| Title: | Gantz |
| Episode: | 24: There's No Labyrinth I Can't Get Out Of |
| Synopsis | |
| Ryuji holds Mika (I think) hostage, and Kei hallucinates that it's Kishimoto who is being threatened. But Mika has grasped that Kei is not the villain, rather the enemy is Gantz, Ryuji and Hajime. Kei realizes that Gantz is trying to decieve him, and vows he won't be tricked and will survive. He switches on the gaudy lights and music of the brothel, and while everyone is startled grabs Mika and dashes from the room. Giichi demands to know if Ryuji and Hajime are in fact homeless hunters. Ryuji freely admits it, which appalls the others, but Hajime claims Ryuji forced him to do it. Kei and Mika, meanwhile, are making a clean escape until she insists she must recover a book she dropped. After learning how she acquired it, Kei promises to get it back, then arranges an impromptu exit from the building for her. Ryuji pulls his blaster on the others, but Uehara-sensei responds by pointing hers at him. "If I have to kill someone to survive" she says, "I'd rather shoot him than one of my students!"... | |
| Comments | |
| Stretch: It's been awhile since I watched the last episode, because I'd been losing interest--partly because I am doubting that there ever will be any intriguing explanations as to the nature of Gantz, and partly because this show's tone of cynicism is nauseating. But there's been an upsurge of interest (both positive and negative) lately here at Mikomi, (and I'm near a complete set of 26 episode reviews), so I thought I'd resume watching. Basically, this episode was a mix of some cool touches and some bizarre/idiotic ones. When Mika realized that Kei wasn't the bad guy I smiled--a little intelligence from the characters of this show is refreshing. On the other hand, at least twice things happened which were so implausible that I could only exclaim "what!?!" to myself (let's just say that Kei suffers from "Lucky Bastard Syndrome", a common disorder in action anime). The way plot threads which have been developing for a long time reappear (like Mika meeting Sakuraoka in the bookstore) is kind of neat. Fortunately this didn't turn out to be the Kei-vs.-Everybody battle I'd expected, which was pleasing. I tried to select images which won't give away too much about how the plot develops in the second half of the episode--Perhaps because I know how badly the next-episode previews of this show spoil the suspense (I was careful not to watch the one for episode 25!). My expectations weren't all that high, but all-in-all, I'd say this episode was better than I'd expected. If one character (not counting Gantz) is still alive at the end of the series, I'll be satisfied! [Devil Doll, 2007-02-24] Again, the character interaction parts are the best about this episode. Compared to this, all the "I'll shoot, really!" rubbish was nothing but ridiculous. Kurono stated that he won't let Gantz deceive him - but why would he then trust this woman whom Gantz showed with Kishomoto's face? Why is he still so eager to survive, after the results of the pervious hunt? The book might in fact be an intriguing device - but why would Gantz's offer his "toys" any solution at all, given his psyche as we know it so far? The latest episodes proved that Gantz isn't a scientist, so he wouldn't get a kick from his rats getting intelligent all of a sudden. The biggest downside of this whole series is that we aren't allowed to understand Gantz's goals and motivations, thus any interaction between Gantz and the rest of the characters remains impossible. Noone knows what will happen when the time limit is exceeded without killing the "alien", yet noone even asks what would happen in this case (which should be the very first thing civilized people should think about). The newcomers might still think of Gantz as the scientist in the rats experiment (they haven't seen the previous hunts after all), and consider remaining peaceful as the intended result of the hunt... yet noone even bothers to suggest this solution. What does that tell us about humankind? | |
