Koyanagi’s own father designed the “walking machine,” an apparatus powered by the gas itself that would allow the bacteria’s hosts to spread the pathogen further. During World War II, the Japanese army conducted experiments with an unusual strain of bacteria, which caused its hosts to produce a deadly, pungent gas that infected anyone who inhaled it. Tadashi’s uncle, the scientist Doctor Koyanagi, soon explains the origin of the creatures. These tubes seem to be pumping the foul-smelling gas into the creatures, somehow keeping them alive after death. He notices that their legs are part of an apparatus, which also features tubes connected to their gills. Tadashi and Kaori themselves barely survive an encounter with a land-dwelling shark, whereupon Tadashi is given a chance to inspect the creatures closer. Many unfortunate citizens are trampled to death underneath the needlepointed legs of the “walking fish.” The air is quickly polluted with the death stench, while large undersea predators, seemingly immune to all firearms, begin to stalk their new human prey. Mass panic erupts as city after city is overrun by hordes of the monstrous sea creatures. While perhaps sounding like something out of a B-movie, the results are frighteningly realistic.

What soon happens is a full-on invasion of coastal Japan by gas-emitting, biomechanical marine life that can walk upon the land. However, the fish soon escapes, and when Tadashi follows it out to the edge of the sea, he witnesses more four-legged sea creatures begin to emerge from the water. The strange fish emits a horrible, foul-smelling gas, a sinister miasma that comes to be known as “the death stench.” Kaori, who is particularly conscious of the death stench due to her hypersensitive sense of smell, orders Tadashi to get rid of the disgusting creature. Although the fish appears to be dead and rotting, it continues to move even after Tadashi crushes it behind a dresser. One night, after his girlfriend complains of a terrible smell, Tadashi searches their house only to discover what looks like a fish with four metal legs.

“Gyo” concerns a young couple, Tadashi and Kaori, whose vacation to the beach in Okinawa takes a sinister turn. But perhaps nowhere do his works’ parallels with the real world become more frightening than with “Gyo,” a horror series about a bizarre and terrifying threat that, though inhuman at first glance, is entirely man-made. Whether it is a young man haunted by his family legacy in “My Dear Ancestors” or a teenage girl whose beauty masks an inner darkness in “Tomie,” Ito excels at creating surreal and nightmarish worlds with uncanny ties to our own. Junji Ito, acclaimed author of Japanese horror manga, is known for his impressive ability to craft stories that are at once darkly wonderful and yet strangely believable.

Junji ito's gyo