The manga version of those Big Dog shirts from the 90s
Creative Staff
Story & Art: Hiroya Oku
Translation: Matthew Johnson
What They Say
Consisting of ordinary Tokyo citizens resurrected from death, the Gantz team is conscripted by a mysterious black orb to fight bizarre, deadly aliens in a lethal game that promises a return to normal life… or oblivion. But the game’s purpose is unclear, and the stakes are far greater than survival!
A disturbingly realistic science-fiction horror epic, Hiroya Oku’s Gantz took Japan by storm, spawning an anime series, live action films, and video games. Visually stunning and explicitly adult, Gantz is not for the kids or the squeamish! This value-priced volume features over 650 pages of carnage, carnality, and craziness!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
In the author comments sections for Gantz omnibus 2, we get some short yet insightful blurbs from author Hiriya Oku himself. He waxes poetic on quite a number of big-budget Hollywood action movies from the ‘80s and ‘90s, while casually brushing off movies like Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings as being “for role-playing geeks […] and children.” In a second author comments section, Oku pats himself on the back for the sheer amount of detail he put in screentoning a character’s nipple in an early manga of his. It’s with these two comments that you can get a pretty decent image of Oku as a creative and it doesn’t amount to much.
To be clear before I delve too deep on the matter, authors are allowed to tell schlocky stories. Not every piece of art must be finely crafted to withstand time and if anything, the creative medium of manga and comics, in general, wouldn’t even exist today if not for the sheer amount of throwaway schlock it’s able to churn out. Where problems arise, however, are when these pieces of art are presented as new again through things like these omnibus re-releases.
Gantz omnibus 2 covers two “rounds” of games between two very different groups of Gantz contestants. In its first round, contestants have to kill crow aliens disguised in humanoid robot armor. The aliens both in and out of armor come off as genuinely grotesque, and the tension building up to the “boss” alien reveal is handled well. What isn’t handled well is the characters themselves. The thugs, in particular, are a lot to unpack in that they serve less as a means to show the worst of humanity and more as a means to serve as the author’s stand-in to work in whatever fan-service and unabashedly snarky comment he wants in his own work. Between the attempted rape and the gay-bashing-framed-for-comedy alone, it comes off as grittiness in the most unproductive manner. It’s presented without any commentary to re-contextualize it, and so we’re left with a problem without any pitched solutions.
Alternatively, the second round of games works a lot better in that the “villain” of the group is given an arc with a purpose. This round, we focus on a televangelist sort, who tries to convince the other members that Gantz is a limbo between life and death. Even when the repeat-players disprove him at every corner, the man continues to push his religious agenda and it just continues to build with every page until he’s unceremoniously killed by an alien disguised as a shrine guardian. The mockery of religion and its ultimate uselessness in life is very much a peak teen angst mood, but at least it comes off as more intentional this time around in contrast to whatever was trying to be proven with the thugs last round.
In terms of progress for the surviving core cast, it’s just as much of a mixed problematic bag. Kato continues to be the golden boy that the author doesn’t care about enough to put in a more central position. Kei is painted as the relatable character, even though his “relatable” moments are petty at best and incredibly creepy at worst. And Kei is… the girl who has a larger role in pinup positions on chapter-cover pages more than the actual story itself. I’m sure the lack of a solid cast is made better use of in later installments, but for now, it seems unintentionally messy.
To read Gantz in today’s modern world is to see it for just how outdated it truly is. The battle-royale-style survival story is peppered with so much misogyny and casual hatred for the LGBT, religious, and the generally kind-hearted. And yet it does this in such an unironic manner that it can only come off as toxicity in its purest form. It has nothing to add to any conversation intelligent or otherwise because it focuses too much on telling a halfhearted story that’s been told far better by many before and after its time.
In Summary:
Gantz continues to be a product of its time, framing the whiniest, most petty teenager as the protagonist while ridiculing the women, LGBT community, and pretty much any other walk of life for the sake of edginess. This would be slightly more forgivable if said edginess was written with an ounce of insightful commentary in mind, but it’s very clear that the series prioritizes the gritty and gruesome without much afterthought for what any of those actions stand for. It’s a shallow romp through B-movie gore, but if that’s your thing, then it’s definitely there to deliver.
Content Grade: C-
Art Grade: B
Packaging Grade: A
Text/Translation Grade: A
Age Rating: Mature
Released By: Dark Horse Manga
Release Date: January 8, 2019
MSRP: $24.99
