Shibuya Hell, tome 1

Shibuya Goldfish #1

by Hiroumi Aoi (Drawings)

Shibuya, quartier ultra branché de Tokyo. 14h50.
J’ai toujours espéré qu’un événement bousculerait un jour mon quotidien de lycéen un peu morne. Le genre de rebondissement que le cinéaste amateur que je suis peut voir dans ses films préférés… mais pas ce genre-là. J’ai vu des passants se faire dévorer par ces… poissons géants, qui sont apparus tout à coup, flottant partout dans le quartier… Ces créatures sont réelles. Ce ne sont ni des effets spéciaux ni des trucages. Et elles ont faim de chair humaine. Moi et d’autres survivants tentons de leur échapper, mais tout porte à croire que nous sommes bel et bien coincés dans cet enfer…

Genres: Manga, Horror, Fantasy, Comics, Graphic Novels, Comics Manga, Seinen

240 pages, Paperback

First published February 22, 2017

Reviews

[Brandon Baker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Killer flying goldfish 😅

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the idea of this more than the book itself. Killer goldfish yesssss!!!
Liked the art, especially the goldfish...but...the story was poor and dare I say boring?
Not for me.
Even though I still have questions about what is going on (and why do the goldfish talk nonsense?! Am I just being humourless?!) I think I can live without the answers (if there are any!).

[Mehsi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Remember your cute goldfish? You probably gave it some cute name, like Goldie. Well, Goldie has just gone berserk. Watch your limbs. Goldie may just chew off a few of those. :P

This was one of the manga I wanted to read during this October/Halloween month, I was quite curious about it. Would it be truly horrific, or would it be hilarious, because let’s face it, they are goldfish. I can tell you know, that it was hilarious + horrific. Horririous? Hilaific?

First, let’s start with how it all started. Welcome in Shibuya. We are following a guy who isn’t much into going there but he has to, it all starts pretty nicely with a wonderful and busy Shibuya. At a store he meets a classmate (who I liked at first, but then I didn’t). Everything seems fine, but then poop hits the fan. Gore splatters around and suddenly there is a giant goldfish, with blood around its mouth. Running is futile, Shibuya is fucked, there are goldfish everywhere.

There was/is plenty of gore, because people were being eaten and torn apart by goldfish, which is fairly disturbing, but I was kind of expecting it. My stomach wasn’t all too happy, because I can’t handle gore that much these days, but it just had to live with it. I had to read on and see what would happen. Where did the goldfish come from? Why Shibuya? Are they in other places? We don’t get a lot of answers, but that is kind of expected given that there is no contact with the outside world. The only thing we know is that the world so far is safe. Why? Well, read on, and don’t laugh. I know I did, because it was just utterly silly.

Even more silly, and really distracting, was the fact the goldfish talked. Not sure if they truly talked, or it was just mind stuff, but there is just something truly hilarious about a goldfish who talks. Especially when those words are Mommy, I am home, Hello, Don’t Leave, and others. There were times I was probably supposed to feel utterly horrified by things happening, but then a goldfish would talk and I would roll around laughing.

It also didn’t help that everyone did the horror stupidity stuff that you always see in horror. Oh, hey, I have just been attack, let’s go back to the safe spot. Or hey, I forgot to turn off my cellphone. Or hey, my scrunchy is falling and now I am just doing x. I am so sorry, but I just went between shaking my head and laughing my ass off :P

The ending? Oh boy. Oh boy. Really, that just sucked. I get that the manga is still ongoing, but was this really needed? Couldn’t we have gone to another POV? I am sure there are other people still in Shibuya, still hiding, still surviving. Plus, not only that, but I could do without our MC.

He was a pretty decent dude at times, he showed he had plenty of balls and brain, but, I just got tired of his whining.

The art is pretty nicely done, the goldfish are plenty of scary (especially when they go in nomnom mode), and the gore is excellent done. You still see enough of it, but also not too much that it becomes over the top disgusting.

All in all, I did have fun reading this one. Even with a whiny MC, even with the gore, even with some hilarity, I still couldn’t stop reading. Will I continue reading? Mm, I think I will. Maybe not right now, as my stomach wants to have some recovery before heading into gore land again, but definitely soon.

Review first posted at https://twirlingbookprincess.com/

[Stay Fetters · Rating 3 out of 5]

"As long as we’re alive… there’s no way it’s over."

Talk about a good revenge story. This is what happens when you flush your pet goldfish down the toilet…

[Carol McCarthy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flying killer goldfish, what more is there to say?

[queen0f_hearts · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a long time I haven’t read a first volume of a new manga series which blew me away like this one. (I think, the last time this happened to me was with Ajin - Demi Human vol.1.) When I was through, I was so shocked. So very shocked because, though the entire volume had been a tough tour, the end of it came entirely unexpected and only thinking about it gives me goose bumps.

The story itself might be a bit crazy and 100% appropriate for a horror plot. Seriously, there are goldfish that eat humans! They drift through the air as if it was water, they’re literally everywhere! It’s actually insane. However, this is the setting and we as readers follow a teenage boy who’s in Shibuya to record a film (just for fun), exactly at the time those fish start to show up and spread. There’s no clue what happened. I mean, how can there be goldfish like that?! To be honest, I doubt whether this mystery will be solved in one of the upcoming volumes (I might get surprised again, though) but it’s not even important as from this moment on, the volume takes on such a speed, it’s a real page turner you can’t put down. And I really didn’t! From one dangerous and horrible scene the characters drift to the next and there’s barely a chance to recover. Still, there are some peaceful moments, when the protagonists get closer.

I really enjoyed how this was done. As reader I got to know not only the main character (the boy whom I talked about at the beginning) but also a young girl who’d just started as an idol and who therefore always tries to cheer everyone up, also there was a female officer and her underling, aside of some other characters. The conversations among all of them were lovely because they were so human, finding friendship and hope even in such a situation. Unfortunately, having them bond, made it even more painful when one of them died. And there really were a lot of death, gore and blood in this volume!

Back to the plot, so it seemed like those fish only had conquered Shibuya but couldn’t spread further. The people (who still were alive) were trapped inside this city as well. Their only hope was the rescue squad. Of course, despite all fear, our little group planned to take this chance. They struggled, a lot. I almost forgot to breathe since it was so thrilling, I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough, seriously. Their hope and my hope was shattered and relived like a thousand times and when I finally, finally thought, they’re going to make it, the most painful truth was revealed. Sometimes it is just a moment which determines your entire life. I was in shock for hours after ending this volume and I actually still am. There are a few overly important questions on my mind (which I won’t write down here because of spoilers) and then, more striking than everything else, there’s this thought, what if he (the main protagonist) had decided differently and was his decision all for nothing because he couldn’t help her after all?

Woah, I’m so shocked.

I can whole-heartedly recommend this manga to everyone who’s into action (and horror) and who doesn’t mind seeing blood and gore. Also, if you liked Devilman Crybaby, you should definitely check this out! As for volume 2, there’s no doubt, I’ll get it! I’m already pretty curious whether it’ll be able to hold up the high standard of volume 1. I truly hope so. Though, remembering my experiences with Ajin - Demi Human, I know, not every continuation of a awesome starting series meets the 1st volume’s quality.

[Jenny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everyone who knows me, knows that I enjoy fishkeeping. So I saw the word "goldfish" and picked up this book. I was only trying to kill time at the Flushing Library before a 39 min. drive to Lynbrook to consult a lawyer yesterday.

This manga is now, inarguably, one of the most insane and grossest things I've ever read.

We're talking about giant, man-eating goldfish attacking a major commercial district in Tokyo.

These goldfish float through air. At first, people mistook them for a VR installation. These fish also mumble single words like "Hungry" and "Yummy" and "Mommy".

A particularly large one consumes a flying rescue helicopter.

In another instance, our hero's getaway car almost crashes into a utility pole. The pole looks like a totem of partially digested human heads. Cue a character screaming "GOLDFISH POOP!" in absolute terror. Cue a wider view of the road littered by these "poles".

These goldfish also lay eggs inside humans. The infested humans vomit blood before combusting into a cloud of happy fish babies à la Aliens.

Near the end, our hero discovers fish don't like fire, and screams "Don't underestimate the human power to survive, unlike goldfish!" Or something like that. I can't remember cause I was too busy laughing.

Is this a page-tuner? Hell yes. Is this series written by a very angry goldfish seeking to avenge its brethren through fiction? Probably.

Volume 2 appears to be about a homeless dude becoming Shibuya's top survivor. Everything in volume one has been so humorless, and the situation is played so straight, that I'm still not sure whether this is horror or comedy.

[Cooper Tanbusch · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s pretty predictable and poorly written. All of the characters that have been introduced (so far, as there’s supposed to be a sequel) have been pretty flat, one-sided characters that easily fit into a stereotype.

Some of the panelling is kind of confusing as well, IMO, and it’s sometimes logically hard to follow the chain of events that are happening.

The story is pretty unique however. There’s also one bit in it where a girl gets eaten because her 4.30 AM wake up alarm for work accidentally went off and, even though she’s only in the book for three panels, she is the most identifiable character in there.

[Jessica · Rating 1 out of 5]

I bought this manga because I loved the concept: killer goldfish? Sign me up!
Unfortunately, this story brought nothing but disappointment and wasted potential for an interesting plot idea.

Most of the time reading this you have no idea what's going on because the panels are so busy but, worst of all, you don't care what's going on because none of the characters are interesting and you genuinely don't care what happens to them.

There's not much more to say really simply because this plot has no substance. Would not recommend bothering with this, even if it only took me 20 minutes in total to read.

[Curious Madra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Honestly I felt the story was just full of pee more than it being scary because it shows a group of goldfish are destroying the world and eating any humans they can get. It just sounds to me like the author is copying Ito who took on the “evil fish eating people” level but I could be wrong. I also hate the protagonist, he just had no personality. I far rather if Idol girl was the protagonist facing the evil fish, now that would’ve been a heck of a manga to sink your teeth into. Unfortunately it had to go to the generic route of a dull teenage protagonist who tries to save the day and nothing more.

Waste your time looking at the nice art but plot wise, you would be definitely wasting your valuable time…..

[Kayleigh Wiebe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, I loved this! Who knew goldfish could make for such mindlessly vicious and creepy monsters. Filled with gore and body horror, with some scenes that I wish I could unsee with my eyes, this is a perfect addition to the horror manga genre. I was completely gripped by the story and the tense apocalyptic Shibuya. And this book was so action-packed, I just couldn’t put it down! There’s barely any lead up, you’re just dumped immediately into the Shibuya fishbowl. Overall, I’m glad I have my own copy so I can revisit the story and wild scenes. And I’ll definitely be continuing with the series, I need to know what the goldfish are, how this all came about and more about how the goldfish operate

[Justin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hadn't even heard of Shibuya Goldfish until a random Facebook ad for it popped up on my feed. I think my comment to it was something along the lines of, "I'm laughing so hard at this right now, but I'm still going to pick up the first volume, at least." Because, let's face it, manga/anime has a way of turning utterly ridiculous concepts into worthwhile series. Excel Saga, Show By Rock!!, Is This A Zombie?--none of these series had any right to be as enjoyable as they were. Hell, there's even another series about killer fish (Gyo), that manages to be really creepy and effective. But where Gyo provides a succession of progressively mind-bendingly horrific developments, Shibuya Goldfish falls squarely into Syfy Channel original movie territory: death scenes with no emotional weight, predictable plot elements, and nonsensical choices made by the characters.

And that's a shame, because there are points where the story shows promise. For awhile, it seemed like it was building up to be one giant metaphor for where our main character, Hajime, a film buff, sees himself in his life. He's struggling with a creative block, and I could almost see this whole absurd situation being a representation of that--he can't think of any good material for his film, and flying, killer goldfish that spout nonsense phrases as they eat people is the best he can come up with. He realizes it's ridiculous, but he's trapped with this drivel, until he can overcome it and create something better. As someone who's faced writer's block before, I could get behind a story like that...but that isn't how things go. (In fact, the next volume seems to focus on a different character entirely.)

So, since all this craziness is actually happening, is it at least entertaining? Well...parts of it are. When we see what happens to one of the cops, there's a glimmer of hope that the goldfish will turn into something more interesting than just flying, eating machines...but nothing's ever done with it. Exactly how the thing that happened to the cop is never explored, and it feels like a missed opportunity. The bulk of the plot from then on out, is the survivors trying new tactics of getting past the goldfish, to the rescue locations, and getting picked off one by one, as various things go wrong. It's nigh-impossible to care about any of the background characters, because they get next to no development, and when one of the more fleshed out cast does die, it often still feels like we barely knew them aside from a few broad character strokes.

Shibuya Goldfish really is the manga equivalent of a straight-to-DVD horror movie. The premise is silly (and so far, entirely unexplained), most characters only seem to exist for the sake of the body count, and style over substance is the rule of the day--especially considering the protagonist of volume two seems to be a homicidal homeless man who's inexplicably adept at killing the goldfish, when everyone else seems almost entirely defenseless.

I like a lot of weirdness in my fiction at times, but there has to be some underlying method to the madness. Just throwing whatever the hell you feel like on the page, and hoping something sticks isn't enough to keep me coming back for more.

[Jenn Marshall · Rating 5 out of 5]

My husband brought home Shibuya Goldfish and told me I had to check it out. He used two words to describe it, "zombie goldfish". I knew I had to see it, but did not count on enjoying it so much.

It shouldn't work so well, the plot is man eating flying goldfish invade a tourist town and people need to be evacuated. Just saying it out loud makes me feel silly.
If you like horror this is the book for you. There is blood and death on almost every page. It has the perfect balance of ridiculousness. I could not put it down.

[Boujee · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's got a bit of a cliched and silly start, but it's got some fun and spoopy parts, and at the end, there was a season 2 hook that'll get me to at least read the second volume.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Giant flying goldfish attack a city in Japan and blood and bits of bodies soon make an appearance.

Oh man! Killer goldfish! I knew I had to try this one. When I picture a goldfish, I picture peaceful, lackadaisical, innocent little creatures 'bloop blooping' their way through life. And in here, our hero and friends get ripped apart by koi goldfish, infested with baby goldfish that squirm out their orifices before exploding their body in a meaty 'Ghrrk', and have their heads bitten off by those cute little bubbly eyed goldfish. One of the types of goldfish that look like they have tumorous growths all over their heads takes down a helicopter. Goldfish rule!

The use of thick dark lines to portray blood makes it difficult to sometimes decipher what is happening - did his head get ripped off just then?? Regardless, I will so be reading the next book in the series! What fun!

[Tatiana · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love horror manga and was super curious about a story where giant goldfish are eating everyone.

But, I just wasn't into it. It took me weeks to finally finish it, and the ending was pretty unsatisfactory. And then before you really learn the true ending (it's ambiguous), and then in the next volume we get a whole new character to follow.

A lot happens but it never feels action packed. And the main characters feel familiar instead of new or interesting.

Kinda mad I paid for it :/

[Joshua Jonah · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one, while not completely perfect or amazing hasn’t a great concept and I’m curious to see how the story continues. With that, I think I was pretty drawn in and I’m also wondering how things got started with the mutated goldfish. Are they from outer space? Are they from another dimension? Who’s behind it? It almost feels like World War Z but with goldfish and that alone intrigues me enough
To keep going.

[Tom Malinowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

Huge goldfish that swim through the air appear in a city. At first everyone is amazed. Then it descends into horror as the goldfish begin feeding on people. YIKES!

Great action, innovative teamwork in problem solving, and very bloody. I'm down for reading more but not right away.

[Bex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm weirdly invested, I have no idea what's going on but oh man this works

[Tanya · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a horror manga. It is so fucked up. Killer goldfish invade the trendy, downtown area of Shibuya. They just float in the air! And they eat humans! And use humans as a host for their eggs!

I still rated it highly for its originality and concept. But I am too scared to read the second book.

[Shawn Rykaczewski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not super well written, but the concept is hilarious and fun.

[Thom Webb-Riley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wtf did I just read?

[LaPommequirougit · Rating 5 out of 5]

https://lapommequirougit.com/2020/05/...

Je remercie les éditions Pika pour cette lecture. J’étais vraiment très impatiente de recevoir les deux premiers tomes de cette saga, car le résumé me tentait beaucoup ! Je ne suis pas très horreur, mais en manga, cela me gêne moins, vu que c’est en noir et blanc ! 😉

Hajime Tsukiyoda est adolescent avec une vie plutôt banale. Il est cinéphile, à des potes, voilà, rien de bien fou. Afin de tourner des scènes pour son film qu’il pense présenter à un concours, il décide d’aller à Shibuya. Il espère là-bas y trouver l’inspiration.

Il se balade, il cherche quelque chose d’intéressant, même si en réalité, il n’a pas grand-chose. Pourtant, sa vie risque d’avoir un tournant digne d’un film dans à peine quelques heures. Des poissons rouges géants, dévoreur de chair humaine vont apparaître sans aucune raison précise.

Une paroi, qui ressemble à un bocal de poisson, entoure Shibuya. Ces poissons les dévorent, sans aucune pitié. Ils sont enfermés dans cette enfer, lui et les potentiels survivants. Il a toujours voulu que sa vie soit plus mouvementée, dans le genre comédie. Étonnement, il se retrouve au centre d’une histoire type film d’horreur, le problème, c’est que tout cela est bien réel !

J’avais si hâte de le lire et je n’ai pas été déçue une fois que j’aie ouvert le manga. J’ai découvert premièrement un style graphique, que j’ai adoré. Il y a beaucoup de détail dans le coup de crayon d’Aoi Hiroumu. Ce qui est plaisant, mais aussi horriblement effrayant. Il arrive à faire les moindres détails de chacune de ces horribles scènes. On se retrouve du coup plonger dans l’histoire, comme s’y on y était !

L’histoire en elle-même est vraiment très prenante. Je suis intriguée par ces poissons rouges et leur mystérieuse apparition. On a envie de savoir pourquoi une chose improbable, est apparue en pleins milieu de Shibuya, puis surtout, comment un bocal de poisson a pu entourer Shibuya du jour au lendemain ?

En bref, c’est vraiment un premier tome prenant et haletant. Je suis ravie d’avoir la suite sous la main, comme ça, je pourrais le lire dans quelques jours ! J’aime le principe et pour l’instant, rien qu’à voir ce premier tome, ce nouveau survival-horror de chez Pika nous fait une belle promesse !

[Bianca Nabarrete-Lopez · Rating 2 out of 5]

30 word or less review:
Do you ever just get mad at yourself for only being really good at drawing one thing, like goldfish for example? Well have I got an idea for you!

What I liked best:
The drawings are really good, I would definitely love to practice sketching some. And I also liked some of the characters, I liked the end bit about Chitose and how she kind of cares.

What I liked least:
The plot just didn't stand out to me, it just seems like the characters are trapped in an endless nightmare without any real hope or advantage to fight back.

Why I read it:
Lately I've been trying to get back into manga. I use to read a lot of romance when I was younger but I read So Cute It Hurts!!, Vol. 1 last year and it just made me remember how cliche things were. I picked horror this time cause I thought it would be different and I heard Gyo was really good, I still might give that one a try, but this also just seemed like a generic manga. I don't think I'll give up on manga and anime just yet, but I've just been noticing that as I've gotten older so has my taste. My current favorites now are My Brother's Husband, Volume 1, Hanayome wa Motodanshi, and surprisingly Sanrio's new hits Aggretsuko and Rilakkuma and Kaoru. Guess me and Hello Kitty are just getting older. Anyway I wouldn't discourage you from reading Sibuya Goldfish, I actually checked out Vol. 2 as well, so I'll try and keep reading, just you know, it wasn't my cup of tea.

[Wombo Combo · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's a quote at the beginning of this about how life is a horror in the short term, but a comedy in the long run. As I result, I expected this to be a horror comedy, since this is a book with a real silly premise (giant goldfish eating people). Instead what I got was a pretty bland zombie apocalypse story without zombies.

I don't know who thought it would be a good idea to try to make goldfish scary, but they messed up. I don't think it's possible to make goldfish scary, honestly. No matter how hard this book tries, I just can't take it seriously. If it were a horror comedy, that'd be fine, but seeing as how there aren't really any jokes (at least, not any funny ones), it fails tremendously as a horror idea. Honestly, if they had just made the monsters something other than goldfish, half of this book's problems would go away.

One thing I hated was the fact that the characters were pretty uninteresting. The main character is just a loser nerd, which is a trope I hate. Though he does gain more confidence as the story goes on and turns into less of a loser, pretty much all we know about him is that he wants to make movies. I feel like good characters can carry bad stories, so it sucks that the protagonist and the other characters were mostly two dimensional.

Honestly, the preview for the next volume looks way more interesting than this volume, so I may end up picking it up just because of that.

I picked this up because I figured that a comic about killer goldfish would be pretty fun, but I guess not.

[Sucre · Rating 1 out of 5]

Hilariously bad for like two chapters. Giant goldfish spontaneously appear in Shibuya and a goldfish bowl rises up out of the ground and traps citizens inside! The goldfish eat people! They also talk, usually non sequitur phrases including "Did you watch TV last night?" and "I'm sleepy...". A girl is introduced in the first chapter and goes from "kind, beautiful goddess of the high school" to "shy girl who secretly loves movies" to "evil snobby bitch" and then is immediately eaten. This is followed by a flashback page of her being ~so kind~ to the MC even though she just attempted to kill him. Also, the flashbacks we're shown happened less than ten pages ago.

It becomes run-of-the-mill bad after that. Mediocre art, gross fan service, paper thin characters, etc etc. If you've read any kind of apocalypse "horror" manga then you'll recognize all these boring tropes but somehow done worse than anywhere else. At least there wasn't some high school girl pissing herself in this one.

[Raygun ∆ Gothic · Rating 1 out of 5]

By the first page I am already down to clown...fish🤦🤦‍♀️🤦‍♂️

HOLY CARP you guys this thing is self aware?!?!? Quote from the first page: "Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot" -Charlie Chaplin, the King of Comedy.

But seriously though, I did eventually have to give up on this because of the shounen-ness of it all. I.e., panty shots just before young girls are killed. If I've got to draw the line somewhere, it's gonna be there.

But +10 for absolutely bananapants comedy concept.

[cvtherin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Loved the idea, and I'll certainly never think of goldfish the same way again. However, the story wasn't really there and it was hard to care for any of the characters.

Also, things just kept getting worse. Twist after twist; it became comical then just irksome. It was hilarious when a ginormous goldfish ate the helicopter rescue but it was trifling when a character lost her balance reaching for ... a scrunchie.

Interesting idea, poor execution.

[Weinlachgummi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interessante Idee,etwas trashig. Möchte die Reihe auf jeden Fall weiterlesen, um zu erfahren was dahinter steckt. Die Idee mit den Goldfischen, die Amok laufen und Menschen fressen ist schon sehr abgedreht. Der Protagonist ist sympathisch und mich interessiert wie es mit ihm weitergeht. Bin wirklich gespannt was in den anderen Bänden noch passiert. Zeichenstil gefällt mir, schön klar.

[Cassandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a lot of character development, but the gore and insanity make it worthwhile.