GyoGyo Gyo , fully titled in Japan, is a horror "seinen" manga written and illustrated by Junji Ito, appearing as a serial in the weekly manga magazine "Big Comic Spirits" from 2001 to 2002. Shogakukan collected the chapters into two bound volumes from February to May 2002. The story revolves around a couple, Tadashi and Kaori, as they fight to survive against a mysterious horde of undead fish with metal legs powered by an odor known as the "death stench". The work also includes a pair of bonus stories, titled "The Sad Tale of the Principal Post" and "The Enigma of Amigara  Fault". Viz Media published an English-language translation of the two volumes in North America from September 2003 to March 2004 and re-released it from October 2007 to January 2008. An anime adaptation by Ufotable was released on February 15, 2012. Plot. Story. "Gyo" opens with a crew of fishermen aboard a trawler dragging up a number of strange-looking fish in the boat's net. Upon trying to inspect the unusual creatures, they discover that the strange fish seem to have legs. The fish then suddenly scuttle away, diving back into the ocean. Meanwhile, in Okinawa, Tadashi, a  young man, and his longtime girlfriend Kaori arrive on the island to enjoy a scuba-diving vacation. Encountering a fish with legs, Kaori, who has a hyper-sensitive sense of smell, becomes irritated by its smell and begs Tadashi to get rid of it. He seals it in a bag, but it manages to escape. The next day, large amounts of marine life with legs invade Okinawa, including a legged great white shark which menaces the protagonists. Tadashi and Kaori manage to return to Tokyo, although Kaori becomes irritated and paranoid, claiming to smell the fish. They both encounter the  bagged fish they originally encased and present it to his uncle, Doctor Koyanagi. A short while later, Tadashi returns to find Koyanagi missing an arm. As he was examining the machine in detail, it used a series of spikes and tubes to latch on to his arm, forcing him to amputate it. The walking machine scuttles into the room, now carrying Koyanagi's arm instead of the fish. Koyanagi is fascinated by this discovery, and then reveals that the fish was the result of the Japanese Army's World War II research into a virus that causes its host to  produce a deadly and repulsive stench in a desperate effort to turn the tide of the war. His father developed a "walking machine", which pumps the virus into a host and causes the host to release the gas which powers the machine's movement through pneumatics; walking machines were built to carry the hosts further, allowing them to reach and sicken enemy troops. However, enemy aircraft sank the ship carrying the prototypes for the walking machines. Soon, Kaori and Tadashi discover that hordes of marine life with legs are in the process of overrunning Tokyo, having gradually invaded the Kantō  region. Infected by the gas, Kaori becomes depressed by being subjected to her illness's symptoms, and attempts to commit suicide. Tadashi takes her to Koyanagi in an effort to save her but falls into a canal where he passes out after being injured by thousands of small walking fish. Awakening a month later, he discovers that Koyanagi has placed her into a custom-built walking machine. Upon switching the machine on, Koyanagi is mortally wounded by Kaori, who quickly escapes. Wandering through the desolate city streets, Tadashi finds that most of the walking fish have decayed, and that the  walking machines are now carrying infected citizens instead. He then encounters a circus, where he learns from the ringmaster that the gas appears to be alive, taking on a soul-like appearance when ignited. Tadashi encounters Kaori and retrieves her from one of the acts at the circus. As the pair arrive at Koyanagi's lab, Koyanagi's assistant, Ms. Yoshiyama, reveals that the doctor died from his wounds. When she attempts to remove the walking machine from Kaori, Koyanagi appears, now mutated by the infection and attached to a modified walking machine in the form of an airship that  allows him to fly. Kaori notices Tadashi and Ms. Yoshiyama together and attempts to attack her. During the uproar, Koyanagi manages to capture Ms. Yoshiyama and fly away. Large groups of walking machines attack Kaori, and Tadashi becomes lost in his attempt to save her. He continues to search for her, when he notices the circus troupe attack Koyanagi's airship, which deploys a set of wings and escapes. Tadashi encounters a group of students from Kyoto University, who explain that they are immune, and that the virus created the walking machines after synthesizing them from shipwrecks. He joins the  students in their research to defeat the virus and save humanity. As the group walk together, Tadashi encounters Kaori's burnt remains and remarks that she is free from the smell. Bonus stories. Two unrelated stories, and , are included as a pair of bonus stories, placed at the very end after the conclusion of "Gyo". Although both are completely different and unrelated stories (both to each other and to "Gyo"), they were merged as one chapter altogether. The former is the shorter story, merely consisting of four pages, compared to the latter's thirty-one pages. The Sad Tale of  the Principal Post. The story starts with a family celebrating their new home. After noticing that her father is missing, the family's daughter hears him crying out in pain and leads her mother and brother into the basement to look for her father. In horror, the three find the father, who has somehow gotten stuck underneath a huge pillar, one of several that support the house, crushing his body. The mother tries in vain to save her husband but he warns that the pillar that traps him is the principal post of the house; if it is moved, the  building will collapse. He tells his family that there is no way he can be saved, and he will sacrifice himself so his family can have their home. That evening the man succumbs to his injuries and dies, and his family places a shrine at the post. Time moves on, but his skeleton remains still trapped underneath the post, along with the mystery of how he got stuck in the first place. The Enigma of Amigara Fault. A huge earthquake has struck an unnamed prefecture, leaving a fault to be discovered by the people on the Amigara mountain (the name  Amigara means "empty shell"). People from all over Japan, including a team of scientists, arrive at the mountain to see the strange sight for themselves. Two hikers, Owaki and Yoshida, meet while hiking, having the same intention to see the fault. The fault is shrouded in mystery; its face being covered human-shaped holes. It has captured nationwide interest, and several attempts to examine how far the fault goes have all ended in vain. People discussed the origins of the fault, noting that the holes are definitely not natural and must have been dug from the inside of the mountain , but questioning why the holes were made or who would have the technology to make them. Owaki notices Yoshida is looking for something, to which she replies she is looking for a hole shaped like herself. Owaki dismisses the idea, stating it to be ridiculous, but another hiker, Nakagaki, overhearing their conversation and siding with Yoshida, claims he has found his own hole. He takes them to his hole, pointing out that it is precisely his size and shape, and that he fits into it exactly. After removing his clothes to his underwear, Nakagaki disappears into the hole before Owaki  can stop him. Scientists cannot find any trace of Nakagaki inside the hole, and a rescue squad composed of people small enough to squeeze into the hole has to retreat after barely getting deep. Later that night, Owaki has a nightmare about Nakagaki trapped inside the hole because it has been deformed by the earthquake. He wakes up to find Yoshida claiming she has found her own hole, located near the foot of the fault. Meanwhile, Nakagaki still has not been found. Another man claims a hole is made for him, and disappears into it in a panic, leading  to an outburst in which several other people descend into the mountain, much to the horror of the scientists, who flee the scene. That night, Yoshida feels that the hole is calling her name and luring her into it, and she knows if she goes there, she willl be trapped. Owaki tries to calm her down by stuffing her hole with rocks, and stays the night with her. Owaki has another nightmare. He dreams that he is in the distant past, and, having committed a horrendous crime, is sentenced by a tribe living in the mountain's caves to enter  a hole carved in his likeness, forced to keep walking deeper into the mountain's interior in the ever-narrowing tunnel. Owaki enters the hole and after some time moving forward in it, he can feel his neck and limbs being torturously stretched and distorted, but he remains alive and in agony. He wakes up screaming and finds out that Yoshida has unblocked her hole and disappeared into it. As he sits mournfully in front of Yoshida's hole, he drops his flashlight and discovers his own hole, much to his horror, located near Yoshida's. Mesmerized, he strips off  his clothes and enters his hole. Several months later, the scientists are informed of another fault on the other side of the mountain, revealed during the same earthquake which exposed the first fault, but had gone undiscovered until now. This, too, has holes in it, but they are not human-shaped; instead the shapes are long and distorted. One worker examines one of the holes, and as he shines his flashlight in it, notices that a horrifyingly disfigured being is slowly inching out of the chasm. Media. Manga. "Gyo" was written and illustrated by Junji Ito. In his words, the  inspiration came from Steven Spielberg's "Jaws": "He masterfully captured the essence of fear in the form of a man-eating shark. I thought it would be even greater to capture that fear in a man-eating shark that goes on land as well as sea." The manga, published by Shogakukan, was serialized in the weekly manga magazine "Big Comic Spirits" from 2001 to 2002. Shogakukan compiled the chapters into two bound volumes and published them from February 2002 to May 2002. In North America, Viz Media published volumes of the series from September 2003 to March 2004. Viz Media  later re-released the series with new covers from October 2007 to January 2008. OVA. An OVA adaptation was produced by Ufotable. It was directed by Takayuki Hirao while character designs were provided by Takuro Takahashi. The OVA was originally planned to be 30 minutes long but had evolved to 75 minutes throughout production. It was originally slated to release on December 14, 2011 but was delayed and released on February 15, 2012. Terracotta screened the film in London at the Prince Charles Cinema from April 12–15, 2012 as part of their Terracotta Far East Film Festival. Terracotta released the  film on DVD September 3, 2012. Both DVD and Blu-ray versions were also released in Australia in March 2013 by Hanabee and DVD-only in North America on July 9, 2013 by Aniplex of America. Reception. In France, "Gyo" was nominated at the 37th annual Angoulême International Comics Festival. Katherine Dacey of Mangacritic.com placed the manga at #1 on her Favorite Spooky Manga list. For the first volume, Carl Kimlinger of Anime News Network praised the art and the bizarre relationship that Tadashi and Kaori share. Josephine Fortune of Mania gave it an A, praising the artwork, specifically the  detail of the backgrounds. Fortune also praised the pacing of the story although noted that the plot contradicts itself later in the volume. Ken Haley of PopCultureShock gave it a B+ praising the silly moments the manga had and how they resembled that of an action/horror story normally seen in theaters. Michael Aronson of Manga Life gave it an A echoing similar praise regarding story stating, "Logic holes and an absurd concept be damned, this is still an utterly compelling read that's sure to squeeze at one's stomach a few times." Greg McElhatton of Read About Comics  noted Ito's art skill as keeping the story from becoming "silly". For the second volume, Kimlinger continued to praise the story stating: "This final volume may be one of the most genuinely nauseating books ever to blight a shelf." Fortune gave it a B+ again praising the artwork and pacing of the plot, although noted that the plot had some holes in its logic and that readers who enjoy concrete and definitive endings may not like the ending of the manga. Aronson also noted issues with the plot, however noted, "It's still a gorgeous piece of scar tissue  that seems like a polished experiment more than a deeply considered publication." Gyo , fully titled in Japan, is a horror "seinen" manga written and illustrated by Junji Ito, appearing as a serial in the weekly manga magazine "Big Comic Spirits" from 2001 to 2002. Shogakukan collected the chapters into two bound volumes from February to May 2002. The story revolves around a couple, Tadashi and Kaori, as they fight to survive against a mysterious horde of undead fish with metal legs powered by an odor known as the "death stench". The work also includes a pair of bonus stories, titled