Director Ichiro Itano presents a hellish vision of the afterlife in the brutal horror anime series 'Gantz'. High school student Kei and his childhood friend Kato are helping a hobo... more
Gantz - Vol. 1
The Last Thing Kei Remembers is the train running over his body, crushing him. Now he ... more
finds himself in a room filled with strangers, all recently deceased, all resurrected by the strange black sphere known only as Gantz.Their reprieve from death may on...
dies... The last thing Kei remembers is the train running over his own body. Now he is in a room filled with strangers all resurrected by the featureless black sp...
3 out of 3 similar offers for Gantz - Vol. 1 (Animated) (Subtitled and Dubbed) (DVD)
Gantz - Vol. 1
The Last Thing Kei Remembers is the train running over his body, crushing him. Now he ... more
finds himself in a room filled with strangers, all recently deceased, all resurrected by the strange black sphere known only as Gantz.Their reprieve from death may only be temporary, however. Unless they complete the brutal missions that Gantz assigns, none of them will live long enough to leave the room. Is this strange afterlife real, or just a dream? All Kei and the others know is that if they fail the mission, they will all die again.Episodes:1. It's the beginning of a brand new day.2. They aren't human.3. Kei, you're awesome!4. OK, Here are your scores.
Production Year: 1981 - Drama - Director: Franco Zeffirelli - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over - Starring: Brooke Shields, Martin Hewitt, Shirley Knight, Don Murray, Richard Kiley, Penelope Milford, Beatrice Straight
Production Year: 2004 - Drama - Director: Nick Cassavetes - Original Language: English - Classification: 15 years and over, 12 years and over - Starring: Rachel McAdams, Ryan Gosling, Gena Rowlands
Plot: Director Ichiro Itano presents a hellish vision of the afterlife in the brutal horror anime series 'Gantz'. High school student Kei and his childhood friend Kato are helping a hobo who has fallen onto the subway tracks when they are run over and violently decapitated by an oncoming train in a spectacularly grisly fashion. Transported to a strange post-death limbo, the pair find themselves in a barren room overlooking Tokyo with a motley group of strangers - including two hotheaded gangsters and a naked young girl, whom they immediately try to rape - as well as a mysterious black sphere known as Gantz. Kei and Kato soon discover that they and the room's occupants are all dead and have been brought there by Gantz as part of a secret government plot to kill criminal aliens that roam the earth - and that if they refuse their deadly missions, they face a fate even worse than death. Moody, stylish, and animated with veritable buckets of crimson blood, 'Gantz' plays like a twisted hybrid of 'Yu Yu Hakusho' and 'LA Femme Nikita', with graphic violence and nudity deemed too graphic to be aired on Japanese television without major edits and re-cropping. Produced by the team behind 'Chrono Crusade' and 'Peacemaker', this collection presents the series' first two episodes in their original uncut and unedited versions.
Release details
DVD Region: DVD
Studio(s): MVM; ARVATO SERVICES
Release date: 17/10/2005
No of Discs: 1
Catalogue No: MVD 2106
Barcode: 5060067001087
Screenwriter: Masahi Sogo
Author: Hiroya Oku
Languages
Main Language: Japanese
Dubbed Language: English
Subtitle Language: English
DVD Description
Director Ichiro Itano presents a hellish vision of the afterlife in the brutal horror anime series 'Gantz'. High school student Kei and his childhood friend Kato are helping a hobo who has fallen onto the subway tracks when they are run over and violently decapitated by an oncoming train in a spectacularly grisly fashion. Transported to a strange post-death limbo, the pair find themselves in a barren room overlooking Tokyo with a motley group of strangers - including two hotheaded gangsters and a naked young girl, whom they immediately try to rape - as well as a mysterious black sphere known as Gantz. Kei and Kato soon discover that they and the room's occupants are all dead and have been brought there by Gantz as part of a secret government plot to kill criminal aliens that roam the earth - and that if they refuse their deadly missions, they face a fate even worse than death. Moody, stylish, and animated with veritable buckets of crimson blood, 'Gantz' plays like a twisted hybrid of 'Yu Yu Hakusho' and 'LA Femme Nikita', with graphic violence and nudity deemed too graphic to be aired on Japanese television without major edits and re-cropping. Produced by the team behind 'Chrono Crusade' and 'Peacemaker', this collection presents the series' first two episodes in their original uncut and unedited versions.
Technical information
Special Features: Clean Opening And Closing Animations, Interview With Director Ichiro Itano, Interview With Daisuke Namikawa
Aspect Ratio: 16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0
Dubbing Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 English Dolby Digital 2.0 Japanese
Advantages: Fantastic characters, great and original story line. Disadvantages: That the anime only covers so little of the manga story.
...rare occasions where I preferred the English dub to the Japanese with English subtitles. Main reasons being that I disliked the Japanese cast for Yuki Sohma, and that the English cast did the series justice and didn't sound wooden at all.
Music: The background music (BGM) fit the series well, and is for the most part light and pleasant. Nothing special, though, even the opening and ending theme are non spectacular. So though it fits well, Fruits Basket isn't a series I would buy the soundtrack for.
Value for money: Amazing. Seriously, this disc has the first 6 half-hour episodes. It is a 26-part anime series, and fits on 4 discs total (you can also buy a special boxed set of the 4) whereas most 26-part series' can drag them out for 7 or even 8 if they're clever (a la Escaflowne).
From manga to anime: As with most anime series Fruits...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: An easy to watch, compelling and uplifting series Disadvantages: A lack of action and adventure means it's not for everyone
...Fruits Basket Vol. 1
Intro
Fruits Basket is a comedy/drama/romance anime show (Japanese cartoon) aimed at teenage girls. The series is 26 episodes long, split over 3 DVDs. Volume 1, "A Great Transformation", contains episodes 1-8. The DVD features the show in the original Japanese with subtitles, or dubbed in English.
Fruits Basket is based upon a manga series (Japanese comic books), also translated into English. The manga series is ongoing (currently around volume 10+ in English). The DVDs cover the first 7 or so mangas.
The DVDs start from scratch and there is no need to read the manga to understand the plot.
Synopsis
Fruits Basket follows the life of optimistic heroine Tohru Honda, a high school girl who lost her only living parent, her mother Kyoko, to a car accident a year before the start of the anime.
It...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Curiously sophisticated story and psychologically telling examination of violence - and girls with guns, too Disadvantages: Nothing, really.
.... And having read the book you can understand why. But I'll say no more on that.
Certainly, it is a superior piece of television, regardless of origin; Yuki Kajiura's music perfectly matches the mood of the series; sometimes pulsating, often melancholy, it adds that extra element of class.
My only comment: do not watch this in an English dub but subtitled. As usually, the dub is pretty average and somehow American accents just don't work for me in anime (not that English ones do either, for that matter!). Stick to the original.
As for extras there's but a few. Clean opening and closing sequences (which is worth it for watching the fabulous opening credits); production sketches; Japanese promos and the obligatory trailers. There's an easter egg in there somewhere but it tells you all about that on the web somewhere.
When I first...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
helpful 04.03.2007
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