10 Most Messed Up Junji Ito Moments

One of Ito's most well-known works, Gyo is the strange tale of hordes of rotting fish on legs that invade Japan. From smaller fish to sharks, whales, and squids, these creepy critters also bring an unbearable stench ashore with them, too.

As events progress, it's revealed this odour, known as "The Death Stench", is a sentient gas that paralyses its host and walks using gas-propelled mechanical legs.

Although the invasion starts as fish, it doesn't take long for the infection to spread to other animals and humans, including protagonist Tadashi's girlfriend Kaori.

With her body bloating and decaying as the gas fills her, Tadashi takes her to his scientist uncle in the hopes he can cure her. After becoming hospitalised for several weeks, Tadashi returns to his uncle to discover Kaori's grizzly fate.

Unable - or unwilling - to cure her, the uncle instead creates a human-sized set of the mechanical legs for Kaori. Paralysed with tubes jammed into both ends of her body, Ito has transformed the poor girl into a deformed, spider-like creature who will doubtlessly haunt the nightmares of readers.

Unfortunately, things don't get much better for Kaori either, but saying anything else would spoil this fishy tale.