Gantz, Volume 34

“Lame” describes the big emotional part of this volume. So we learn that the team with Kurono and Reika fighting for their lives are actually planned entertainment for the aliens. Ok, I can accept that, except these “alien insects” living in some underground area of the alien base are actually way more powerful than actual aliens who had infiltrated Earth. Waaayyyy more powerful. The power level is just for the sake of dramatising the fight - like I said, if this happened as a Gantz mission, it would git perfectly, but as an alien arena of sorts? Pointless side quest. The worst part of it is that this encounter just serves to give Kurono a different kind of emotion beyond “Tae-chan” - by killing off Reika... off-screen. Wow, talk about disrespecting the character. She was a much better character than Tae and this is the second time the author refuses to show her actually fighting desperately. And apparently, CPR requires one last fan service. What a lousy plot. I mean, if Reika can take out that a damaged boss alien by herself, how could the team not have been able to take it out together? I can accept it happening, but the way it happened is just so lame.

Sakurai has his parts too, as his powers has grown to the point of ridiculousness that no longer adheres to the rules previously established by Sakata. It's kind of sad that this character ended up so inconsequential.