Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Gyo: Kıpırdanan Dehşet

Read the story on the internet a few years ago and thought it was mediocre - mainly because of the open ending. Now, after reading every other Junji Ito books and making peace with his style of storytelling, I appreciate Gyo for what it is good at: transporting you into a disgusting fever dream of body horror. I still have problems with how Ito writes such annoying characters and tropes (e.g., women depicted as always being the first to go crazy/contradictory and throw tantrums). I fully hope Junji Ito is out there enjoying healthy and fulfilling relationships, because couples/spouses in his stories will make you think "Why the hell are they not broken up and hating each other already?" That said, with Gyo's female protagonist, we have some sprinkles of backstory (her upbringing) and exposition (let's be honest, I'd probably act like her as well if I smell the stench of rotting corpses all the time) to justify for her actions. All in all, excellent art. One of Ito's Big Three for a reason.

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abbyjme's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

4.0

My thalassophobia and chronic fear of smelling bad was NOT prepared for this one…

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clovetra's review against another edition

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dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.0

what the hell 🔥
ok but seriously this is probably my least favourite junji ito story im sorry
i was not scared or creeped out at all, and i read it in a pitch black room at 12:30am.
um idk this felt like it was missing the thing that makes a junji ito story a junji ito story.
like idk i didn't even like the premise. or the plot. or any characters. complete apathy.
the only thing that gave me a feeling of unease was

kaori's suicide

but other than that.... i was not spooked. and that's one page
like tell me why the bonus stories scared me more? like the enigma of amigara faults actually made me scared more than the entire gyo story. junji ito my love you flopped here <3
im kidding junji ito can never flop but this so far is my least favourite work from him </3
i found nothing redeemable about this story im sorry
also who moved first one star of 2024

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grey_jayne's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Gyo is pure nightmare fuel. The imagery is intense and aggressively unrelenting. I don't know if I like the narrative as much as the visuals, but that doesn't even matter when things are this consistently horrific.

There are two unrelated stories at the end of the book and they're great, especially The Enigma of Amigara Fault, which really played with my claustrophobia. This book is terrifying!

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