GYO

 GYO

Manga… why don’t I read manga? In truth I really don’t know why I don’t read much manga. It's becoming more and more readily available throughout the UK. Walk into any Waterstones or W.H. Smith and you’ll see a growing selection. It’s incredibly varied, far more so than the mainstream western comics equivalent, which inevitably is just a sea of capes and masks. With the march of the internet age and the flood of amine adaptations, it’s not even a niche any more. Ask any pre-teen, and I’m sure they can name at least five different series: Dragon Ball, Pokemon, Naruto, One Piece, My Hero Academia, Bleach, Full Metal Alchemist, Deathnote, Chainsaw Man, Attack on Titan, Berserk, Demon Slayer, Spy X Family, Jujutsu Kaisen, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure… the list is endless! And these are just the big titles. Even direct manga adaptations of DC and Marvel heroes are vying for attention. For one reason or another it just never scratched my itch.

Maybe a suitable analogy for today; I just never found my hole. Perhaps if I just keep searching the fault line long enough, I’ll find that magnetic title that sucks me to my doom. I thought I’d try my luck with something in my wheelhouse, horror. You can’t go wrong with horror in my opinion. H.P. Lovecraft coined that “The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and that oldest and strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown.” and that makes it incredibly fertile ground for the imagination in any culture. And who better to take me on that journey than Junji Ito. 

What am I Reading?

Gyo, otherwise called The Death-Stench Creeps, written and illustrated by Junji Ito. Also included in the book were the short stories The Sad Tale of The Principal Post and The Enigma of Amigara Fault.

What’s it about?

GYO - A romantic sea diving retreat is disrupted when a rotting fish with four biomechanical legs haunts their beachfront villa. This begins an apocalyptic invasion of legged aquatic life that quickly overrun Japan. The twists keep coming in this grotesque parade. 

The Sad Tale of The Principal Post - Somehow the father of a family has ended up trapped beneath the central foundation of their new home.

The Enigma of Amigara Fault - An earthquake in the mountains has revealed a mysterious fault line in the rock. This sheer cliff face is smothered with holes perfectly shaped in human silhouettes. The TV news coverage draws people from the surrounding countryside, as they are called to by their holes.

What’s good about it?

I grew up on the seaside, and a dirty seaside at that. Water churned and choked by the endless thoroughfare of the shipping lane. Boats of all shapes and sizes plague the solent, making the tides mucky with silt and pollution, and all that it hides. The smell of dead fish is ingrained on my sinuses. This book makes me relive that smell. The art is so vivid, it nearly makes me heave. God this book is grim. Ito has a real talent. 

I could never have guessed all the turns Gyo takes. No idea is off the table. I can’t really remember a book that has made me feel such a range of emotions. It begins with just one fish, and that by itself is creepy, but the escalation is insane… the pages depicting the invading school of mobilised dead sea life are downright disturbing. However gross and horrifying it may be, there is more than a touch of absurdity that made me chuckle. Maybe it says more about me than Ito’s intention, but the second floor shark attack actually made me laugh. I quickly lost that smile as the virus and the machines jumped to using humans as fuel. Then it returned when there was the madness of the circus. This story has to be seen to be believed.  

Where to begin with The Enigma of Amigara Fault? What a concept! I’m sure we’ve all been caught out by unexpected seeing our own reflection or shadow at one point. It may be that small double take when you make unwanted eye contact with yourself in a passing window, or that sudden shift of your shadow as you walk down a street lamp lined road in twilight. It's that split second of uncanny knowing that “That's me, and why is that there?”. Now take that feeling, and extrapolate it to the impossible recognition. 

What did I struggle with?

The biggest drum that gets banged rhythmically throughout every creative writing lesson is Show don’t Tell. It's the golden rule in western modern storytelling. It really grinds my gears when a comic does both to address the same point. When the art is talking, stay silent. Throughout Gyo I was continually irked when characters needlessly explained what was happening. I can see what's happening, the people in the panel can see what is happening, who are you talking to? It reminded me of the early days of Marvel, when a hero would exclaim “I’m going to use my power!”, then use their power, then explain what their power was and what it did… I KNOW! I saw you do it! I get the occasional need to lay out foreshadowing, but don’t repeat that foreshadowing right up to the foreshadowed event and then act surprised. We’re all adults here, trust us.

Maybe that criticism is linked to my limited experience of manga. I don’t know until I’ve read more. That being said, there are some major elements of Gyo that get very little room to breathe, but that makes them all the more alluring. 

Now… The Sad Tale of The Principal Post. When I earlier summarised the story in eighteen words, that's probably six words too many. It’s hardly a vignette. It barely registers. I spent more time looking at the back cover of the book. 

Would I recommend it?

Tricky one. I would absolutely recommend The Enigma of Amigara Fault. It’s a perfect little nugget of existential horror. Gyo is good fun if you’re twisted in the head like me, but pretty gross. It’s not a good time.