Gyo

Reading note

Why it is on my shelf

A personal reaction from wherever I currently am with this manga.

What’s phenomenal about Gyo is just how visually upsetting the whole thing is, and how it keeps getting worse. A lot of horror does you the injustice of serving up something that feels stereotypically horrifying, but Junji Ito’s work here does not feel stereotypical in the least. There are sharks on insane mechanical contraptions, gas and rot and bodies, people being massacred while half the population seems to be mutating or bloating in grotesque ways. It’s indescribably unsettling. I almost put it down at one point because I usually prefer something a little more beautifully creepy, but it’s too intriguing to stop reading, no matter how disgusting it gets. If you can stomach it, Gyo is unforgettable.