Gannibal
NZ release: 28 December 2022
Violence & content that may disturb Rated on: 15 May 2023
Season 1
What’s it about?
Police officer Agawa Daigo struggles with his inner darkness after uncovering a horrifying secret hidden in the peaceful countryside – a local family, the Gotos, are cannibals.
The facts
- Directed by Shinzô Katayama and Hayato Kawai
- Japanese language with English subtitles
- Runtime: 45 minutes per episode, on average
- Based on the Japanese manga of the same name by Masaaki Ninomiya
Why did it get this rating?
This series was self-rated by Disney+. You can find out more about self-rating by streaming providers here.
Horror
The series contains frightening depictions and jump scares, which are meant to shock viewers. It involves dark themes, such as cults and newborn babies being taken from mothers at birth to be eaten by other humans.
Some of the strongest moments of horror include:
- A young girl wanders into the forest and is approached by a menacing, zombie-like old man who growls.
- There is a jump scare where the zombie-like man slices a man’s head and drags him into the woods.
- A man with a prosthetic face removes his prosthetic, revealing that his nose and eye are gone, leaving graphic muscle and tissue scars. There is a flashback to when his face was eaten during a cannibalistic ritual. In this scene the camera cuts to black and we hear bones crunching.
- A leg of meat, implied to be that of a human, is left on an altar surrounded by burning candles for a dark spirit. The spirit appears and eats it, we don’t see much but we hear muscle tearing and bones crunching.
Violence & cruelty
This film contains depictions of torture, gore, cannibalism, and human remains, with some blood shown.
Some of the strongest moments of violence include:
- A scythe appears around a character's neck and the camera cuts. We hear his neck being sliced as he chokes and gurgles blood.
- An old woman’s full body, mutilated and bloodied, is shown with her mouth detached and teeth sticking out in grotesque ways. You can see bone coming out of detached arm and her thigh flesh has been removed to the bone.
- After a hunt, a dead bear's organs are taken out of its body and shown in closeup as a man cuts the stomach open, causing green mush to pour out. The bear’s heart is cut out and eaten.
- During a torture scene a character’s fingers are dislocated.
- A child is held hostage and threated with a boxcutter.
Content that may disturb
Other than the horror and violence there are a couple of scenes that could be uncomfortable for some viewers
- A boy says he will kill himself if his mother spreads a secret held by their family.
- A man has sex with a woman who appears emotionally unresponsive, which may suggest that she did not give consent.
When content stays with you:
We all have our boundaries, and it’s completely okay if something you’ve watched is weighing on your mind. If certain content lingers with you, consider having a chat with friends or whānau to debrief about what you’ve just seen. But if you’re still feeling affected, please reach out to any of the following helplines for support.
Further information
Recent featured decisions
Violence
After finding themselves caught in a death trap, an unlikely team of antiheroes are led on a dangerous mission, forcing them to confront the darkest corners of their pasts.
