Rating: 
Summary: Freaky, yet... cool
Review: A very good read, even if you're not a horror manga fan. And if you are, then that makes it even better.If I had to choose any one word to describe this manga by Junji Ito, it'd be "freaky". Not "bizarre", like Uzumaki was. Not "weird", like Flesh Colored Horror was. And not "creepy", like Tomie was. "Freaky". Yes, Gyo is freaky. Ito manages to show that even fish can be terribly daunting in different situations. Admittedly, the idea of walking fish might raise an eyebrow or two at first -- but as his past work shows, Junji Ito is very capable of making anything and everything frightening... whether they be fish, spirals, or beautiful girls. Here, the fish is drawn with every detail, from its scales to its many fangs. Personally, I find their eyes the most frightening feature of them all -- especially how they remain blank and emotionless as they unleash chaos upon inhabitants of the land. Brrr. Unlike "Uzumaki" or "Tomie", however, "Gyo" won't hit you with grotesque images every other page, nor does it offer you gallons upon gallons of blood in every chapter. No, "Gyo" prefers to put the focus on the terrifying situations themselves, rather than just the outcomes (those with claustrophobia might feel a bit queasy at the last couple of pages). And while there's virtually no blood at all, there are enough images that will give you a more lasting impression more than a few splatters of blood ever would. So! If you have a fear of the sea and its many unknown creatures, you might want to sit this one out. Otherwise, sit back, grab a soda, and prepare to hate fish.
Rating:
Summary: Freaky, yet... cool
Review: A very good read, even if you're not a horror manga fan. And if you are, then that makes it even better. If I had to choose any one word to describe this manga by Junji Ito, it'd be "freaky". Not "bizarre", like Uzumaki was. Not "weird", like Flesh Colored Horror was. And not "creepy", like Tomie was. "Freaky". Yes, Gyo is freaky. Ito manages to show that even fish can be terribly daunting in different situations. Admittedly, the idea of walking fish might raise an eyebrow or two at first -- but as his past work shows, Junji Ito is very capable of making anything and everything frightening... whether they be fish, spirals, or beautiful girls. Here, the fish is drawn with every detail, from its scales to its many fangs. Personally, I find their eyes the most frightening feature of them all -- especially how they remain blank and emotionless as they unleash chaos upon inhabitants of the land. Brrr. Unlike "Uzumaki" or "Tomie", however, "Gyo" won't hit you with grotesque images every other page, nor does it offer you gallons upon gallons of blood in every chapter. No, "Gyo" prefers to put the focus on the terrifying situations themselves, rather than just the outcomes (those with claustrophobia might feel a bit queasy at the last couple of pages). And while there's virtually no blood at all, there are enough images that will give you a more lasting impression more than a few splatters of blood ever would. So! If you have a fear of the sea and its many unknown creatures, you might want to sit this one out. Otherwise, sit back, grab a soda, and prepare to hate fish.
Rating:
Summary: Intensely creepy horror from the best manga artist ever!
Review: Gyo is creepy. It starts with a silly idea, but then becomes one of Ito's creepiest mangas ever. The artwork is good, different than the traditional "manga style" and may take some readers getting used to. The characters are appealing, very believeable. In all actuality, if you like manga, you need to read this book. I highly reccomend it.
Rating: 
Summary: sorry, not in the same league as UZIMAKI
Review: I was dissapointed- after the trippy epic nightmare of UZIMAKI I was expecting brilliance from Ito's latest- but (I've only read volume 1) this one is basically a standard monster movie plot, somewhere between Godzilla and Hitchcocks "The Birds" or Night of the Living Dead. Great art and storytelling of course, but I hope this is just filler before his next real horror masterpiece. I may still read the 2nd volume though, it sounds like it's more of an anthology.
Rating:
Summary: Intensely creepy horror from the best manga artist ever!
Review: In this first volume of a new horror series, we are introduced to a cast of character and the horror premise. In this case we have a young man and woman as well as a scientist/inventor. The story begins as the young man and woman are on a trip and she notices a terrible smell. The smell seems to move and finally the source is found; a fish on legs. The crab-like legs seem to keep moving even after the fish is dead. Soon the real horror begins as more wish on legs appear. Each brings a horrible stink with them. Fish big and small pour onto land and wreak havoc. But even that is not all. We discover what the source of the fish legs might be and what might be lurking within the stink. The book progresses very rapidly leaving me to believe that this must be a short work, say a trilogy like the author's Uzumaki trilogy, and not a longer piece like Parsyte. It seems like a very good opening to the story, but I will have to see where the author takes it to see if the series itself works well.
Rating: 
Summary: A Good Start To A New Series
Review: In this first volume of a new horror series, we are introduced to a cast of character and the horror premise. In this case we have a young man and woman as well as a scientist/inventor. The story begins as the young man and woman are on a trip and she notices a terrible smell. The smell seems to move and finally the source is found; a fish on legs. The crab-like legs seem to keep moving even after the fish is dead. Soon the real horror begins as more wish on legs appear. Each brings a horrible stink with them. Fish big and small pour onto land and wreak havoc. But even that is not all. We discover what the source of the fish legs might be and what might be lurking within the stink. The book progresses very rapidly leaving me to believe that this must be a short work, say a trilogy like the author's Uzumaki trilogy, and not a longer piece like Parsyte. It seems like a very good opening to the story, but I will have to see where the author takes it to see if the series itself works well.
Rating:
Summary: Good like sweet & sour pork
Review: It may sound weird at first, but Junji Ito's signature style of blending funny and terror at the same time is a perfect combination, much like a plate of sweet and sour pork found in a Chinese restaurant.
Gyo's premise is as original as it is ridiculous. A couple went on a vacation and they sensed something "fishy." They later found out some bizarre phenomenon that caused the unbearable smell, rotten mechanical walking fish! The dead fish attacked the couple, causing havocs. While it is a terrible event for the characters in the story, it's hard to stifle a giant smile as droves of mechanical fish, including a hammerhead shark, landed on Tokyo. The story is simply that ingenius.
The story eventually unfolds to reveal a major government conspiracy. Throughout the story, Ito caricatured dark human nature. It's not just an entertaining comic book, but a great social commentary.
If you enjoy original stories, and/or tired of horror flicks that are lack of depeth, Ito's mangas are your best choice to escape from that trough. With Ito's bizarre genius, I suspect even sweet & sour pork would turn into a centerplate of a horror manga.
FYI, Junji Ito (1963- ) is the equivalent of Stephen King in manga. Started his career in 1987 with Tomie, he is currently the most prominent horror mangaka (comic artist) in Japan. Ito has produced a very sizeable volumes of horror mangas in this short period of time. Many of his works, such as Tomie and Uzumaki, have made into big screen with grand triumph (though I CAN'T recommend any of the movie version over the manga version).
Rating:
Summary: Good like sweet & sour pork
Review: It may sounds weird at first, but Junji Ito's signature style of blending funny and terror at the same time is a perfect combination, much like a plate of sweet and sour pork found in a Chinese restaurant. Gyo's premise is as original as it is ridiculous. A couple went on a vacation and they sensed something "fishy." They later found out some bizarre phenomenon that caused the unbearable smell, rotten mechanical walking fish! The dead fish attacked the couple, causing havocs. While it is a terrible event for the characters in the story, it's hard to stifle a giant smile as droves of mechanical fish, including a hammerhead shark, landed on Tokyo. The story is simply that genius. The story eventually unfolds to reveal a major government conspiracy. Throughout the story, Ito caricatured dark human nature. It's not just an entertaining comic book, but a great social commentary. If you enjoy original stories, and/or tired of horror flicks that are lack of depeth, Ito's mangas are your best choice to escape from that trough. With Ito's bizarre genius, I suspect even sweet & sour pork would turn into a centerplate of a horror manga. FYI, Junji Ito (1963- ) is the equivalent of Stephen King in manga. Started his career in 1987 with Tomie, he is currently the most prominent horror mangaka (comic artist) in Japan. Ito has produced a very sizeable volumes of horror mangas in this short period of time. Many of his works, such as Tomie and Uzumaki, have made into big screen with grand triumph (though I CAN'T recommend any of the movie version over the manga version).
Rating: 
Summary: Half as good as Vol 1. And twice as good as everybody else.
Review: Junji Ito is such a gifted creator that even when he disappoints, the work can still make you gasp, tremble, shudder, and brood.
Take the world of Gyo Vol 2, where germs and worse are loose. Bloated, boil-covered human carcasses scuttle across a ruined Tokyo on the back of spider-like gurneys, their endlessly gassy bodies powering these machines via tubes shoved down (and up!) their orifices. Empty vessels seek out new "batteries," as one character calls them, snapping shut on them like Venus flytraps. This is one of the most savage visions of dehumanization anywhere in comics, and later scenes in Gyo pile on apocalyptic dread.
Although astonishing images pop up regularly, the story feels somewhat padded. Unusual for Ito, he meanders through a lackluster set-piece or two. I was more disappointed, though, by the intrusion of campy supernaturalism that edged out the intriguing backstory from Vol 1. The plot usually recovers. But Gyo isn't in the same class as the near-perfect Uzumaki.
That said, who is doing work in manga or comics to rival this? Ito is one of the most compelling horror storytellers alive. His stories feel of this moment in the 21st century, grounded in our time and refreshingly freed from the banal subjects and tired conventions that make much current Western work (for the page or the screen) so clunky and predictable. The Lovecraft influence is there, deeply and beautifully, yet it is a trace element in something new--a fresh alchemy of the terrible and disturbing.
The high point in this volume, by the way, isn't Gyo. It's the short story, "The Enigma of the Amigara Fault," a 30-page claustrophobic masterpiece which shows the master at his best: his horror sweeps over you like nausea, and forces you to turn the page just to breathe.
Rating:
Summary: Creepy, Disgusting, Good. Not For The Squeamish
Review: The conclusion of the story begun in Gyo 1 plus two additional stories. When last we read, main character Tadashi fell into a bin of fish (some dead and some walking). This book starts with Tadashi seeing faces in the fog/mist/stench. He then wakes up in a hospital a month later. During that month things have progressed. All of the fish now seem to be on land but they are not easy to find. Tadashi finds his uncle and begins to learn some of the truth behind what is going on. During the story we learn more about the walking legs, the fish, the gas, and the disease. The revelations are not pretty but the story is very original. Also included are two short stories. In THE SAD TALE OF THE PRINCIPAL POST, we have a too-short story about a man who gets stuck under a house support. This one just seemed pointless. In THE ENIGMA OF THE AMIGARA FAULT we encounter a new fault in the Japanese countryside that has just opened. It reveals tunnels shaped like silhouettes. As the new begins, people flock to see the strange tunnels. Some believe that there are tunnels shaped like themselves. Those who encounter these seem to be drawn into a hypnotic trance and enter the tunnels. Some dream segments give us a glimpse of the final horror of these strange tunnels. A good volume that will probably give many people shivers if not actual nightmares. I am not surprised that the fast moving plot concluded the story in only two volumes but I was disappointed to know there wouldn't be more.
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