Gyo

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Gyo
ギョ
Genre Horror, Science fiction
Manga
Author Junji Ito
Publisher Flag of Japan Shogakukan
English publisher Flag of Canada Flag of the United States Viz Media
Original run 2001 – 2002
Volumes 2

Gyo (ギョ?) is a horror manga by Junji Ito. It also includes a number of "bonus" stories, such as The Enigma of Amigara Fault and The Sad Tale of the Principal Post.

The plot of Gyo centers around the "death stench", a revolting smell first encountered in connection with creatures appearing to be bizarre fishes with scuttling, sharp legs. At first they appear merely as smaller fishes, 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.

[edit] 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

Girlfriend of Tadashi, she has a very sensitive nose and is very jealous when Tadashi is near other women. She first started noticing a odd smell and thought Tadashi had bad breath but it was actually the creatures who made the smell. They try to escape and end up at Koyanagi's lab. She can sense when the creatures are coming. But she gets infected and she swells up and has many of bumps on her and breathes out the smell of the creatures. She then hung herself because she believes she's disgusting and will never become normal. They take her to the hospital. But then she ends up like the creatures except she has a conscience, which sets her apart from the mindless creatures. She then was captured by the circus but killed the people who whipped her and tried to infect others. She was taken back to the lab. When she went outside, she was attacked by the other creatures, probably because they saw her man-made walking machine as a threat. Tadashi later finds her burnt, and comments of how she is 'finally rid of the smell'.

Doctor Koyangi

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 notice that it's dead and that the legs still function. When he got too close, the legs then clamped onto him, removing his arm. He is fascinated by the machine, not caring that his arm was ripped off. He gets stabbed by Kaori's spider-like leg and dies. He was put on a flying version of the mechanical legs and tried to shoot Tadashi and Yoshiyama down, presumably because he assumed that Tadashi and Ms. Yoshiyama had become partners , but failed. Outside he waited for them to leave the building, and then they came out and he swooped down and took Yoshiyama and flew away never to be seen again.

Ms. Yoshiyama

Assistant of Doctor Koyangi, 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 Koyangi. Her final fate is never revealed.

[edit] List of Chapters

Manga 1
1.) The Death-Stench of the South Seas
2.) The Death-Stench in the Air
3.) Going Ashore
4.) Shark Attack
5.) Flight
6.) The Death-Stench Creeps
7.) Testimony
8.) Infection
9.) The Death-Stench invaders, Part1
10.)The Death-Stench invaders, Part 2
Manga 2
11.) Pale Kaori
12.) The Death-Stench Device
13.) The Inheritors
14.) The Pull of the Death-Stench
15.) The Death-Stench Circus, Part 1
16.) The Death-Stench Circus, Part 2
17.)THe Death-Stench of Lab #2
18.) The Death-Stench Air Raid
19.) The Death-Stench World
Bonus
B1-The Sad Tale of the Principal Pole
B2-The Enigma of Amigara Fault

[edit] External links

Languages