Gyo: Volume 1, Chapter 2: The Death-Stench in the Air

Welcome to Geek Girl Reads Manga! I started this blog proper with the first chapter of Junji Ito's Gyo, and in this post we continue with Chapter Two

Oh, lord... I should not laugh this hard at a ‪‎Junji Ito‬ ‎manga‬, but... Okay, I read Volume 1, Chapter 2 of ‪Gyo‬, entitled "The Death-Stench in the Air". Tadashi looks at this weird-ass fish on spider legs and thinks he might have found a new species. Um... bonus? However, Kaori is still freaking out over the smell, so Tadashi agrees to get rid of the thing and tosses it in the garden. Kaori still complains about the smell (seriously, SHUT UP and shut the windows already) so he goes out to wrap it up and throw it away LIKE HE SHOULD HAVE DONE IN THE FIRST PLACE. Only, when he gets out there he finds that, despite being crushed by a dresser, the damn thing has crawled away. He finds it, gets it in a garbage bag, and duct tapes the thing shut to seal in the Worst Smell on the Planet, but it twitches and keeps poking holes in the bag. Tadashi tapes up the holes, pins the thing under a rock and considers his job done. He comes inside to find that Kaori has a fever, so he agrees that they'll leave Okinawa the following day. Kaori keeps bitching about the smell, and suddenly the crawly fish comes drifting in through the window, with all the gas produced by its rotting having inflated the bag.
Yes.

Seriously.

So once again Kaori flips her shit and bolts from the room, leaving Tadashi to bustle the thing back out the window. I swear this things must be trolling Kaori, because it pokes ANOTHER hole in the bag, drifts BACK in through the window, and chases Kaori out of the house and down the street. Now, just sit back and take a moment to imagine this. You have this Japanese girl in an absolute flat panic, running down the street, being chased by a rotten fish with spider legs borne aloft in a bag filled with poo gas.

Even if I didn't dislike Kaori to begin with, I would have still had to take a moment to compose myself, because the scene was just so surreal and stupidly hilarious. In any case, Tadashi manages to drive the horrible mean dead fish away from his girlfriend, and it starts drifting towards the coast. At this point, I probably would have let the thing go about its business, go inside, and shut the windows so it doesn't come back in to terrorize Kaori, but Tadashi wants to find it again, because fish with legs = new species in his mind.

She throws another fit about him leaving her with a fever (and I come close to being on her side here) but he ignores her and chases after Mr. Evil Flying Bagfish. He loses sight of the thing in the darkness, but he hears more hissing coming from the water. He looks around and sees more rotten fish with spidery legs emerging from the water. On the bright side, if he wants to get another specimen for his Find of the Century, he'll have his choice...

Looks like things are going to get a lot worse for Okinawa, if my experience with Ito's other work is any indication. I'm not sure where things will go as far as crawling zombie fish, but it's sure to be interesting, regardless. I predict that Kaori will go insane from the smell before the story finishes. Beyond that, I have no clue why the raging hell a bunch of fish are coming ashore on little spider legs, only that it cam't mean anything good.

Looks like we'll have to wait for the next chapter to see where this is going.

Next up: Volume 1, Chapter 3: Going Ashore.