![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mayoraaseiFinally got around to watching the first part of the Gantz movies.
I like it better than the impression I got from Another Gantz (the Gantz special that showed on TV just before the second movie screened).
It's pretty obvious that Nino has read the original work and he did quite well during the Buddha arc working through Kurono's reckless heroism. They've moved the main characters to university age (in the original work they were still in high school) and I like how they've used that opportunity to work in Kurono's sense of uselessness and inferiority into why he became cocky during the Buddha arc.
Given the time constraints I'm actually pretty happy with how they've developed Kurono. They've painted him in a far more positive light than the original work when Kurono first started out - they've turned his cynical schadenfraude to a more human uncaring cowardice. In the manga, Kurono laughed at the drunken man who fell onto the rails, in the movie he watched along with everyone else on the platform in detached concern.
Much of what happened in the Buddha arc wasn't simply stupid cockiness. He was intensely jealous at the attention and admiration people gave to Katou, he himself too cynical to have any of Katou's kindness. It was because of this jealous-driven need to wrest attention back from Katou that he ran recklessly into a fight, and in the manga everyone but Kurono was killed. In the movie two other people were left alive. Kurono spent the next arc running terrified, unable to face a fight again. In the movie, he thoughtfully went and found Ayu, Katou's little brother and his anchor to everything that's right.
I think Kurono's very visit characterises everything that's better and perhaps everything that is a flaw about the movie. It is so much more human than the manga, for which any moral message seemed only to be a distant afterthought. The killings were senseless and horrific, without any morals or judgement attached. Death came without discrimination to both the good and the bad. Kindness was not rewarded and wickedness rarely punished. As humans we like to believe our actions can make a difference, and the movie gives us that. The vibe is far more positive and optimistic than the manga.
Of course I'm only talking about the first 80 chapters or so of the manga, which is what the movies cover. Kurono eventually learns the value of kindness and teamwork and leadership, but reading the early chapters it is impossible to waive the niggling suspicion that the lesson was one that the author learned.
I've actually skipped the chapters about Gantz ordering the hunt on Tae, so it should be interesting to see what Gantz 2 gives. Also wonder if Kurono's brother appears. He feels a bit like Zero's brother from Vampire Knight - he makes a cool entrance, snarked around for a bit, and suddenly got killed off for no apparent reason =____=
Shall watch something happy after this Orz
I like it better than the impression I got from Another Gantz (the Gantz special that showed on TV just before the second movie screened).
It's pretty obvious that Nino has read the original work and he did quite well during the Buddha arc working through Kurono's reckless heroism. They've moved the main characters to university age (in the original work they were still in high school) and I like how they've used that opportunity to work in Kurono's sense of uselessness and inferiority into why he became cocky during the Buddha arc.
Given the time constraints I'm actually pretty happy with how they've developed Kurono. They've painted him in a far more positive light than the original work when Kurono first started out - they've turned his cynical schadenfraude to a more human uncaring cowardice. In the manga, Kurono laughed at the drunken man who fell onto the rails, in the movie he watched along with everyone else on the platform in detached concern.
Much of what happened in the Buddha arc wasn't simply stupid cockiness. He was intensely jealous at the attention and admiration people gave to Katou, he himself too cynical to have any of Katou's kindness. It was because of this jealous-driven need to wrest attention back from Katou that he ran recklessly into a fight, and in the manga everyone but Kurono was killed. In the movie two other people were left alive. Kurono spent the next arc running terrified, unable to face a fight again. In the movie, he thoughtfully went and found Ayu, Katou's little brother and his anchor to everything that's right.
I think Kurono's very visit characterises everything that's better and perhaps everything that is a flaw about the movie. It is so much more human than the manga, for which any moral message seemed only to be a distant afterthought. The killings were senseless and horrific, without any morals or judgement attached. Death came without discrimination to both the good and the bad. Kindness was not rewarded and wickedness rarely punished. As humans we like to believe our actions can make a difference, and the movie gives us that. The vibe is far more positive and optimistic than the manga.
Of course I'm only talking about the first 80 chapters or so of the manga, which is what the movies cover. Kurono eventually learns the value of kindness and teamwork and leadership, but reading the early chapters it is impossible to waive the niggling suspicion that the lesson was one that the author learned.
I've actually skipped the chapters about Gantz ordering the hunt on Tae, so it should be interesting to see what Gantz 2 gives. Also wonder if Kurono's brother appears. He feels a bit like Zero's brother from Vampire Knight - he makes a cool entrance, snarked around for a bit, and suddenly got killed off for no apparent reason =____=
Shall watch something happy after this Orz
