Anirban Bhattacharya
‘Gantz’ is a popular horror anime. It has lots of action and does not shy away from gore and blood. It is for someone who has a stomach for violent stuff. But if you get past it, then you are treated with lots of ecchi moments. The plot basically revolves around a survival game for people. Kei Kurono, the protagonist of the anime, finds himself trapped in this game when he gets killed. This world does not have any moral codes or law. Anyone can do anything. So yes, lots of violent activities keep occurring on a regular basis. If you are looking for anime that are quite similar in tone and style to this one, then you have come to the right place. Here’s the list of best anime similar to ‘Gantz’ that are our recommendations. You can watch several of these anime like ‘Gantz’ on Netflix, Crunchyroll or Hulu.
7. Deadman Wonderland (2011)
‘Deadman Wonderland’ is a popular anime. It has lots of action, blood, and gore making it an entertaining anime for horror fans. ‘Deadman Wonderland’ is quite similar to ‘Gantz’. We have a male protagonist in both the series who finds himself in a dangerous situation all of a sudden. Both series are quick to showcase violence and there’s no bar on the amount of gore. Also, in these anime, the main characters participate in a dangerous game where they can easily die.
It is a normal day in the life of Ganta Igarashi. He along with his classmates is going on a field trip to Deadman Wonderland, a prison amusement park. Here the prisoners perform dangerous acts for the entertainment of people. But no one ever thought that most of these students will not see the end of the day. A man in red appears during the trip and massacres all of Ganta’s classmates. Somehow, he becomes the prime suspect and is sent to the same prison he was visiting. There’s a lethal collar around his neck which can be slowed only by winning in deadly games at the prison. The inmates here are vicious and violent. It is clearly not a place for someone like Ganta. But he needs to survive if he is to ever find the identity of the man in red and clear his name.
6. Kakurenbo: Hide & Seek (2004)
‘Kakurenbo: Hide & Seek’ is an anime movie which explores supernatural and horror themes. The movie is kind of entertaining and suspenseful. While not being as gory and violent as ‘Gantz’ it does share some similarities with it. This anime has a dark tone to it. It revolves around a dangerous game that the main characters have to go through. The atmosphere of the movie is quite mysterious and it keeps on building the suspense. One of the only drawbacks of the anime is its short running length, which does not let the viewers become engaged with the characters. The movie revolves around the game of Otokoyo which is a secret hide and seek game. This game is for children who are daring and adventurous. Yes, the game is dangerous, as all children who’ve played it have gone missing. The game only starts when there are seven players and each player has to wear a fox mask. What is the reason behind the disappearances? Is this the work of demons or something else?
5. Elfen Lied (2004)
‘Elfen Lied’ is a popular horror anime. It is for those viewers who enjoy blood and gore. The series has a lot in common with ‘Gantz’. Both shows have excessive blood and gore when it comes to action. These anime thrive on shock value. Both shows include their fair share of nudity as well. They never really dial down on the violence. The key difference between the two is that while ‘Elfen Lied’ has some sweet, not violent moments in between, ‘Gantz’ does not.
Diclonius are special, evolved breed of humans. They have short horns on their head and invisible telekinetic hands. Lucy is a Diclonius which makes her the subject of multiple inhumane scientific experiments. One day, she gets an opportunity to escape this hell hole. But the torture she has suffered here has turned her into a revenge seeking freak. She massacres everyone as she escapes but hits her head during the process. This injury leaves her with a split personality of an innocent girl and another one of the bloodthirsty Diclonius. In her innocent girl state, she stumbles upon two college students. They take pity on her and decide to take her in. But they don’t know what they are getting into as their lives are soon going to experience upheaval.
4. Sword Art Online (2012)
‘Sword Art Online’ is a popular isekai anime. The only reason that this anime gets a spot on this list is that it revolves around a dangerous game in which the players are met with life and death situations, which is quite the same as ‘Gantz’. ‘Sword Art Online’, however, does not have scenes of nudity. The series revolves around a virtual reality game named Sword Art Online, which uses the latest technology of NervGear. But when Kazuto Kirigaya along with several thousand other gamers logs into the game for the first time, they are trapped in the game. Now, they must survive and complete the game to log out. There’s one big problem: if one of them dies in the game, they die in real life. Kazuto needs to get himself together and figure out if he can win the game. He needs to make allies in order to survive. Later in the game, he meets Asuna Yuki, whom he falls in love with.
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3. Shingeki no Kyojin (2013)
‘Shingeki no Kyojin’, or ‘Attack on Titan’, is one of the most popular anime. This series has garnered a huge fan following. Currently, the second part of the third season is airing and let me tell you, it’s really entertaining. This series has a lot in common with ‘Gantz’. Both shows have lots of action and do not shy away from blood and gore. They have monsters who can easily crush the characters. ‘Shingeki no Kyojin’ is a must watch. It has a great plot and a wonderful array of interesting characters. Unlike ‘Gantz’ the anime does not showcase nudity.
The story takes place centuries ago. It tells us how humans were pushed to the brink of extinction by giant humanoid monsters, Titans. Titans have no regard for human life and feasts on them. They destroy anything and everything in their path. To protect themselves, humans have created large walls around themselves. Special gears, known as 3-D maneuver gears, have been invented to allow humans to fight these monsters. Eren Yeager, the male protagonist of the series has to watch his mother being devoured by a Titan. He takes an oath to train hard and join the military and not stop killing until he has murdered all the Titans. But there are lots of secrets lying dormant that will change the fate of humanity.
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2. Bokurano (2007)
‘Bokurano’ is a sci-fi anime. If you are a fan of mecha action, then you should give this anime a try. It has some similarities with ‘Gantz’. In both these anime, we see the main characters being pushed into a sort of game which ends up being extremely dangerous. The stakes of the game are high and mistake means death. The story revolves around 15 children out of whom 8 are boys. They are enjoying their summer camp when they discover a mysterious cave. They choose to investigate it and find a room with computers. A man named Kokopelli introduces himself as the person behind it and tells them that he is creating a game involving a robot which is supposed to save Earth from 15 different alien invasions. He lures 14 of them to sign a contract to play the game. Once they sign the contract, they understand the grave danger they are in. They must control the robot Zearth and hope to defend against the invasions. But there’s something grueling about the energy source of Zearth.
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1. Btooom! (2012)
‘Btooom!’ is an isekai anime. It is filled with action and adventure. This anime has lots of similarities with ‘Gantz’. In both the anime, the protagonist is a male who suddenly finds himself in a different environment. This environment is going to test his skills for survival and mistake means death. He has an encounter with a girl and they join hands. There are certain differences between ‘Btooom!’ and ‘Gantz’. One of them is that ‘Btooom!’ does not unnecessarily resort to nudity and keeps the tone of the show serious.
Ryouta Sakamoto is Japan’s top player of the online game Btooom!. That is his only achievement in life. One day, he wakes up in an unfamiliar environment and has no idea how he got there. There’s a green crystal embedded in his hand. He realizes that this is the same environment as Btooom! It means he has to survive in this hostile environment. Each participating player has to kill all the other participants. Though at first he condemned violence, he had to resort to it when other players were not so considerate. He teams up with Himiko to try and survive this dangerous game. Their only weapon is a bag full of bombs known as BIM.
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