Gantz #10:
Endgame

75 minutes
English/Japanese
English Subtitles
Released: 01/17/2006
Reviewed: 01/24/2006

So it's finally over. Where does Gantz leave us?

In the interim between these two volumes my good roommate Jeraldo discovered that the Gantz manga was available for download on the illicit forums of the internet. Now normally I would not let myself be privy to such acts, but seeing as how there is no legitimate way to avail myself of the material I'm willing to make an exception or two. Needless to say, if the Gantz manga is ever released in the US (and lordy, I hope it is!) then I will be first in line to rectify my misdeeds. For now let me say that the manga takes some very interesting turns in these final moments where the show diverges from it. Up to and including the last volume, ending with the positively insane Buddhist Statues arc, the Gantz anime is almost a word-for-word interpretation of the manga. Like Frost's two paths in the woods, though, they diverge. The manga starts doing some seriously awesome junk with dinosaurs and vampires (they're fruity vampires, but they die in droves so it's okay!) and the Gantz anime... ends.

It seems awfully coincidental how these people end up in this room together. The hobo-killing Japanese John Cusak and his ambiguously gendered sixteen year old boytoy, featured in the last volume, have just happened to arrive for a most devious turn of events. Gantz plays a dirty trick on Kurono, our spunky main character, by informing the cast and crew of the current game that HE is the alien they've been sent to kill. Obviously Kurono's got his work cut out for him!

Now it's only logical that even in a show so wicked messed up as Gantz that Kurono's gonna be able to convince most people that he's not the badguy. Well, everyone but the psycho hobo-killers, of course. They become the enemies du jour in this fight to the finish of the span of this last three episodes of Gantz, where manga and anime go their separate ways. I must say, I cared for the dinosaurs more... but awesome dudes like mister Japanese blonde punk over to your right certainly helped ameliorate the stress of losing key characters like the absolutely fabulous "Muscle Rider".

I guess they're trying to make some sort of statement in the twilight hours of the show. Something about taking joy in the process of killing, examining the plank in your eye before criticizing your neighbor for the spec in his, something like that. Certainly the case for that can be made when Kurono spends five minutes bickering with the androgynous blue haired freak instead of pounding his foppish ash into a freakin' Honda like our good friend muscle rider would do. What happened to commitment like that? The Kurono I could respect, the one that didn't think twice about shooting up some freaking robot bird monsters. The only person I want to hear this nonsense about peace and love from is Kato, and last I checked he got ganked through the chest in the last volume. My "peace and love" drive is just about gone for this show and all I want to see is some stuff get blowed up. If the characters shared the same mindset as me most of them probably wouldn't be lying in the gutter at the end of the 26th episode.

If some blue haired chick-dude with a bloody knife tells me he was forced to cut up a helpless highschool teacher and it's not his fault, nuts to that! It's not gonna be my fault when my dang laser gun pastes his brains all over the art gallery wall. So sorry!

This makes me question myself a little. Clearly the creators of the Gantz anime are a little more set on making a statement than the manga, which mostly just contains freaky aliens getting their junk blown off and very little of the interim "normal life" parts that make the animated version so very appealing. I fell right into their trap, and I'm definitely one of those people that wanted to think they were so great about themselves, when in actuality they were just watching it to see some aliens get totally effed up. I can't say that I didn't want to find something better from Gantz, but in the end that melodrama wasn't what was keeping me there. At least I can hold my head up high and say that all the boobies made me TOTALLY uncomfortable.

The still-running manga will have to sate my primal urges, but the end of the anime kind of distracts me, makes me sad. Those little guys, the creators, oh how you want them to succeed! In Kurono's final moments (at least we think he dies, maybe... kinda) you're struck reaching and yearning, hoping they'll tie all the strings of the big Gantz mystery together. Such is not the case. Considering that it was produced by Studio Gonzo, a company well known for making very pretty and totally unwatchable anime, the fact that it gives you 26 episodes reasonable fun is enough to make even a cautious buyer consider a purchase. Gantz is not going to change your world view, no matter how hard it tries, but it's pretty nice to be part of the process all the same.