(Review) Gantz 270: Ping Pong

Well this another favorite of WEast Gamers (or at least me... for now), so if you don't mind and have gotten to this point of the manga, then you don't need reviews for the past fase (Stage I) and the beginning chapters of this second fase. Although their might be something related in the future. Never say never. For now, lets stay in the present.

And now, on with the review.

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"Solitude is like a thick coat.

However, even with it on, it

can't put an end

to a cold heart."

I finally got to see what this Oka Hachirou is able to do in that last chapter (ch. 269), this guy or girl is no joke. Although its not as he/she doesn't have a sense of humor... as it will be seen a little later on in ch. 270.

Going back to ch. 269 again for a bit, the more I see this guy fight (although I've only seen him/her fight the Minotaur-Spider Nurarihyon) he/she reminds me so much of Kurono Kei. They both have that straight foward style of fighting and both go on from being calm to a "fighting frenzy" state of mind as soon as the adrenaline hits their bodies. Just watching him/her on top of the Minotaur-Spider Nurarihyon and beating the crap out of it... took me back to the Buddhist Temple Mission.


(I wanna say the 3rd mission? - 1st Stage of the manga. More or less.)

You know what, I´ll start refering to Oka Hachirou refer to Oka Hachirou as a "SHE" since I suspect its the same person from the cover of ch. 268 and how that lady is nobody seen yet in the manga. (Then again I might be wrong... now that I look close, she could be Reika.)

OK. So its come down to the final showoff, what's left of the Osaka and the Tokio team watch from a distance as Oka is ready to make his move against... "Nurari"?

Note 1: Wow?!, Oku Hiroya finally gave that thing a name. Although it really came out of nowhere... unless it's more of a general term or title given to the alien by the Gantzers. Oh, speaking about names... isn't weird that this badass Oka character has a very similar name to Oku, which is the author's name. Hmmm... maybe the author is trying to specify something there or wants to/compensate some how by becoming that character. Who knows?)

At this point all I can wonder is: "What is Reika feeling?" Specially since her stand of not interfering has gone just as bad as if they had done something, like Katou, and tried to have saved some lives instead of just watching all that carnage go by. Maybe this could affect Reika's condition as leader. Truth be told, Reika should have known by now that when Gantz wants you to fight... you fight.

Oka is now the only hope, if he fails then everything and everyone gets wiped out. Just before the fight gets to start off it was intresting to note some features regarding Oka and his suit or armor in this case. I'm pretty sure she's not that big. This new suit just might be more of a Gundam suit type of armor; something really huge but is piloted by a regular human being. I mean, if even a Gantz suit is able to expand itself, it's not possible to make someone using it super huge, have their arms reach almost to the ground while standing up and basically make the Gantzer look gorilla-ish. Also if you look at her knees... its not joint together like that of a person's knees in a regular Gantz suit. Its something more bolted or artificial/robot-esque in appearance and structure.

Well, after all that BS I randomly notice, the fight starts fullway and as anyone might hvae guessed "Nurari" started of with a some sorta Telekinisis/Psychic Blast/Crush. *_*

Note 2: This "Nurari" dude, pretty much somekinda mutant giant Diclonius type of creature, huh? (Read or Watch Elfen Lied)

Oka's suit quickly shows that it is strong, very strong and can withstand Nurari's PsyBlast with minimun or no damage at all; but from that it shows that its not just all muscle and enhances Oka's speed to an incredible level, letting Oka land a good blow at Nurari without letting Nurari even react to her presence.

What is most amuzing during this chapter is how funny and light hearted Oka Hachirou turned out to be beneath that huge armor, even when being in a life and death situation. So at one moment she goes on and says: "Bring it on, anytime... ANYWHERE!!" I just smiled because it's these little moments where the Gantz manga goes from a straight up from Seinen (Mature) genre to a lighter Action/Shounen one and I get this feeling as if I were reading Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, Yu Yu Hakusho, etc.. Oka keeps talking about how he used to play ping pong when he used to be in grade school... as she's uppercutting "Nurari"'s; at this point I was thinking to myself: "This guys is most probably an Otaku" . I wasn't quite sure at the time and was hoping for some confirmation of sorts over the next few chapters (I hope more will be seen of those who are left of the Osaka Team). I'm glad to write I didn't have to wait weeks for reassessment, because Oka later confirms how she is taking "online Karate classes". Of course I went: "Yup, denfinetly Otaku..." XD.

All of the sudden we have "Nurari" dead and taken out by one single friggin human being, a powerful Gantzer but none the less one single person... I mean the most badass, ruthless S.O.B. Gantz Team (shown to date) wasn't able to lay a scratch on it; not even those who had compleated the game over 2 times each. Can you imagine what kind of mess this "Nurari" character must be for those 3 guys, who brought the Nurarihyon aliens into submission basically by themselves, who must have seen all sorts of other mess and survided it. Add to that the caliber of expertise and the advanced weapons they obtained for clearing the game so many time... It still amazes me how tough these Nurarihyons were.

With this thing dead all thats left to say is: "Is the mission really over?" I don't think so specially since I'm seeing Katou looking at this as his opportunity to revive Kurono Kei.

Note 3: Maybe this is a way the author might be telling us this is Kurono's chance to come back intro the fold. Kinda like foreshadowing. Maybe not.

Plus hasn't this thing done 3 transformations already and had it's head blown off and was able to keep on going? I might be wrong but I think thier are maybe a few chapters left on this whole Osaka-Tokyo crossover.

Note 4: Thinking back on Oka fighting "Nurari", somethings came to mind:

• The way she speaks lightheartedly while kicking ass, reminds me alot of Dante from the Devil May Cry series of videogames; more specifically DMC3 Dante.
  
  (It worthy to note that Gantz manga is filled with all kinds of pop-culture reference from in and outside Japan.)

• When Oka speaks of learning Karate online, it could be considered somthing of a reference to The Karate Kid (1980's movie) and how the main character was trying to learn Karate from a textbook. So both are similar in aproach and circumstances but a bit more updated.

• Those tubes coming out of Oka's suit work to give this menacing look, just at it worked in the form of dreadlocks for aka The Predator and the those of its same race in the movie series AVP (Alien Vs Predator).

-o-

Chapter 270

Maybe... Kinda... New MGS4 Trailer?

Well, who knows really. Although it's not really "new" and it has more of a fan made, clips video vibe... but on the other hand you get that Kojima Productions/Fox Hound logo sweet vertical bar displacement and fade in effect. Personally, I really hope at some moment the K.P./Fox Hound logo will fade out while turning into little hexagons, now that would make it look so much futuristic and a nice throw back to MGS2. Other then that, the character models and FMV sequences have gotten their last coat of wax and are looking extremly sharp, suprisingly (for real this time) realistic and just beautiful.

If you are a hardcore fan and have seen and learned the MGS4 E3 2006 (15 minute) trailer, then you would probably recognize the dialogue going on through this vid.

Last I would like to point something out, this is twice I've seen Snake putting a piece to his mouth and wanting to pull the trigger. I mean what the hell is Otacon being doing?! Has he not realized what Snake was going through? Geez! Give Old Snake some Prozac, Valium or whatever antidepressant pill their's out there. F' whatever Tom Cruise says, Snake needs help. Since Snake putting a gun in his mouth is becoming apparently something important (plotwise), I wonder if their will be a mini-game where Raiden, Merly or Otacon confronts Snake about his issues and you have to press the circle button quickly to avoid Snake from taking the gun to his head and pulling the trigger. It sounds wrong yet it could be kinda fun.

Thanks to Kotaku for the heads up.


UPDATE: Don't those 3 scenes at the begining of the video... kinda look like what Kojima Production's Ryan Payton said would happen when you die in the game? That at certain parts of the game (like FMV sequences) you could press a button and that time-frame would be recorded and so when you died, those frames you recorded earlier would come up like little flashback. Of course I assume this happens before you get the "Game Over" title and somebody yelling: "SNAAAAAAAKE!!!".

If thats how it's gonna look, then that would be trip to look at while dying in the game. So realistic, something along the lines of "watching your life flash before your eyes, right before you die" type of deal. Very nice feature IMO.

(Review) Naruto 397: The Man Who Knows The Truth

Welcome to WEastGamers' First review of Naruto Manga.Gamers don't just game after all they also have other interests, Manga and Anime being one of those other things we here at WEGamers like.

Expect to hear Rants on what things happened in the latest chapter and also maybe some predictions of things that might happen in the future!

So let get on with the Reviews! Up first is SM2099 with a detailed review what all things happened, and then its the Reeteshifier ranting out about what could possibly happen afterwards.

SM2099's PoV:

Hmm... I don't think there was a better way to start this feature on the WEastGamers' blog. Truly these types of events make me want to believe that there could be a higher power out there trying to guide us to into a better direction for the best... that part of that guidance is brought to us this week in the form of the Naruto manga, chapter 397.

We've finally finished the twist and turns, technique after technique and last resort after last resort, fatal conclusion that was one of the hardest and prolonged battles in the Naruto universe... Uchiha Sasuke vs. Uchiha Itachi. Probably one of the most intense battles up there with Naruto vs. Sasuke (Valley of The End/Sasuke Retrieval Arc) or the memorable Jiraiya vs. Pain. With chapter 397, the psyche of the going plot thickens and just make a huge 360º change for far out places up to now of a speculative nature.

So 397 starts out with Tobi/Uchiha Madara's "real" face revealing to Sasuke. ONLY to get turned down as soon as he rapidly becomes engulfed in black flames. A close shot to Sasuke´s left eye reveals the presences of the Magenkyo Sharingan. As Tobi/Madara survives this surprise attack, he explains that this was Itachi's gift to Sasuke?... to protect him? In the beginning I taught that maybe Itachi was trying to curse Sasuke, but Tobi's anwser could be true, although this must be backed up by the explanation of who Itachi was in the next chapter of the manga (chapter 398).

*Intresting to note, Sasuke's Magenkyo Sharingan,is exactly the same as Itachi's. One of the features that distinguishes the M.S. is that, unlike the Sharingan, it's shape does change from user to user as evidence by the variation in each of M.S. users.

So it could be said the in a certain way, Sasuke is pretty much **** if he over uses the M.S.. since Itachi didn't have the chance to perfect the M.S. with Sasuke´s eyes nor has Sasuke awoken the M.S.."

Of course from this moment on, Sasuke has become a complete mess and a million doubts and questions must have begun arising in his head. To the point where he shuts Tobi/Madara up angrily. Make me wonder what kind of things must he be thinking at the time. He basically just killed what he had considered his worst enemy, The Joker to his Batman, etc.. Plus, he really wasn't feeling bad about committing fratricide, now with Tobi/Madara's words (which he says are the "truth").

All that happened in this chapter just keeps me thinking: So now what?, Itachi was faking it good? Wow! He was pretty convincing with the whole torturing Kakashi, Naruto and Sasuke with Tsukuyomi and that little killing the Uchiha clan (remains to be confirmed at this point of the manga) massacre that took place some time ago.

Can't really say anything else but just in a huge expectations (two weeks from now!) for the next chapter to come out and maybe start getting some friggin answers out of this Tobi/Madara guy. One thing is for sure, Naruto manga has stop being just black and white and has started to look all shades of grey. Next chapter will be great!

Except if Tobi/Madara confuses his personality, then goes and says: "Psyke!", then all the buildup for chapter 398 will have sucked and become a terrible letdown. Let's hope not

Reeteshifier's PoV:

Wow, SM pretty much summed up what I had to say.The whole chapter was filled with images and images for most of the pages, and only the last two pages had something important to say, and BOY was it important.Those two pages made this chapter possibly one of the best ones in the past few chapters.

It totally gives you the feeling that you dont know anything now, and HAVE to read more to completely understand what is happening.

I felt really sad for Itachi and it already made me think of Itachi as a super awesome great Hero.but man, why did he do all those things? What was the reason for all these secret works?

Also ,what I am still wondering is, HOW is Madara so young even now, does it mean he has multiple hearts like that other guy who fought with the First Hokage? or maybe some other way to achieve immortality? Or is "Madara" a title given to the Best of the Uchiha's

But a discussion I had with SM makes me really think, could this be the same person who was an Uchiha but was never good at anything? could this be the other person who has only ONE Sharingan?

But if he is so.. then WHY? why did such a good person (with a name reverse of TOBI) get so bad? what happened to him?

Man, I just want to read more of it, and of all the times, it had to come during the time when its a week holiday for all Mangas.

But oh well, lets keep theorizing and see if what we are thinking is the right thing when the next chapter comes! :D

-o-

Chapter 397

Podcast Beta

WEast Gamers wants to give that old podcast do-hicky another try. Lets see how it all goes.

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