A riverbank in the Edo period, mud sucking at straw sandals, and two peasants who should be enemies are drowning together. Hanbei just wanted to confront Masakichi — the man his childhood love O-haru chose instead of him. He found a peasant who carried a sword like a samurai, and before either could throw a punch, floodwater swept them both under. They die as rivals. They wake as something else entirely.

The room is a temple that reeks of incense and wrongness. A black sphere hums at its center — Gantz — and before Hanbei can process the severed limbs and terrified strangers around him, the orb issues a command in glowing text: kill Miyamoto Musashi. Swords are provided. Skintight suits that grant impossible speed are provided. Explanations are not. Transported to a battlefield crawling with hostiles, Hanbei and Masakichi grip blades they barely understand and discover that the target waiting for them is not a legendary swordsman from history books — it is something far larger, far older, and far less human than the name promised. The Edo era just learned what Gantz means. And the mission has only begun.

Also known as: GANTZ:E, ガンツ:E, Gantz Edo, Gantz: E.