Post by Cmdr. Maegil on Jun 22, 2008 7:01:55 GMT -5
Some posts I C&Pd and slightly edited from another forum:
Mythological Nurarihyon isn't a cold-blooded murderer, he's a prankster. He steals things and plays cruel jokes.
Oku's local audience all knew that this arc was going to have a lot of dark humor in it as soon as they saw that the villain was Nurarihyon and the Osakans' names. It took those of us who live halfway across the world a while to figure it out.
The names of all of the Osakans except Anzu came from the names of real-life comedians who had lived and died in Osaka. The ways many of them were defeated in the manga were dark comedy. Some of the scenes were probably references from their routines. Their deaths/defeats were all black humor. Look at Kuwabara and the mound of naked women, or the virgin running around with Nuri's head. Or when the women ate George then threw out his head. Or the way that Nuri copies the features of whoever he's fighting. Also, all of Oka's lines were from the real comedian Oka's comedy routines. Nurarihyon's playing with the Gantz team and making fun of them, not necessarily trying to kill them. After all, he can use the microwave beams that he used as giant nura and nura-zilla to fry them in their suits, or he can make a really deadly form like nura-zilla. But he isn't doing that. He was fighting Kaze with naked women forms. About the only thing weaker would be bunny rabbits. Now, he's become a literal muscle man. He's obviously making fun of Kaze's nickname.
Basically, Nura's being true to his nature: stealing his opponents' forms and playing cruel, but not necessarily lethal, jokes on them. If it's more humorous to kill them, he will. But most of the time, he just charges an arm and a leg to attend his little comedy act.
Actually, Nura is extremely strong. In Japanese mythology, he's sort of like Satan with a sense of humor, or the Norse god Loki (remember 'The Mask'?). Nura is the supreme commander of ghosts, vampires, spirits, demons and other yokai, not just the average vampire or demon. He can shoot invisible microwave beams that will nuke anything in their path. He can instantly change forms. He can regenerate from mortal wounds in seconds. He's extremely powerful when he wants to be, but he's more like a bad joke than a threat unless somebody really makes him mad. He isn't trying to kill his new toys just yet. He's having too much fun playing with them right now.
He's just been making fun of the Gantzers by imitating some of the features of each of the opponents he's facing. Sometimes they are worse than useless, but they are all appropriate to the opponent. Let's look at them:
He was a giant woman whose aura was melting the crowd of ritual sacrifices when the first shot was fired by the Osakan drug addict. Here's how he "evolved" for the five major opponents he's faced:
Opponent #1. Drug addict Osakan: He creates a male giant form that microwaves anything in its line of sight, with some of the microwaves in visible wavelengths. After being shot with a range weapon, he's just making something similar.
#2: Kuwabara the Sex Freak: he turns into a giant made of hundreds of naked women. Not great for fighting anything. But funny and appropriate for the opponent.
#3: Nishi the Vicious Veteran Gantz member who has a monstrous personality and was just resurrected: a huge, vicious godzilla-like monster with a skull for a head that blasted invisible microwave radiation at his opponents and emitted an aura that melted the soldiers in the area.
#4: Oka in the Gantz suit with big arms: a monster with big arms
#5: Kaze the Muscle Rider: a monster with big muscles
He's just playing with them, making a body that's appropriate to make fun of the most dominant trait of whoever he's fighting.
He's "evolved" from a practically unstoppable Godzilla-like monster with a radiation attack that can kill the Gantz members from a distance and they can't even see the attack until their arms and legs explode, to a "muscle rider" the size of a human that's all muscles and is made up of leftover ecchi parts? Each time he has faced a major opponent, he's changed, but he's generally become less powerful each time. NOT what I would call evolution.
The Gantz team will have to actually hurt Nura before he'll quit playing around and get serious. When he does, that means we'll see people blowing up about like if you stick a cat in a microwave. And getting chopped up. And melted. Nura will be a force to be reckoned with when he does decide that the Gantz team aren't just some new toys to play with.
That's why I think it will take either HS telling them how to defeat Nura, or the whole team working together to send both his current physical body and his energy form.
Of course, Oku might have another plan: What if Nura just gets mad and wipes out the whole team? We might have a whole new team that are totally clueless.
Mythological Nurarihyon isn't a cold-blooded murderer, he's a prankster. He steals things and plays cruel jokes.
Oku's local audience all knew that this arc was going to have a lot of dark humor in it as soon as they saw that the villain was Nurarihyon and the Osakans' names. It took those of us who live halfway across the world a while to figure it out.
The names of all of the Osakans except Anzu came from the names of real-life comedians who had lived and died in Osaka. The ways many of them were defeated in the manga were dark comedy. Some of the scenes were probably references from their routines. Their deaths/defeats were all black humor. Look at Kuwabara and the mound of naked women, or the virgin running around with Nuri's head. Or when the women ate George then threw out his head. Or the way that Nuri copies the features of whoever he's fighting. Also, all of Oka's lines were from the real comedian Oka's comedy routines. Nurarihyon's playing with the Gantz team and making fun of them, not necessarily trying to kill them. After all, he can use the microwave beams that he used as giant nura and nura-zilla to fry them in their suits, or he can make a really deadly form like nura-zilla. But he isn't doing that. He was fighting Kaze with naked women forms. About the only thing weaker would be bunny rabbits. Now, he's become a literal muscle man. He's obviously making fun of Kaze's nickname.
Basically, Nura's being true to his nature: stealing his opponents' forms and playing cruel, but not necessarily lethal, jokes on them. If it's more humorous to kill them, he will. But most of the time, he just charges an arm and a leg to attend his little comedy act.
Actually, Nura is extremely strong. In Japanese mythology, he's sort of like Satan with a sense of humor, or the Norse god Loki (remember 'The Mask'?). Nura is the supreme commander of ghosts, vampires, spirits, demons and other yokai, not just the average vampire or demon. He can shoot invisible microwave beams that will nuke anything in their path. He can instantly change forms. He can regenerate from mortal wounds in seconds. He's extremely powerful when he wants to be, but he's more like a bad joke than a threat unless somebody really makes him mad. He isn't trying to kill his new toys just yet. He's having too much fun playing with them right now.
He's just been making fun of the Gantzers by imitating some of the features of each of the opponents he's facing. Sometimes they are worse than useless, but they are all appropriate to the opponent. Let's look at them:
He was a giant woman whose aura was melting the crowd of ritual sacrifices when the first shot was fired by the Osakan drug addict. Here's how he "evolved" for the five major opponents he's faced:
Opponent #1. Drug addict Osakan: He creates a male giant form that microwaves anything in its line of sight, with some of the microwaves in visible wavelengths. After being shot with a range weapon, he's just making something similar.
#2: Kuwabara the Sex Freak: he turns into a giant made of hundreds of naked women. Not great for fighting anything. But funny and appropriate for the opponent.
#3: Nishi the Vicious Veteran Gantz member who has a monstrous personality and was just resurrected: a huge, vicious godzilla-like monster with a skull for a head that blasted invisible microwave radiation at his opponents and emitted an aura that melted the soldiers in the area.
#4: Oka in the Gantz suit with big arms: a monster with big arms
#5: Kaze the Muscle Rider: a monster with big muscles
He's just playing with them, making a body that's appropriate to make fun of the most dominant trait of whoever he's fighting.
He's "evolved" from a practically unstoppable Godzilla-like monster with a radiation attack that can kill the Gantz members from a distance and they can't even see the attack until their arms and legs explode, to a "muscle rider" the size of a human that's all muscles and is made up of leftover ecchi parts? Each time he has faced a major opponent, he's changed, but he's generally become less powerful each time. NOT what I would call evolution.
The Gantz team will have to actually hurt Nura before he'll quit playing around and get serious. When he does, that means we'll see people blowing up about like if you stick a cat in a microwave. And getting chopped up. And melted. Nura will be a force to be reckoned with when he does decide that the Gantz team aren't just some new toys to play with.
That's why I think it will take either HS telling them how to defeat Nura, or the whole team working together to send both his current physical body and his energy form.
Of course, Oku might have another plan: What if Nura just gets mad and wipes out the whole team? We might have a whole new team that are totally clueless.
