Hiroya Oku

I started this series over ten years ago, but didn't have access to the last couple dozen volumes. Now my local library has all 37 volumes in a 12-book omnibus set so I'm going to start from the beginning and make another go at reading the whole thing.

A couple of Japanese high school students seem to die while rescuing a drunken man from the subway tracks, but instead of any of the traditional concepts of an afterlife, they find themselves teleported to a small apartment with a number of show more other people and locked in with a giant sphere called Gantz that sends them on timed and rated missions to capture or destroy aliens around Tokyo. There is much confusion among the abducted folks, leading to much death and violence as they blunder through their first mission. Exciting action and gore abound.

Unfortunately, fan service also abounds and the appearance of nude teenage girl quickly brings out the worst in some of the male characters, leading to rape attempts and sexual assault. By the end of the book, cheesecake pin-ups of her introduce each chapter, a practice that continues in the next omnibus.

Despite that, I'm intrigued by the nightmarish scenario the characters are cast into and the execution of the action scenes. And since individual chapters zip by so quickly, these big omnibus collections feel like a much more satisfactory chunk of the story than the little volumes I originally started reading a decade ago.

FOR REFERENCE:

Omnibus collecting Gantz volumes 1-3.

Contents: Volume 1, Chapters 1-10 -- Volume 2, Chapters 11-22 -- Volume 3, Chapters 23-34 show less

At the start of this series I had trouble catching my breath keeping up with the unrelenting action, thrills, and shocks. In the closing arc, I'm still having trouble catching my breath, but now it's because I'm laughing so hard at the sheer ridiculousness of the gonzo plot developments.

I mean this book dares to make tumors funny.

I cannot wait to see how goofy this gets before it ends. I start the final volume tomorrow!

I feel like I just got rickrolled. I started out reading Gantz, but I ended up reading Manfried the Man. Wild.

The final phase of the series brings epic destruction to the world. And as it burns, the Gantz team is basically tossing teaspoons of water at the conflagration, trying to make a difference but making little progress.

Everything is so over the top now -- especially Tae's odyssey -- that I can only laugh and go along for the ride. The roller coaster has left the rails but it's going to show more do some loop-de-loops and barrel rolls before it plows into the ground. show less

A sad sack salaryman's life sucks until a dramatic event turns his life around: he adopts a shelter dog. Before the incredibly cute dog can completely fix things, though, the guy also gets super powers, at which point we get a delightful rehash of TV "Greatest American Hero" in a mash-up with the dark superhero movie "Chronicle." Inuyashiki is a 57 year old guy who looks to be 10 to 20 years older, but despite the emotional beating he has taken from his long, unappreciated life, his first show more instinct is still to help his fellow man even if he isn't very good at it and ends up taking a physical beatdown. That makes him a terrific hero in my book. show less