User:Morganstedmanms/Hiroya Oku

Hiroya Oku (奥 浩哉) is a Japanese manga artist who is the creator of, , , and.

Summary
Born in Fukuoka, Japan, he debuted as a manga artist in 1992, with his first series, Hen. The series became quite popular, spawning a live-action TV series in 1996 and an OVA anime series in 1997. Oku is an avid movie watcher and figurine collector, collecting life-like 1/6th and 1/4th scale figures of various famous actors. In 2000, he begun his longest and most famous work, GANTZ, which used a mix of traditional art and CG backgrounds. Gantz was adapted into a 26 episode TV anime in 2004, which animated the first 8 volumes of the manga. It was also adapted into in 2011, and a high-budget CG movie titled  in 2016. After 2016, any future GANTZ adaptions were put on hold as Oku had given the rights to Hollywood executives who wanted to make an American GANTZ film. In 2021 it was announced that Sony Pictures would be adapting a live-action Gantz film directed by Julius Avery.

Since the ending of GANTZ in 2013, Oku has gone on to work on other shorter series, including and, the first of which was adapted into a TV anime by  in 2017. His favourite films are, , , , and. His favourite manga series are, , , , and.

Gantz Suit
A stylish glossy black bodysuit that also functions as armor during the Gantz missions. The suit is highly durable and protects the user against all conventional means of damage, even against unexposed parts of the body - How exactly it does this is unknown. The suit is also cable of amplifying a person's base strength up to approximately ten times. When it reaches full strength, the suit bulks up taking on a large veiny appearance. Every part of the body can be bulked, even the legs. Which allows the wearer to make giant leaps and run at high speeds. The boots also have a special system that reduces the impact of falling from great heights.

The suit is covered in dozens of glowing blue/yellow buttons, which are used to monitor the status of the wearer. Once the durability of the suit has reached its limit, a strange liquid oozes out and renders the abilities of the suit useless. Once this happens, the odds of the wearer surviving to the end of the game are greatly lowered. The suits are designed to fit the exact measurements of the wearer, regardless of age, sex, or physical body proportions. There are even suits for animals! Each suit that is given in the Gantz room only works for the specific wearer they're made for. This means it's impossible to borrow/steal someone else's if you happen to lose your own. If worn, the suit also can nullify "friendly fire" attacks from other Gantz weapons. However, this greatly reduces the durability.

Oku originally wanted to give the Gantz suit a mech-powered design, but that wasn't well received by his editors. So instead, he gave the suit a cloth-like look that was also much easier to draw by hand. On a side note, the aliens that the characters face in the series are usually much larger in scale, almost making them look like tiny insects as they hop around and carry things ten times their size. The name "Gantz" is also very reminiscent of the word "Ants", but that might just be a stretch. A flea that stands up to a massive opponent... Can that be called courage?

Weapons and Equipment

 * X-Gun: The haply named X-Gun is one of the most prominent weapons in the series. It is lightweight, easy to use, and can be held almost like a regular pistol. On the back of the gun, there is a small x-ray screen that functions as a targeting system when the first trigger is pulled. This can also be used to see opponents through walls and to make aiming easier. When the second trigger is pulled, a strange force is emitted that blows up the target from the inside after a 5-second delay. While firing, the barrel opens up taking the shape of an X, hence the name.
 * X-Rifle: The X-Rile functions almost the exact same as the X-Gun, with the only difference being that it has a longer barrel, can lock onto multiple targets at once, and can fire from further distances. In addition, the x-ray screen at the back can also be used as a scope, which makes this gun perfect for sniping.
 * Y-Gun: Unlike the other guns that Gantz provides, the "Y-Gun" isn't for killing. Instead, it fires three rockets that trap the target in a net before planting themselves in the ground. Once the target is stuck in place, a laser comes down from the sky and begins transferring the target to another location. Where the target is sent is unknown, however, doing so still completes the objective. It's called the "Y-Gun" because of the Y-shape of its three barrels.
 * Gantz Sword: The Gantz Sword is different from all the other weapons in that it isn't a gun. It is a katana with a retractable blade made from an unknown allow, which is strong enough to cut through even a fully working Gantz suit. Because of this, the sword is usually kept stored away in side room that's closed off until Gantz opens it. Normally, the Gantz Sword doesn't normally resemble a sword, until one of the buttons on the hilt is pressed, which either makes the blade longer or shorter. The longest recorded length of the blade is roughly 9 meters. How the blade is stored in the hilt is also unknown.
 * Controller: The controller is a small PDA device that shows the positions of other Gantz members and more importantly the targets they have to face. All within a squire kilometer of the battlefield. The controller also features "stealth" capabilities, allowing the wearer to turn invisible by changing their frequency.
 * Z-Gun: The Z-Gun is one of the weapons that players receive if they manage to reach 100 points. It is a large one-handed weapon introduced later in the story that applies extreme gravitational force to any circular area it locks onto. This usually results in the targets being flattened into large pools of blood. There isn't a 5-second delay with this gun, however, the power of it becomes less effective if not given time to re-charge.

Gantz TV
Character designs by Naoyuki Onda (恩田 尚之).

Inuyashiki TV
Character designs by Naoyuki Onda (恩田 尚之).