Weird mix of violence and preachy anti-violence

Written by nomedias on February 7, 2011 at 9:34 PM

First, I'll say I've never read the manga, so no comparisons there. I can say I've watch over half of the series, until I got tired of being irritated to death. I'll do my best to be vague and not give any spoilers. The one thing I rated GOOD was the story. I liked the concept, and initially it made me curious about what I might learn about what Gantz is. But then the irritation set in, and I just stopped caring.

Why irritated? Because on the one hand, you have an occasionally violent story, people dying in gruesome ways to appease the grim satisfaction of some users (i.e. they had it coming...). On the other hand, a pervasive anti-violence message usually put forth at times when violence is clearly called for to save those the main characters care about. At least the anime isn't so sanctimonious as to have the characters miraculously saved at the last minute by good intentions (or singing children). I got no problem with people having differing opinions, but when your in the middle of a life or death struggle, standing there whining about if its right to actually do something just gets your own people killed.

Am I anti-pacifist? No. I understand the need of restraint is stressful times. I like Hayao Miyazaki's work. But in my opinion, this story was written with an extremely polarized view of violence versus pacifism, even compared to Miyazaki. Either you have a bunch of thugs preying on the weak or some hypocrite standing in the middle of a firefight whining about the rightness of action. There is a middle ground where rational humans can fight to survive without being reduced to two legged animals.

End of rant. ;)