Gantz, Band 8

Gantz #22-24

by Hiroya Oku

Du kannst den Spielen niemals entkommen … Im Auftrag der Kugel Gantz hat Kei Kurono eine ganze Reihe tödlicher Missionen im Kampf gegen brutale Aliens überlebt. Nun findet er sich plötzlich in seinem alten Leben zurück – ohne jede Erinnerung an die Kämpfe, die er bestanden hat. Tief in seinem Inneren ahnt Kei, dass er etwas Wichtiges vergessen hat. Doch wer wird ihm nun beistehen, als eine Gruppe Vampire sich an seine Fersen heftet …? • 3in1 Sammelband zum Vorzugspreis • Deutsche Erstveröffentlichung

Genres: Manga, Horror, Science Fiction, Graphic Novels, Comics, Comics Manga

600 pages, Paperback

Published September 3, 2020

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

[Baba]

With natural born enemies seemingly forced to fight alongside them the players face what only until I did some prep reading for this review, turned out to be Yokai aliens; and thus is the reason why this very good series has plateaued at Four Stars for me, there are quite few points and storytelling where just not enough is provided to me as a reader, to know what is going on, this is the sole, but key failing of this fantastically created series. The plus is that this fault may make the rereads enhanced experiences!

The Yokai aliens are not the biggest surprise in the volumes covered by this omnibus as the Gantz universe is further expanded when the protagonists' mission is set in Osaka and alongside another team. I found these volumes less intense than previous volumes as I sometimes struggled to recognise who was in the panels and what was going on! The overall reality building and plotting remained top-notch overall. Another 8 out of 12, Four Star read.

2024 read

[Rod Brown]

Hidden amongst all the action and gore is a meditation on altruism and heroism as the Tokyo Gantz team holds back to watch how the amoral and repugnant but powerful Osaka team handles the oni aliens. Too much time is spent with the Osaka team and the action gets so furious it is hard to follow at times, but this series is always compelling even when it crosses some problematic lines, like weaponizing sexual assault.

[Urbon Adamsson]

Ok, Hiroya Oku just turned the crazy volume up to the maximum and ordered it with a side of crazy and insanity.

This universe just got blown out of proportion.

I really like these aliens/monsters concepts. Pretty cool.

Some of the new characters are awesome.

I really like the vampire duo that got dragged into the Gantz.

[Cade]

holy FUCK what an insane volume between the osaka team and all the monsters it was just beyond crazy. i also love that they ran into a different team and that there’s a point system to the aliens it adds way more depth and explains it a lot more especially for the point system and rewards etc. super raw volume though

[Etienne]

It felt great to be back into Gantz. I love the series. Very enjoyable!

[Peter Derk]

This volume focuses on the Osaka squad, and I decided to look up which American city is considered an analog for Osaka because, well, Osaka and people from there seem to have some kind of reputation in Japanese culture that I don't totally understand. Not totally negative, necessarily, just, I don't know, a bit different.

It turned out the winner is: Chicago!

Some people said Houston, but I can't get behind the idea of a Japanese city being much like Houston, a city with shit public transportation and that's pretty unwalkable, Houston gets a 77 out of 100 on walk score, but I think that applies only to the downtown area, not the whole thing, so that's pretty skewed, and there are several other studies that say Houston is 50% inaccessible without a car.

And I guess the Houston city council was putting something forth recently that would remove the requirement to build sidewalks in new developments.

No, bad city council. You are being VERY bad.

Houston ALREADY had a thing where developers could pay to NOT install sidewalks, and I guess very few developers were taking that option because the fee was more costly than just installing the damn sidewalks.

You might think, "Hey, fair enough, if stupid little gated neighborhoods for nerds who want to believe that they're better than everyone else want to pay a bunch of money to not have sidewalks, whatever!" but it turns out this no-sidewalk fee was intended to give people an easier way to not use sidewalks in their designs, and I guess some city council folks are unhappy that the option isn't being used very often because it's "esthetically" (nice job, KHOU Houston, way to make the word "aesthetic" less "aesthetically" pleasing) less pleasing to have a sidewalk.

Which...since when? Since when is a fucking sidewalk the problem when it comes to neighborhood aesthetics? What is it about sidewalks people find so displeasing?

I mean, sure I do get that the PEOPLE on sidewalks, myself included, are often hideous, but we live in a world of people, there's nothing you can do about that anymore than you can do something about a neighbor who insists on cutting the lawn in the shortest pair of cutoff jean shorts you've ever seen, where you have to marvel that his testicles aren't spilling out all over the place.

Guys, walkable cities benefit everyone. Even if you refuse to walk a single step further than you absolutely have to, walkability means there are less people competing with you on the road, and it means that walking is safer, so the chances of you hitting a pedestrian are much lower.

Yes, I know, you talk big game about how if you hit a pedestrian, it'll be their fault for pulling some dumb move. Your car is still busted. You'll still wake up in a sweat, hearing the thunk of someone's skull against your car, feeling the shockwave through the steering wheel.

Regardless of whose fault it is, it's a good experience to NOT have.

Sigh.

Anyway, can we do ourselves a favor? Can we ask city council members to take a goddamn walk once in a while?

[Reyne Derrick]

So far I’m not wrapped in this post Kei section of the story. It’s mostly just the fact Kato isn’t a very proactive character. This entire omnibus Kato does very little, and instead the Osaka team do the majority of the work and have the most plot relevance. That’s a problem because they all either die, or are unlikeable. Also the entire vampire plot here just seems pointless. They’ve done basically nothing so far, and their motives still are not clear. They also just disappear from Gantz about halfway through, like where’d they go. The last we see of the male vampire, he is asking the Tokyo team if his fingers will grow back. This just seems a little odd and under baked.

[Collin Henderson]

I’m really not sure what Oku’s intention was, mixing horrific, genuinely scary action with some of the most juvenile bullshit I’ve ever seen, but at least it’s memorable. The current arc, with the Osaka team, has lasted a shockingly long time, and this volume knows no bounds when it comes to absurdism. Not only do the stakes somehow keep going higher, but there’s one design for the monsters in this (in addition to some awesome ones,) that is so stupid that it has to be parody.

What I’m saying is this is more of the bizarre yet guiltily compelling story that is Gantz

[Noemi]

This volume of Gantz was more about the Aliens that were being fought and did not have much of the storyline I was expecting. Tidbit...If you ever considered watching the Gantz:0 movie playing on Netflix, I swear the Volume 8 Omnibus has many of the characters in the movie.

I ran out of the Gantz Omnibus books. Now I need to wait for the other volumes. I can concentrate on my other books now. Have fun reading!

[Heather]

This is my current favorite volume of this long-running series. The non-stop action was, as always, fantastic. What pushed it over the top was the inclusion of alien versions of legendary Japanese ghouls. As an added bonus there is a short introductory section to the traditional ghouls and the alien variations for readers that aren't familiar with these creatures.

[Kevin S]

This was an insane volume! I'm sad I have to try and track down the next two volumes, since they seem to be out of print. I may have to move onto another series until I have a chance to track down the others!!

[Francisco]

The movie adaptation of this arc is what got me into reading this series... the movie is better.

[Lee]

This is pretty much what the CG-anime movie covers, with some character omissions and swaps made due to them wanting it to be watchable for non-readers.

[John]

The Osaka Arc is terrifying, and the endless monsters? Also that cliffhanger — Gantz has to be one of the most unpredictable things I have ever read.

[David Codd]

More brutal and messed up action. But by this point I'm over the ultra-violence