Ask John: Will the Gantz Manga Be Released in America?

Question:
With manga titles like Berserk, which opens with a soft-core sex scene and later nearly goes into a full-blown rape of a small boy, why is Gantz considered too hardcore? I’ve heard that the manga is a little more detailed and graphic than the TV series, but compared to what’s out there, how bad can it actually be? And if it does get a release, what are the chances that it will be edited like the Tenjho Tenge manga?

Answer:
I’ve personally never heard the Gantz manga series called “too hardcore.” While I haven’t read all of it, I have read several volumes of it. The degree of sexuality and violence in the Gantz manga is roughly equivalent to the home video version of the TV anime, so it’s definitely explicit, but not the absolute most gruesome manga or anime available. Everyone has a different tolerance for graphic nudity, sex, and violence, but I honestly think that critics who cite Gantz as the most explicit and grotesque manga or anime they’ve ever seen probably haven’t seen a very wide variety of manga or anime. Since the thematic content of the Gantz manga and anime are so similar and the Gantz animation has been released in America uncensored, I see no reason why the manga couldn’t also be released in America uncensored.

I’m frequently asked when the Gantz manga will be available in America. I don’t know why it isn’t officially available in English yet, nor do I know for certain if it ever will be. However, given the popularity of the animation, I presume that the manga is a likely candidate for English language release. The original manga story develops extremely slowly. In fact, through the first dozen books readers are introduced to protagonist Kei Kurono’s personality, and that’s about it. The manga offers no explanation about the history or rationale for the circumstances Kei finds himself in, nor any observations on how the world responds to the conflict that Kei is involved in. The manga story moves quickly, but almost nothing of any consequence ever happens in it. Apart from its gratuitous violence and sex, Gantz is a very simple character study about hardship forcing a selfish teen to consider more than his own selfishness. Although the manga has virtually no developing story, I don’t think its lack of substance or narrative development are preventing American publishers from seriously considering it. I can only guess that the Gantz manga hasn’t been formally released in America yet for one of three reasons: it’s either already been acquired but not released; its translation rights are prohibitively expensive; or there’s a conflict or problem in Japan preventing an English language release.

Considering that equally or more graphic and grotesque manga like Berserk, Battle Royale, and “Apocalypse Zero” have been released in America uncensored, there’s no reason why Gantz couldn’t also be released in America unedited. The Tenjho Tenge manga, which is less offensive than Gantz, seems to have been heavily censored for its American release because it was licensed by a publisher that had no experience in publishing English translated manga for mature audiences. CMX apparently decided to try to market Tenjho Tenge to a mainstream young teen market instead of preserving the book’s original integrity and marketing it toward older American teens and young adults. Whether the Gantz manga would be edited upon a hypothetical American release would probably depend entirely upon which publisher localizes and distributes it.