Gyo - Reviews

Alt titles: Gyo: The Death-Stench Creeps, Gyo: Ugomeku Bukimi

Gyo
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bollier's avatar
Nov 8, 2010

If you are looking for a manga that is strange/macabre, then Junji Ito is your man.  Gyo is just one example of his work that shows us that even the most ludicrous ideas can be truly interesting if done correctly.

STORY: 7/10

The basic premise of Gyo is that fish mysteriously obtain insect-like legs and start overrunning Japan. Tadashi and his girlfriend, Kaori, must survive this insanity while trying to find the source of it and end it. As mentioned before, this idea is very strange, but Junji Ito does a magnificent job of making it work.  The first volume does have some moments, however, that are notably a little silly, such as the main characters being attacked by a shark with legs.  It is in the second volume in which things get truly frightening.  I won't spoil anything, but what occurs in this volume will truly make your skin crawl.  Finally, the ending is a little...strange, but I guess it really fits the general feel of the manga.

ART: 9/10

The art is where this series shines.  Everything in this series has an eerie feel to it, which fits in beautifully with the story.  It takes a lot to make walking killer fish seem like at least a semi-serious, and Junji Ito does a great job of this.  The art is clean and crisp, and adds a lot to the story. 

CHARACTERS: 7/10

The characters in the story fit well, yet seem a little flat.  Kaori, for example is shown to have a sensitive nose as well as a jealous streak, and that is basically all the characterization she gets.  Tadashi pretty much sets out to protect Kaori, and that is as far as he goes.  Another character, Doctor Koyonagi, is your typical scientist obsessed with solving the mystery of the walking fish, and despite his stereotypical nature, he does add some flair to the series.  None of the other characters truly stand out as amazing, yet their interactions are interesting enough to fit in the story without detracting from it.

Gyo is a very interesting read.  The story maintained my interest throughout both volumes, despite generally uninteresting characters, and for that, I give it a solid 8/10 overall. 

7/10 story
9/10 art
7/10 characters
8/10 overall
nathandouglasdavis's avatar
Oct 31, 2020

This manga is built around seeing people struggle against a completely hopeless situation, where nothing can be done. Perhaps I'm too hope-prone, but I didn't feel the story did a good enough job of showing that their options were depleted. If Tadashi was able to break one of the legs using a dresser, wouldn't military-grade weaponry and tactics have been able to easily crush these things? Not to mention the simple technology of a "wall" that seemingly wasn't even attempted. The point is that if I don't feel that their options were actually depleted, then the sense of hopelessness the manga is trying to create won't resonate and the story will fall flat.

Of course, the story still has the weird and creepy aspect of fish with legs, the somewhat scary aspect of sharks chasing people on land, and the disgusting aspect of people with bloated and blistered bodies being spitroasted with tubes. And those aspects keep the story pretty engaging, but the oddities alone can't make the story strong. Also, I didn't really care for any of the characters--none of them felt fleshed out or memorable, and some of their interactions were just annoying. The chins jutted out, and there was an overemphasis on wide-mouthed emoting.

4/10 story
6/10 art
3/10 characters
4/10 overall
chii's avatar
Nov 29, 2010

No love for bloaty girlfriend!

Flying bag stink fish!

Shark goes GASHUNK!

You can never have too many legs!

The bonus stories attatched at the end are AWESOME!

"This is my hole! It was made for me!"

9/10 story
9/10 art
10/10 characters
9/10 overall
theshykid's avatar
May 15, 2022

overall it was quite fun reading, but If I see the start judging, then it's not a good manga, there are alot of things that just doesn't fit the story so well. There's no explanation of how there can be so many robot legs, and they are in size of ecah and every animal. Even insects of water has their own legs, like how tf that's even possible, and the mysterious virus/bacteria or whatever it is, it takes form of peoples faces when burnt. Some sort of alien, and the tubes connecting automatically to the fish body or anything that comes in contact with it.

   The thing that the girl died, it's so sad, I felt too sad. Her character was basically useless except the fact that she's gonna turn into a new premium version of those monsters. But it's still sad.

4/10 story
7/10 art
5/10 characters
6/10 overall
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Curiousmadra's avatar
Sep 8, 2020

So in Mr Ito's next manga ,we see machine legged fish attacking humans , a circus that looks to be extreme Tim Burtonish and humans then dragged to the machines the fish were attached in the first place, with also them being monsters.

Now I gotta say, the ending man was a literal near tearjerker even if you didn't like this certain character in the first place. Since I'm gonna make this review spoiler free, you can go read it yourself to what happened. This manga really wasn't that extreme as Uzamaki like it reminds me of the Facebook stickers that includes Business Fish. Well it's not really horror but comedy, yall get what I friggin mean jeez!!

Will I say this is better than Uzamaki? Not personally but it's still worth the read like it's still entertaining enough. Also you get two one shot bonus stories "The Enigma of Amigara Fault" and "The Sad Tale of the Principal Post" to take a read!

?/10 story
?/10 art
?/10 characters
6/10 overall
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