Gyo (ギョ) by Junji Ito was originally released in 2001 in Big Comic Spirits ( ビッグコミックスピリッツ). It was later picked up by Viz Media for an English translation. The manga consists of two volumes, and on Feb 15, 2012 an animated OVA was released by Ufotable. In the English publications, two one-shots are included at the end of the volumes - The Sad Tale of the Principal Post and The Enigma of Amigara Fault.
Plot[]
The plot of Gyo centers around the "death stench", a revolting smell first encountered in connection with creatures appearing to be bizarre fish with scuttling, sharp metal legs. At first they appear merely as smaller fish, but later also as larger sea creatures such as sharks and even a whale. The creatures are eventually revealed to consist of a small metallic, legged structure with the carcass of a dead animal (and later, human) strapped on top. Germs infecting the rotting body produce a gas - responsible for the terrible smell that surrounds the creatures - that makes the metal construct move. Later, it is found that the Japanese Army was researching germs that produce the death stench during World War II in a desperate effort to turn the tide of the war. Infection by the germ produced large amounts of foul-smelling gas from body tissue, and since infection quickly killed the test animals, walking machines were built to carry them further, allowing them to reach and sicken enemy troops. Enemy planes sunk the ship carrying the prototypes for the walking machines, which ran entirely on the gas. Underwater the machines have attached themselves to the fish and moved from the island to the mainland, attacking the humans. Later it is found that the death stench gas might have a will of its own, and that the machines are not man-made: the disease has apparently mutated to be able to construct the walkers from the metal hulls of sunken battleships.
Characters[]
Tadashi[]
Main character of Gyo. In the beginning it shows that he loves scuba. He has a girlfriend named Kaori and an uncle named Koyanagi. He noticed something was funny when Kaori said he had bad breath, although he brushes his teeth twice a day. He tries to save Kaori but in the end he fails to do so. He is trying to help with the fight against the creatures. At the end he joins a group of university students, who happens to be immune from the death stench, to create a vaccine to defeat the disease. He's the only survivor of the main characters and appears to be immune.
Kaori[]
Tadashi's girlfriend. She has an extremely sensitive nose and becomes very jealous when Tadashi is near other women. Near the beginning of the series Kaori started noticing the odd smell. She and Tadashi tried to escape and went to Koyanagi's lab. Due to her overly sensitive nose, she seems to be able to sense when the creatures are coming. However, she is later infected, causing her body to swell up and be covered in boils. The germ also forces the gas with the "death stench" out of her body. Because of this, she began to think she was disgusting, that Tadashi wouldn't love her if she wasn't beautiful, and she would never be healed. This, along with the horrible stench, made her hang herself from the wires of a ceiling lamp. But the wires were weak and could not support her additional weight with the gas bloating her. Tadashi then immediately carries her to his uncle Koyanagi's lab for aid . It turns out Koyanagi rigs her up to a custom walking machine. Ultimately, she becomes like the walking dead creatures, except for one quality - she has a will of her own. Later she was captured by the Citrous Circus, whose ringmaster was using the infected creatures and humans along with the gas, as attractions. Kaori escaped and fled. Tadashi dragged her back to Uncle Koyanagi's lab . But when she escaped outside again after thinking Tadashi was now attracted to Ms. Yoshiyama, she was attacked by the other creatures. It is likely that this was because they saw her man-made walking machine as a threat to their existence. Near the end of the series, Tadashi finds her burnt corpse, commenting on how she is 'finally rid of the smell she hated'. In the anime adaptation, Kaori is made into the main character instead of Tadashi.
Doctor Koyanagi[]
Uncle of Tadashi, an inventor and has an assistant, Ms. Yoshiyama. He tries to figure out what makes the fish move. He once smelled a human corpse, relating the stench to the stench of the creatures. It was his father who died of a heart attack in a factory during a hot summer. While dissecting the fish he notices that although the fish is dead the walker's legs still function. When he got too close, the legs then clamped onto him. He cut off his arm to prevent the infection from spreading to the rest of his body. He is fascinated by the machine, not caring that he lost an arm to it. He is mortally wounded when he is stabbed by the spider-like leg of Kaori's walker, but manages to enter a large hangar labelled as "Lab #2". Here, he attaches himself to a modified version of the mechanical legs, equipped with a zeppelin-like air balloon and a housing for a second person on the underside. Thus transformed, he tried to kill Tadashi and Yoshiyama, presumably because he assumed that Tadashi and Ms. Yoshiyama had become partners, but failed. Outside, he waited for them to leave the building, and took Yoshiyama with him before flying away. He is last seen as the Citrous circus and other walking machines attempt to bring him down by gas cannon; they manage to puncture his balloon, but his machine extends metallic wings and escapes.
Ms. Yoshiyama[]
Assistant of Doctor Koyanagi, she cares for him and tries to help him. When she was seen with Tadashi by Kaori, Kaori tried to attack her. Ms. Yoshiyama then ran outside where she was captured by the Mechanical Koyanagi. Her final fate is never truly revealed; however, in the last moments of the series, her motionless body is seen connected to Doctor Koyanagi's flying machine.
Anime[]
An Anime Adaption released in Febuary 15 2012. Some Characters are switched such as Tadashi replaced as Kaori. Kaori is replaced by Erika.The plot of Gyo centers around the "death stench", a revolting smell first encountered in connection with creatures appearing to be bizarre fish with scuttling, sharp metal legs. At first they appear merely as smaller fish, but later also as larger sea creatures such as sharks and even a whale
The creatures are eventually revealed to consist of a small metallic, legged structure with the carcass of a dead animal (and later, human) strapped on top. Germs infecting the rotting body produce a gas - responsible for the terrible smell that surrounds the creatures - that makes the metal construct move.
Later, it is found that the Japanese Army was researching germs that produce the death stench during World War II in a desperate effort to turn the tide of the war. Infection by the germ produced large amounts of foul-smelling gas from body tissue, and since infection quickly killed the test animals, walking machines were built to carry them further, allowing them to reach and sicken enemy troops. Enemy planes sunk the ship carrying the prototypes for the walking machines, which ran entirely on the gas.
Underwater the machines have attached themselves to the fish and moved from the island to the mainland, attacking the humans. Later it is found that the death stench gas might have a will of its own, and that the machines are not man-made: the disease has apparently mutated to be able to construct the walkers from the metal hulls of sunken battleships.