Gyo review

First, a story, as my reviews of Ten Little Roosters and Lazer Team would suggest, I am somewhat a fan of Rooster Teeth, and as such, am a bit of a fan of their weekly podcasts. On Podcast #365 they discussed something that got my attention, a horror comic called The Enigma of Amigara Fault, a short read which I then hunted down and read, the basic premise is an earthquake opens a fault on a mountain, revealing hundreds of human shaped holes, people are drawn in looking for their holes, and then disappearing into the holes, it's a really short read and its ending is genuinely nightmare educing, so I won't spoil it, but I would very highly recommend it, if you like losing sleep. Anyway, after losing a few hours to Drr Drr Drr, I decided to look into the comic a bit further, and found something cool. It's a horror Manga from 2002 written by a Junji Ito, who from what I've heard is a sort of Stephen King of Manga. The Enigma of Amigara Fault is a bonus comic that came with one of Junji Ito's most famous Manga, Gyo. And like you'd expect, I read the premise of Gyo, was immediately hooked, and decided to hunt it down and give it a read. And now I've read it, and I'm going to do, I don't know, a review? they're my thoughts on Gyo.

Here's what you need to know; Kaori's sensitive nose starts causing conflict between her and her boyfriend Tadashi while on vacation in Okinawa. The source of the smell however turns out to be something far worse than they could imagine, as an army of undead fish begins rising from the deep and swarming the land, bringing with them not just a terrible smell, but something far more dangerous and evil.

In typical review fashion, I'll start with the opening, which sees our main character, Tadashi, scuba-diving around a sunk WW2 warship, and narrowly escaping sharks. This introduction to Tadashi sets him up as a pretty cool character, as he talks shit to the sharks after his close shave. Tadashi is a pretty cool character, very relatable in his attempts to remain level headed and his compassionate actions towards not just Kaori, but even nameless bloaters in the second half. His girlfriend however is less likable, as someone who has a psycho ex girlfriend myself, I just am not a huge fan of Kaori, god damn, asking her boyfriend to brush his teeth 10 times a day just so they could kiss. it isn't long though before the creepy imagery starts appearing, as we see one of the monsters. First up, the artwork in this Manga is great, I really liked looking at these panels, not just the nastier ones, but also the more tame ones, they are very well drawn and they do a fantastic job of making this piece of writing feeling more alive and animated. which is somewhat ironic when you see the first of the monsters, a dead fish running around on a set of artificial metal legs. I must admit, the first panel I ever saw of Gyo was the panel of the walking fish crushed by a drawer, and while it's not the vilest imagery I've seen in a Junji Ito comic so far, it's among the most fascinating. These are very unique monsters, they've very unlike anything I've seen before, and they're really interesting, just the sight of them is a catalyst for rampant analytical thought, hey, that sounds cool. what I mean by that is I at least can't help but think about these things, how do they work, what are they for, how are there seemingly millions of these things. A few of the questions I have are answered in the Manga, by Doctor Koyanagi, a mad scientist who seems to have a very extensive amount of knowledge about these secret biological weapons that were buried after the Pacific war. How they work doesn't make a huge amount of sense, but it's a fascinating machine, the bacteria that causes the smell is also an interesting plot point, but it kind of loses itself in the second half, throwing out it's pseudo-scientific mumbo jumbo for full on balls to the wall craziness, as the 'bacteria' shows it's true colours. In that, while the second half definitely has more disturbing imagery, the second half loses some of the intrigue and horror the first half had, even with the inclusion of a mad scientist. The second half, in addition to going insane, has a sequence that's just weird, maybe it makes sense in some way I haven't yet conceived, but it just felt strange. Another thing I'm not a huge fan of is the gap between the first half and the second half, with an entire month going by in the story while Tadashi is in a coma. I finally am not a huge fan of the ending, no spoilers of course, but I'll just say the ending is somewhat lacking in finality.

All in All Gyo was a very interesting read, while I am not a huge fan of the direction the story takes in the second half, and the full on craziness the story goes into in said second half, the first half is brilliant, it's unique, it's thought provoking, it's disgusting, and it has the power to infest your nightmares with its metallic scuttling. Again though it's dragged down by the much weaker second half. But I still enjoyed my time reading Gyo, and, if you're up for some fucked up imagery, food for thought, and an interesting story, I'd definitely recommend Gyo.

Oh, we're not done yet. Gyo comes with 2 bonus stories, the shorter of the 2 is The Sad Tale of the Principal Post, a brief, slightly tragic, and very enigmatic little read that I really like, it does't drag itself out with explanation, it's just a puzzling little tale. But by far the more frightening of the 2, and perhaps even more frightening than Gyo itself, is The Enigma of Amigara Fault. I've already explained the premise, but I'll add that it masterfully feeds off of the very real and very human fears of isolation and claustrophobia, and has a an ending that will fuck your sleep pattern right up. They are both really good, and they add even more to Gyo in a way it didn't need, but I'm glad they do. Definitely give The Enigma of Amigara Fault a read, I'd very highly recommend it.