Gyo

Reviewed by Marcio Guastavino
July 27, 2007

Author: Junji Ito Artist: Junji Ito Publisher: VIZ Media Website: Click Here

I love to see an author’s creative imagination come out in a manga. Especially if the idea is so weird and perplexing that it makes you wonder where in the heck they got the idea from in the first place. Well, Gyo is one of those mangas for sure. The story is weird as can be, but it doesn’t get ridiculously complicated to follow; simple and to the point, that’s the way I likes it.

Gyo starts out as a story about a boyfriend and girlfriend out on vacation in the outskirts of Japan.  Tadashi, the main character, brings his girlfriend Kaori to a cabin that his uncle has let him borrow. All of a sudden, Kaori starts smelling a foul odor that seems to bother her intensely. She has a very sensitive nose and even the slightest foul odor can make her sick. The smell is caused by a mutated form of fish. The problem with the fish is that it has four legs! It has the ability to move on land and at a rapid speed no less. Once Tadashi kills the fish, or so he thinks, he disposes of it in a plastic bag. For some reason Kaori can STILL smell the fish and freaks out about it. So when Tadashi goes out to see why the fish smell was still there he finds out that it had moved from where he had put it. Eventually, after more drama, the land starts being invaded by more of these walking fish. That’s when all hell breaks loose in Japan and a new disease that the fish have brought ashore starts spreading. What’s causing these mutations in the fish? Is nature taking a strike at mankind? Or is this epidemic the fault of human experimentation?

I was pretty grossed out by this manga. It’s just the way the fish are portrayed that made me feel squeamish while reading it. That says something about the artist though; it must have been a challenge to come up with some of the amazing art for this manga. The story itself may be far fetched to some, but sometimes a little nonsense is what we need. It’s what makes reading a lot more enjoyable. The only problem I had was that the manga ends pretty weak. It leaves you with no conclusion, just an idea of what might happen. The good thing about it is that the series only spans two books, so it’s short and to the point. It’s not going to lead you on through a thousand manga books. So if you feel like a good and… interesting read, I recommend picking up Gyo at a bookstore near you.

Gyo is worth the 13 bucks (26 if you grab both of them). Heck, the second manga comes with two extra horror short-stories, so you can’t lose. Trust me, it’ll be a gas…and you’ll only know what that means if you read it!