Reika

The teenage model so famous even aliens know her name. She was the former leader of the Gantz Hunters. She recently died after trying to stop an alien from killing Kurono

Reika

 Reika the model and as the actress
 Reika the model and as the actress

Real name: Reika Shimohira    
Birthday: September 23, 1985 
Birthplace: Tokyo 
Blood Type: O   
Occupation: Actress, Seiyuu, Model, Singer 
Bust: 34″
Waist: 24″
Hips: 34″

Reika Shimohira (下平 玲花 Shimohira Reika) is a beautiful, young and popular idol. Like almost everyone else in the current Gantz Tokyo team, she was one of the victims caught in the line of fire during Izumi’s killing spree in Shinjuku.     

Gantz Room 

 Reika upon first meeting Kurono in the room
 Reika upon first meeting Kurono in the room

Reika like others is lost and confused upon entering Gantz’s room. She does her best to keep her identity a secret until someone puts her out for all to know and acknowledge. All eyes are on Reika but she only has eyes for the now heroic Kurono who wants to prevent anyone from dying after witnessing the deaths of his friends. Reika spends the first couple of missions admiring Kurono’s abilities from afar. Reika keeps her feelings inside as despite her fame she is just a teenage girl. Reika gets better at hunting with tips from Kurono, as he does with everyone. She is unaware of Kurono’s relationship with Tae Kojima, and makes a couple of discreet advances to go on a date with him. Later Reika is a bit disturbed in learning aliens are even aware of her fame and singled her out during one of the missions.

Kappe Alien (Dinosaur Alien)

 Reika following Kurono
 Reika following Kurono

The Kappe Alien mission was Reika’s first mission as a Gantz hunter thus she did not know a thing about the situation at hand. Kurono, one of the the most senior, made a point to let her and others know what was going to happen. Most didnt listen but Reika gave her full atention and put on one of the suits. This proved lifesaving as Reika was nearly torn to shreds by two dinosaurs.

 Kurono watching over Reika
 Kurono watching over Reika

As advised by Kurono during the very start of the mission, Reika basically sat around watching Kurono fight for the most part doing nothing pivotal to completing the mission. Reika attempted to give some support to Kurono and fight at one point in the mission as they were surrounded by aliens. Kurono denied her though, seeing that her suit had failed he

 Reika admiring Kurono 
 Reika admiring Kurono 

In the later part of the mission, when the mother alien revealed herself and tried to kill all of the surviving Gantz Hunters, Kurono used himself as bait to lure the alien away from the other Hunters. With the help of the Yoshi whom Kurono had initially befriended, Kurono was able to kill the mother alien, finally ending the mission and gaining the attention and the affection of Reika

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After the mission, she built up the courage to ask him out that evening, practically going on a date with him. This made the papers as Reika had never had a boyfriend before. The next day, a number of Kurono’s classmates saw the article on the papers showing Reika and Kurono on a date. This news reached Kurono’s girlfriend at that time, breaking Tae’s heart. When they saw each other again in the Gantz room, Reika apologized to Kurono for the trouble the pictures from the papers caused him

Ring Alien

Reika defeating one of the Ring aliens
Reika defeating one of the Ring aliens

The gantz hunters are sent to their next mission. This time they were up against the ring aliens, enormous mounted aliens that were greatly intimidating. Kurono decided that it was better if the team split up to cover more ground and so they could engage more enemies simultaneously. The hunters separated, and Reika made quick work of the Ring Alien she found while still keeping an eye out for Kurono

Reika does her best to help Kurono during the mission but she becomes distracted when Kurono attention goes to his now ex-girlfriend Tae, who he found taking pictures in the battle fields . She calls out to warn Kurono as a Ring Alien emerged while he was in a daze. Reika is the only person to notice Kurono’s had some attachment to Tae who was taking pictures for her manga.

Tae Mission

During the Ring Alien mission, Tae mistakingly took a picture of one of the Gantz Hunters, causing the hunter’s death. Now Gantz has decided that Tae is now a target. Only Reika and Shion know what Kurono is about to do. Shion wants to kill Tae to end the mission and get his points while Reika rallies with Hiroto, Yoshi, Kaze, and Ayaka to help Kurono. Everyone splits up to find Kurono and Tae. Reika ends up finding Shion and the rapists aiding him surrounding Kurono. She gets the drop on Shion and is asked by Kurono to get Tae to safety. They find a cab and Reika tries to determine why Tae was a target. The girl tells Reika about capturing a blurred image of people dressed in black on her camera. Reika deduces that destroying Tae’s  camera will end the mission. She sends Tae off alone and goes to the girl’s house. She finds the camera footage and crushes it with ease. It did not end the mission. Reika decides to go help Kurono since he was facing enemies by himself. She finds him with Tae dying in his arms.

A few days after Tae was killed Reika musters up the courage to visit Kurono. She finds he isn’t home and decides to wait. He finally comes home to find Reika waiting. She wants to know if he hated her for leaving Tae alone. Kurono doesn’t reply and just goes inside his apartment. She whispers her love for him and decides to leave

   
Oni Alien

 Reika killing off a group of aliens by herself
 Reika killing off a group of aliens by herself

Not surprisingly, Reika the idol proved to be a formidable opponent against the Oni Aliens. Strong, brave and quick on her toes, she proved that she was a valuable part of the team even showing that she had leadership skills when she commanded a group of fighters when she and Kurono decided to split up. She had also shown skill in fighting as she fought and defeated a group of aliens that surrounded her by herself.

Reika is concerned to find a young boy named Takeshi has come into the Gantz Room. Reika and Yoshi strive to get the boy into a suit before the transfer begins. Takeshi just stares at Kaze. The transfer begins as the team must hunt down the Oni Alien Boss. Reika immediately approaches Kaze and asks him to get the suit on the boy. 

Reika leading Gantz fighters 
Reika leading Gantz fighters 

Under the orders of Kurono, Reika leads Nagashima and his friends. She tries to explain how to use the guns. Nagashima and his crew are too busy thinking if she is really Reika the model. Reika gives up and just goes into a mall as the groupies follow. They find the alien in the human form. The alien reveals having knowledge of Reika and the hunters. The alien transforms and startles people to reveal they can now be seen. Reika is the only one to avoid a flurry of tentacles. She fires on the aliens but it dont die. Reika follows the surviving alien only  to end up being ambushed. She finds the aliens can talk and are able to track all the hunters in the area. The aliens are mad with the Gantz hunters for killing their kind. She tries to explain being forced into  the mission but the aliens dont care and were actually deliberating on whether she is the real Reika and if they should rape her. The aliens were all killed by Reika though by herself, showing great skill and courage

Reika gathers the remaining new hunters and searches the mall. She is disgusted to find Inaba making out with the Metaphor Oni posing as her. Reika fires but the oni is too fast to hit. She frees Inaba but the Metamorph Oni escapes once again. She finds Kurono and they return to the others to devise a plan against the aliens. Inaba questions if Kurono was real or not. He isnt and everyone fires. The alien turns into Takeshi and goes inside a hunter’s body to kill him from the inside. 

The Metaphor Oni goes on a rampage as an elephant only to be killed by the real Kurono. Matters grow worse after Kenzo and Kaze have each killed alien leaders as well. The boss calls out the hunters for a showdown and plans to kill humans if they dont come soon to face him. Reika and others prepare to go fight only to encounter Hikawa and his Vampires. The Vampires just pass on by without a word. 

 Kurono rescuing Reika
 Kurono rescuing Reika

Everyone comes to find Shion fighting the Boss Oni by himself and losing. During the fierce battle it gets to where Reika is amazingly the last one standing. She is grabbed by the alien before being able to lock on to him. When the alien seems to have finally decided to kill off Reika, Kurono literally falls from the sky, saves her and begins to duel the alien. Shion returns as well and together with Kurono they kill the Boss Oni Alien, ending the mission. 

Reika returns to the room with others that weren’t seriously hurt. She waits with Kurono and Takeshi for the others that were near death. All the veterans except for Hiroto return. Reika ends up with 102 points for the group of aliens she killed. She decides to revive Tae for Kurono. Reika is forced to bid farwell to Kurono as he uses his points to be freed of Gantz. She confesses her love for him as Kurono vanishes and his memories soon to be erased.

At one point of the manga, she uses her points to resurrect Tae after she was killed in one of the missions because she wants Kurono to be happy. It is not until Kurono chooses to be free that she confesses her love to him. After Kurono departs from the game, she is appointed the new team leader of Gantz. After Kurono is revived, Reika confesses her feelings to him, but Kurono, having rekindled his relationship with Tae, rebuffs her. Distraught over Kurono’s choice, Reika suffers an apparent mental break, and resolves to earn 100 points to revive a new Kurono for herself. She succeeds in reviving a second Kurono who exists concurrently with the copy brought back straight from the Oni mission end transfer. 

Kurono and Reika in the bath tub 
Kurono and Reika in the bath tub 

The second Kurono now lives with Reika and she seems that she has decided to quit her job to be with him. At first, he pushes away Reika’s hits but, at night, not sure what really caused it, Kurono decides to “rape” Reika for a few moments. Not sure if he did it more out of hate, and when he saw Reika was okay with it, he lost that taste and didn’t want to do it anymore. After a while though, Kurono starts softening up to Reika and she, in turn, fall for him even more even going as far as suggesting as to changing her name to Reika Kurono. 

The morning after, Kurono clone coincidently meets the original Kurono. The clone ends up telling the real Kurono all about how Reika cloned him. The real Kurono, though, doesn’t really see the problem, as Kurono is with Tae. Kurono clone gets frustrated at himself and how he sometimes act. But despite all this, he ends up accepting it anyway     

Personality and Fighting Style 

Reika is a kind person showing compassion for those killed during the Gantz missions. She is best described as Kurono’s “side kick” during the missions, providing support for those trying to stay alive and helping Kurono complete his missions. Unlike most of the other Gantz players, Reika is quick to charge at the aliens if it means helping Kurono. 

Despite her supermodel looks and her kind disposition she is a very strong woman on the inside. She is vigilant and prudent with her decisions, especially when her decisions directly affect her, Kurono, or her teammates. Although she can be intimidated at times, she can also show great courage as seen during the team’s battle with the aliens 

During the  Nurarihyon mission, her morale is shaken she having just witnessed Kurono’s death just moments before they were summoned by Gantz. She tells everyone they should just try to survive, and leads them away from battle. Kato is the only member of the team that wishes to help people, he running off to fight on his own. Nishi also ignores Reika, he hunting on his own, but only for points, not caring about others. The rest of the team follow Reika, as she leads them around, avoiding all conflict through most of the mission, only changing at the end, when Gantz narrowed the area they could move in, to force them to fight the final boss.

She is often seen using the X-gun on her first few missions, but used the x-shotgun to snipe at enemies from a rooftop on the Italian mission.

After Kurono’s death, it is Reika who is elected as the new leader of the team and is the one that suggests they train together, everyone but Izumi and Nishi agrees

Trivia blank.gif

  • In the anime, posters of Reika are seen in Kurono’s bedroom.
  • At the start of the anime series, Kurono picks up a magazine before going to the subway where he dies, looking it over, and there is Reika on the cover. In the original manga, a model named Ayato Kajimoto was used.
  • Several Gantz manga chapters have Reika on the cover, she is mostly seen in various revealing clothes often related with the Gantz suits.
  • In the Oni mission , several of the aliens recognized her, and stated they were fans.    
  • Reika never appeared in the anime 

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