed to his older brother. Kei finds this fact annoying in its own way at times.
• Badass Longcoat: Before and after he becomes a vampire.
• Big Little Brother: Is taller, smarter, more handsome, more confident, and more popular than his older brother Kei. It even leads some to believe he is the older brother.
• Broken Ace: When he discovers he is a vampire.

• Redemption Equals Death: He warns Kei that the vampires are coming for him, putting his own life in danger. A few panels later Host Samurai is holding his head in the air for Kei to see.
• Smug Snake: Makes sense when he turns out to be a vampire as well. Even when he warns his brother of his impending death Akira appears only vaguely interested.

• What You Are in the Dark: Cares more about the safety of his estranged older brother than his cool new vampire friends.

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