Ranked #4630

Gyo (Manga)

Horror is a hard thing to make in comics today without just being a mindless blood bath of gore and fluids splattered across the walls. Junji Ito does a good job of providing us with good, freaky stories that scare or just plain old disturbs us. Gyo is one of his most recent stories that he took a chance with and provided us with a new look of what is under the sea. Not just that either, in this series we were also given two quick short stories at the end of the series to leave us terrified of not going under our houses or go hiking anymore.

Story:

The main story is nice and helps build up tension and suspense as each chapter builds. The things that make this story from reaching a perfect score are that two chapters that take place in a carnival is a bit lacking and the end leaves us without a good real way to end the story. Otherwise this story provides us a good explanation of what is happening to our hero and builds up a nice strong storyline.

Now the other two stories are interesting. The first one is too short and lacks any real depth or horror to it, though it leaves us wondering. The second short story really is a lot better and can give us shivers. This story is strong and provides enough information to understand the situation but leaves us with two questions at the end: why are they drawn to the area and who was that at the end of the story?

Art:

This story has a nice sense of art style, the main characters are nicely drawn, the details the world are amazing, and the monsters or should I say fish, are drawn beyond any skill level I have seen before. This story has set the bar high on what a story should look like. There is nothing to complain about here.

Character:

What can I say about our only four characters? The female lead is a complaining brat who never gives up complaining about the smell, but after a while I say why she would complain. It doesn’t help us like her more though. The male lead character is pretty cool and has a good sense of luck throughout most of the story. His uncle is a bit weird and there isn’t enough information about him to connect him with us. His assistant is interesting, but still, not enough information is given about her to make us feel connected with her.

The short stories lack a bit of depth in the characters, but then again, they are just short stories so there isn’t enough time to shell out a lot of information about them. The first story leaves us with nothing to know about any of the characters, but the second story does provide us with enough information about our two characters, though not a lot, to understand them a bit.

Enjoyment:

The main story itself was fun to read, but not enough to make me want to read it over and over again. The short stories, however, would be fun to read again and again. Overall, it depends if you like the story the first time around then you might want to read it again.

Overall:

This is a solid horror story, but lacks a strong ending that may disappoint. Horror fans will enjoy the story and so will fans of Junji Ito as well. Also, if regular people are looking for a good story with a great art style, they’ll want to jump into this story.

Warning: This story contains graphic violence, nudity, and disturbing images. Do you hate that stuff? If you do, avoid this story at all costs!
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Gyo— another masterpiece by Junji Ito after 'Uzumaki', one of the greatest horror manga series that could have ever been made! Having his works equipped with bizarre plots and aberrant visuals, Junji has proved that horror is not necessarily synonymous with 'the ghost with long black hair' or 'the evil, bloodsucking vampires lurking in the bush out there'. He has the ability to create gruesome horror out of anything and everything, even if it is a fish. Fish— that's exactly what he portrays in 'Gyo', well, in an extremely absurd way that is beyond anyone's imagination with Junji being an exception of course.

The manga has nineteen chapters, each having 16-19 pages for the main story, and another chapter that comprises of two short stories which are independent of the main story; the total being twenty chapters. The manga is thus pretty short but by the time I finished reading it, it felt as if I have been through a long journey filled with 'skin crawling' moments. To be precise, I love the story. I'm really impressed with Junji's creativity at horror storytelling. I seriously can never imagine something as unique as that even in the next ten, twenty or thirty years. It has suspense, it has that 'Oh-crap-why-did-that-have-to-happen' feeling and it keeps you turning the pages because you simply have no idea what's going to happen next. The characters are also pretty good. I especially liked the protagonist, Tadashi. He didn't give up in spite of the havoc around him. Instead he chose to stand up to the 'monsters' and protect his girlfriend. The ending, however, turned out to be a disappointment for me. It was not satisfactory and it seemed incomplete. I was so engrossed in reading that I didn't realize it was already over and when the first short story came up, I was literally like, "Huh? What is this?" until I realized that the main story is already finished.
Speaking about the two short stories in the end, the first one wasn't really that good. There was no mention of what had happened, how it happened and why it happened. It just happened. The second short story, on the other hand, was fantastic. I might as well call it a little masterpiece of Junji because it is short, hardly around 20 chapters or so, but it was downright creepy.

The art is great. It is similar to Junji's other works. The backgrounds are detailed, and the characters and their expressions are also well drawn. The style is well suited for horror manga.

To conclude my review, I will say that I recommend this series to all those who love horror and are looking for something unique to read which will stay in the back of their mind for quite a long time, if not forever. But I think it is also necessary to warn you that it has various disturbing visuals and if you think you can't take them, you must stay away from this manga.

Story: 9 | Art: 9 | Character: 9 | Enjoyment: 9 | Overall: 9 read more

Pretty weird comedy manga. Its gags and jokes rely on really weird slap-stick humour with fish monsters, ghosts, and tubes shoved down human being's most prevalent orifices, the ass hole and the mouth. Not really my type of comedy but hey, you have to give a writer credit where it's due: some of this stuff is funny. Weird, gross. But funny. Actually, wait... I must've misread something - this is supposed to be a horror manga?

I apologize but, I really did not notice. There's no believable tension, no suspense, there's nothing going on that could excite some fear-like sentiments in the reader. The only reaction reading its 19 chapters (and the boring bonus one) got out of me was the occasional giggle now and then. The writing is so ridiculous it's like the manga was written by some 10 year old child with a huge crush on old horror monster flicks. Was this a parody? Some really bad caricature? I don't know. I do know it's certainly one out of many ways you can use to waste one and a half, maybe two hours from your day.

This had the potential to pass as something "so bad it's good", but it never really manages even that. Because the characters are annoying. All they do is spout cliche one-liners in cliche situations. Especially that Kaori bitch, who complains all the time, has unreasonable requests and who's only role in the story is to be the annoying piece of flesh that screams. Thank Cthulhu this is a manga and you have to deal with written whining and illustrations only - the character is already muted! Tadashi is of course the brain dead sucker who somehow ended with this plague as his girlfriend. The characters have no consistent behaviour, they just act out to the whims of the random plot, that can't even qualify as a series of ass-pulls. It's amazing how the manga has only four characters but fails at doing anything even with such a limited set.

At least the art was decent... if not that varied. The backgrounds are really simple, and the character designs are passable. But that's understandable, since the mangaka had to draw a lot of monsters. Or a lot of slightly different versions of the same monster. If you love cockroaches, fish and cockroach-fish, the manga's pages will give you a really hard boner. That's what most panels are filled with - cadavers on which an insect-like mechanism was attached, a mechanism which moves them around using their farts as fuel. And of course, the explanation given to all this is on the same level as "a wizard did it"... or, "it's a government inside-job".

I have no idea if this manga has any redeeming qualities but I'll try to find some: did you enjoy playing with bugs and dead birds as a kid? This might bring out some nostalgic memories for you. Do you have a thing for thin and cliche plots, like you'd find in say, a B monster film or some slasher flick? There's a lot of that here. It's the only thing that's here as far as plot goes so you might enjoy it. Did you forget what shit smells like? Something stinks in Okinawa, so go ahead and sniff. All of the above? Then waste not even one second more and jump right in. read more

I will be totally honest - I love Junji's works. Ever since the first Junji's manga I've read I knew he'll be one of my favourite mangakas. He has the ability to write a great grotesque horror and I just simply respect him for that.

And Gyo isn't different here, it's just simply another masterpiece which has the ability to give you goosebumps or nausea, if you're eating anything while reading this title.
The art is simply amazing - he's a guy writing horror mangas, still his art is really manga-ish. But what I love about his arts are these macabre pictures. After you read about 2-3 of his works, you will have no problem in recognising his style. I admit - I didn't read many horror mangas (and most of the ones I read weren't even horrors in my opinion), but to me Junji is the father of horror manga. No one can make such good horrors as he.

But I guess I'm focusing too much on Junji, while I should write something about Gyo. I must say that before I got the chance to read it, I thought it would be something like in the one episode of Slayers - big fish with human's arms and legs, but going and killing people. Silly, I know. And how surprised I was when I found out that Gyo isn't a silly comedy-horror, but actually a well written and drawn grotesque story.

What I liked? The story overall. The art. Characters. This awesome mood typical to Junji's works. Every chapter has something new and unexpected - when you think you understood what's going on, after next 3 pages you find out that you actually know nothing.
And believe me - I don't know what Junji smokes to get such an awesome ideas.

What I didn't like? The Circus chapters. The ending. I don't like that kind of endings. I guess I can't be more specific, cause it'll be a spoiler.

But what I loved the most about Gyo was the last chapter. More specific, the second one-shot. And most specific, the last page. The story of this one-shot was awesome, I would never imagine such a thing. But the last page is the picture that pops up in my head when I'm in bed at 3 a.m., can't sleep and imagine a ghost in my closet - this picture is just simply scary, probably the scariest Junji's picture ever. And let me repeat myself - I have no idea what Junji smokes, but it must be from other planet.

I recommend Gyo especially for Junji's fans and also for people, who are sick of sweet shoujo and look for a really good horror grotesque manga. You shouldn't be disappointed with most of Junji's works, especially with Gyo. read more

There's scary, and then there's senselessly scary. 'Gyo' frightened me beyond belief, more than any horror movie or book I've watched or read before. Truly, this is a tererifying manga.
The story is about a couple, Tadashi and Kaori, who are visiting a remote Japanese island on holiday. However, they encounter a walking fish in their house, and this quickly grows into one of the most horrible apocalypses that anyone could have ever dreamt up.
This manga disturbed me- I highly recommend it.

Remember those B-grade horror films they air on sci-fi quite often? This is pretty much the same thing. If you've ever seen Snakehead Terror, its quite similar to that. I wouldn't recommend reading this after you've eaten, as some of the images are gruesome enough to make your stomach do loop-de-loops in your chest. The story however is very creative, and has many twists and turns you don't see coming, so if you have some down time, drop by onemanga or buy the manga if you have some extra cash, plop yourself down, and you'll never want to eat Sushi again.

If your a fan of zombies and fish then look no further for your aquatic horror fix. Gyo is the story of a world under siege by at first what seems to be spider versions of the entire underwater kingdom but later turns out to be crazy spider machines that take control of any living thing turning it into a walking biological weapon. The story follows Tadashi and for some part his easily hate able girlfriend Kaori as Tadashi attempts to survive the invasion and look after his girl, discovering the source of the invasion and his uncles involvement in it along the way. While reading this I couldn't help but be reminded of those corny Japanese monster movies along the lines of Gojira (on a smaller scale) but like those movies, it ends up working very well! However its not all sunshine and lollipops for this manga. There was one part that felt like a Naruto filler, something I don't like in my manga. The whole circus chapter was just pure randomness and I feel like it could have been left out.

Where the story gives the manga the feel of a 1950's monster flick the art is what makes it creepy. Ive never seen a more badass looking shark than one with mechanical spider legs and a whole buncha tubes going through it (don't even get me started on the whale). Along these lines the most hideous looking creatures in this manga are the humans themselves, bloated as they are filled with gases and hooked up to those machines (although that tube that can be seen going up the rectum once a human is attached to the machine is rather hilarious). The way the characters are drawn more closely resemble realistic people which adds to the overall mood of the manga itself.

Compared to everything else some of the characters themselves seem some what predictable which is alright really, but it could have been way better. The usual everyman characteristic of survival genres is portrayed as the main character and then theirs the mad scientist and his beautiful assistant. Whats more the circus ringleader, like the whole circus segment of the manga, was way random and didn't appear enough for his character to get fleshed out more. The same could be said for the mad scientist's assistant. She has a few instances of dialouge and right when you think some deeper insight to her is about to get revealed she flies away (literally). What keeps the characters part of this review from getting a 5 instead of the 7 I gave it is Kaori. While reading this manga and further learning of the character that is Kaori I came to the conclusions that I hated her....oh how I hated her. Shes obnoxious, rude, selfish, and jealous (even in death). Now I'm going to assume that the author intended to portray Kaori this way in which case he did an really amazing job.

Overall, despite a trip to random circus and some eye rolling character types, I enjoyed the manga very much. Very rarely do I see a manga pull off horror and although this one can have some comedic characteristics it does a decent job. The art though is what really hooked me, its honestly drawn really well. The feeling of vintage monster movie nostalgia was something I really enjoyed about this manga as well. read more

Ah, the story circling around stink.
After reading Uzumaki, I simply had to read another work of Junji Ito. Gyo was my first choice.
The first thing I noticed was the art. When people think manga or anime, they think of the huge, shining eyes, cute little turned up noses; a up-graded cartoon. I enjoyed Ito's art, it was a nice change. Breathtaking, actually.
The only thing I don't like is at first it's hard to keep up with what's going on in the story. At the beginning, it's just extremly confusing.
Though, as the manga unfolds, it becomes a delightfully creepy manga. I would really recommend those who love horror, as long as they can keep up with the story line.
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In light of Gyo being set to become an anime, I decided it was time to finally read it. I adore Junji Ito's work and have read Uzumaki, Tomie, Black Paradox and now Gyo, particularly drawn by the way he draws such amazing and grosteque pages.

Story - I originally didn't read Gyo as I didn't think it would be that creepy. I mean 'fish with legs', how on earth could that be creepy? And yet again, as always, Junji Ito shocks and awes with his amazing art and fascinating story line. I don't want to spoil the plotline for you but it is very interesting, although I felt that the ending was lacking -something- but it did round off the story.
Ironically, I really loved the bones story at the end even more than Gyo itself. I felt that this story (with the people shaped holes) had a lot of potential!

Art - Anybody who has read his manga knows of his very unique art styles and especially the way that he draws horror so detailed and creepy that for a long moment it takes a while to get your head round. He is my favourite manga artist by a long way.

Character - I usually loved the female leads in Ito's work but in this one, she was whiney and a bit insufferable (I didn't feel any sympathy towards her at all) whereas her boyfriend on the other hand was a much more laid back and logical chracter which I found much nicer. He takes everything as it comes and I liked that quite a lot. As this manga was fairly short - or felt shorter - than his other mangas, there was not quite so much character development, especially since the focus was on the fish and machined limbs than the characters themselves in manga such as Uzumaki (guru, guru, guru!).
Anyway, the characters in the mini story at the end were very interesting and it would be lovely to see more of this.

Enjoyment? As always, I thoroughly enjoy reading Ito's work and always manage to get hooked from chapter one! Definitely worth a read and if you like this one, definintely go and read Uzumaki and the rest!

Hope you enjoy it! read more

In the beginning "Gyo" pulls you in with it's weirdness. The things shown are so odd that it makes you wonder how it's going to be explained and what the meaning behind it is.

Unfortunately, there is no meaning behind this story as far as i can discern. Unfortunately, the explanations given are very poor and hard to believe.

It makes me wonder, what is the point of this manga? What did the author try to convey, if anything?

I guess this manga does offer some very disturbing images which may be enjoyable (they did not affect me a lot, positively or negatively) but what value is there in that if there isn't a decent story behind it?

The art to me is poor. You may disagree, art is very subjective and it is also a matter of style. I rate the art low but that's not an objective assessment at all. So if you really want to know how good the art is, read a chapter or two and decide for yourself.

The characters lack depth and development. They all act in a very straight forward way and without much thought. They may express emotions, but there are no feelings behind it, and you don't get to understand how the different characters think. To put it in a word, they are superficial.

I didn't enjoy this series at all. But you might, read it if you want to find out.

After completing "Gyo" i was left with a question: Why does this manga exist? read more