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This is mostly intended as an in detail recommendation rather then a review. Battle Royale was amazing. I read the book a while ago, and now I just finished the manga, and I still felt just as into it and just as emotional and on edge reading the manga, as I did reading the book (As In, even though I knew what would happen).

Note: if you read the Battle Royale plot summary you will find it is VERY similar to that of hunger games, but Battle Royale came out a lot earlier (2008 hunger games and 1999 Battle Royale) Honestly I liked both the ... Hunger Games series and Battle Royale, but I found hunger games to be a massive rip off of it, which was much less intense emotionally, action wise, story wise, and romantically.

Anyway, Here are the main reason I loved Battle Royale:

~ ACTION: ~
Top notch realistic and intense in which you are on the edge of your seat, holding your breath, where all characters have an equal chance to die or live, the action, weapons, sturdiness of bodies and minds were very realistic and there was no overpowered moves, or weapons or abilities, only real life capabilities.

~ PLOT LINE: ~
It had an amazing plot, (can't spoil so I won't give specifics) where just like the hunger games, the setting takes place in a dictatorship where many people are treated horribly, and every year they host "The Program", which "randomly" selects a class of students in a "random" school and without any pre-empt, Bam, you are on a stranded area, now having to fight to the last one standing. The plot intensifies a lot and develops from simple survival into wanting to be free and get back at the program and the cruelty of it.

~ The CHARACTERS: ~
The characters, were all realistic, I mean in terms of mental stability, they acted as normal people, although many of the characters were constantly shifting in their struggle for sanity and while some went insane, others already were, and some just died like dogs. There were 3 main characters. The protagonist; Shuya Nanahara the hero type guy that believes in humanity, his friends, and can't even hold it against any of them to try to kill him, all around a good guy, too trusting though. Shuya develops slowly, but he surely develops into a strong consistent characters that knows his purpose. Noriko Nakagawa is not that major in terms of "Oh I really want to see what she will do next", but she does play an important role as the "anchor" of the the main character and the purpose for him to fight, to kill, and to survive. For a pretty girl, she has a strong, non whiny personality. Shogo Kawada was my favourite, he was the one who carried the manga, literally. Without him the main characters would have died fairly short into the game. Shogo is experienced, calm, and while he does have strong emotions or feelings, his overpowering sense of purpose and calm cold blooded analysis of everything makes him just about as amazing as a human can realistically get. His back story is heartbreaking and he is a truly well designed character.

~ The ART: ~
The art was very good, nothing out of the ordinary, just good quality, consistent, and realistic. The only 1 tiny tiny problem I had in all of the art was the announcer/directors face in the manga, I mean you only see him minutely after the first 20 or less chapters, but his face looks muscle intensive and disfigured. But besides that, the art was well done and there was no faults for the rest of the manga.

~ The ROMANCE: ~
The Romance was a major drive in this story, between Shuya Nanahara and Noriko Nakagawa, they had an intensive love, they are quite literally said to be "star crossed lovers", that is a quote. They love each other deeply, and their love and need to survive for each other and too keep the other alive helps them survive and develop into better characters. There is also quite a bit of other love in this manga, but the main love is between these 2 main characters, and quite the love it is.

Overall this manga was extremely intense, well thought out, relentless and passionate. It didn't stop getting more emotional and exciting, but rather continued to get better and better, upping the ante continually. I strongly guarantee that it if you can handle a mature, realistic and slightly gruesome manga this is something you most likely would enjoy.

This manga for most people seems to be a love or hate relationship, It contains lots of extreme content, including gore, horror, psychological , and some sex. If you cannot stand any of those genres don't bother reading it, if you enjoy or don't mind them, then you may want to read this manga yet.

Gantz is a story about a 14 year old teenager named Kei Kurono, who among nearly 10 others dies and in the moment of their death found themselves transported to a locked room with a big black ball and forced to participate in a "game", In which they must hunt down ... and murder aliens. This story is shrouded with mystery, who is Gantz? why do they need to kill the aliens? Where did humans get this technology? Does god even exist? Gantz progressively gets more and more complex and continues to question reality and human existence.

Here is my personal analysis of Gantz:

Story 10/10: (I can't be that descriptive while avoiding spoilers)I found in the beginning I was interested right off the bat and while this was not a plot driven story, the idea was done well. In the beginning the only goal was survival, in the middle it was adapting, and learning to do more then just survive, to win. And near the end (FAIRLY OBVIOUS SPOILER) the goal is the survival of humanity and the main character going through hell and back to rescue the women he loves.

Characters 9/10: The main character Kei Kurono starts off as a pitiful loser, not the "ahh I feel bad for him." kind of thing, but more like "This guys fucking gross, what a dumbass pervert, you won't amount to anything." But while in the beginning you hate him (as you are meant to), he has the mind of a realistic normal highschooler, not super hero, nor secret potential, he's a regular guy. But he quickly develops (realistically though imo) into a survivor mentality, he goes from being pervy, desperate and weak to getting the need to be stronger, and the will to survive, he enjoys power but doesn't go crazy with it. Eventually he becomes a character who you respect, he becomes a cool guy. he doesn't suddenly develop extreme morals, or the need to save life, he just cares about others while he cares about himself. The other characters are not that major, and honestly most of the die and stay dead (permanently or for a while). First off Kato Masaru is a stereotypical good guy hero that was childhood friends with Kei and believes in Kei unrealistically who is used to contrast Kei being a loser. Kishimoto Kei is used to make Kei Kuruno seem like more of a loser and make him jealous of his friend Kato, who she likes, although obviously she turns out to be a fanservice (Big boobs) side character. Nishi Jouichirou is an obvious selfish monster who shows the true harsh reality of Gantz. Reika is actually important and is a stalker who loves the main character unconditionally and tries to get him to love her, in any way possible. Other characters not mentioned were either unimportant, died, or did not have a strong relation with the main character.

Art 9/10: The art was very dark and gory, it portrayed the exact atmosphere intended, the only problem I had was the shading was too intense at times, (ex: black suits, night time, black weapons, dark enemies), Sometimes it was a bit overdone, but overall the art was very suitable and good.

Action 10/10: The action was top notch, amazing fights, realistic pain and struggling, no extremely overpowered fighting moves or abilities or weapons, while the weapons may seem extremely strong, the enemies are also extremely strong, evening it out. The fighting allowed for any of the main characters to have a good chance to die, allowing Gantz to be very intense.

Romance 10/10: The "romance" in the beginning was of a sad guy trying to get laid and lose his virginity, Kei Kuruno is extremely desperate and has a pathetic non-existent love life, being so pervy he would do scumbag things (taking advantage to feel up a homeless girl), but then again he was never loved, ever. His parents disliked him, his brother ignored him, he was a loser to them. But eventually he finds love. Not a babe or a goddess, or a genius, or a slave girl, but a realistic homely girl that for once in his life gives him love. That means more then anything to him and from then on his love for her makes romance a major and beautiful part of this manga.

Enjoyment/Overall 10/10: I found this manga, in total, to be beautiful .The extreme realism in a sci-fi manga, the main characters development, the amazing romance, and finally the inspirational messages this story has in the face of humanities weakness.
If you actually finished this, thanks for reading, I just wanted to share my recommendation, because In my opinion this manga, was very amazing and had a lot you could learn from. (Note anime while good, is nowhere near as good as the manga imo)

Ok so this is my first review, so bear with improper format or an un-standard review i guess. This is one of the most unique things I have ever read; Franken Fran in short is a twisted, deranged, genius, conceptual, moral questioning work of art.

This manga is currently my favourite manga, but first off before I say the good and why you should read it, here is why you might not want to read it:
It is filled to the brim with an extreme level of gore and horror, and is not for the weak of stomach or mind, and If you are one of ... these don't bother reading it.
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If you are still reading this, your probably are not weak of mind or stomach or at least want to test your luck. So now I will say why I liked this manga so much:

The Characters: All the characters were very creative, but most importantly was the main character, who I thought was very well designed in both appearance and in their personality and actions. They mean well and only do what other people want and believe will help them, but the twist is, that those people clearly didn't think through well enough and so most of the conflict results not from Fran's failures, but from her patients.

Art: Pretty decent in general, characters are very well drawn, but the best drawn stuff is the gore, and detail and level of accuracy on peoples limbs, organs and internal anatomy.

Story: I put this last because it doesn't really have a plot in particular that goes throughout the entire thing, I'm not sure If this is the correct term seeing as this is a manga, but it has an episodic plot, that is different every chapter.

Overall the reasons behind my liking this manga so much are this; It was really interesting conceptually and it questions science and morality, in many different lights and offers tons of legitimate solutions and shows the reason why they fail or succeed. The most interesting thing about this manga is how all the problems that are fixed amazingly are all unethical or immoral, but leave people happy in general, and all the failed experiments are from negligence in the patient not thinking things through, or In the patient and then Fran, taking on an experiment on something not quantitative, but qualitative. (You will know what I'm talking about if you read it)

All in all; 10 out of 10. And It was very interesting.

Sorry for the massive review lol, I kinda started ranting...