Gantz vol. 15

I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this before, but I read a lot of the scanlations for “Gantz” prior to picking up Dark Horse’s English release of the series.  I had read up to vol. 14 around four or five years ago before stopping for reasons that I can’t remember.  Now that vol. 15 is finally here, it seems as if mangaka Hiroya Oku has decided to reward my patience by releasing one of the very best volumes in the series.

Putting aside the fact that this volume won’t convince anyone who isn’t already enjoying “Gantz’s” style of sci-fi action precisely targeted to the tastes of boys in high school and men in college to start reading it, it’s flaws are relatively few.  I don’t know how Kei is able to interact with his girlfriend in the latter half of the book while he’s on a mission from Gantz since we haven’t seen anyone be able to the extent he does here.  The crew’s fight with the “Ring” aliens is also decidedly lackluster, but that seems intentionally so — if only to set up the real fight that starts later.

With that out of the way, what makes this volume great is the focus it places on the relationship between Kei and his girlfriend Tae.  She’s an ordinary schoolgirl who wound up dating our protagonist after as part of a “penalty game” back in vol. 9.  Surprisingly, they’ve actually become quite a cute couple over the past several volumes despite the fact that Tae has received almost no characterization at all.

It’s something I came to realize while reading this volume, since we learn that she is not only a budding artist which has branded her an “otaku” by some parties.  Her status as Kei’s girlfriend in this series is still surprising considering the “wish fulfillment” nature of much of the female cast.  You only need to look at how Nishi was used as big-breasted wallpaper up to the point of her death.  We also can’t forget about the Lara Croft lookalike he lost his virginity to — before she was brutally cut down later in that mission.

So why not give Kei the girl of his dreams?  Well, it seems that Oku has a different kind of wish fulfillment in mind for his male readers:  That of showing how cool it is for a guy to stand up and protect his woman!  Since meeting her, Kei has saved Tae’s life on three separate occasions, looked cool most of the time doing it and been rewarded with sex after two of those occasions.  While the sex is obviously a big draw for the teenager, we also see that he enjoys her company and is generally very concerned for her welfare.  If she was just his source for nookie, then I doubt he’d have run into the carnage in Shinjuku as quickly, or taken the time to carefully guide her out of the massacre from the last volume while shielding her from the fallout.  His relationship with Tae is an extension of his growth as a character over the course of the series and a showcase for the rewards of such a change:  the respect and admiration of your peers — and fulfilling sex.  Even if she is just another male fantasy, I can appreciate her function in the series since it’s not the obvious form that it would take.

That bit comes to you by virtue of the fact that I have a penis.

Getting back to their relationship in the volume itself, we get to see their relationship put through a familiar hurdle by way of the series’ trappings.  I don’t want to excuse how Kei goes on a date with fellow comrade/famous idol Reira, but seeing how he tries to justify it to himself made it believable that a kid like him could do such a thing.  This naturally drives a wedge between him and Tae before he winds up saving her from being collateral damage on one of his missions.

Then Gantz finds a way to use it against him.

It’s the team’s second mission that provides the biggest surprise of the volume, and it’s a supremely entertaining twist.  Not only does it confirm that the big black ball has a personality, we see that it’s as cruel and petty as you’d expect from something that forces the just dead to fight against aliens.  This event also serves to split the team right down the middle:  those with morals on one side, those without on the other.  With this setup, we get to see the series’ status quo twisted in a unique and believable way that sets up the throwdown between Kei and his nemesis Izumi that we all knew was coming.  Even though I’m sure Kei will live though this (the boy is nothing if not a survivor), Oku has not only generated enough empathy from me to care about the good guys winning, but shown a great willingness to kill such people off at a moment’s notice that I’m eager to see how this fight is going to play out.

That’s something which has been missing for a lot of the time that I’ve been buying the Dark Horse editions of this series.  I know this comes from having read the scanlations of every volume prior to this, but vol. 15 reminds me of how much I was into this series when I was reading it for the first time.  Yes, it’s a male wish-fulfillment fantasy at its core, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t serve things up in a way that not only feels exciting, but makes doing the right thing look awesome.  Highly recommended for anyone who has a penis, or anyone who has ever wanted one.