Genre Horror
Age Rating Mature
Price $9.99
The rank odor of death floats above the famous island... What is the source? Then a strange fish--with legs--appears! So begins teenagers Tadashi and Kaori's plunge into the horror (and stench) of the sea.

Another reprint of an old release, Viz is easily giving Junji Ito a distinct signature style as the cover of Gyo resembles the same cover design of Ito's other published work, Uzumaki, and features a legged fish as the emboss on the black cover. Gyo is a two-volume series and that is quite evident in this particular title as the chapters are all integral to the story but this volume also ends in a cliffhanger that leaves readers anticipating the next release.

The art, as expected from Ito, is quite realistic and detailed and there are a couple of marine animals portrayed in this manga. However, what's interesting with this story is that Ito doesn't choose visuals to convey the horror but instead uses the sense of smell as a foreboding of things to come.

What's interesting in this particular Ito manga is that he spends the time to develop character and at the end of the day, the two protagonists, Tadai and Kaori, push the story forward. Neither are perfect characters and instead, they are flawed humans with redeeming qualities and this is quite evident even in the first very chapter. Another thing to look out for is the science fiction element of Gyo which combines Lovecraftian horrors with a post-Nuclear Japan. Overall, it's a great read and an amazing skill of how Ito manages to tell a scary story but as I said earlier, Gyo ends in a cliffhanger so readers might want to wait for the second book to get re-released and purchase them all at once.

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