Review by Frank Plowright

As will become the norm going forward, there was a cliffhanger ending to Gantz Omnibus 5, with every other participant turning against Kei when their target becomes his former girlfriend. He may have only just dumped her, but he certainly doesn’t want to see her dead. That plays out over the first half of what was Gantz 16 in the larger paperback size.

It’s difficult to overstate what an artistic achievement this collection is. Presumably, in common with most manga artists, Oku uses assistants. It’s a bigger leap to presume they’re totally responsible for the backgrounds, but those backgrounds are phenomenal, especially the buildings and bystanders of a busy shopping district where much of the action takes place. Beyond that, though, Oku’s astounding imagination is on display. The participants may vary, but the alien hunting scenario essentially repeats, yet time and again Oku manages to supply visually interesting foes. Surely the dinosaurs seen last time would be the apex, but Oku goes one better with morphing creations. They start as disturbingly twisted humans, but the forms they take thereafter are many and varied.

By the final third, what was Gantz 18 in paperback, Oku is drawing a pair of stunning battles, the first being the manga equivalent of Superman vs Doomsday, with both participants thoroughly enjoying the mayhem. The drawn out battle might seem like padding the pages, but not this time. It’s astonishing. Incredibly, Oku manages to top that visually with what follows.

While the battles continue, Oku’s also pressing forward with the bigger picture. It’s not clarified here, but a lot of people make oblique references to it, not least those we’ve seen being costumed and sent to battle referred to as hunters. In as much as there’s any lead character, it remains Kei, who’s pushed through a range of emotions, and is spurred forward by a new revelation about the game and what he might be able to achieve.

Some of the scenes not concentrating on the game are even more disturbing than those within. Sakurai confronts a sadistic killer of women, and there’s a chapter dealing with the neglect and then abuse of an infant child. This child fixates on Muscle Man Rider for reasons unknown, and a bond begins to develop between them. It doesn’t progress very rapidly, but then Oku has other things on his mind.

From start to finish this is a captivating experience, and by the cliffhanger ending here we’ve just about reached the series halfway point.