Hiroya Oku: a GANTZ anime reboot needs a studio with guts

Hiroya Oku talked about a possible reboot of the GANTZ anime and put it in simple terms: it would take a studio with guts. The author posted a message on X in which he acknowledges that requests keep coming from all over the world, but he also hints at why no production company has jumped on it yet.

"People all over the world keep asking for a reboot of the GANTZ anime. I wonder if studios don't want to take it on because they know how demanding it would be in terms of animation workload. Any studio willing to do it would need a lot of guts," he wrote.

The comment doesn't come out of nowhere. Oku had already expressed similar doubts in a 2021 interview with Crunchyroll, when he pointed to the manga's graphic violence and nudity as serious obstacles to a faithful adaptation.

The 2004 anime fell far from the manga

The first GANTZ adaptation, produced by Gonzo, premiered in 2004 and veered away from the source material before completing the story. The TV broadcast suffered heavy censorship to remove explicit violence, gore, and nudity, while the DVDs included the uncut content.

The animation quality also drew harsh criticism from fans. Oku recalled in that interview that a TV producer told him directly that the adaptation couldn't be done the way he wanted, and that the anime director constantly dealt with those restrictions.

The author also acknowledged the criticism of the character animation: his realistic designs demand more detailed linework and make it harder for animators to keep things consistent. According to Oku, adapting his manga requires more time and effort than other productions with comparable budgets.

A Hollywood deal complicates things

The possibility of a new GANTZ adaptation also runs into a Hollywood agreement. In that same 2021 interview, Oku revealed that an American company held the rights to adapt the manga into anime and live-action projects.

That same year, Sony Pictures attached Overlord director Julius Avery to the live-action film, with Marc Guggenheim as screenwriter and Temple Hill producing. The project was still in early development with no start date for filming.

As of October 2026, no production update or confirmation about the current status of the rights could be verified.

A franchise that hasn't stopped moving

GANTZ, written and illustrated by Oku, was published in Shueisha's Weekly Young Jump between June 2000 and June 2013, with 37 collected volumes. The franchise also has a historical spin-off, Gantz: E, written by Oku and illustrated by Jin Kagetsu, which has been serialized in the same magazine since January 2020.

After the 2004 anime came two live-action films in January and April 2011. In 2016, the CGI film GANTZ: O adapted the manga's popular Osaka arc.

As long as no studio is willing to shoulder the weight of animating GANTZ, the reboot will remain a recurring fan request. Oku knows it, and his message sounds more like a warning than a promise.

Would you like to see a GANTZ reboot that adapts the full manga? Tell us in the comments.