Episodes
Saturday Feb 08, 2014
Gantz vol. 30
Saturday Feb 08, 2014
Saturday Feb 08, 2014
PENISES! BOOBS! NAKED BUTTS! VAGINAL HAIR!
These are all things you’ll see in abundance this volume as the liquid being sprayed on the humans at the end of the previous volume turned out to be the kind that dissolves clothing. It’s hard to call such an act “fanservice” as we see all types of men and women in their birthday suits over the course of this volume. That setup makes for a particularly unsettling reading experience as we see Tae and a group of other characters struggle with escaping the alien ship they’re trapped in while naked. If the giant stature of the aliens and their craft didn’t make the job already intimidating, the nudity adds a whole other layer of vulnerability to what they’re attempting here. Naked humans aside, this is the first volume of “Gantz” in a long while that doesn’t contain anything that annoys the hell out of me.
Previous volumes have been weighed down by mindless fighting, disposable characters, and genuine Douchebags. Vol. 29 marked a bit of a turnaround as most of its focus was on Kei and Tae’s struggle to stay together and alive during the alien invasion. This is one of the very few relationships in this series that actually has some genuine emotion invested in it, and putting it under threat managed to generate some involving drama for the first time in a while for “Gantz.” With vol. 30, the focus is exclusively on these two characters and their journey through the alien craft and the series is all the better for it.
Tae’s story gets a lot of its energy from her encounters with the aliens and their culture on the ship. Being “processed” at the beginning of the volume might seem bad, but then encountering some of their parasitic insect life in a drainage duct only to emerge in one of their urban centers is much more of a shock to the system. Though we don’t get any more insight into the alien culture in this volume, mangaka Hiroya Oku does a good job of exploiting their “otherness” here. Seeing them smirk and laugh at the naked humans, having a police officer hook them up like it was nothing, and seeing what may be the main reason that the humans are being harvested for is undeniably creepy while also giving you a good impression of the scale of the threat faced here.
The most striking scene in this regard is one where Tae is picked up off the street. It’s a moment of high drama as she’s crying out to Kei and he’s calling back to her, desperately trying to track down his girlfriend. It’s a moment of “oh so close” that’s beautifully rendered on the page with Kei and Tae’s desperation being communicated perfectly along with the alien girl’s innocent cruelty in this moment.
Yet, there is one thing about Tae’s struggle that’s creepy and unsettling for reasons that don’t have anything to do with the aliens. After her clothes have been melted away and humans are about to be processed, she’s approached by a much taller, older man who gives off every indication that he’s about to rape her. Thankfully, he doesn’t and even proves to be instrumental in helping the girl avoid being processed. Then we find out that he did it because “he has a thing for little girls.” No amount of heroic actions can really offset the revulsion you get from saying something like that to a frightened, naked girl. We also find out that he had a little daughter who died in the invasion that he also loved too…
It’s entirely possible that this guy may have just been projecting the honest paternal love he felt for his daughter onto Tae. This being “Gantz,” however, I’m reminded of a particular plot point from the first volume of “Shade: The Changing Man,” written by Peter Milligan. The story involved madness taking over a Hollywood movie set with the revelation that its big star accidentally killed a child after his emotions got the better of him. Though the character anguishes over it, it’s pointed out to him that if this was a movie -- because “Shade” is nothing if not meta -- then the best he could hope for was a heroic death and the hint of redemption. Otherwise, the audience would think that the filmmakers weren’t taking his crime seriously enough. Why am I mentioning this here? Mainly because Milligan’s insights prove to be particularly apt when applied to this volume.
So what of Kei in this volume? Well, armed with his suit and some weapons he gets to play the hero for all of the naked humans in the alien ship. As much of a hero as he’s willing to be, that is. It’s easy to forget that while this series has been going on for years, the corresponding amount of time hasn’t passed in their world. This means that while Kei has transitioned from being a moody, self-absorbed teenager only capable of caring about himself to a less moody and self-absorbed teenager who can care about others he’s still not quite what you’d call the heroic type.
His main goal in infiltrating the alien ship is to get Tae back, but he also has to deal with all of these naked, needy humans who also need rescuing as well. This all comes to a head when he wanders into an alien zoo with some escapees and finds another group of humans behind glass on display. Now one would think that the natural response to seeing these people behind the glass would be to find some way to bust them out. As we’ve seen throughout the series, Kei isn’t prone to natural responses and almost seems to shut down after seeing the other humans on display before walking away and then lashing out at those around him for not being able to do anything themselves.
That may come off as unnecessarily cruel, but think about it from Kei’s perspective. He’s infiltrated an alien ship with the sole intent of rescuing his girlfriend. Though he almost found her, he’s since been waylaid by all these distractions and people demanding his help. Kei is still self-centered enough that his response to these people makes sense, yet the young man has changed enough that what he does next is also believable as well. Though he may not be the easiest character to like at times, it looks like Oku’s characterization of his protagonist is going to be his biggest achievement in the series.
Well, that and the action scenes as well. Vol. 30 ends on what looks to be the beginnings of a particularly dramatic one as the aliens bear witness to Kei’s fighting skills. Though I fear that the quality of this series is going to take another dive once the Douchebags show up again, there is hope for the series now. We’ve got a core of quality with Kei and Tae’s relationship underpinning the struggle now, which gives us a reason to care about their stake in the ongoing conflict. Let’s see what the title does with that from here.
Jason Glick
Comments (0)
To leave or reply to comments, please download free Podbean or
No Comments
To leave or reply to comments,
please download free Podbean App.