After a false start ten years ago reading the first dozen volumes, I've finally finished Gantz, reading all 37 volumes in the thick, 12-book omnibus format. It's quite the thrill ride, with gallons of gore, loads of shocks, and a whole hell of a lot of nudity.

Alas, once the story abandons the gaming concept of the early volumes, it goes off the rails. As Speed taught us when they got off the bus and The Hunger Games confirmed when they broke out of the arena, leaving a strong initial concept behind can be a huge mistake for an action epic.

The first half of this volume devolves into hard to follow giant robot battles with aliens, has a brief talking-head interlude with some other aliens to explain the whole plot of the series, and then goes back to the first aliens for a final battle of the champions with winner-takes-all stakes.

The creator reveals in the afterword that the whole series -- and especially the ending -- is a tribute to some anime I never heard of called Invincible Super Man Zambot 3. To me it just felt like an exercise in Mary Sue storytelling with a naturally-talented protagonist who keeps leveling up in time to face ever-increasing threats. It's all fun until you get to the end, and then it all feels rather pointless.

It's still a pretty fun ride until the fizzle though. ( )