Nurarihyon Alien Mission Arc | ||
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Manga Chapters |
Chapter 228 - 283 (56) | |
Episodes |
None | |
Previous ← Oni Alien Mission Arc |
Next Italian Alien Mission Arc → | |
List of Story Arcs |
The Nurarihyon Alien Mission Arc is the ninth story arc of the Gantz series.
The arc spans from Chapter 228 to 283 of the Gantz manga. It was adapted into the 2016 Gantz:O film.
In this arc, we find our main characters being sent to fight the Nurarihyon Mission Aliens.
Summary[]
Prelude[]
Prior to this mission, Masaru Kato and Joichiro Nishi were resurrected while Kei Kurono left the Gantz-room. Reika was chosen as the Tokyo team's leader in his absence. The Vampires launched an operation targeting the Gantz-team, killing both Izumi and Kurono just before the mission's start. In an attempt to finish the job, two vampires, Chiaki and Hikawa, grab onto two of the team's members as the transfer begins, causing them to also end up in the Gantz-room.
Mission[]
The goal of the mission is to defeat the Nurarihyon alien alongside his two lieutenants and several other strong aliens. The mission takes place in Osaka, marking the first time the Tokyo Team is summoned outside their home town.
After arriving, they encounter the Osaka Team who seem uninterested in either cooperating or saving civilians. Most of them just treat the hunt as a game and have fun while killing and raping the aliens.
While Reika states the team shouldn't get involved and tries to convince everyone to just focus on survival, Kato refuses and resolves to help as many people as possible.
While slacking off, one of the Osaka Team members, Yamasaki Anzu, becomes intrigued by Kato's actions, calling him crazy and stupid for thinking of others during a mission. She stays close to him and spectates as he keeps saving innocent families caught up in the area. She also takes the time to introduce the Osaka Team, and mentions that their strongest member is probably in stealth mode around somewhere.
While the Osaka Team and Kato fight back waves of aliens, the Vampires try to reason and ally themselves with two of the aliens, explaining that they are actually not Gantz members. The aliens initially seem accepting but end up betraying them. While Hikawa leaves the fight pretty much intact, Chiaki gets badly wounded and her only hope becomes transfer by Gantz.
Meanwhile, Kyo Hanaki and a new player from the Osaka Team find the alien's nest: a swarm of weaker aliens with the 3 strongest ones worth 68, 71 and 100 points. Nurarihyon starts to shapeshift and dance around the weaker aliens, seemingly unaware of the two hunters scouting him, so Kyo quickly decides to snipe him. While seemingly effective, Nurarihyon recovers from the attack, shapeshifts and starts shooting a deadly laser out of his eyes. Kyo retaliates by shooting his head off, but is killed by a stray laser beam from the dismembered head.
In panic, Tsuneo grabs the head to defend himself from Nurarihyon's minions with great success and is able to escape from a huge alien emerging from the river. Nurarihyon regenerates its arms, and starts struggling against Tsuneo, while the Japanese Army arrives and shoots the hunter believing him an enemy.
Kato arrives just in time to defend him and explains to the army that they belong to a special task force, but the Tengu and Inugami aliens arrive at the scene and start killing the soldiers. They are quickly followed by Osaka Team members. Nobuo Muroya demands to fight the Tengu alone, and succeeds in killing it, but is mortally wounded in the fight, while Shimaki kills the Inugami. The arrival of Nurarihoyon promts Kazuo Kuwabara and Shimaki to team up, but it overwhelms Shimaki and kills him, transforming into a golem composed of naked women. The sex-crazed Kuwabara loses his arms and legs trying to rape the women. Kato and Nishi seemingly kill the alien, but it reforms into an even stronger form, instantly immobilizing Nishi by blowing up one of his arms.
Kato flees, and Nurarihyon leaves, finding the Tokyo team. It mortally wounds Suzuki and Inbaka, and Sakata sacrifices himself, using his ESP to hold the monster back while the rest of the team escape. Meanwhile, the Osaka team's strongest member; Hachiro Oka destroys the massive lake-monster, before coming face to face with Nurarihyon. Oka destroys Nurarihyon's body twice, but he quickly reforms into a form mimicking Oka's own enhanced suit. Oka surprises and bisects it, noting that its weakness is attacks outside of its range of awareness, but proceeds to leave, stating that the fight is far from over and that fighting Nurarihyon is simply too risky. He transforms once again, into a ball of bullets, and mortally wounds Takeshi. Kaze proceeds to fight and destroy him, only for Nurarihyon to shift into yet another form, countering Kaze's fighting style. Nurarihyon easily defeats him and states that it is bored, leaving to go find Oka and telling the rest to stay where they are so that it can return and kill them later.
Based on what Oka had said, Kato hatches a plan for the team to scatter and snipe Nurarihyon from outside its field of vision, while Kato remained behind as bait to distract it. Moved by his courage and selflessness, Anzu professes her love to Kato and forces him to promise to survive, so that they can live together after the mission. Nurarihyon returns, with Oka's severed torso in hand, and just before it is to kill Kato, he begs to ask it a question. He asks why the Gantz-team are there, why they're forced into the hunt when none of them want it. Nurarihyon answers that Kato should consider this equivalent to an act of God, and that trying to change things is futile. Just as it is finished answering, it is suddenly shot from multiple directions. Unable to determine where the attack is coming from, it begins firing laser beams in random directions, hitting and mortally wounding Kato. Maddened by gief, Anzu runs in to save him but is killed. Having noticed that Kato is sneaking up on it with an H-Gun, Nurarihyon is just about to kill him when Hikawa appears an bifurcates it, providing the distraction needed for Kato to deal the killing blow, ending the mission.
Aftermath[]
Greatly impressed by Kato's selfless courage, and resolving to become just like him, Tsuneo promises that he will gather 100 points and bring Anzu back to life. Sakata was the only casualty suffered by the Tokyo team, and Kato used his 100 points to resurrect Kurono. After the mission, Nishi revealed the Katastrophe counter, a timer of 7 days and 23 hours counting down until the end of the world.
Only four members of the Osaka team managed to survive. Three of them, Miho Yamanaka, Sumiko Yamada and Kazuo Kuwabara managed to reach 100 points and chose to leave the Gantz-room, leaving Tsuneo the sole remaining member of the Osaka Gantz-team.
Respite?[]
Story Impact[]
The Osaka mission served as a notable escalation. Nurarihyon was the first alien introduced to be worth 100-points all by itself. While it had been mentioned that other places also had Gantz-teams, this was the first time another team was shown. This mission was also the first time some of the rewards for reaching 100 points and choosing a new weapon were revealed, with the H-Gun, Hard Suit and Gantz mech making their first appearances. It was also the first time the Tokyo team participated in a mission outside of Tokyo. This was the first, and only, mission since the start of the series not to feature Kei Kurono. This mission also marked the first permanent deaths of the "second wave" core Gantz team, with both Izumi and Sakata dying and not returning for the rest of the series.
The Osaka mission story arc proved successful enough for the arc to be adapted into a stand-alone movie Gantz:O.
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