Manga: Gigant, Volume 10

 

Content Warning: Nudity, mild gore, and wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff

Here we are, the end of the road. The last volume. The end of this weird story. And it’s going to an odd ending, which shouldn’t be surprising, after everything else we’ve seen. It’s going to be a bit of a tough read, but let’s get started.

This volume begins with the aftermath of the last volume, with an EMP knocking out most of the technology in Tokyo. People are commenting on the fact that the US launched a nuke against the ETE satellite, with PaPiCo still aboard. Rei starts crying, begging that Chiho is alright. Three days later, power is restored to Tokyo and it is confirmed that PaPiCo died aboard the satellite, and she receives a state/global funeral. Meanwhile, Rei falls into a deep depression, unable to cope with the loss. His memories of Chiho brings him to her apartment, where he ends up FINALLY watching the DVD from volume one. I KNEW that was going to be important! I didn’t forget about it.

While watching the DVD, we discover the Space/Future Weirdos original mission: stopping the death of a Professor Banner in a freak accident. It’s believed that he will program Asimov’s Three Laws of Robotics into Socrates and Plato and change the future. If you’re unfamiliar with the Three Laws, look them up on Wikipedia, they’re famous. Anyway. After making this discovery, Mochi reappears. Remember how the dog traveled to the future? Well, the future is now. Rei has a light-bulb moment and realizes that the other little button thing will take him back in time. Rather than doing the smart thing, like going home and using it, he uses it right then and there in the apartment, and has to get away before Chiho’s former (now current) shitty boyfriend discovers him.

Now that he’s in the past, and he knows that the Space Weirdos aren’t going to save the Professor, he does it himself.

After saving Professor Banner, he’s chased down by the original Space Weirdo that we saw die way back in volume one. Rei explains to him what happens and he waits for the other members of the team to arrive. I find it interesting that they’re still able to come back, given how the future they came from doesn’t exist anymore (at least, it appears that it doesn’t, given what happened). This the wibbly-wobbly stuff I was talking about.

But, here’s the thing, now that things have changed, Rei will never meet Chiho.

Using the button, he returns to the time that he left from, but he never met Chiho (which makes me wonder about those signs that were put up back in volume one, perhaps it was something done by Socrates and Plato?) but everyone is alive and the ETE stuff also never happened. And robots start integrating into society. Safe, sane, and helpful robots.

As Rei adapts to this reality, he sees Chiho saving the city in his mind’s eye, and remembers their conversations about how they would find each other if they were reincarnated. He does go to her apartment, seeing her outside, but her boyfriend is there, too. Their eyes met for just a second and she just looks away, with no recognation. But he just can’t forget her. He misses her. And, after a dream where she tells him to come and find her, he sets his life on a path to do just that.

The final chapter begins with someone asking Chiho if it’s true that she was an AV actress in the past, while doing her makeup. She confirms that she was, and that she broke up with her boyfriend last year. She also got a call from a movie studio, as there’s an up and coming director who wants her to star in his new film, his student film having won an award. Yeah, hold on to your butts…

We see Rei again, and he’s got long hair and glasses, and we see Chiho again, who’s also got longer hair, too. When they meet, she realizes that she’s been invited to the role because she was in porn and Rei admits that he used to be a fan. She says it’s the first time she’s ever been glad she did that gig. If you haven’t guessed it already, the movie Rei is making is their story, the story we read until Rei went back in time and changed everything. He’s had to cast someone to play him, but these are his memories, being made into a movie. As the movie filming continues, Chiho starts acting… Odd. She points out that she once had an outfit like the one the manga started with. She kind of confronts Rei, asking in a joking manner if he’s her starker, as the movie is her, through and through. He, like an idiot, spills the beans about how he changed the past and because of that, they never dated. She seems to take it as a joke and says she’ll give her best the next day.

While filming the scene where Chiho is going to go up and confront Socrates and Plato, she somehow remembers this reality she never experienced, but she remembers her love for Rei and his love for her. Crying, they embrace, and kiss. Meanwhile, everyone else looks around going “WTF?”

And that’s pretty much the end of the series. There’s a few other scenes before the end, but there’s no text, so you should read it yourself.

Whew. I started this whole blog because I wanted to talk about this series and it’s over. I know it’s taken a long (long, long) time get done, but I really had to wait for it to cool in my mind before I write this. I was angry the first time I read it, until the end, and then was sad the second time I read it. This series has been all over the place, but in the end, I’m glad I picked it up and I really hope you give it a chance.

Rating: 5 out of 5

Suggestion: Buy it. Buy them all. Let’s hope they make an anime, because the length of the story is just perfect for a 12 episode run. Maybe expand the future stuff at bit (a pair of bookend episodes at the beginning and end would do it) and there you go. 

Me, finishing this series <.<

 

Manga: Gigant, volume 9

 

Content Warning: Nudity (I don’t know why I even add it to this one anymore), violence, death, gore, and casual misogyny.

Here we are, the second to last volume of Gigant. And we are in for a ride. Buckle up, kids, because we are going into some wild stuff this time around.

The volume kicks off with our battle between the Future Weirdos and Chiho facing off against the reborn Satan. Or healed enough to fight again Satan. And it starts off with a bang. Or a finger laser. Not seen in the first round of the fight, Satan can make a laser come out of one of his fingers. While Chiho saves Rei, one of the Future Weirdos loses his arm to the laser. While the Future Weirdos try to rip out Satan’s heart (there’s a line I never thought I’d write), Chiho and Rei have a conversation about things. The sum of the conversation is Chiho asking for permission to stay and fight and Rei not wanting her to fight. Chiho, honey, you don’t need his permission for anything. However, Rei relents and agrees to meet Chiho at his house after she’s defeated Satan.

While this conversation is going on, the Future Weirdos are getting their asses kicked. They rip out Satan’s heart but that isn’t enough to slow him down. Using some super psionic power, he throws them off, and even kills two of them (the men, of course), while one of them explodes out of him. And this still isn’t enough to kill him!

But Chiho arrives, having grown even larger than normal, and just, kinda, sits on him. Mind you, she slams down on him pretty hard, but it just doesn’t look that impressive. However, Satan still isn’t down for the count and he pushes her off of him, even though he only comes up to her knee. She then bends down, picks him up, and starts tearing him apart. Literally pulling him in half and then pulling off his head. She continues to tear him up and drops the pieces in the river they’ve been fighting in.

And the world starts to celebrate. People are cheering, crowds are yelling Chiho’s stage name, and the three survivors, Chiho and the two female Future Weirdos, stand there to catch their breath.

And that’s when the “mothership” arrives. Three kilometers (over a mile) across at least, this massive satellite just hangs in the air above the city. One of the surviving Future Weirdos says that she was going to go up into orbit to take care of them but they’ve come to them. Like, how the fuck were you going to do that? I have so many questions. And it’s not like we’re going to get any answers. Because the satellite starts sucking up a bunch of stuff. Trees, trucks, helicopters, fighter jets, and finally the Future Weirdos and Chiho get sucked up into the satellite.

In side, we meet Plato and Socrates, the AIs. They look like the worst NEET out there, but with the heads of the famous philosophers’ sculptures for heads. Seriously, they’re sitting on a couch, wearing Millennial/Gen X band shirts, with Xbox controllers in their hands. Yeah. After introductions, Chiho asks if they’re aliens, to which they laugh, but then say it “racist” to call them AIs as they’re “pretty much human now.” Yeah, okay, dude. They were tasked to watch humanity but they learned all of the wrong lessons. They say that they thought they had humanity all figured out, but now they’re confused by Chiho, because she’s altruistic as you get. They assumed that humanity was selfish and self centered, thinking only for themselves, but here comes Chiho, risking life and limb for a world, a government, that has imprisoned her, ostracized her for being in a relationship with Rei, and otherwise only seems to love her because of her heroism. One of the Future Weirdos steps up and points out that humanity is both selfish and selfless, we’re all sinners and saints. The AIs counter that the destruction of the earth was decided by a large number of humanity. Chiho chimes in that she didn’t even save everyone because she was thinking about everyone else. She then says that they’re not even close to human, they’re just superficially mimicking them. One of them says “That’s like your opinion” and it always gets a laugh out of me.

The Future Weirdo then asks the AIs what they’re going to do with humanity after this, which makes them start discussing it. Chiho asks that they just leave humans alone, to which they agree, with a stipulation. They want to touch Chiho’s boobs. Jesus Christ on a pogo stick, why is everyone obsessed with Chiho’s boobs? Oh. Wait. Anyway. We find out that the AIs have only been studying men, not women, because “they’re inferior to men, they’re just chicks.” So. We have giant Incel AIs that have god-like powers. Fucking great. You know, I don’t even think that this is even slightly unrealistic. I’ve heard about what happens when you expose learning AI to Twitter…

But now it’s time for out punch out ending. While they’re arguing about being able to touch boobies, the news reports that the US has launched nuclear missiles against the satellite. By the time the AIs are made aware, they’ve already hit. We see the explosion moving down the hallways they’re all in, Chiho screaming no and how she wants to see Rei again, and then… We cut to an outside shot of Tokyo, where the sky is lit up, and then goes dark.

Now, I will leave you with the text from the last two pages of this volume:

WILL HUMANITY BE BLESSED BY A GREAT MIRACLE?

AND IF IT IS, WILL WE EVEN REALIZE IT’S HAPPENED?

CAN PAPICO AND REI’S LOVE ALTER THE FATE OF THE WORLD?

IT ALL ENDS NEXT VOLUME!

Rating: 5 out of 5
Suggestion: While clearly rushed and trying to get all of the points out as quickly as possible, this one really hits hard.

Manga: Gigant, volume 8

Content Warning: Nudity (of course), violence, gore, and

Are you ready for a short one? Because this volume is one big fight scene. As such, this will probably be a much shorter entry that usual. And I will strongly advise you to pick up this volume and read it yourself, as my commentary and description will never equal the art.

Okay, let’s get started.

This volume opens with one of the Weirdos trying to take down Satan with some energy blasts but it doesn’t work. Satan starts to retaliate with some kind of… telekinesis? I don’t know, they doesn’t explain it, but he moves his hands and the Weirdos start to bleed and double over. Satan gets tackled from behind while the others get into place. They crawl into his mouth, ears, and nose, but stay too long and he expels them out with fire.

Meanwhile, Chiho is making her way to the fight, while Rei is kind of stumbling around, and we get little glimpses of the destruction that Satan’s presence alone is causing. We see people continuing to kill themselves, but we also see people holding each other, crying or screaming, people bleeding from their eyes and ears and mouth. It’s really bad.

The fight continues, with the Weirdos ganging up on Satan, trying to save one of them that he’s grabbed in his hand. They kick, punch, and try to choke him, but it has no effect, and he handedly wins the fight. And that’s when Chiho shows up. She flies right into one of his eyes, making him bleed and stumble back. This is enough to make him release the others. Three of them shrink down and fly into his other eye, while the one that’s being crushed in his hand is able to free herself.

Chiho explodes out of Satan’s head, with the other three that were also inside of him, exploding out of his torso. They stand there, catching their breath, as the suicide field being projected by Satan fails. We see people dead and bleeding all over, and we find that Rei was about to jump off of a building. But, with his head clear, he stops and moves away from the edge.

While the Future Weirdos and Chiho stand there in the river, catching their breath themselves and everyone celebrating their victory, they look up to see a group of four new monster demon things. One of which has a stinger looking thing where his junk would be. They have too many arms, weird split heads, and are just plain body horror looking things, but clearly designed from the human form. We have enough time to go “Are you kidding me?” Before the battle starts again.

And what a fight it is. These monster or demons or whatever are fairly powerful and some of them have an explosive attack that dissolves flesh. Which we find out when a stray shot hits some people standing by the river to watch the showdown, Rei among them. During this fight, we discover that Satan isn’t dead, it’s regenerating. These monsters are here to buy him time.

This fight, which is intense, is also pretty short, as they aren’t as powerful as Satan. It doesn’t take them long to eliminate these monsters, using their smarts, growing larger inside them, and the energy blasts they have. Sadly…

It’s just long enough to give Satan enough time to regenerate and get ready for round two. In the next volume.

This is another filler volume, even if the fight is good. I think it’s a shame that they used the time they had left to have this fight last as long as they did. That said, it is a great fight, with full page spreads and all that good stuff. You see just how powerful both sides are, and it keeps you on the edge of your seat. But knowing that there’s only two more volumes after this makes it hard to justify the time it took to have the fight in the first place.

Rating: 3 out of 5
Suggestion: If you like gory fights, you like it. Otherwise, this will probably be a dud of a volume for you.

Manga: Gigant Vol 7

Content Warning: Nudity (duh at this point), suicide, demonic imagery, and exposition dumping.

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve done anything with this series (much less this blog) and since this series is going to be coming to a close this year, at least for the official translation, I thought I’d catch up. Let’s get started!

This volume begins with a bit of a slow opening, with some panels showing how Chiho and Rei are dealing with the fallout of their break up. Rei seems listless, but Chiho is working hard and trying to get acting roles. This culminates to a fake out. We think that Rei and Chiho, who have been crying, are about to experience a happy reunion, but it’s not him in her apartment, it’s the Future Weirdos.

After a bit of confusion, and a Doremon reference, we get an exposition dump about the Future Weirdos and what’s actually going on. You see, our Weirdos (who are a military unit) have come back in time from 2135, where the human population has dropped to 85 million, due a war with a pair of AIs. Created in 2019 by your favorite Evil Empire, Google, Plato and Socrates have loaded themselves on to a satellite and have built a super satellite from space junk. In the future, after studying humanity, these AIs will end up trying to destroy humanity, and so our Future Weirdos have come back to stop them. This explains the Terminator references in the earlier volumes.

Moving on a bit, we have the Future Weirdos teaching Chiho how to fly and do energy blasts. It also looks like one of the Future Weirdos is falling in love with Chiho… Poor slob.

Meanwhile, we have some cuts to Rei and some of the stuff that’s going on. The birds start falling out of the sky as Satan approaches. In addition, suicides are increasing the closer Satan gets to Tokyo. While Rei’s friends are fleeing Tokyo, his dad is committed to seeing how all this plays out. People are also starting to feel sick, too, including Chiho. But it’s not because of Satan that Chiho is feeling unwell. It’s because she’s pregnant. Yeah. That broken condom in the last volume has come full circle. We’ll be circling back to this in a minute, but first, I want to talk about something that happens before that. When Chiho gets home, before she takes the test, she catches two of the Future Weirdos watching some of her adult films. Getting embarrassed, she turns it off, but we linger on these two. From what they say, mating isn’t something that’s done in the future, and is even damaging. However, humans being humans, this leads the two of them to experiment a bit, and they end up leaning in for a kiss. I find this whole thing fascinating, as they’ve been showing how sex focused our modern society is. I’m not saying it is, but the lens of the series thus far as been sexual in nature. Look at our main characters: An AV actress and her number one fan, who’s a teenage boy. We’ve seen Chiho naked and performing sexual acts since the very first chapter. Rei and Chiho have had sex several times on panel. And let’s not forget that Chiho is naked when she grows larger and fights. I just thought this whole contrast to be interesting.

Anyway, moving on, we have Chiho telling Rei what’s going on. There’s a tearful reunion, with Rei being very happy to be a father, but also not wanting to be a leech on Chiho. It’s one of those things that’s going to be hard to figure out in the future, but we must wonder, do these two even have a real future?

There’s a funny little thing involving Mochi, Chiho’s dog in case you’ve forgotten. While the Future Weirdos are discussing what happened to the Captain’s (the guy who died and gave Chiho the wrist thing way back at the beginning) “time orb,” Mochi finds it and accidentally used it. Chiho is upset, as that dog has been her close companion during all of this, but the Weirdo’s reason that he’s only gone a few days into the future, so he’ll be okay. This is probably one of the weirdest things in this volume so far, but I do wonder how it’ll be important in the future. Because I have a hunch it will be.

Now, it’s time to bring this volume to a close with the arrival of Satan. As Satan gets closer to Tokyo, we start following Rei as he travels… Somewhere. I’m assuming he’s on the way to school. He starts seeing people throwing up. And then people jumping in front of subway cars. He makes his way to the streets, only to have people landing on the ground around him, having thrown themselves off of the tops of the surrounding buildings. Chiho calls him and he admits that he’s feeling suicidal, and can’t stop himself. Meanwhile, we see Rei’s mom about to slit her wrists, but his father comes home right in the nick of time and stops her. When it comes to Chiho’s side of the story, she hasn’t told the Future Weirdos about her being pregnant and one of them overhears her discussing it with her assistant or manager, they don’t say who this guy is. Anyway, when the Weirdos find out about her condition, they say they’ll handle Satan by themselves. When Chiho asks if they’ll be okay, they don’t really answer. When pressed, the one that’s kind of developing a crush on her assures her that they’ll be fine. Chiho doesn’t seem to believe him but doesn’t try to go with them. This is when she calls Rei and then she takes off to help save the world.

The volume ends with the Weirdos facing off against Satan, seen in full for the first time…

This volume is really where we see that the creator realized that he had to “wrap it up” so to speak and get on with the ending. Several questions we’ve had since the beginning of the series are answered in just a few pages. We’re also seeing things that could have been left for a while, such as Chiho’s pregnancy, being brought up so they can also be resolved, too. All in all, I rather enjoyed finally getting to know what is actually going on and getting things moving. Even if this feels rushed…

Rating: 4 out of 5
Suggestion: Pick it up, we’re almost done.

Manga: Gigant Volume 6

 

Content Warning: Nudity, Sexual content, violence, and weirdos from the future (I think)

And here we are, the volume of Gigant that really does nothing. At least, in the major plot. That said, there’s a lot of changes in terms of the interpersonal relationships of people in the story but this whole volume feels a lot like filler. Let’s get started.

This volume starts with our future weirdo squad discovering the joys of instant Ramen and the continuing advance of the Devil in the US. There’s also introduction of Chiho and Rei getting ready to take a trip to Ishigaki Island together. And that right there is the whole story of this volume, just about.

On the plane to the island, Chiho crashes out and gets recognized by a bunch of people, including a little girl. This girl, who’s maybe six, then tries to fondle Chiho while she’s asleep. I’m not even kidding. This does show how “PaPiCo fever” has swept the country. Not only with how busy Chiho has been since defeating the three Gods of Destruction but how little time she and Rei have spent together. They are, however, making for lost time. With lots of sex and just hanging out, spending quality time. There’s not much to discuss about this section. Wait, I take that back, there’s actually two things. The first one is the clear use of reference art that looks jarring when you see the characters in the background, as the backgrounds are photo-realistic and the characters clearly aren’t. I find it really hard to read the words when I’m paying too much attention to the floors, walls, and chairs around the characters. This clearly is a “me problem” but this is where I talk about what I’m reading, so you signed up for it. Now, the second thing we can talk about is the continuing coverage of the Devil’s progress through the US. Rei continues to listen to it during the trip, even when they’re laying in bed, just relaxing. There’s a telling comment when Chiho asks him if he always listens to that, followed by the question if America is really in trouble. After getting told yes to both questions, she jumps into the pool naked and gets Rei to join her. She also gives him a hummer while underwater, to which I can only comment that I envy her lung power… Okay, there’s one other thing that happens during the vacation that I’m going to circle back to at the end. Promise.

Ahem. Anyway. While Chiho and Rei are enjoying themselves, we get our only real piece of action when the Future People Weirdos decide to let their Ramen cups sit on a Yakuza’s car. The Yakuza are killed in such a gory fashion, I was just kind of like… The fuck? There’s also the casual nature in how the Weirdos use their powers to kill them. Like, they don’t even matter. Didn’t you assholes come back in time to SAVE people? It’s also interesting to see how they have different powers that we haven’t yet seen Chiho manifest. Another thing that I find interesting is how these people from the future, including the first one in the first volume, don’t seem to know how to operate in our society. They have serious trouble with chopsticks, even the one that seems to be Japanese, in both name and appearance. Oh, yeah, we get some names for them now. But I’m not using them because I like calling them the Future Weirdos. They also seem to have been caught up in PaPiCo fever but don’t seem to be willing to seek her own. I don’t know why.

Now, for the final part of this volume. Chiho and Rei’s relationship hits the news and it’s more than a little explosive. As I’ve said before, I doubt there would be as big of a problem if Rei was the older one but it’s not the case and Chiho’s career is pretty much shot to hell when it comes out that she’s in improper relationship with a minor. And then Rei starts having trouble when his name and face gets out there in the world. This culminates when an older boy attacks him when he won’t give him Chiho’s number. This older kid beats the ever living fuck out of Rei and his friend. It’s a lot like what’s happened to Chiho in her fights, when I think about it. And then Rei does the thing that I will hate him forever for. He breaks up with Chiho. He doesn’t tell her what happened, not really, he just says it would be better if they would break up. Okay, I’ll cut the kid some credit, as he says to give him two years (until he’s legal) and can make his student film. And I just… I really want to slap this kid. Okay, first of all, there’s a chance that either you or her could be dead in TWO DAYS, much less TWO YEARS from now! Next, you assume that you’ll actually be able to make your fucking film. GAH! I hate stupid teenagers! Yeah, mostly because I used to be one. And, there’s one other thing that I said I would circle back to and the time is now. Rei, this dumb motherfucker, he breaks up with his girlfriend AFTER a condom broke during vacation and he was fucking her brains out. Just, fuck, you just KNOW that she’s going to get pregnant…

Oh, and the final page is the US dropping a nuke on the Devil while it’s in Hawai’i. That means that it’s coming to Japan. Will Chiho and the Weirdos be able to stand up to it? I don’t fucking know! I guess we’ll find out.

Now that I’ve gotten all of that out of my system, I do want to say that this is my least favorite volume thus far and it really feels like there isn’t a guide for what’s going to happen. Oh, and only four volumes left. Yeah. It ended at volume 10 in Japan, so we’re going to waiting about two more years to get them released here.

Rating: 2 out of 5
Suggestion: Ugh. I don’t exactly hate it but I didn’t like it, either. Make of that what you will.

Manga: Gigant Volume 5

 

Content Warning: Nudity, blood, violence, and sex. All things near and dear to our hearts.

Are you ready for this one? It’s been a while since I’ve done a volume of this series as I’m reading and reviewing as they come out. And this one is… Interesting.

Our story picks up in the middle of the battle from the last volume, between Chiho and the two remaining Gods of Destruction. Chiho uses her trick, growing smaller and then expanding inside the Gods, killing them one after the other. The battle ends with Chiho standing naked, blood dripping off of her, in the city. And then the cheering starts. People are openly weeping and cheering her on, their savior. Rei tries to reach her but she’s taken away by the military. Rei’s mother calls him and is relieved that he’s okay.

After a bit, Chiho reaches out to Rei and asks him to return the key to her place. It’s the middle of the night but he rushes over. Chiho surprises him with a tackle hug from behind. Their reunion leads to a lot of tears, both of them talking about how much they missed each other. Chiho has her eye covered by a bandage but she’s okay, it’s just a bit swollen. The make-outs soon turn to sex and then cuddling. Chiho tells Rei that she’s quitting porn, because she loves him. She only started doing porn because she likes sex but never felt part of the industry. Due to her recent increase in popularity, she’s going to start taking other jobs in acting. She actually seems really happy at the thought of doing it. While they lay in bed, Chiho’s cellphone kicks on and starts talking about PaPiCo-san and how they “can hear” her, and how they’re going to start “looking into her” as she’s “interesting.” Who exactly this is, speaking using Siri’s voice, is unknown for now. I don’t know who it is but I’m thinking it’s whoever started E.T.E.

Speaking of E.T.E., they get their servers blocked in Japan, but not the US. As is later revealed, this takes place in 2019 and the Former Guy is in office in the US. He refuses to do anything about it, because, does that really surprise anyone? Anyway…

Meanwhile, PaPiCo “fever” seems to take over the country. Girls begin cutting and dying their hair to match Chiho’s. There’s fan magazines, the price of her AV stuff skyrockets, she’s doing ads and interviews on TV. It’s a lot. But, she still makes as much time as she can for Rei. And, after she tells him that she’s given her number out to someone, he tells her that he trusts her. Oh, Rei, could you be more 17? I mean, I want to trust Chiho but I also know that this is an easy way for the author to make some more drama down the road.

Speaking of things that pop up, we encounter a group of “Weirdos” like the one that gave Chiho her device. And we find out that America has FIVE heroes now. No previous mention of this, just all the sudden of, there’s five of them. The four new characters are dressed similarly to the first one, who finally gets a name. They also say that they’re “too late.” For what, we don’t know yet. What does happen is the five American heroes get killed by a horrific demon in New York. With the heroes dead, the demon begins crossing the US, last reported in Montana. That means that it’s headed towards the Pacific. Put it together.

There’s a few other things that happen. Chiho’s mom calls and guilts her into giving her, and her brothers, money. A lot of money. Have I mentioned how much I hate her family? Because I do. Rei doesn’t react to this at all and I want to smack him.

And that’s where this volume ends. I’m somewhat curious to see what happens next (which Wikipedia kind of ruined for me). There’s a lot here and it looks like the series is still on going, thank goodness. I do like how things develop but there’s a lot of filler in this volume. There’s a group of characters that popped up that I didn’t even mention because I can’t tell if they’re important or not yet. In the end, this is starting to feel like filler. And I keep wanting to know more about Chiho.

Rating: 3 out of 5
Suggestion: I’m sticking with it but that’s my choice.

Manga: Gigant, Volume 4

 

Content Warning: Gore, nudity, massive destruction

One step closer to the end of this series…

Last time, we left off with a giant hand reaching into Rei’s room. As I suspected, it’s one of the giants attacking the city, not Chiho. The giant grabs Rei and he’s able to cut its hand and get away. The next few pages have a montage of the giants getting killed by the Tokyo PD and JSDF, before the ETE unleashes a giant robot on the city. While the JSDF is able to take down this giant robot, it comes at quite a cost. I do have to say, it’s nice to see some giant robots in something. I miss the mecha genre.

During all of this, we see PaPiCo’s Twitter get 5.56 million followers and start hearing calls for her release. And I’m really glad to see it. When Chiho was arrested, my heart sank. She should be the hero (even if we’re stuck following Rei for some stupid reason) and it’s good to see the people in the book realize that she’s there to help them. She might not have the skills and she might not have wanted the job, but she’s got it and she tries her best. And that’s why I wish this was her story. Aside from the very first page in this volume, we don’t see her until ETE gets ready to unleash not one but THREE Gods of Destruction on Tokyo.

As the Gods appear and start destroying the city, we start following the love interest from the first volume, the one that Rei’s friend had a crush on (at least I think its her) as the city begins to crumble. There’s a lot of death and destruction in this part. People are killed by buildings falling apart, people crying and holding each other, and one child scream in front of the crushed body of his mother. One thing I will say about this series, it doesn’t shy away from the human cost of all this devastation. It’s not something you see very often, this human cost. And I think it’s one of the better parts.

When we really get to see Chiho again, she’s been released from prison and given a super elastic suit to wear, riding on a troop transport helicopter with several squads of JSDF soldiers. There’s some fun dialogue with some of them, with one of them admitting he owns some of her films.

And then they jump out of the helicopter, with Chiho growing to giant size as she falls through the air. The suit doesn’t hold out very long and she naked by the time she hits the ground. Meanwhile, we get cuts to the various people in the city, either in shock or crying.

When Chiho lands, you can see how much more prepared for this than she was the last time. She doesn’t look afraid, she looks confident, ready for the fight. Sadly, it doesn’t last. There’s three of them and one of her. She hasn’t been trained for a fight and the JSDF doesn’t seem to be able to even scratch the Gods. It doesn’t take long for them to knock her around and get ready to tear her apart. When I was reading this part, I was really worried for her.

But, she vanishes before they can kill her, using the same trick she did during the last battle, shrinking down to avoid them. And she uses the other trick she did last time, climbing up one of the giants, only to get inside and destroy it by increasing her size when inside it…

And that’s where this volume ends, with one God of Destruction down, and two more to go.

This one feels so short. Mostly because there’s not nearly as much dialogue and there’s a lot of jumping around. With the lack of focus on Chiho, I found this one hard to get started. To me, Chiho is what makes this series. She’s the hero, not Rei. She should be the main character, not Rei. And even in this volume, Rei doesn’t really do much besides scroll through Twitter and cheer Chiho on from a train. We get a lot of images of destruction and what people closer to the action are up to, but it doesn’t grab me as much as the other bits. However, I do like the action at the end, it kept me turning the page as fast as I could.

I am looking forward to the next volume, as I want to see Chiho and Rei get back together. Now that she’s been given amnesty, I’m sure they can see each other again. I just hope that they give her some hand to hand combat training…

Rating: 3 out of 5

Suggestion: While not the best volume so far, it’s worth keeping up with.

Manga: Gigant Volume 3

 Content Warning: Violence, nudity, age gap relationship, gore, and governmental stupidity

Okay, this is the middle of the series and boy am I not happy. But, let’s talk about what’s going on with our pink haired porn star protagonist, shall we?

The volume opens with Chiho starting her fight with the God of Destruction, which is where we left off last time. This fight is brutal. Chiho gets the snot beaten out of her and almost gets killed by the God’s fireballs. But, she’s actually really clever and shrinks down, only to grow back to huge size again, after jumping inside the God’s body. She just tears him apart and I was cheering.

After the battle, Rei and Chiho meet up and hug and kiss. And then she meets his parents. They don’t believe that she’s the giant until she changes size in front of them. Somehow, they get a cab and things go bad. Rei’s mother starts to interrogate her while they’re in the cab and we find out that Chiho is twenty four years old. Again, she is twenty four and Rei is, like, seventeen or something. And the mom points this out, and that’s illegal (which I’m not sure of, given Japan’s normally very liberal Age of Consent laws). So, Chiho just starts bawling in the cab sitting up front next to the driver. I fell so bad for the driver.

They get back home and Rei ends up meeting up with Chiho and having some hot sex. He stays until morning and has to head home. Not long after he leaves, the police show up and she’s arrested. Now, during this, we’re seeing news coverage of what’s been going on. The media is begging people to stop using E.T.E. and we see that the police are investigating the “pink haired giant” for possible connections to terrorists. Um, what? And after Chiho is arrested, she ends up getting charged, and convicted of Insurrection. Excuse me? I don’t… I can’t even that whole thing. She literally saved millions of people and they are going execute her. I am so mad right now just thinking about it.

Meanwhile. Rei ends up taking care of Mochi, Chiho’s cute Corgi, and coming clean to his friend about his relationship with Chiho. There’s a lot of stuff just kind of happening in the background and almost nothing of Chiho after she gets arrested. However, I did see some interesting bits involving the other Weirdo in the US. Apparently, the Americans are in love with this guy, while the Japanese seemed to be angry at Chiho and I have no idea why. During his fight with the “closely resembles but is legally distinct from” the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, he shoots bolts of light from his hands. I wonder if this is something all of the Weirdos can do or is it part of the device Chiho also has? I’m very interested to find out.

As we reach the end of the volume, two things happen: at least 853 people are abducted by UFOs after an E.T.E. vote and then not long later, dozens of giant people appear.

The first giants we’re introduced to are children who show up at Rei’s school, pull people out from the building by reaching into the windows, and killing them. Rei is saved by one of them by the police and hunters with a shotgun. As Rei and his friend travel home, they see all kinds of people who have become giants: Salarymen, Yakuza gangsters with swords, Sumo wrestlers, an old guy dressed up in a sailor dress, and more. It’s so surreal and out there. And they’re all killing people. And this brings me to another question I have, who are these people? Are they the people abducted by the UFOs? Or are they E.T.E. users who said they wished they were giants so they could take on Chiho? They’re not as large as the God of Destruction was, maybe half or a quarter of the size, but there’s a lot more of them. One key difference between these giants and Chiho is that all of them are wearing clothes, so their transformation wasn’t like hers.

Speaking of Chiho, this volume ends with a giant hand smashing into Rei’s bedroom at night and someone calling his name. Rei thinks its Chiho but I’m not sure if it is or not. For one, she’s been in jail since her arrest. Also, the arm connected to this hand is wearing a sweater, which we’ve never seen her been able to do before.

When I finished this volume for the first time, I felt angry. There’s so many unanswered questions that are still there. The DVD from volume one? Hasn’t been mentioned since. This should be Chiho’s story but it feels more like Rei’s and I don’t know why. Nor do I like Rei all that much. He’s not growing or changing, I feel. And I am beyond angry about Chiho being charged and sentenced to death. She saved lives and this the thanks the Japanese government gives her? Not to mention that if they go through with it, it mean the loss of their only chance of being saved from E.T.E.’s machinations. I know that they won’t kill her, there’s clearly more to come with her, but I just can’t help but be upset. It defies all logic. Ahem. Anyway. I hope that this volume is the lowest point we reach in this series, and it’s all uphill from here, but I now have reservations about what is going to happen now. I guess we’ll find out together.

Rating: 3 out of 5

Suggestion: If you’ve been reading this series up to this point, keep going. I’m hoping it gets better.

Manga: Gignat Volume 2

Content Warning: Nudity, sexual activity, massive urban destruction and death, and teenage stupidity (again).

I hope you've read the first volume of this series because we need to catch up..

The first half of this volume follows a familiar pattern from the last one, namely spending time with Rei and Chiho, after talking a bit about the plot. There's some talking heads going on about E.T.E. And how some people aren't believing it. We also find out that Ryuji, Chiho's boyfriend, hasn't returned. This leads to Rei asking Chiho out, apparently changing his mind from the end of the last volume. After he guilt trips her into letting him become her boyfriend, they start having sex. Like, that night. I had to stop reading after he whines until she says yes. Then, I had to take another break after they bathe together and she goes down on him. I'm also noticing that Chiho is very... Static? Stoic? I don't know how to describe it but she's just... Standing there, looking at him or just going along with things. This continues as they continue dating, with her just going with the flow. The only real moment of her taking action, before all of this, is turning Rei down. But then she reverses it and they go out. I was also a little uncomfortable with the relationship when it started, as Rei is in high school and Chiho is an unknown age but at least over 18, and I think Rei is around 17-18. Now, I did have to stop and think about this, if I would have had the same problem with it if the genders had been reversed. And, yeah, I probably would. But, Japan has a different culture and different laws, so I just tucked those thoughts away and continued reading, wanting to see where things are going.

As the relationship continues, Chiho starts to act differently. I think the moment that really showed me how much she had changed was when she jumps and gloomps Rei when they're starting their date. There's also some touching moments where Chiho talks a bit more about her childhood and a boy she had a crush on. Again, I'm here for this content. And Rei, I have to admit, does act like a decent guy, for the most part. Their dates and conversations are cute. There's a real awkward moment where Rei asks her to marry him. And I just felt so bad for him. He's clearly infatuated with her and she's starting to fall for him. There's another telling moment when Chiho asks Rei if he's losing interest with her and offers to do it “like they do in a porno.” Of course, things can't last and Rei gets caught lying to his parents about what he's been doing. Apparently, he's been telling his mom that he's been hanging out and spending the night with Nakashima (who I'm assuming is his friend, his only friend) but she happened to talk with his parents and busted! He tells his parents he has a girlfriend but nothing else. One thing that really made me wince was how his dad acts. He as a very “boys will be boys” attitude and dismissing his wife's, Rei's mother, concerns out of hand. It made me very uncomfortable, as I don't want Rei to start emulating this behavior. I want Rei and Chiho to be happy, preferably together. So sue me, I like my happy endings, okay?

Now, half way through the volume, things shift dramatically. While Rei is spending time with his parents in Roppongi (a famous district in Tokyo), Chiho is watching TV when a “special news bulletin” happens. We see a “we closely resemble but are legally distinct from the” Stay Puft Marshmallow Man fighting another guy that looks like the weirdo that gave Chihi her device (except he's wearing a American flag tank top and underwear and has a blonde beard) in New York City. And then E.T.E. unleashes a “God of Destruction” in Tokyo. Starting with Roppongi. Rei and his family have a front row seat as this thing starts destroying buildings. Chiho tries to get a hold of him and they breifly speak. He tells her “goodbye.” As the line disconnects, Chiho's heart starts beating and she seems to have a flashback, as we see “Chiho? Daddy had a bad fall.” This scene, watching her crying while those words appear on the page break my heart every time I see them (seriously trying to not ugly cry right now). She uses her device and starts running, giant and naked, towards Rei.

And that's where things end. It's such an abrupt ending, I started cussing out the creator, the publisher, and the American translation company for making me wait several months for the next volume. I am really enjoying this series but we're a third of the way through the story and there's a lot unexplained. Who or what is Enjoy The End? Why was Chiho picked for this or was it really just random chance? Who hit the Weirdo? Will Rei continue to be a good boyfriend or will I need to travel into that reality and slap the shit out of him? Will I ever find out more about Chiho or am I going to need to torture Oku and get the information out of him? Okay, I wouldn't do that, no matter what he does with this story. But, I might be a little rude to him if I meet him.

Yeah, I am excited for the next volume. Which I've already pre-ordered (and volume four) as when I went to buy this one when I got paid, it was out of stock and it hadn't even been two weeks on Amazon. And then I tried other places. And then tried third-party sellers on Amazon, paying more than I wanted, and still had to wait another few weeks until a reliable company actually had it in stock. I am NOT doing that again for this series. Plus, pre-orders look really good to publishers and distributors.

Rating: 5 out of 5
Suggestion: Buy it.

Update: I just received an email from Amazon informing me that volume three won't be delivered until late January/early February 2021 (thus proving that 2020 is still screwing me over hard). As such, I'll probably be doing an extra review to cover it as soon as I get it.

Manga: Gignat Volume 1

 Content Warning: Domestic violence, teenage stupidity, feces, porn industry, sexual content and nudity.

 Gigant is a manga by Hiroya Oku (probably best known for Gantz). Sent in modern day Japan, the story follows Yokoyamada Rei, a high school student who dreams of becoming a film director, and Johansson Chiho, who works as a adult film star under the name PaPiCo.

Our story begins with Rei filming around Tokyo with his phone, shots of crowds and the ground. This brings up one of things I find a bit jarring about the manga. Rei, and most of the other characters, are drawn in a typical manga style, while crowds and minor characters are photorealistic style (and the posters, vehicles, etc). I don't know if there's just a filter applied to pictures, they're traced, or what exactly, but it kind of throws me off when I'm reading.

As our story continues, we're slowly introduced to the characters around Rei: his father, who wants him to do well in school in case he can't fulfill his dreams of becoming a director. His friend, who doesn't even get a name in this volume, who he talks about movies with and is trying to make a movie with. And PaPiCo. Her introduction is a porn BluRay (with the caption: Her Jiggly J-Cups) that Rei buys and watches. The masturbation is implied. Or maybe that's because I was once a teenage boy.

PaPiCo, or Chiho, has a proper introduction a bit later. Rei sees a sign saying she lives in the area and she'll have sex with someone if they ask. Who put this up is as of yet unexplained. After Rei removes the last poster, Chiho comes up behind him and asks if he put up. Soon, she's buying him dinner, telling him her real name (!!!), follows him on Twitter, exchange Line numbers, and leaves both of them happy.

As the story continues, we see much more of Rei, until Chiho sees a strange man get hit by a car. While trying to render aid, he puts some strange device on her forearm, and then turns into a cloth doll. Yeah, you read that right. Anyway, she ends up discovering that she can grow in size. Her piece of shit boyfriend, Ryuji, just kind of checks out. Later, she starts using this power in her porn vids. We also get to follow her around some more, which I absolutely loved, meeting her three brothers and her mother, and also see a picture of her Swedish father, and we learn more about how people in her life treat her. Which is to say, rather poorly. When Ryuji asks her who Rei is, after looking through her phone, he doesn't like her answer and then slaps and kicks her. She fights back and they end up in an odd embrace, with him apologizing and saying he loves her. She also reaches out to Rei to help her see what's on a DVD that was left by the strange man (who I call The Weirdo). He watches it and discovers that the disc has over 168 hours of footage. Which, you know, is kind of impossible.

Next, Chiho invites Rei over to her tiny apartment (as her terrible boyfriend is out of the house after losing tons of money at the Pachinko parlor). When she shows him that, yes, she can become a giant, Ryuji walks in. She's giant and naked. All hell breaks loose. But, Ryuji ends up running away. I think this is where I knew I was going to really like this manga.

After this, we start getting some major hints about what exactly is going on. Where (or perhaps “when” is a better word) The Weirdo came from, what the purpose is of the device now on Chiho, and that this very well could be the end of the world. If you want to Enjoy The End, I suggest you read it for yourself.

I absolutely loved this read. While I enjoyed getting to know Rei, even if I want to reach into the panel and slap some sense into him half the time, I really wanted to get to know Chiho more than we did in this volume. The author uses images to tell us about them, not using any internal monologue. The dialogue is also used to say things and NOT say things at the same time. We get a sense of how shy Rei is and his obsession with films and film making just from the dialogue. With Chiho, we find her using a lot of slang and very informal way of speaking. Her facial expressions are also great. While it's not outright stated, it's kind of obvious that she's got some issues. At one point, she mentions that she takes medication for her anxiety. I also think that her father is dead, given how we get one flashback of them together when she's a child and don't see him when she goes back home and meet the rest of her family. He isn't even mentioned more than once or twice at most.

 Rating: 5 out 5

Suggestion: Buy it.