Gantz Volume 2: Kill or Be Killed (DVD) - Anime Reviews


	Number of Episodes 2 Language Options English/Japanese/English Subtitles Released by ADV Films Extras - Clean Opening/Closing Animation - Interview with Daisuke Namikawa (Kei Kurono)
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Gantz Volume 2: Kill or Be Killed (DVD)

The brutal game continues, but only half of the original players remain alive. As the Gantz clock counts down and the body count continues to rise, the only way to survive is to join the cycle of death. To kill or be killed. Trapped between monstrous foes and their inhuman master, the survivors only hope is to unlock the secrets buried inside the alien weaponry and combat suits… but will they live long enough to use them?

The series that shocked Japan will cut your senses to the bone in the second mind-blowing volume of GANTZ!

The first disc of Gantz started off with a bang by quickly throwing the unsuspecting survivors right into a firefight where confusion and uncertainty aren’t going to help people keep their wits. Time for some more vicious anime!

Episode 04

After the larger Green Onion Alien arrived and quickly thinned the numbers of the group, the fight has become a one-sided slaughter as the main traveling group is decimated. With a quick flurry, the group is reduced to Kei, Kato, and the young girl in less than a minute. Kato tries to act as a voice of reason and speaks to the Alien, but the being’s anger won’t be sated and it ends up pushing Kato off the embankment. Seeing, things aren’t going well and believing his friend to be dead – Kei grabs the girl and begins a frantic sprint away from the Alien. This draws the Alien’s attention, and the attempted escape turns into a dangerous chase with any missteps turning into death.

While they run, Kei continues to ponder what Kato said about him and how he thought that Kei was the most fearless person that he ever knew back when they were little kids. This leads Kei to an epiphany, and he tries to reclaim the fearlessness that controlled his younger years by leading the Alien away from the young girl. As the chase returns to the site of the original conflict, Kei tries to recreate one of his old stunts – jumping a flight of stairs to escape. Except, the stairs that he chose are a flight of 80-100 stairs, but his new-found confidence allows him to access the battle suit’s powers and clear the flight of stairs safely. The

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stunned Kato watches as his friend clears the impressive jump, and he then quickly jumps in to help against the dangerous foe.

Kato becomes seriously injured while trying to restrain the Alien, and starts to bleed through a near amputation of his arm. This injury allows Kei to focus and he uses the suit to physically dominate the Alien until the young boy (who also wore the combat suit) suddenly appears from beneath a cloaking device and uses his weapon to tie up the Alien.

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Episode 05

The young boy offers Kei the chance to kill the Alien and collect “points”, but Kei refuses to do so and is more worried about Kato who is grievously injured. Seeing that Kei won’t kill the target, the boy does so and explains that now that the mission is complete, they will return to Gantz (the black ball in the apartment) and they slowly transport back to the room. Despite things looking dire, all surviving members are returned to the room including Kato who is brought back to perfect health. Now back in the room, Gantz begins tallying scores for the team: 0’s for Kei, Kato, and the girl but the young man had a score of 3 bringing his total to 93, with a notice that he only had 7 more points to go.

The three survivors begin to interrogate the boy, who obviously knows more about the missions than he is letting on, and he tells them more about himself and what he knows about the missions. He believes that they are copies of the original people, and that the originals died in their incidents. He also relays that he has survived in these missions for over a year, and that he hasn’t had too many survive for very long. Kato is upset that the boy didn’t relay any information to the people when they were getting ready to go on the mission and considers attacking the boy, but once the boy uses his suit to dominate the larger man, he is forced to back off.

So far, Gantz has been really good although a little sluggish at times (that’s just the opening pacing, it’s going to pick up soon enough). I do find that the 2 episode disc goes really quickly and I look forward to getting the next disc already.

- Tazman

(March 16, 2005)

“Fly the white flag of war.”

- Zap Brannigan (Futurama)