Forum - View topicREVIEW: Gantz [2011-01-21]
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Hardgear
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I was a bit annoyed at how toned down it was too, but I realized that it's damn expensive to get to Gantz levels of blood and gore in a live action movie without having it look like a cheesy B movie.
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doctordoom85
 Posts: 2093 |
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That's not a new character, that's Tae (presumably as I haven't seen the film, but that description matches her to a tee) who is introduced around vol. 9-10 of the manga (though maybe Zac has only seen the anime). Honestly, her and Reika seemed to be the first female characters to finally get some depth to them (though based on Zac's description, it sounds like Kurono and Tae's great relationship development gets very simplified here). Kishimoto had potential (she committed suicide? Interesting, I wonder what we'll find out....oh, they're just focusing on her breasts some more.  ) but didn't go anywhere, and Sakuraoka pretty much screamed "slut" to me (as Gantz Abridged pointed out: no guys, girls who are complete strangers will not sleep with you if you ask unless she is a slut and/or you are a super-powered manga hero.) and took it even further into wallbanger-territory when she fell in love with him just because he was kicking ass. At least Reika feel in love with him because in that mission Kurono was actually fighting for others as well, a much more believable reason.
But yeah, obviously I don't care if Gantz has any boob scenes (in fact, the manga hasn't really had any in practically forever, and it's hardly made a difference), but completely throwing away Kurono's terrific character development? Idiots, that's the highlight of the manga for me! So now he's just some basic high school kid with no notable unique features? FAIL. I was actually looking forward to the 2nd movie more as it would adapt the parts that the anime didn't get to, but with a totally unrecognizable Kurono and a PG-13 approach that definitely won't work. For one thing, spoiler[Izumi shooting up a shopping district definitely won't happen], so I have no idea how they're going to remedy this. I'm still going to check these movies out, but man, talk about letdowns. One thing I am glad they took out (by the sounds of it) is all the rampant homophobia. Seriously, all the homosexuals in the manga are rapists, WTH! At least he eventually knocked it off and there hasn't been any such characters in the story since then. If for some sad reason you don't like gay people, then do us a favor and leave them out of your stories altogether, having them all be rapists or something similarly repulsive is worse then them simply being absent altogether. As the saying goes, "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all". (and no, I know Gantz is meant to show the world as dark, but this was clearly unfair. Yes, there are straight rapists as well in the series, but there are plenty of non-rapist straight characters too. The double standard is pretty obvious.) How well-done is Nishi in this version? Until Kurono's turn-around into more of a hero/leader, he was my favorite character. ANYWAY, I'll still check the film out, but when it gets a DVD release. I love anime dubbing, but live-action dubbing is a no-no (well, except for The Adventures of Milo and Otis, but obviously that worked there). |
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population_tire
 Posts: 576 |
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What's the point of having a part 1 that's 90% accurate (storywise at least) towards the manga, then having a part 2 that pisses all over that? IMO the story doesn't even get started until Gantz has Izumi bring more "worthy" players into it.
Though i do admit Part 2 looks pretty interesting. Part 1 was kinda meh. And yeah, Kurono's character development being ignored completely (and a few other things here and there being left out such as the Tanaka birds) disappointed me. I did think spoiler[Kurono trying to commit suicide after Kato died] was a very interesting scene to add in. Which was then instantly ruined by Tae's horrid dub voice. And I liked how Gantz brought up the 100 point menu after Kurono starts screaming at it. And the unexplained addition of another 20 minutes was odd. In the movieverse the timer starts over if all the aliens aren't defeated? Then what's the point of a timer at all? And I have to say, this was great review and put everything I felt about the movie into words. This quote is completely right.
In closing, Tae's dub voice said "MAYnga." |
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Blood-
 Bargain Hunter Posts: 23771 |
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Good review. I find it persuasive (in the sense that when I do see the movie, I suspect very strongly I'm going to have the same reactions). When I read something like this, it makes me wish that Zac did "real" anime reviews more often, as opposed to restricting himself to the loosey-goosey preview guide stuff.
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Raikuro
Posts: 347 |
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Can you not read? I said "continues where the series left off". The anime only covers the first 3 missions, then closes with a filler mission. All they have to do is make a summary anime movie for the series(ending at the 3rd mission) so the anime watchers won't be too confused when the story continues on with the manga material. |
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CaptainAvatar
 Posts: 381 Location: Saint Louis, MO |
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Come on! It is the reviewer's opinion, you don't have to agree with it. People, if someone disagrees with your opinion of anything (let alone anime, manga, or this movie), it doesn't make your opinion any less valid, nor does it make the reviewer's opinion any less valid! I for one am glad ANN is willing to be so candid in spite of the incessant attacks in the forums! (Sorry, I just kind of lost it after constantly hearing people attack opinion pieces they disagree with.) That said, I feel a lot of what Zac stated is quite valid. I do believe it was pretty obvious the producers made a concious decison to PG-13 the material that would have likely been a hard R or maybe even unrated if it was more true to the Source. However, the characters were way toned down from the source material, too much in my opinion. This isn't Dragonball Evolution bad, but it definitely felt lacking to me. I definitely think familiarity with the anime or manga will likely boster this opinion for most viewers. I am a dub fan in Anime, but not for live action - and this one clearly demonstrated why. I do think I would enjoy this much more subtitled. They made a calculated decision that a dub would attract more viewers, but I think it would have been better served with the original performance and subtitles. I will check out the next movie when it comes out, and maybe I should get into the manga to see where it goes from here in the source material. |
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TarsTarkas
 Posts: 5828 Location: Virginia, United States |
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Perhaps if they spent a little bit more money, they may have did a better job on the dub.
Why have a dub if you are going to do a half-ass job of it and it has the audience laughing when they shouldn't be. Sounds like they didn't even pre-screen the dub, so it could be edited for correction. |
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darkchibi07
 Posts: 5469 |
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I wonder. Is this dubbed by VAs we would recognize or is it like outsourced in Hong Kong or something?
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AnnoyedWabbit
 Posts: 44 Location: Santa Clara |
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Same here. Tae's confession scene elicited roars of laughter. The dub ruined what, for me, could have otherwise been an enjoyable movie. It wasn't a great movie, and it certainly had pacing issues, but it could have been fun. Instead I spent most of the movie cringing at the dub. I understand dubbing a foreign film if the company is trying to make it more accessible for wide release (Disney's dubs of Studio Ghibli movies spring to mind) but this wasn't a wide release. It was a limited release, single showing on a Thursday, for crying out loud. The pacing of the movie also felt very odd - I know it's meant to be continued, but it's still a weird directorial decision to abruptly cut the movie off just when we're starting to see some real character development. |
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Zhou-BR
Posts: 1422 |
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This is something I see in a lot of internet reviews and comments, and it really annoys me: whenever the only representative of a certain segment of society is shown in a bad light in a story, some people react to it as if the author is trying to make a point about that entire group of people. The only black guy in a movie is a jerk? The writer must be a racist. The only prominent female character in a shonen series is a constant victim? Misogyny alert! I mean, "rampant homophobia"? Just because the only two gay characters in the whole series (so far) are rapists, it doesn't mean Hiroya Oku thinks all gay people are like that. We're talking about the guy who wrote and drew Hen, a very good manga about homosexuality (both male and female) that deals with the subject in a very honest, realistic way, as opposed to the idealized stuff we see in most yaoi and yuri series. |
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Diedrupo
Posts: 58 |
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Not true. Actually the most prominent homosexual character in the manga was Hojo and he wasn't a rapist, just a model. |
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Zhou-BR
Posts: 1422 |
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Gantz refers to him as "Homo", but it seems he was actually straight. He and "Sadako" spoiler[have a romantic moment before both get killed in the Buda mission] |
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Diedrupo
Posts: 58 |
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He is not straight. The Gantz/Manual (companion guide that Oku released that details every mission to date and character profiles - though it was current as of 2004) explicitly states that Hojo was indeed gay. spoiler[Kissing a woman on his deathbed doesn't make him straight.] Last edited by Diedrupo on Fri Jan 21, 2011 3:23 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Sanosuke_Inara
 Posts: 1662 |
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@Diedrupo: Oh, okay, but you might wanna put that in spoiler tags, bro. Anyway, I suggest that the shitload of people who saw the movie even though they've never read the manga/watched the anime do so immediately. Rightstuf is having an awesome sale of FUNimation stuff right now, so you can pre-order their new Gantz Classic Line release for only $30(which is 8 bucks cheaper than what I ordered it for), and since I did so over a week ago and got it shipped+delivered over a week before release, you'll probably get it soon. It really is an amazing show, I'd say. 
Got 2 more eps to go. I thought I had already been spoiled as to what was going to happen, but I was apparently dead wrong. spoiler[I had been convinced that the 3rd mission with the Buddha statues was the last mission in the anime, but was very pleasantly suprised that I was wrong. I already knew of all the deaths that would occur in the Buddha mission, but even so my heart was still racing like hell and I was seriously feeling some profound emotion at the deaths of all these characters I liked+the way Kei has been coping with it all and taking charge in this last mission. I knew practically nothing of this last mission beforehand and it's been [expletive] intense so far. Gonna finish the last 2 eps tonight--I know damn well it's gonna keep me on the edge of my seet.] 
And of course, after I finish my DVD, I'm gonna start ordering the manga. Last edited by Sanosuke_Inara on Fri Jan 21, 2011 3:18 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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luisedgarf
Posts: 656 Location: Guadalajara, Mexico |
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Because American VAs prefers to give up instead of doing a good job? Maybe the reviewer should go to Mexico or Spain, they dub lots of live-action movies and few people complains about this. It's not a outdated method in those countries. |
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