Sei Sakuraoka - Gantz Girl
Jan. 24, 2008
I can't find any shrines for Gantz
character Sei Sakuraoka aka "Beauty " so I will make one. Gantz is a science fiction manga by Hiroya Oku started in 2000 and is still going. The
first 90 chapters were made into a 26 episode anime that was released in
2004. The manga is noteable for sexy pictures of girls dressed in Gantz wear.
Tomb Raider
In the manga you can see Sei Sakuraoka was designed to look like game character Lara Croft. In this image from chapter 82 she looks like Angelina Jolie from the Tomb Raider movies. To complete the tomb raider look she wears shorts and tall boots. The author is telling us Sei Sakuraoka is an adventurer .
In the anime her skin is slightly tanned which tells us she is an outdoors person.
Adventurer
Sei Sakuraoka first appears in anime episode 7 “We're After
You” (there doesn't seem to be an equivalent scene in the manga). We
see an unusual young woman dressed in shorts and boots in a bookstore. She has pointy eyebrows like a Vulcan which gives her a stern look. She spots a high school boy (Kurono) peeking at an adult magazine. Soon
he is joined by a busty teenage girl (Kishimoto).
Perhaps she is wondering if her bosom was that large when she was the same age. Then we see
her sitting on a motocycle watching the couple walk away. We don't
know why she is interested in them.
Sei next appears in anime episode 14 "Goodbye". Kishimoto
overhears Sakuraoka in the bookstore asking when her copy of
"Labyrinth" is coming in.
Lover
Gantz captures Sakuraoka in anime episode
15 "I Wanna Be There Now". While the newcomers are arguing Sei shows an
interest in Kurono who is in the hallway crying over Kishimoto leaving him. She offers to help in some way.
Kurono looks her up and down and
says he wants to have sex with her. This is
strange and naturally she is shocked and yells at him. Luckily for him she reluctantly agrees.
Luckily for viewers the writer has her wonder aloud why she is doing this so
we don’t freak out at this odd turn of events.
Girlfriend
In anime episode 18 “Welcome Back” Sei shows her kind side again when she asks if Kurono wants
to date her when they complete the mission. That tells us she was
doing more than giving a sexual favour before. She really wants him to be her
boyfriend. Maybe she has had bad luck with men in the past and wants to try someone younger. He says yes but he is looking at Kishimoto when he says this. This
scene appears in the manga chapter 67 “My Destructive Self”.
She says she just got her driver’s license and wants to take him for a
ride in her car.
In manga chapter 74 "Slaughter" she reminds him they are going on a date after Kurono takes down the giant Buddha. This happens in anime episode 19 "What the Hell is This". Kato asks if the two of them are dating. Kurono is embarassed and doesn't admit it. Sakuraoka says yes.
Protector
In episode 20 "Kill Me" we see Sei using two pistols and martial arts skills to hold off four aliens while Kurono is going berserk on the multi-armed Buddha. She is fierce like a lioness.
In anime episode 21 “Big Brother” Sei asks
why Kurono was interested in her although she already suspects. He pretty much admits it
was for her sexy body. Then she expresses disappointment as if other men have said the same thing. She was hoping Kurono would fall in
love with her.
In manga chapter 82 “The Woman Who Fights to Win or
Die” she says the same thing. She gets Kurono to promise to fall in love with her if she can win against overwhelming odds. Next comes her dramatic one-on-one battle with the boss Buddha.
Conclusion
To summarize: Sei Sakuraoka was a good girlfriend for the immature Kurono. She comforted him when he was crying in the apartment. She supported him with hugs and encouragement during the Buddha Temple mission. She was willing to put her life on the line to protect him. She should be remembered as someone who helped Kurono take a first step in becoming a better human being.
The following sections are about various Gantz topics.
Costume Design
I am glad they tweaked the costume design for the anime. It looked odd
having those big cylinders on the neck and chin of the super-suit. There were too many discs on the original costume too.
Closeups
Why are there so many in-your-face closeups in this show? This reminds me of those spaghetti Westerns where Clint Eastwood is facing off against bad guys and the camera zooms in on their tense faces and then their eyes.
Final Mission
I assume director Ichiro Itano invented the Final Mission because there
weren't enough chapters published in 2003/2004 to fill out a 26 episode time slot on
TV. People complain that the Buddha Temple mission took too long and it ended at episode 21. There is no way it could have been stretched five more episodes.
Also the manga hadn't ended so he may have wanted some kind of conclusion
for the TV audience. That lead to the Miranda Foster "Labyrinth" book as a plot
device to give the characters some kind of hope in a bad situation and to set
up the characters that appear in the Final Mission.
Hair
You will notice the anime version of Sei no longer wears her
hair in a braid but uses a barrette to tie back her long hair. I am guessing this is easier for the animators to draw.
Horny Kurono
In the first anime episode Kurono daydreams in class and imagines the teacher and the girl students are naked. This didn't happen in the manga but it seems necessary along with the dream scene in episode 14 to establish how horny he is. Then Kurono asking a stranger (Sei) for sex in a hallway makes a little more sense.
In-betweeners
I found the battles hard to follow. As you may know the brain fills in the gaps when you watch animation. A lack of frames makes the action super-fast and jerky. When Sei fights four aliens in the "golden temple" there are not enough in-between frames to smooth out the movement.
Introductions
There are no scenes in the manga or anime where the newcomers introduce
themselves before the Buddha Temple Mission. Even the veterans don't bother
introducing themselves. This leads to a weird situation where Kurono is
asking Sakuraoka for sex when he doesn't know her name.
I read the fan-translated manga chapters 56 to 91 and Kurono never referred to Sakuraoka by name. Maybe he didn't know her name? Sei refers to him as Kei-kun near the end but not when she was asking for a date.
Labyrinth
I assume the director came up with the bookstore sequence in episode 7. This scene introducing Sakuraoka did not appear in the manga. It was a good way for her to at least see and hear Kurono and Kishimoto if only from a distance before the sex scene in episode 15 happens. Otherwise that event would be
completely implausible except in porn. If Sakuraoka didn't see Kurono in the bookstore she would be having sex with a total stranger. This slight change helps a bit and now maybe viewers won't consider Sei to be a lewd woman.
Love Triangle
This Kishimoto-Kurono-Sakuraoka situation reminds me a little of the Lin Minmay-Rick Hunter-Lisa Hayes love
triangle in Macross where Rick's affection moves from the cute teen idol Minmay
to the reliable older girl Lisa. The difference here is Kurono doesn't know how good Sakuraoka has been to him. In his mind she is a Kishimoto substitute, a hot chick with big boobs who was willing to "go all the way" with him.
Model Sheet
Because Kishimoto is busty and is a teenager the director must have decided that Sei must be even bigger as a young woman. Looking at this model sheet I wouldn't have guessed how big her breasts were going to be in her two sex scenes.
Did you notice Sei's look is a little inconsistent? Not only her breast size but her face is different in a number of places. Usually a supervisor will spot these errors and make the animator redo the pictures.
Too Dark
Unfortunately the costume colour is black and we are on a night mission. A lot of scenes are too dark to see any details. This is a common problem with comic book characters whose costumes are black like Batman. It would have been better if the costume was purple like it is on the DVD cover art instead of black with purple highlights.
George Hong (gjhong@accessv.com)