GIGANT 2

Gigant #2

by Hiroya Oku

For Rei, the impossible already happened when he met PaPiCo, a gorgeous porn star and the subject of his every fantasy. The fact that she's wound up with the power to grow to truly gigantic proportions is only the tip of an ever-stranger iceberg. The world sees a new anomaly every day, all of them orchestrated by a mysterious website called "E.T.E." It offers its users the opportunity to vote on how the world will end, one disaster at a time. Can Rei's budding, forbidden romance survive this weird apocalypse?

Genres: Manga, Science Fiction, Romance, Comics, Seinen, Fiction, 漫画

210 pages, Paperback

First published October 30, 2018

About the author

Hiroya Oku (奥浩哉 Oku Hiroya, born September 16, 1967 in Fukuoka, Fukuoka) is a mangaka who is the creator of Gantz, Zero-One and HEN, all of which have been serialized in Young Jump. He has finished working on his most renowned manga, Gantz, which began in July 2000. His manga often contain explicit violence and gore, as well as sexual situations.

He won the second prize of the Youth Manga Awards in 1988, under the penname Yahiro Kuon.

He designed a character for Namco Bandai's Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 fighting game, Soulcalibur IV named Shura.

Reviews

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t know if you’ve ever read Gantz, Hiroya Oku’s breakthrough book, but it’s such a trashy manga (it’s usually easy to spot these; is the manga published by Dark Horse? Then it’s crap). There’s one female character who is introduced naked and has big bewbs. She’s eventually given a name but for a time she’s simply referred to as “Tits” and is basically a living sex doll who allows herself to get felt up by the scumbag main character whenever he wants. Gantz is almost like a parody of the perception of boy’s manga with its gratuitous sex and violence - that’s how unbelievably sleazy it is.

Anyway - I thought with Gigant that Oku had matured as a creator. Yeah, he’s still fixated on big bewbs but he was sorta restrained with that in the first book. I also mentioned in my review of the first book that I would really hate it if Oku made the obvious - but extremely dumb - choice of having big boobed pornstar Chiho (who’s in her 20s) become the girlfriend of awkward teenage schoolboy Rei. WELL GUESS WHAT FRIKKIN HAPPENS IN VOLUME 2?!

I couldn’t believe it either. And how it happened too is still more baffling. Rei literally bawls like a baby in a restaurant when Chiho tells him she just wants to remain friends - bawls so much that she says if he continues she’s going to find it hard to respect him. Yes! That’s exactly the right response! But then she relents, agrees to be his girlfriend if he stops sobbing like a spoilt brat and off they go a-fuckin’! It’s jaw-droppingly insane.

I briefly wondered if this was statutory rape but then I’m guessing it probably wouldn’t get printed if it were and that Rei is just at about the age of consent. Who knows though - maybe it is? I wouldn’t put it past this creator. Can you imagine if the roles were reversed and this were a teenage girl getting porked by an adult man? Not that Rei’s gonna be traumatised by any of this. He’s basically living every straight teenage boy’s dream!

But that’s what this book is: wish fulfilment for immature kids. And this is where I’m leaving the series because I just can’t even. Oku doesn’t respect the reader’s intelligence - this is like reading a manga for morons and I feel stupider for having read it.

Which is a shame because I’m still interested in the storyline about the website that grants wishes and the increasingly crazy things that happen in the series. I enjoyed the second half of the book because it was about the website storyline and its unpredictable wishes. It’s not enough though to balance out the ridiculous relationship going on here. I know - all the dragons, giant gods, and other wackiness going on in this book and the most semi-realistic thing here, a relationship between two people, is where I draw the line? But none of that other stuff is real - pornstars and students are real and we’re being asked to believe this relationship could happen. And the way it happened too - bawling in a restaurant!?

No, I can’t. Gigant is slightly less trashy than Gantz but not by much - Hiroya Oku is such an insultingly bad writer with a child-like mentality that I can’t continue on with this title.

[Mr. Cody · Rating 4 out of 5]

Things are finally picking up.

[L. McCoy · Rating 3 out of 5]

WARNING: DUE TO THE NATURE OF THE BOOK THIS REVIEW CONTAINS EXPLICIT SEXUAL DISCUSSION AND STRONG LANGUAGE, IF YOU ARE UNCOMFORTABLE WITH SEX DON’T READ THIS BOOK EITHER!

SUPER FAST REVIEW:
I didn’t hate it... but holy fuck, volume 1 was WAAAY better.
So I like the artwork a lot! The sci-fi elements of the story are definitely strange and interesting (though I am kinda confused about how people on a website voting for crazy things to happen IRL would choose a giant angel of death or police officer going on a rampage as opposed to the all manga being free option, do these motherfuckers just not read or something?). It definitely has some sexy content including a naked giantess and erotic mini-giantess content (yes, I have to use technical fetish terms to describe what’s happening in this not-just-fetish-porn (mostly) comic). There’s also an adorable little doggo that appears throughout the book! The ending also makes me think the next volume might be better than this one.
So I know some of you might be thinking “L., this has erotic giantess content AND a pupper, that sounds like your idea of Heaven, how the fuck is this book only a 3-star?”
Well, despite the giantess stuff being hot I don’t like the relationship itself too much (I mean the male is a high-schooler (who I’m guessing (hoping) must be legal given the content depicted here but it doesn’t say) so there’s age gap drama (which if they are both consenting adults who fucking cares (then again I guess I’m a 20 year old who would give consent to a cute enough 50 year old and people have expressed to me that they think that’s weird so IDK)) and he only got to be in the relationship by crying like a bitch in a restaurant when first being rejected ... yeah it’s fucking stupid and while I unfortunately don’t have a girlfriend so I couldn’t say for sure, that’s probably not how a guy would get the girl (ladies, let me know if I’m wrong)). It’s also not very intense either (only action happens towards the end and most of the sexual stuff (though not all of it) happens off-page).
As far as the writing goes, it’s kinda mixed. Sometimes I’m like “Wow, good job writing good characters” and other times I’m like “Wow that was rushed and anticlimactic as fuck”.
Overall, I am definitely going to read the third volume eventually but after giving the first volume 5-stars and this volume 3-stars... that should tell you there’s been a drop in quality. Also, the fact that I’m giving a comic with a hot giantess and a cute puppy less than 4-stars is a sign that something is wrong here. That’s not to say this is necessarily a bad comic, just a bit disappointing after the first volume being amazing.

3/5

[Naricadou Nicolas · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bon ba c'est bien pourri, ça n'a ni queue ni tête les dessins puent la fainéantise, le tome se dévore en 10minutes montre en main. Comme c'est les scan je vais laisser une dernière chance à la suite. Dommage j'aimais bien gantz et inuyashiki les précédentes oeuvres de l'auteur mais là c'est limite insupportable. Wait and see

[Des Fox · Rating 2 out of 5]

Alright, the E.T.E. stuff is ultra interesting and I want to believe there's something to be said here, but it's so trashy and bizarre, I just hate how the relationship between the leads has unfolded. Rei just whines until our giantess pornstar gives in? Not particularly feminist lmao.

So anyway, I love horny garbage as much as the next person, but this really feels like dorky Mary Sue, teen boy sex fantasy.

Can anyone out there tell me it's actually nuanced and interesting and I should stick with it? If you can, please do, I'm curious but am dubious about wasting time and money.

[Chrisitan Herman]

These books are ridiculous. Like, i'm not even reading them because its a giant tall as buildings p start w big ole cans. Its just the absurdity of it all. Like what is this storyline? Shes fighting crime? Theres a website where the winning poll that day happens in real life? Like 'A list celeb goes bald and streaks in public w a katana' and it happens. I dont think i can handle reading anything past 3. My bookshelf would look confusing if i died and ppl found these 3 books mixed in.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5 Let me start by saying this is trash. Let me follow that up with saying I love trash. This bizarro smut is fantastic. The pornstar PaPico, real name Chiho, has broken up with her boyfriend. This gives Rei an opportunity to ask her out himself. This in itself is already wildly inappropriate as he is a high school student.

Most of this volume involves the 2 of them figuring things out while the craziness builds with a weird website called ETE (Enjoy the End) running amok. ETE is a voting website and it appears that what people vote for on the site happen in real life. Eventually the site decides to vote a giant kaiju god of destruction into existence and whose there to stop it besides a porn star turned Giant-Man.

Lot's of nudity, sex, and chaos. If that's not your forte skip it. It unabashedly panders to a horny male demographic (me) but if that's your thing you'll probably enjoy it and it's a quick easy read with some excellent art.

Our pink haired giant on the cover of volume 2.

Read 1/20/2023

[Gustavo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Aunque era algo que se veía venir, realmente esperaba que Oku no pusiera a Papiko y a Rei en una relación, pero bueno, supongo que a Oku le gusta cumplirles las fantasías a sus lectores de 16 años. Más allá de eso, Oku es muy genial escribiendo ciencia ficción contemporánea, con ideas extrañas que se conectan de formas inesperadas. Puntos extra por poner el perrito de Papiko que es lo más adorable del manga.

[Eva · Rating 3 out of 5]

La relación que se desarrolla entre Papiko y Rei en este tomo es bastante bonita y sana. También es verdad que Rei sexualiza mucho a Papiko, pero es un adolescente, así que es entendible que carezca de cierta madurez. Aun así, la respeta tanto y la aprecia tanto, que resulta muy cuco.

Este tomo se centra sobre todo en la web que hace realidad los deseos de la gente por votación y en la relación de Papiko y Rei. Parece que Hiroya Oku se lo está tomando con calma.

[Alexandre · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like the art but the story is written by a 10 years old.

[Michael Sorbello · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hiroya Oku is back at it again with another absurd manga in the same vein as Gantz and Inuyashiki. And he’s even weirder than ever. Not quite as dark, gory or emotional as his other two major series, but it definitely has the same genre-bending creativity, insane plot and bizarre characters that defy all expected literary tropes.

Gigant is a science-fiction romance featuring a size-shifting pornstar as the hero, her dorky hypersensitive boyfriend that wants to be a professional film director and a whole slew of whacky hijinks from aliens invasions, evil internet entities and Godzilla-style Kaiju battles that end in countless deaths. Trust me, it gets even weirder than it sounds. It’s straight up stupid at many points, but always highly entertaining and fascinatingly weird. Bizzaro fiction enthusiasts will find a lot to love here.

Overall, I just really liked Papico as a protagonist. Hiroya Oku is great at making unconventional protagonists extremely likable and interesting. Inuyashiki features an old dying grandpa that turns into a cyborg superhero. Gantz features a dead teenage boy forced to fight aliens in the afterlife while wearing a dark skinsuit that gives him superhuman abilities.

And now in Gigant, we get a beautiful pornstar with a sad backstory and a surprisingly bright personality that humanizes her rather than treats her like a sexual object. There’s a lot of nudity in almost every chapter, but it never really feels like fanservice. It just feels like a strong woman that’s perfectly comfortable with her body and she’s always fighting on behalf of others. How many other series out there have a kickass pornstar that beats the crap out of giant evil aliens in the nude without a care in the world?

As weird and dumb as this series could be, I had fun reading it and enjoyed experiencing the story of yet another unconventional protagonist by Oku.

***

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[Ades Barnes · Rating 2 out of 5]

La segunda entrega de la serie de mangas "Gigant" nos muestra la gran famosa página web E.T.E. dónde las personas pueden votar entre distintas opciones y, la que llegue a 100,000 votos es la que, mágicamente, se vuelve realidad (Ya sea que en tu cuenta bancaria aparezcan millones de yenes o que por la calle salga corriendo algún artista reconocido sin guardaespaldas ni nada) y... Realmente es todo lo que yo podría considerar relevante en la trama de éste tomo.

"Gigant 2" resultó ser de un nivel más bajo que la primer entrega y, sinceramente, fue bastante decepcionante. Comenzando por el hecho de que Rei, un muchachito de preparatoria, se declaró a Chiho (Papico), ella lo rechazara y el vato se pusiera a hacer un escándalo en el restaurante en el que estaban para hacerla pasar vergüenza ajena y que terminara aceptando ser su pareja para que se callara... Entiendo que duele ser rechazado por la persona que tú más amas, pero un no es un no, no deberías de andar haciendo esas cosas para conseguir lo que quieras. Todavía lo pienso de alguien de secundaria (Los niños de secundaria, neta, son de todo) pero estamos hablando de un chico de preparatoria, ya debe de saber respetar los límites que le ponen los demás.

Y sin irnos más largos, la página E.T.E., está muy interesante que en una página votes por cosas que quieres que pasen pero ¿Mandar a un gigante a destruir tu ciudad? ¿Neta están tan j@d¥d@s las 100,000 personas que votaron eso?... Como que realmente no hay mucho raciocinio en el Japón del manga.

[47Time · Rating 5 out of 5]

ETE or Enjoy the End is the site that is somehow making things happen in the real world after people vote on it. It becomes more and more popular. Rei and Chiho have their own drama going on. Rei wants to date Chiho, but she wants to stay friends. He cries about it - literally cries loudly in a public place - so Chiho relents and agrees to go out with him. We get a sex scene out of this.

Rei and Chiho's first night together is better than Chiho expected. Though he is already thinking about marriage, Chiho recommends they go slow because of his youth. Still, she is starting to enjoy their relationship. As expected, Rei's mother objects, but his father is cool about it. Dads, amiright?

These small issues get thrown aside when the ETE users vote for a robot to descent on Tokyo and kill all but 1 million people. The giant really does descent from the sky and begins to tear up the city. Rei and his family take shelter in the subway, but it may not be enough to save themselves. Chiho finally realises her power can help, so she proceeds to fight the giant. Buck nekkid, swinging her huge breasts all over the place! Great manga!

[Marianna Rainolter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Il sito Enjoy The End realizza le cose più strane che vengono votate dai suoi utenti. E mentre compaiono draghi, ufo ecc la relazione tra Rei e Chiho cambia. I due si avvicinano sempre di più mettendosi insieme, ma un giorno la situazione peggiora con un mostro. E Chiho con il suo buttons interviene... Insomma un volume più piatto del precedente perché il mistero del bottone che fa diventare Chiho gigante viene tralasciato, concentrandosi su ETE e sul rapporto che si crea tra i protagonisti. Insomma diciamo che con il finale si risolleva e quindi voglio vedere come finirà questa serie che credo sia di soli 4 volumi (da quello che ho capito - Edit: in realtà la serie è ancora in corso e siamo arrivati a 6 volumi in Italia) e siamo quindi a metà. Ho fiducia che non sia solo pena di stranezze senza logica ma anzi possa riservarci a cura sorprese.

[Nicholas Driscoll · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read the second volume. I probably won't read any more.

Spoilers:

The gist of the story is that a dude from the future came to I think stop a super machine in the sky that grants evil wishes. The dude from the future gives a strange device to a porn star that enables her to grow giant. She uses the new ability to move forward in her porn career, beat up her scum boyfriend, and then (in this volume) she starts dating an underage boy (WTF) and having sex with him (seriously, WTF?!). Towards the end, after lots of scenes of the underage boy and the porn star having sex and going on dates, a god of destruction created by the machine in the sky descends on Tokyo, and the giant porn star turns giant and runs naked across the city to fight the destructive god.

It just gets exciting when the book ends.

It's just so sleazy. Just so sleazy. Yikes.

[Tatiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this story should be told from Chiho's perspective instead of Rei.

After Chiho's violent boyfriend beats up both Rei and Chiho, Rei asks to be her boyfriend. When she says no, they should be friends, which prompts Rei to start crying uncontrollably for several panels before she acquiesces.

Which is REALLY disgusting, and Chiho seems to be okay with this later on? It's hard to tell because she is stone faced in several panels, but agrees to have sex with him and gets upset that he might die later on.

There's also the other issue of Rei being in high school, and him being a fundamentally uninteresting male lead with an obsession for American filmmaking.

I am super disappointed! I was hoping for more.

But maybe Rei will die 🙃 and this will become Chiho's story.

[Carlos Arias · Rating 3 out of 5]

La historia se dividió en dos tramas bien separadas, primero la relación de Chiho con Rei y el avance de la destrucción del mundo con la web ETE.

Primero comentar que me parece completamente patético el personaje de Rei, pero también debo decir que es el personaje más real de toda la serie.
Imaginen que fueran un chico de 16 años, poco social, pajero y tan engreído como él. Ahora imaginen que Megan Fox se mudara cerca a sus casas y por casualidades del destino tuvieran una chance de estar con una mujer de ensueño para un adolescente, ¿no reaccionarías de esa manera?. Obviamente la personalidad de Rei es completamente exagerada, pero es algo que uno haría.

Por parte de Chiho parece que es la primera vez después de mucho tiempo que tienen a alguien que de verdad la ama, la admira y quiere estar con ella en todo momento a pesar de su trabajo no tan común. Ese sentimiento que ella siente por parte de Rei va creciendo por cada encuentro que tienen, tanto que ella aun sabiendo que esa relacion es ilegal, lo sigue buscando, a un chico que no tiene nada de especial en realidad, no tiene buenas notas en su bachillerato, no tiene buen físico, no es maduro, pero si la ama verdaderamente y eso es algo que Chiho no tiene hace muchos años, tal parece desde la relación con su padre.

Respecto a la otra trama que es la más interesante respecto al sci-fi pasaron de que un actor corriera calato por la estación de tren a que apareciese un dios de la destrucción de 250 metros para reducir la ciudad a 1 millón de personas. Bajito el avance jajaja.
Imaginense la visión de autor que no es tan lejana a la realidad, las personas cada vez son más agresivas consigo mismas y desean muerte aunque pueda pasarles a los mismos que la desearon. El maestro Oku sabe retratar la desesperación de las personas y puede llegar a dar miedo estas partes del manga, a ver de una manera tan cruda la destrucción de una ciudad entera sin manera de defenderse.

6/10

[Nick H · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another quick, simple read. The first volume of this comic felt like a lot of really weird disparate parts that never really fit together. That’s still sort of the case, but at least by the end of this one it all starts to converge. I love the totally deadpan absurdity of the ‘giant lady’ stuff. This issue added a very genuine-feeling love story as well, which I really enjoyed. I think the main guy is essentially just a Mary Sue, but I was happy for the two of them nonetheless. I feel like I understood pretty much everything this time, except maybe a few of the specifics when newscasters were speaking. Otherwise I feel I did very well. [READ IN JAPANESE]

[Diogo Muller · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a quite interesting volume. First of all, it is creepy, but not, like, only good creepy like before, but bad creepy. The manga even recognizes it's wrong in some ways, but man, it is weird, cultural differences or not. That said, Papico gets some good development and backstory out of it, and it can be better dealt with in the future, but man, I don't feel Papico and Rei's relationship works very well in this volume.

That said, in the end we get to the cool part, hopefully: KAIJU FIGHTS. I'll keep reading for now, to see where this would go, but I would be lying if I said it's all good.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, I’m use to read things when it comes to Japanese entertainment. This is weird by even my standards. From the writer of Gantz. It’s the story of an AV actress who turns into a giant to fight other giant monsters, while maintaining a relationship with the younger man she’s dating. It’s weird, but kinda funny and charming. This isn’t for everyone though, cause like I said, it’s very weird. It’s definitely a story for more mature audiences. Not for children at all.

[Camilo Guerra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Si, una actriz porno que se vuelve gigante...esa es la trama de Hiroya Oku, que , asi pensáramos otra cosa, nos engaña para bien, ya que lo mas grande en esta historia no son los senos de la protagonista ( que lo son), sino una historia de amor que no esperaba, y me sorprendió, ya que hace mucho no leia una historia que de verdad me conmoviera y que me la creyera, mira tu, aplausos para Hiroya.

[Urbon Adamsson · Rating 5 out of 5]

What if an entity suddenly appeared, offering random events for the population to vote on? Scenarios like earthquakes, alien attacks, celebrity scandals, and more. What would people choose? It might just surprise you (or maybe not).

Papico and Rei's relationship blossomed remarkably quickly. I'm pleasantly surprised yet genuinely happy. Papico's previous boyfriend was a complete idiot, whereas Rei is a genuinely good guy.

Things start to heat up as this volume draws to a close.

[Gabe · Rating 1 out of 5]

This series is par for the Oku course. Which is to say it's stupendously dumb and blatantly appealing to the male gaze, but also it takes like 20 minutes to read a volume since there's barely any dialogue. So of course I'll keep reading.

[Noe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This manga is so silly, cringy, perverted and yet it manages to have a heart after all it's said and done. :) Oku Hiroya continues to wow with some of his artwork and I didn't think this was going to be a sci-fi when I picked up #1, but here we are!

[Miles Isham · Rating 4 out of 5]

I may be reading more into this than is actually there but I think it is unfair to dismiss Gigant as juvenile wish-fulfillment smut. It feels to me like all the characters are having their own fevered dreams that just happen to coincide into one completely nutso story. For the time being, I'm in.

[Azori Blomkvist · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me encanta como el autor hace pequeños guiños a sus otras obras jaja. En este tomo empieza la acción y una relación amorosa muy curiosa 🤔

[Blaine Riesberg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Eat your heart out Allison Hayes.

[Alejandro Casanova vázquez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Me dio mucho cringe la primera mitad del volumen, pero una vez que empieza la acción ya no puedes parar de leerlo.

[Omar Aparicio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ilustraciones magníficas, la historia va lenta ya que trata de profundizar (por así decirlo) y hacer coherente la trama

[Fabio · Rating 5 out of 5]

Devo dire che Hiroya Oku riesce sempre a passare dall’assurdo al terrorizzante. Sebbene un po’ banale, provo vera tensione perché quel pazzo potrebbe ammazzare chiunque.