TNL Comic/manga club: GANTZ

[Rtificial]

Ah my beloved Gantz how I love thee. Gantz is one of my top favorite manga series ever.

Info: Gantz is a still going manga series (19+ volumes) by Hiroya Oku. He started the series around 2000 and I've been following it since scans first started coming out a little after release. This also marked one of the first mangas I read/noticed that used some photoshop/computer help in making. The art is very nice and some of the added effects add more to scenes and keep it high quality. Later on a anime series was done with 2 seasons and it was pretty good with some extras and gaps in story. But the anime left people hanging and also cut off when the story really takes a MAJOR twist and gets really exciting. ADV had the balls to bring the un-cut anime to the US and its way over due for a company to bring this controversal manga stateside also.

Story: (copy paste from ANN) Kei Kurono is a typical high school student in a selfish world, not caring about anyone other than himself. However when, by chance, he was forced to help out his childhood friend, Katou Masaru, rescue a drunkard who fell into subway tracks, both he and Katou were killed... Or not. After being run over by the train, they were suddenly teleported to an enclosed apartment with others who recently died. And now their lives are controlled by a mysterious black ball inside the apartment called GANTZ, and they are forced to participate in a "game" of unprecedented danger and horror.

Gantz is a very action packed manga with lots of mystery in story, plot twists to keep you hooked. You will be introduced to a lot of cool and scum of the earth characters throughout the series. There is also a fair share of gore at times so beware.


The manga also does a somewhat outside look at society in a nifty point of view, if you take notice between action, gore and fan service. Btw Gantz has its hot bishi guys for the girls and its gravity defying chicks with guns for the guys.


Last time I checked there were about 3 to 6+ groups scanilating this series and most of em are right on top of the series when it comes out in young jump and volume format. So googling is pretty easy to find chapter fixes.

So anyone else already a fan of the manga?

[Jester]

Dude, I love Gantz. Everyone is picking what I would have picked. I'm not going to have anything left when it's my turn.

In one of the interviews Oku did he claimed to have invented the nipple speed blurring trailing effect. The man is clearly a genius. He has all the tell tale signs, an affinity for boobs (too bad he lives in Japan), making outrageous boast that can't possibly be verified, laziness, and an ego larger than his fame should allow.

Gantz is awesome, though the vampire(spoiler for second post anime half) bits are kind of silly. I also wish that the story were less Tokyo centric. I miss the days of made up cities like Metropolis, and that one from the Big O. Some of the stuff that happens in Tokyo in this comic just pulls me out of the story cause everyone in Japan would flip the fuck out if it happened, but in the comic it's kind of glossed over in CNN headline news recap way, instead of hour 207 of continuous press coverage as local celebrities try food at restaurants near the incident (Japanese TV despite what youtube would have you believe is not awesome, it's 90% travel shows with "famous" people eating food). The story is a little decompressed at times also, what some might call filler. Overall it's about a bajillion times better than the Shonen Jump crap that clutters up the manga shelves.

[Rtificial]

Yea I read that interview thingy where he talked about the nipple blur effect. He did that effect on his first series Hen as a way to make the "jiggle" seem more real. He was just begging to use Photoshop/cg effects in manga also.

[Grey's Anatomy]

I loved the anime, so I'll have to check this shit out.

[avatar]

The manga is fucking amazing. Though right now it is obviously slowing down.

Link to a site that has links to some of the scanalations.

http://www.manganews.net/seriesinfo.php?id=426

[Brand]

I read the first five volumes today. I have to say I was rather suprized. It was really good, I love super fast paced shit like this. Great Choice.

[Rtificial]

It keeps getting better, just when you think its about to coast on its roller coaster ride of a story you are thrown for a major loop. Also you slowly begin to piece together the rules of the game and maybe some info about where and what is going on.

There is a manual for gantz, but I've yet to DL it or find it online. Its simply called Gantz Manual and is supposed to go in more detail about stuff. It'd probably be a good read once your farther into the manga.

[Jester]

Spoiler for 236 Full Spectrum lamps FTW. Not that I believe in vampires, but I really want one of these lamps now, that way I can take the string of garlic down from my window. Also it's about time Kurono got his balls back, seeing him be a pansy like he was in the beginning again was just painful.

[salmonax]

Gantz is swell, but reading it when it first came out was torture, since it takes three chapters for someone to walk across a room. It's best enjoyed in big chunks. The Gantz manual isn't that great. The one I read was just a recap of the anime.

The way the anime ended was shit. They didn't have to kill the storyline like that, even if they had no idea where the manga was heading.

[Jester]

Fucking Oku is going on a 4 month holiday. Also Gantz is going to be going longer than he originally stated. (I guess developing a new series is more difficult than extending one you already have.) That's good news to me (except the 4 months, but I read the Ultimates and All Star Batman and Robin, so I guess I'm used to it) as I feel the ramping up for the end of the series was being rushed and left a lot of Gantz potential untapped. November 16th (if he keeps his deadline) and Gantz gets bigger and more awesome.