Gantz Volume 9: Judge, Jury and Executioner (DVD) - Anime Reviews


	Number of Episodes 3 Language Options English/Japanese/English Subtitles Released by ADV Films Extras - Clean Opening/Closing Animation
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Gantz Volume 9: Judge, Jury and Executioner (DVD)

With only a handful of players still alive, the third game continues grimly forward. But, how can beings of flesh and blood defeat a monster made of metal, armed with dozens of weapons and with the ability to repair any battle damage it takes almost instantly? Has the Gantz finally placed the resurrectees in a game they cannot win? The betrayals continue in the ninth staggering volume of Gantz!

This battle has gone from a pretty strong showing into a full-on bloodbath with most of the team being slaughtered. With only a handful of players remaining and Kei seriously injured, things aren’t looking too good right now and survival doesn’t seem likely.

Episode 21: Big Brother?

The two toughs have returned with their suits, and managed to get slaughtered in mere seconds. The sniper tried to help the pair with some cover fire, but a beam of light shoots out of the Golden Statue, and bisects him. 3 dead real fast! Kato finally figured a way to stop Kei’s leg from being eaten from the acid – he shot the wound with the delay gun, and now the damage stops. Sei is now tying off the two damaged limbs and hoping for a quick win so they can return to the room; Kato is going to try and win the game quickly so he runs back to the room and finds the X-gun that was dropped and comes across another stone statue. Meanwhile, the Golden Statue has found Kei and Sei and she’s going to fight to protect them – she’s a trained kickboxer, and the suit should help her. Sei manages to avoid a few attacks, and even knock the acid back onto the statue – irreparably damaging half of its’ face and removing half of its’ arms. She senses victory and points the delay gun, only to have a beam of light shoot through her chest and kill her instantly. The statue then sees Kei, turns away and leaves. Kato manages to dispatch his opponent and returns to Kei’s position, where he finds Sei’s body and he makes sure that Kei keeps alive. With renewed vigour, he picks up the statue’s sword and heads off to fight the Golden Statue.

As he approaches, the Statue speaks – it has the soul of the missing player (the businessman who wore the suit) and it tries to ask Kato to not attack. Kato’s not fooled and fires the X-gun to try and restrain it, but the Statue is much too mobile to be contained. Kato eventually figures out that the gun has a “lock-on” feature, and

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just as he’s shot by the statue (losing an arm) he is able to restrain it. While transmitting it up to space, the Statue suddenly is able to stop the transmission and a giant reptilian being comes out of statue, but it grows the face of the businessman. Despite the loss of an arm, Kato charges at it, and starts an in-close fight against the monster; after exchanging blows, he is able to cut its head off with the sword, but as the body falls, its tail runs him through. Transportation begins, but the only survivor is Kei.

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Episode 22: Don’t Ever Say That Again

Kei is having a hard time adjusting to life again, but he seems to continue almost resigned to his fate; he tried to talk to the original Kei-chan but she wouldn’t talk to a guy whose story seems unbelievable and goes right up to her. We get a quick trip through the new members – Kei homeroom teacher (Uehara) is killed by the jealous wife of her affair, a young man (Nozaki) is killed after saving a boy from drowning, a businessman (Saito) commits suicide while trying to escape from loan-sharks, the book-store owner (Furata) is killed in a hit-and-run while chasing after a thief, the two murderers (Kaziura older, Muroto younger) from the temple who were killing the homeless are shot down, and a young woman (Kanda) is stabbed by her stalker.

The new members are struggling to understand what is going to happen, especially in light of their recent deaths. Kei tries to get people to listen, but cannot control the room until he eventually loses his temper and lifts the businessman off the floor and begins yelling. He gives a quick explanation about what is going to happen, but then Gantz starts and the alien for this mission is Kuruno!

Episode 23: Kuruno Alien!

With Kei as the eventual target, everyone in the room is trying to figure out what to do with most trying to reconcile whether or not they are going to kill Kei. Muroto and Kaziura intend to take it a bit further – they are planning on killing everyone. Kei tries to keep order, but he’s seeing visions of past trauma in his mind eye (so is everyone else) and he ends up pulling his gun on the group and firing a shot. The group is starting to seriously doubt him and question his rationality, so they are going to keep a gun trained on him while everyone suits up. As the transfer starts, Kei and Muroto go last and Kei is able to recapture the gun that’s been trained on him. The battleground is a 10 story building that houses a bar and a series of strip clubs, and they all materialize on the roof. Kei materializes last and points the gun at the two murderers, and tells everyone about how they killed the homeless at the temple. Suddenly, all the signs around the building turn on and have phrases like “He Is A Liar”, “He shoots people with guns”, “Kick his ass” and so on written by Gantz. Saito has seen enough and opens fire on Kei who manages to escape just as Furata disarms the gunman.

Kaziura and Muroto lead the charge after Kei and shoot out the elevator he’s riding in. The group then heads to a lower floor and intends to flush him out. Although Furata continues to preach talk amongst everyone, the murderers and Uehara seem to believe that killing Kei is the correct move. Kei has holed up in a cosplay club and has begun fashioning a whip from the clothes he’s found in the bar – now wetting them, he’s made a good non-lethal weapon. As the group enters the bar, Kei disarms Muroto but is surprised when Uehara pulls her gun on him and is talking about killing him. Although she doesn’t pull the trigger, Kaziura suddenly takes Kanda hostage and is going to force them to kill Kei.

The ending of the statue mission was excellent, especially with the handling of the final fights of Kato and Sei. This current mission arc is a complete detour from the plot-lines in the manga and as such, doesn’t have the emotional impact for me. The extensive dialogue in this character driven mission makes for good drama but for weak action to this point. I’m wondering how they intend to tie this story up.

- Tazman

(March 13, 2006)

"Hey Brian, what do you think of my sign?"

"Quagmire's Cross Country Tour. Isn't there an "o" in country?"

"Not on my sign."

- Quagmire and Brian (Family Guy)