Description: Revisit volumes 26–27: Italy’s statue aliens, Inaba’s final stand, Kurono’s Z-Gun, the mysterious “finished” screen, and Catastrophe.
Full spoilers for the original manga. The anime and films follow different continuities.
Italy in GANTZ looks like the world's deadliest sightseeing tour: classical statues come alive, elite fighters are destroyed, and then the whole game seems to switch off. Did anyone really beat the giant David-like statue, or was everyone simply evacuated? The answer requires two separate threads. Kurono attacks the giant with a Z-Gun, while the mission as a whole ends abruptly amid a failing GANTZ system.[1][2][3]
Where to reread it
Begin at volume 26, chapter 291. The main massacre is in volume 27, chapters 292–293; chapter 294, “Shutdown,” brings the interruption, and 295–296 explore what “finished” means. Shueisha's official chapter lists verify these locations.[1][2] A short reading assignment, an enormous emotional repair bill.
Why are the statues so powerful?
Teams from several countries arrive in Italy. Their enemies resemble classical sculptures, angels and monumental human figures. Even veterans with advanced suits and weapons are torn apart.[2][4] Remember surviving the Osaka battle? Congratulations: Italy apparently skipped ten difficulty levels.
“David alien” is a handy fan name for the huge statue-shaped foe. The manga does not provide a complete account of the statue beings' species or origins. Nor does it establish that they are an advance unit of the giant invaders seen later. They are targets in the last conventional hunt; their backstory remains obscure.
Inaba finally fights—and dies
Suzuki tries to save Inaba and suffers fatal injuries. Inaba finally finds the courage to fight the statues himself. It should be a heroic breakthrough, but a huge statue crushes him.[3][4] Most action stories would start the victory music. GANTZ hits “delete character” right after the character-development cutscene.
So who brought down David?
Inaba's bravery is memorable enough to blur the answer. But Kurono angrily fires the Z-Gun at the giant enemy that crushes Inaba. Many recaps credit Kurono with defeating David, a strong reading of the depicted fight.[3][5] That does not mean every other statue died, or that this particular blow caused everyone to be teleported home. Who struck the boss and why the entire mission ended are different mysteries. Kurono himself barely survives the transfer.
Why does the scoring screen say “finished”?
Survivors are transported back during the chaos. The GANTZ screen displays “finished”, while familiar reward options stop working normally.[3][4] This is hardly an ordinary “all targets eliminated” result.
Before the Italy mission, GANTZ has already displayed a countdown to Catastrophe. Soon afterward the story shifts from isolated alien hunts to a planet-wide invasion.[1][2] “The real war is coming, so the hunting game is obsolete” is therefore a sensible interpretation. However, the manga never explicitly shows an operator ordering the Italy mission shut down for that stated reason. Sequence is established; motive is inferred.
The ugly truth behind the game
Later revelations connect GANTZ technology to Earth's defense against invasion, but human operators turned it into deadly entertainment involving spectators and gambling.[6] Receive planetary defense technology, immediately build a lethal loyalty-points scheme. Outstanding work from the worst product team in the galaxy.
One more twist: the creator drew the aliens by hand
On October 25, 2026, creator Hiroya Oku posted that he generally drew GANTZ's aliens himself, using reference material, which made the workload seemingly endless.[7] Readers see a terrifying gallery of killer statues; the artist saw a mountain of reference and drawing hours. Catastrophe apparently applied to the production schedule, too. Importantly, the post describes how aliens were drawn; it does not reveal the Italy statues' species or the cause of the shutdown.
The bottom line: Kurono is the strongest candidate for defeating David; the mission ends amid system shutdown; Catastrophe brings the actual invasion. The scariest thing was not a moving statue. It was discovering that the game people died to win could simply stop mattering.
