GANTZ:G

DESCRIPTION

CHAPTERS

MANGA ActionGANTZ

REVIEWS

• 

  Toriko

  90/100
  Great standalone manga and excellent addition to Gantz. Finally, a spin-off done well.

  Gantz:G is a spin-off manga covering a completely seperated Gantz team and their struggle to survive. There is little connection to the original; naturally the concept remains the same, but in :G we are met with a brand new cast of characters and their own short story of only one week worth of time.

  As stated above, Gantz:G is in its core just Gantz arc starring different people. Should you die at a specific moment, it just so happens that you will be transported by a black sphere to partake in a bloody hunting game with only one objective: kill the targeted aliens. If you manage to do so, you shall be awarded points. Once you score a hundred points you may be free, acquire a better weapon or revive someone from Gantz human database. That's just the way the cookie crumbles.

  It all begins on a school trip
  The story opens with a bunch of highschoolers going on a field trip, enjoying themselves and singing along the way.

  

  As it happens, the driver has (probably) a heart attack and the bus crashes, killing everyone. Too bad it's a Gantz night. Welcome to the game!

  

  The first hunting arc takes place in a zoo. The kids as per usual die terrible deaths, except for two veterans who have been playing for years and five hot chicks.

  

  This is where it truly starts to take off. However exploitable the choice if the main characters may seem, it is not so! In Gantz:G we are, for the first time, presented with actually strong females with their own lives, motivations, personalities and goals.
  From the left:
  Morishita is a cute underground idol. We view her story through her connection to her fans on internet forums and interactions with them in real life. Needless to say, Morishita is as viscious as you can imagine. Attention hungry and rather ungrateful, she puts on a mask to cover up her disgust of the men who come regularly to her concerts, as she wishes for more than them.

  

  Kaji is no kind nor friendly soul either. She is quite disconnected from the group; once we follow her plotline, we discover that Kaji has been brought up in toxic and abusive home, where not only she but also her mother suffers under her father's violent behaviour.

  

  Ikegami is your typical class rep, knows-all, does-all. She excells at both sports and math while also working as model. Contrary to popular belief, she isn't your sweet and selfless girl either. As we look deeper into Ikegami's action, it becomes apparent that she only longs for attention, always striving to be above everyone else, unable and unwilling to tolerate any competition. Ikagemi is yet another flawed human with many unlikable traits.

  

  Kurona Kei (haha i know) serves as our main heroine of this story. She is probably the least interesting character as she is obviously written to be adored; truly kind and loving friend, who loses a boy she loves during the first night and for the duration of Gantz:G aims to resurrect. Kei is brave and powerful and of course absolutely selfless. I mean, at least she is not annyoing-nice.

  

  Yocchan is a shy girl. She doesn't want to fight, gets scared easily, doesn't have much strength - once the story moves out of the Gantz game though, we see that she is an actually talented artist who wants to make her own manga. Despite her fragile appearance it is also Yocchan who ends up being the most skilled in handling firearms. Her arc is about finding the courage to stand up and fight, which is concluded heartwarmingly.

  

  Gantz:G isn't action oriented, at least not as much as its parent; for the most part, it focuses on the story of these five very different women and their relationships with each other. Not only we witness their regular daily lives, we also explore their worst faults and the journey to overcome them and ultimately become better people.

  Deatils, man, the details!
  In between the battles, the slice of life aspect offers cyberbullying, basketball match rivality, stalking, pursuing the dream of publishin one's own manga, music album or surpassing a famous celebrity. Gantz:G does decent job at portarying these girls in ways that seem natural and relatable.
  For example, Ikegami at one point simply pours coffee over a magazine with Reika, the super model, in frustration over her popularity - or Kaji pulling a manga manuscript from under Yocchan's sleeping head, so that she wouldn't drool on her work. These are very minor events lasting maximum of few panels, serving no other purpose than to show who these girls are when no one is looking; one little act speaks volumes.

  The power duo
  When debating characters, there are only two more important people in this story: Fujimoto and Abiko. They are the only Gantz members at the beginning of the story and they have the absolute best dynamics between each other.

  

  They are Gantz veterans who have been stuck in the game for over three years and yet when the newcomers gather they actually do their best to share information with the rookies and repeatedly instruct them to gear up. Now this is literally the very first time Gantz has offered veteran players who aren't complete scumbags.

  That is why I think this is actually good spin-off. It goes where the original manga didn't - we get interesting female leads, whole chapters of actual training and relationship building outside of Gantz hunting games, and finally two experienced players who are just normal people.

  Fujimoto and Abiko are quite something. They aren't continuing the game because they enjoy it - as any previous veterans have - but simply because they wanted to leave together, which is their driving force throughout the whole story.

  

  It is exceptionally refreshing to meet genuinely sane, normal people, who care about each other so much they'd go on for three years through such a hell, only so that they wouldn't have to leave each other behind. Gantz looked at reviving very skeptically and went as far as to completely condemn it in the later chapters; two friends who just dont care about philosophy and want to stay alive together, oh yeah, now that's the tea.

  Through Abiko and Fujimoto I'd like to point out manner in which the mangaka utilizes the medium. Manga uses visual storytelling by default and yet so many works contain crazy amount of text. Gantz:G manages to show rather than tell. Perfect example:

  

  Do you see it?

  

  Is it more apparent now?

  

  Not yet?

  

  Yeah, you literally cannot...

  

  ...seperate these two guys.

  

  Ever.

  

  This is actually something I noticed on my second rereading; Fujimoto and Abiko are established as best friends since the very beginning; the author this fact communicates verbally but mostly visually.

  

  As I was skimming through the 18 chapters, you literally, LITERALLY always view these two as a single unit. The panels nearly always show them both side by side. Even in a case of panel that only focuses on one of the two, it's made abundantly clear that the other one is still there, right beside him. As apparent from the screens above, the audience views Fujimoto and Abiko as two inseperable bodies. If you actually go on to read Gantz:G you will notice that these two are always shown next to each other.

  

  Not only we know these two are basically soulmates, since they pretty much spell it out for us, it is also portrayed graphically; we would not need a single word to understand the depth of their relationship when presented with such an effective visual subtext.
  Visual storytelling isn't only bound to their friendship though. One thing Gantz does truly best is establishing the stakes.

  Establishing the danger of a situation
  During the first night majority of the participants are slaughtered, amidst all the chaos stand Fujimoto and Abiko unscathed, casually hunting the aliens. They both are by now very clearly proved to be extremely powerful, judging by their raw hunting skill alone.

  Then this alien makes appearance...

  

  ...and in one attack completely immobilizes both Fujimoto and Abiko.

  The scenery is now one filled with dread. The mangaka spends time and effort visually demonstrating how capable these two players are; when presented with the scene above we know shit is fucked up - and nobody has to say anything.

  I consider this extremely underrated tool. In countless shonens the mangaka uses power grading categorization or power ups that simply have no bearing in reality, they are simply said to be power ups, yet there is no visual proof - certainly not one that would be so elaborately set up. Gantz and Gantz:G does this absolutely brilliantly, especially during the second hunting night and that event.

  To summarize, Gantz:G ventures into aspects of the original manga that have been left uncovered or were abandoned with little to no screentime while still providing us with gore and bizarre alien hunting sequences. It manages to create compelling characters and entertaining dynamis among them, putting together a set of mini character arcs and respective satisfactory conclusions to them. This spin-off pulls off nail-biting thriller and delivers the typical dread of turning the page over to witness purely horrifying scenery full of silence.

  I recommend Gantz:G to all; both fans of the original manga and people unfamiliar with it alike. These eighteen chapters are worth reading.

  Also, i kinda fucking love Fujimoto and Abiko and am convinced they were sorta gay for each other, if you disagree, hit me up with a message and an adress, I'll knock you the fuck out. I'd give a year of my life to see the continuation of Gantz:G as well.

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