Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack

An impending horror anime review. Viewer discretion is advised.





I've just finished watching the OVA for this, and I must say that I'm having this feeling of blandness.

The OVA falls under a horror and science-fiction genre, whose manga adapted from was written and drawn by Junji Ito, quite a well-known Japanese horror manga artist. You can do a quick google image search on his name and you'll see all of his illustrations which are extremely dark and entirely out of the world. He specialises in a really excluded type of horror.

The OVA and manga are different however.
The manga has the story circling around the boyfriend named Tadashi who was immuned to the infection, while his girlfriend, Kaori, was infected and pretty much died. For the OVA, it was the other way round. The manga illustrations were a lot more horrific too.

So since I'm sure not many would want to watch this film, I'm just going to spoil everything right below. Firstly, the plot was very twisted.

VERY TWISTED.

It was spiraled into intense horror and insanity. But honestly, I am very amazed at Ito's creativity and imagination, and would love to know what kind of person he is and what goes on in his head.

NOTICE ME SENPAI

The OVA got me really nervous throughout the entire 60 minutes, I was constantly frowning and exceptionally curious about what was going to happen. It begins with two fishermen petrified by a certain fish they had caught on board.

It then jumps straight to the introduction of Kaori where she speaks with Tadashi on the phone. Apparently Kaori was on a graduation holiday with her two other friends at Okinawa while the boyfriend was working in his studio in Odaiba, Tokyo.

Things started to get weird when there was a lingering rotting stench in the place they were supposed to stay, and even killed a fish with legs that was running about in the house.

And then Kaori just bagged it and threw it away. Without even peeing in her pants. Because that was what normal humans would do. 

But the next day was the start of the horror, there was a gargantuan amount of dead marine creatures with legs coming out from the sea in Okinawa and were charging towards Tokyo.

And then Kaori just stood by the balcony. Admiring the scene. Without even screaming. Because that too, was what normal humans would do.

They themselves were actually attacked by an infected shark.

Here, Erika (girl with the exposed panties hahaha) was actually stabbed in the foot by the creature, which actually resulted in her getting the infection. There was also a friendship conflict during the attack between Erika and the other friend, Aki, which actually had a significant impact at the back of the OVA.

Anyhow, Kaori decides to head to Tokyo to look for Tadashi because he seemed to be in trouble, but Tokyo was already massively invaded.

She met Shirakawa on the way to Tokyo, and found themselves running for their lives from the infected sharks (The fishes do no attack, just like in real life). But the horror doesn't end, because a lot of humans were infected as well. Note that every infected creatures were giving out pungent gases which engulfed the entire area. 

An infected Erika and a shocked Aki

That was how any creatures infected would join up with the metal base to form a bug-like monster.

Aki's death

Because of pent-up frustrations and hatred for Erika (Erika was quite a dick and had mistreated Aki), Aki had hit her countless times on the head with a metallic cigarette tray while she mocked at her and mentioned that Erika deserved to be the way she looked (by then, Erika had already transformed into the fat wobbly green thing). 

Erika teared and it was quite a sad scene (but honestly she deserved it), but she chased after Aki and as Aki dramatically fell into a massive swarm of bugs, Erika just stood there to watch her get eaten alive.

By this time, Kaori and Shirakawa had broke into the house of Tadashi's Uncle named Koyanagi, a scientist researching the cause of the infection. But she realises that Tadashi had already become one of them.

Poor Tadashi (╯︵╰,)

They were actually engaged:

This was in the past and they were talking about Kaori's dad's death

Tadashi was actually conscious and loved Kaori till the very end.

It's like a forbidden love story hahaha

I had no idea why other infected creatures had destroyed him here. But I believe it was because Tadashi still had some consciousness (Kaori actually shouted out to him, 'Let's go home together!', and he actually hesitated and moved towards her a little), and when the other creatures noticed it, they engulfed him altogether. 

They could actually join up to form a larger monster

It was however, implied that the infected humans were still conscious and struggled to break free when the gas being emitted were seen dragging them towards the centre. Kaori saw for herself that within the gases, there were faces of souls.

Shirakawa saw it for himself too when he entered an insane circus

Shirakawa had also managed to gather information regarding the cause of the infection and saved it in his thumbdrive. He told Kaori to head on towards a ship setting off from Odaiba using a mini boat by herself, because he himself had a cut from the creature and was only minutes before he'll become like the rest.

They showed many other countries being infected as well

Kaori boards the ship and there, a crew member was talking to her

She said that and smiled to herself. It was because everyone she knew were dead. Her father passed away years ago, her beloved fiance got devoured, her new friend Shirakawa is as good as dead, and she saw the dead bodies of Erika and Aki before leaving Odaiba. 

The OVA ended off with the sky shrouded with a mysterious blue that was constantly moving

Remember I said that I felt bland? Yea, it was because everything was just so sad, but it was not the kind of sadness that I'd cry and desperately want Ito to rewrite this plot. It was the feeling of being sad and satisfied at the same time, which gives off a sense of void. 

The story kept me very entertained throughout, I noticed I hadn't moved much to the extent my left leg was numbed because I was so engrossed. Although I do feel that Tadashi should have survived, besides Kaori seems to hold the key to creating a drug to reverse this damage since she's immune to the infection. But neither do I feel objected against the idea of him dying, because if he didn't, Kaori would still be in Odaiba and she wouldn't said the same things she said on board. So it was to me a rather good ending, like how this was meant to be. 

The scientist Koyanagi did mention that the cause of this infection dated back to the second world war, where they had invented the metal base with protruding legs to harvest gas as a source of energy. 

But the crew member who spoke to Kaori on the ship told her that he believed it was something that was created deep in the ocean.
Both assumptions were possible. For the claim by Koyanagi, it was supported by the fact that there were vengeful-looking souls being trapped in the gases. It was perhaps souls from people who were used in experiments during the experimentation.
Whereas for the second theory, in the beginning of the OVA, they did show a peculiar creature in the depths of the water swimming extremely fast among other normal fishes. Thus it could have been some mutation going on. 

Well, whatever that is going to happen down the road for Kaori, or the cause of the infection, the directors have left it untold for us to derive our own conclusions. I'll like to think that the world would get a cure some day. 

I rate this thrilling masterpiece an 8/10 ( ´ ▽ ` )ﾉ