Review: GANTZ Omnibus vol 3

STORY

As a long time manga reader I was extraordinarily happy to see this in my inbox for possible review this week! Thank goodness for Dark Horse’s Manga imprint! This was a real monster to go through with 680 pages in this volume but a lot of that was one hell of a battle with some crushing consequences. First for the unfamiliar allow me to give you a Gantz primer. When people are on the very instant of clinical death there is a chance that they are chosen and given new life by a black sphere called Gantz. Those chosen are removed from their old lives and must fight fir survival against an alien threat using advanced weaponry and skin-tight suits that enhance them to superhuman levels. If they earn enough points in this “game”“ they can return to their old lives with no memory of the war that they have been fighting.

It’s a pretty frightening prospect, fight or die against a positively lethal foe, especially for those who have been forced to leave loved ones behind. Volume three puts our protagonists into their worst situation yet as they battle aliens who have adopted the forms of statues several Asian gods. One in particular, a multi-armed deity (not sure which one it is) proves to be not only powerful but practically unstoppable. Mind you this is volume three of this manga and that this volume alone was 680 pages, so there are many characters in this book that have been with the readers for quite a while. Hope you haven’t gotten too attached, because the author really gets his Game of Thrones on here! You’ll be on the edge of your seat, praying that the team can defeat this implacable foe! Prepare for some tragedy my friends because not everyone makes it out of this chapter in once piece. It’s brutal, tragically heroic and one hell of a game changer for the story thus far. Where Gantz goes from here is anyone’s guess!

Not only does Oku shake everything up with one of the most epic battles for survival I’ve ever seen in a manga but he manages to push the story forward in fascinating new ways with unexpected revelations in the aftermath of the battle as well as bringing a great deal of character development along both during the battle and the aftermath that follows. The only downside of this collected work is that you need to either have prior knowledge of Gantz to really understand what’s going on, though the manga does to a decent job of making sure you have the basics before the last page is turned. I would recommend finding previous volumes or watching the GANTZ 0 anime on currently on Netflix before reading this.

ART

The art is fantastic, full of power and energy typical of manga. Oku is adept at rendering figures and tech and his expressions are great! I don’t know if he has a background artist supporting his work as mana mangaka do but everything in the book looks superb. The panel layouts are great as well and really add to the experience.

LETTERING

One thing that bothered the absolute crap out of me though were the placement and size of many of the sound fx. So very often they don’t serve the story or add impact to the art but instead clutter the panel obscuring incredible drawings beneath them. I honestly would have rather had no sound fx at all in some of these panels than the obfuscation of the art.

FINAL THOUGHTS

A really great sci-fi action manga with a fascinating premise, great characters and arcs with epic action but sadly I can’t give it top marks because of some very bad lettering choices. 4 out of 5!

[yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

REVIEW: GANTZ Omnibus Vol 3
Writer: Hiroya Oku
Art: Hiroya Oku
Lettering and Retouch: Studio Cutie
Publisher: Dark Horse Manga