Hey. Do you remember Jaws? You know, that horror movie with the shark?
You know, that fucking movie where a bunch of people get fucked up in the ocean by a shark that apparently inspired Ridley Scott to make fucking ALIEN??? That one movie with a bunch of people on a space station that get murdered by a badass alien monster ~~(which was of course really just a goddamned guy in a fucking suit, MOVIE MAGIC)~~?
Jaws set the template for many subsequent horror films, to the extent that the script for Ridley Scott's 1979 science fiction film Alien was pitched to studio executives as "Jaws in space". Scott would later reveal in a 2017 interview that Jaws had made a lasting impression, "I was always put off from swimming ever since I watched Jaws," says Scott. "I quite liked swimming, actually, and I'd occasionally dive, but once I saw Jaws there was no way I was ever going to learn to surf – no way! Because I can imagine my legs, my little pinkies hanging underneath the surfboard and I know I'm going to be the one."
~~Source: Motherfucking Wikipedia.~~
Point is, killer fish... they're just a thing in horror that works. If you're gonna do a monster horror flick, why not do it with a great white shark? Or a fucking alien monster whose young leap onto you and then IMPREGNATE YOU THROUGH THE FACE. Alien monsters, great white sharks... what's the difference? I mean, really.
Anyways, here comes along mangaka Junji Ito one day in 2001.
His first long series, Tomie, is already progressing to become essentially a Japanese version of the Freddy or Jason films (fun Junji Ito fact! There are eight live action Tomie films! Tomie, Tomie: Another Face, Tomie: Replay, Tomie: Re-Birth, Tomie: The Final Chapter - Forbidden Fruit, Tomie: Beginning, Tomie: Revenge, Tomie vs Tomie, and finally in 2011, Tomie: Unlimited).
~~Source for all the Tomie film titles: AGAIN. MOTHERFUCKING WIKIPEDIA. Also jesus christ, does literally each chapter of Tomie need its own film??? Whatever, more Junji Ito out in the world is a thing I can get behind.~~
Then Uzumaki finished and he was just doing a short story here, a short story there... to eventually end up culminating in over ten Junji Ito collections of stories... but he wanted to do a third long series. Perhaps just one day he watched Jaws, and said hey, I want to do a manga of that! Or... actually, maybe he just realized he hadn't done a manga featuring fish yet. The result?
GYO! ATTACK OF THE DEAD FISH HORDES FROM OKINAWA. THESE ROTTING SMELLING FISH ARE DRAGGING THEMSELVES OUT OF THE WATER TO STRIKE BACK AGAINST US, THE FILTHY LAND DWELLERS. IT'S LIKE JAWS, BUT UNLIKE JAWS, THE SHARKS ARE COMING ON LAND!!! __OH MY GOD!__
Jaws is a classic. Gyo is not. Gyo is just the product of a day when Junji Ito said "hey I feel like drawing some fish and weird shit" and that's perfectly okay. Don't know why it was a long series. It would have been perfect if it was just the ONE chapter where the shark on spider legs bursts through the wall.
But unfortunately, we're not here to talk about Junji Ito's vision of rotting monster fish attacking people. We're here to talk about some guy's vision of his take on Junji Ito's vision of rotting monster fish attacking people.
...This review is not about the Junji Ito manga Gyo, but the 2012 anime OVA, Gyo.
...I'm so sorry.
#One of the worst adaptations I've ever fucking seen#
If I haven't gotten the message through, the original Gyo wasn't exactly a masterpiece in any sense. Rotting killer fish, it gets kind of weird because how do you stretch rotting killer fish to twenty chapters, that's just what it is and not much more. But then ten years later, a little studio named Ufotable and a man named Takayuki Hirao came along and said "HEY, we'll animate that shit!" and oh boy. What a terrible fucking idea.
Takayuki Hirao directed, did the storyboards for, and wrote the script for this... this take on Gyo. He took the story and decided rather than the guy, the girlfriend should be the protagonist. Right out of the gate, THE PROTAGONIST OF THE ORIGINAL STORY IS NO LONGER THE PROTAGONIST. Hell, the whole original story is the guy and his girlfriend going to this cabin together. In the adaptation, he's not even there.
...What? But that's the whole thing. She can't just be in the cabin alone--
UFOTABLE: "GOOD NEWS! NOW INTRODUCING TWO BRAND NEW ORIGINAL GYO CHARACTERS! BECAUSE YOU KNOW IN HORROR, THAT WHOLE THING WHERE A BUNCH OF FRIENDS GO TO A CABIN IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. SURE, PERHAPS THE COUPLE ANGLE WAS GOOD ENOUGH FOR JUNJI ITO BUT FUCK IT. WE NEED A QUIET GLASSES GIRL AND AN AGGRESSIVE GIRL WHO'S THERE JUST TO HAVE SEX WITH TWO RANDOM GUYS IN THE OTHER ROOM AWAY FROM HER FRIENDS."
...What??? That sounds fucking terrible and completely pointless. What is the point of horribly and purposely ruining a Junji Ito manga? The original Gyo is silly and weird enough on its own just do a faithful and true adaptation! The guy and girl going there as a couple was way more interesting than... that. Her phobia of horrible smells was more interesting than that! Additionally, how is she going to even work as the protagonist with her phobia--
UFOTABLE: "OH NO, WE AXED THAT. WE HAD TO. SURE, THAT WAS HER ENTIRE CHARACTER, BUT FUCK IT."
You know, I don't think "BUT FUCK IT" should be used for literally every creative decision in a creative project especially when adapting someone else's shit. But that's just me. Whatever, we need to get back on topic.
So after the one friend character goes to have sex with two random guys in the other room, that's when the CG shark shows up and the horror meter skyrockets to eleven.
...
...
UFOTABLE: "..."
#Conclusion#
This huge steaming pile of shit was how I was first introduced to Junji Ito. Quite frankly, I couldn't believe what I was watching. Laughed through quite a bit of it. My reaction to it as a big horror fan was... I needed to see more. I needed to look up the original creator and read all of his things because I was not previously aware of this person's existence. That's exactly what I did.
You too can download the entire Junji Ito collection at LINK REDACTED. I of course started with the manga version of Gyo and was surprised to find that... well... comparatively, it was the best thing ever? As a main character, the boyfriend is stronger (although as previously said, she was more interesting in the manga even if her role wasn't main character), I was surprised ~~and PLEASED~~ to find Kaori's friends didn't even EXIST in the manga.
The shark's a lot more imposing and intimidating in the manga... then again, the black and white of manga is fucking intertwined with Junji Ito's style. I'm not sure if that even makes sense. To reword, I don't really think color and Junji Ito's monsters work together. But I'm honestly not sure if it's just because of Gyo the anime. Everything is just so colorful and bright...it's just... ugh.
Hypothetically, if there's ever another Junji Ito adaptation, I hope they bring animation that's a bit closer to Junji Ito's style and go a bit less... bright.UFOTABLE: "THAT'S NOT FAIR. IT'S TOO BRIGHT IS ONE OF YOUR CRITICISMS? BUT WE ADDED A BRAND NEW OCTOPUS MONSTER. THE MANGA DIDN'T HAVE AN OCTOPUS."
Wait, did you? I don't remember--
...
...
UFOTABLE: "..."
...~~That was the entire reason why the girlfriend was switched to the main character position, isn't it.~~
A-anyways, I don't really get the point behind any of the decisions that led to this existing. Despite being completely off the rails, this adaptation still works in some stuff that's actually from the manga. They actually do more or less do the plot even if the main characters are switched. They even animate the bizarre as shit circus scene which is about when the final nail of the coffin of me checking out all of Junji Ito's other stuff was nailed in.
Like seriously what the fuck. We started with rotting fish monsters, now rotting fish monsters are infecting people to become horrifically ugly bloated gas spewing monsters, and now there's just a fucking circus for some reason.
I know Junji Ito draws whatever the fuck he wants whenever the fuck he wants and that's a reason why I love him, but what the fuck. The rotting fish infect humans and turn them into blob creatures that spew gas, and if that gas is lit on fire, it turns into screaming nightmarish ghost faces that can't be captured on camera? What??? What the fuck does any of this have to do with sharks on spider legs???
To conclude, I give Gyo the animation a 6 out of 10. I do not recommend watching it, but I do recommend giving the manga a try. Like yeah okay, the OVA is a pretty funny watch as it's pretty bad in comical ways, but so is the manga itself and the manga actually provided more genuine enjoyment.
UFOTABLE: "Wait, what the fuck?"
What?
UFOTABLE: "You said this was one of the worst adaptations you've ever seen! A fucking six out of ten???"
It made me laugh a huge amount. The negativity only really crept in after when I read the manga which is still bad and funny, but way better than this. THE GIRLFRIEND IS LITERALLY CHASED BY ONE OF THE FISH MONSTERS BUT THE GUY PUT IT IN A TIED UP GARBAGE BAG. WHERE WAS THAT SCENE? THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN HILARIOUS TO SEE ANIMATED.
Had time to include anime original characters, an anime original octopus, but nope. Bag fish gets shafted. It's not right. IT'S NOT RIGHT.
UFOTABLE: "A six out of ten isn't even a bad score. What other shows have you given a six out of ten to??"
UFOTABLE: "...Oh."
That's all folks! See you in the next Junji Ito review!
UFOTABLE: "Check out Katsugeki Touken Ranbu, the second new Touken Ranbu anime not made by the guys who did the other one, based off of Touken Ranbu. ...Please watch our shows."
#Oh, hey there. Don't mind me, I'm just changing a four year old review!#
...Okay, so. I was wrong. I'm coming back to this review four years later for now that I've reviewed the manga, I've realized a 6 out of 10 for this adaptation is generous. Too generous.
It's actually really unforgivable how badly they botched this adaptation. The whole reason this got animated was the fucking shark, Junji Ito did a fantastic introduction of the shark in the manga, and yet no... animating that scene would take too much work!
This would have been great animated. I'm glad we're never going to get to see it.
Gyo the OVA is actually a 2 out of 10.