Grades (グレード, Gurēdo) is the 20th chapter of the Gantz manga, written and illustrated by Hiroya Oku.
Cover Page[]
Kurono is wearing normal clothes while sitting down. He is holding an X-gun with his right hand while gripping the triggers.
Synopsis[]
Kato is repeating what Nishi said last chapter, that Gantz is going to score them now. He asks if that's the ball 's name and if he named it that. Nishi tells him that its name has always been Gantz, as called by a player that had been there longer then him. The dog walks up to Gantz and then sits down in front of it. Gantz displays a rather cartoony portrait of the dog, nicknaming him "Dog" and says that he got 0 points. It insults him by saying that he has no skills and is too busy tongue and tail waggling. Kato reads the insult and can't bring himself to disagree, but Kurono laughs at how bummed out the dog looks as he walks away with his head hung low. The girl is next; she gets a portrait showing off her breasts, gets nicknamed "Tits", is given no points, and is insulted by saying she has "too much titty" and that she wanders around without panties too much. Kurono laughs at the comments while she is quickly offended, also mad that she didn't get any points. She states that even that she doesn't care, she's still pissed off. Kurono still finds it funny, even if he doesn't know what Gantz is grading them on. Next is Kato, who is nicknamed "Kato-cha". He also doesn't gain any points and is insulted for almost dying on them. Unlike the first two, Kurono doesn't find the "joke" funny at all, while the girl wonders if Gantz is deliberately trying to be funny. The former gets excited to see his score and wonders how many points he earned, which Kishimoto points out, is probably 0. The next scoring goes to Nishi, who unlike the others is given a proper "nickname": "Mr. Nishi". He is given 3 points, adding to a total of previously 87, giving him 90 overall. It also notes that he has "only 10 left til yer done." Kurono asks if 3 points are good, while Nishi seems displeased that he didn't gain more. Kurono wonders how many points he earned while the girl points out that it’s obviously 0. He flashes back to the battle with the onion dad and keeps thinking while the girl again keeps telling him that it will be 0. Soon Kurono's portrait appears. Gantz calls him by his surname and doesn't give him any points at all. It further insults him by telling him that he gets too many boners from staring at "Titz". Kurono blushes and can't form a sentence while Nishi amusingly reads the insult out loud, prompting Kishimoto to give him a dirty look while getting away from him.
Gantz's monitor goes blank since the scoring is done, and Nishi begins to walk away. Kurono asks where he's going and the younger boy tells him that the front door is opening. Kurono demands, however, that he answer their questions, to which Kato and Kishimoto agree with. Nishi agrees if the others promise to keep the questions limited to what he knows. He tells them to "fire away" after Kurono warns him not to lie to them. Kurono asks what's going on, but Nishi tells him to be more specific. He tries to phrase it as "Why's this happening to us/Why are we doing this?" but Nishi nonchalantly says that he doesn't know, angering Kurono. Kato is confused as to why he's not answering them when he had said "Fire away", to which he replies that he only knows certain details and that their questions are too generic. Kato reasons that they should each ask Nishi a specific question and lets Kurono go first. He asks Nishi who he is and how he knows so much. Nishi seems surprised at first, but then reveals that he's an alien. Kato and Kishimoto are shocked, but Kurono can tell that he's lying. After laughing a little, Nishi flat out admits that he was indeed lying, which angers Kurono enough to activate his suit's right arm. Being truthful now, Nishi reveals that he's just a normal middle school student and that he's been coming to the room for a whole year. The other three are confused and Nishi tells them to use their imagination; that the cycle just keeps repeating itself. He tells them that long before he ever got there, the room bought together people a few at a time; people who should've been dead by all accounts. If they should die during the course of a mission, it brings in others to replace them. Wearing an ecstatic smile, Nishi tells the trio how many people he's seen die, and how they've died in the most spectacular ways imaginable, some even more so than tonight's hunt. Somehow, he's managed to survive through all of it. Walking over to Gantz, he asks the ball to show all the people who died. Nothing happens, and Nishi gets annoyed and tells Gantz not to ignore him. Nishi sticks his index finger into the man's ear and twists it, causing numerous portraits to appear on the monitor. He tells the other three to look at the bottom row. It shows the portraits of all the deceased hunters (except Goro Suzuki). Nishi notes that even out of most of the other hunters, these people were particularly dumb, but tells Kurono that he was different since he knew how important the suit was as if by instinct, and that's why he survived. Kato interjects, asking why Nishi didn't say anything earlier, for if he had, more of the other hunters might have survived. He asks again but Nishi just stares at him and gives no answer to the question.
Characters in Order of Appearance[]
- Kei Kishimoto
- Masaru Kato
- Kei Kurono
- Joichiro Nishi
- Rice
- Gantz
- Adult Onion Alien (flashback)
- Masashi Yamada (as a portrait, named Four-Eyes)
- Hiroshi Hatanaka (as a portrait, named Yakuza A)
- Kiyoshi Yoshioka (as a portrait, named Yakuza B)
- Takashi Inamori (as a portrait, named Blondie)
Trivia[]
- In this chapter that introduces nicknames, Kato is named "Kato-cha" by Gantz which is a reference to Japanese comedian Katōcha.
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| N/A | Onion Alien Mission Arc | Tanaka Alien Mission Arc |
| N/A | Chapters | → |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | ||
| N/A | Episodes | → |
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||