Review by Frank Plowright

Despite having nothing to do with the alien-hunting premise that’s sustained the series to date, Gantz/11 was a total shocker. As this volume opens Kei has arrived at the scene desperately hoping his girlfriend Tae has survived, and we see the truth of who’s responsible for an atrocity.

Hiroya Oku didn’t spend the past couple of volumes showing us the lives of several people only to discard them, so when the action returns to the Gantz room, the folk spotlighted in Gantz/10 are all there. So is Izumi, responsible for them being there, and Kei without his armour or gun. For Izumi getting back to the hunt has always been the end game, and he’s delighted to be there, but Kei is the only other person who knows what he’s in for among a group of people who may be talented, but are novices. Adding to the tension is that everyone present died in a massacre and some have issues to work out. It’s a toxic emotional stew even before Oku introduces the alien target.

As ever, though, Oku cheapens his story by chapter separators of half naked women. The end of one chapter has a dinosaur about to chow down on someone and before it starts to chew there’s a pin-up of a girl showing her bottom and a view of her private parts. How is this objectification acceptable in Japan, and did Dark Horse not consider cutting it out of the English language editions?

There’s a lot of dinosaur action, and it’s all spectacularly drawn, but given the extended set-up gathering these particular people and their abilities in one place, this alien hunt was never going to finish in this volume, so it’s onto Gantz/13.

This volume along with the two previous is now more easily found packaged together as the fourth Gantz Omnibus.