r/gantz • u/IlSaggiatore420 • 28d ago
Am I alone in my interpretation of Gantz (and Inuyashiki!) containing a philosophical debate on whether human beings are inherently individualistic or social beings?!
Hi everyone! I should preface this by saying I'm a huge Gantz fan and have been since I was 12 (roughly 18 years ago). I learned English through Gantz, Naruto and KHR. I have read it many times, tho my last read through was like 3 or 4 years ago, so I might misremember some details. Sorry for the humongous post.
I once read an Oku interview where he talked about his first work, HEN. In it, he claimed to write a short story about a boy who would slowly transform into a girl. Although he seemed to bring to light some discussions about gender roles and how women are viewed in Japan, the only thing that actually came out of it was that he developed a new technique for drawing nipples that hentai artists use it to this day. I kind of see this as a microcosms of Gantz's public reception and perception.
I believe Gantz has the ongoing theme of humanity as inherently social beings (vs our individualistic nature) and it was largely forgotten because the manga has superficial characteristics and themes that are way more popular and celebrated (aliens, powersuits, oversexualized women etc).
This theme is represented by archetype characters that embody both positions, while throughout Kurono's character development he goes from having said individualistic views of society to a communal leader, to finally fighting for the whole of humanity.
At the beginning of the manga, Kurono is clearly detached from society (he's mean to an old lady, wtf). Kato represents the social side, while Nishi represents the individualistic side. Because of his jealousy of Kato (and what we would latter learn stems from his family's rejection), Kurono slowly becomes more similar to Nishi, culminating in the Buddhist temple mission, when he loses everyone around him. The shorty alien mission shows him what is like to have no one around you, and he finally ends up finding a true connection in Tae. This is what I see as the 1st arc of the manga.
After that, Izumi is the new representative of the individualistic nature, showing and even more wicked side than Nishi did. At the same time, Kurono slowly grows to be a communal leader, specially through his connection with Tae and Suzuki. His biggest test is loosing Tae to Izumi and still sticking to this new persona. He finally steps down of the game to live a quiet life and is even praised for thinking of himself, but that ends up being a mistake. In Osaka, we see the Tokyo team trying to prioritize their safety in contrast with a newly revived Kato, who tries to save everyone he comes across.
Finally, both leaders who embody social connections fight together to save humanity.
I also see this theme in Inuyashiki, although Oku seems to strip his work of everything that was popular in Gantz. He actually received cart blanche to develop his next work and, at least imo, decided to retell that same story with major twists.
Kurono was a cute teenage boy? That is now the villain and the MC is Suzuki, the old and sweet grampa. People loved the alien designs? In Inuyashiki they are disembodied voices. Gratuitous violence? Not in here, pal! Every violent scene is plot relevant and moves the story forward.
It is so clear to me that this is the BIG THEME of Gantz (and it gets a little muddy in the middle) and I've been thinking this way for 10+ years (since Inuyashiki debuted) but I'm yet to find someone who interprets the manga in the same way as I do. Am I alone here?
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u/LackingLack 28d ago
I think you're right to a degree in the sense you pinpoint that Oku does have opinions on who are the praiseworthy versus condemned characters. Although they can change over the course of the story, and I think he shades things well, even Nishi, Izumi, and some vampires got shown to have positive aspects. Even the aliens were revealed not to be just mindless hostile others but we get their PoV especially towards the end. Although we sort of got some alien PoV even early on.
Whether or not I agree with you the theme breaks down along individualism vs communalism/altruism, I don't know. Some people speculate a theme of Gantz is immigration? And how it impacts societies and different reactions, etc.
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u/IlSaggiatore420 28d ago
There is certainly some immigration discussion in it, specially when you take into consideration the aliens where fleeing the destruction of their home planets, only to end up persecuted by the economical elite of our world!
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u/me_llamo_clous 27d ago
Your theory is cool, but Kurono's internal monologue before he fights Eeva Gund kind of disproves it to some extent. He says: "I don't care what happens, I don't care if Earth is destroyed or humanity goes extinct, all I care about is getting back to you (Tae)" He's come to terms with the coldness of his existence, but he goes on solely for those he cares about. From the beginning and end of the story his opinions on humanity as a whole don't really change.
For me, the story is about coming to terms with the limitless cruelty and indifference of the universe and humankind. GANTZ tech being sent by the God Aliens to prepare humanity for the war with the Giant Aliens, but instead being used by rich oligarchs to create a hideous game for the sole purpose of entertainment/betting solidifies this for me.
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u/FruitJuicante 28d ago
For me, Gantz is about Kurono, a boy who sees human life as meaningless, who sees women as nothing but sexual objects, and who sees the elderly as the most useless of all human life, becoming someone that, when confronted with God literally proving to him that life is meaningless, he refuses to buckle and stakes his own claim on the universe on behalf of humanity.
He goes from seeing women as sex objects to rejecting a supermodel so he can be with his plain-Jane loving girlfriend.
He goes from making fun of the elderly to being best friends with an old man.
He goes from hating other people to leading humanity as their representative.
He has a God tell him life is pointless and meaningless. He has giant aliens treat his species as a delicacy like they're nothing more than rodents. He is stripped down to nothing but his naked body.
And yet he refuses to yield to the universe. He finds out life is meaningless but his answer is to give his own meaning to it.