Tomie

Jul 4, 2016

berserkersoul

Mixed Feelings

STORY: 6/ART:6/CHARACTERS:5/ENJOYMENT:6/OVERALL:6

I would consider Tomie to be an interesting mange to read when you are waiting for another mange chapter to be released. It it definitely good to pass the time but it isn't anything to write home about.

STORY: The story is very simple. There is a succubus (Tomie) that has immense beauty and charm. She goes around seducing men and driving them to murder and driving women to insanity. The victim of the aggravated violence is usually Tomie herself. When she gets murdered she spawns more of herself and regenerates, continuing her curse. It is even alluded to towards the end of the manga ...

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Oct 11, 2015

trishxlucia

Mixed Feelings

Preliminary (12/20 chp)

Tomie is not a bad manga, however, it is flawed with the biggest one of it being repetitive and almost nonsensical. The story centres around one beautiful girl named, well, Tomie, who takes a mean grip of mens' hearts and subverts them to do any and every of her beckoning. The men, as if under some sort of a trance, are more then willing to kill, beat, threaten and berate any one on whom Tomie points her well manicured accusing finger at.
The manga is made a compilation of stories (for most parts one-shot style) featuring Tomie as the antagonist, with the unfortunate protagonist (most ...

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Jun 3, 2017

uhLuvi

Mixed Feelings

Junji Ito writes horror manga. He has his own style of horror which separates him from all of the other manga artist.

Story: 6/10: I sometimes just thought to myself the story doesn't really make sense, I don't know whats going on then... Finally, you get back on track.

Art: 10/10: The style from Junji Ito is just amazing. The style of art that he creates blows a lot of other horror manga artists out of the water! He can turn something like a simple spiral to something incredible.

Character: 5/10: Sometimes you think, why is this character in here. Also the characters may go off topic from ...

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Dec 29, 2019

Nana_not

Mixed Feelings

I came across Tomie because one of my friends recommended it to me. So after reading the synopsis it sounded really interesting and I figured that the manga would be something more ‘deep’ and just more exciting?
My first review ever! I hope my explanations are easy to understand :)))

STORY:5
It’s not that I don’t understand the plot but I couldn’t really wrap my head around it. There were so many things that were left unexplained. Questions like, ‘how did the rumours not spread around?’ And ‘if there were so many tomie’s how did people not see more of her?’
Not only were there several plot holes ...

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Sep 18, 2023

Wystaria

Mixed Feelings

I'm going to be honest... this was kind of disappointing. I feel like I've heard a lot of talk about "Tomie", but now that I've actually read it, I feel sort of misled. I may reread it to ensure I didn't miss any crucial details. As a first-time reader though I'll say this story isn't for everyone.

There's a lot of body horror involved and I found that to be pretty interesting. Otherwise, I have several issues with how this story was presented. The first is that it's episodic. Normally, I wouldn't really make such a big deal out of this, but unlike "Uzumaki", I feel ... like "Tomie" actually needs a concrete line of narrative in order to be more comprehensible and enjoyable. As it is, the different "episodes" feel very disconnected, and because they all tend to follow a similar plotline, they also become repetitive. It's a shame because I feel like "Tomie" would have had a lot of potential as a more fleshed-out story, but I guess that's not really to be.

I also want to make note of the fact that the quality of art changes a lot throughout the series. The earlier chapters especially are rather rough around the edges; for example, there's a panel in the first chapter that isn't even colored in.

Another problem I had with the narrative was that almost every character was unlikeable - especially Tomie. I wish we'd been given more of a backstory to get to know who - or what - she is and what her life has been like. I don't think in the slightest that she deserved being treated the way she was, but it's not like she was presented in a light that easily lended to the creation of sympathy. She takes advantage of old people and children and I find that hard to defend when I know so little about her. I suppose one could draw all sorts of conclusions about victim-blaming and such from this (I believe I have heard "Tomie"-related discussion on this topic before). However, I think that those kinds of messages don't have to be obscured to the degree they are in "Tomie" - with some exceptions, thankfully. If you've seen the movie "Jennifer's Body", then perhaps you'll know what I mean when I say that it executes the concept of "Tomie" better than "Tomie" itself does. In fact, I think that movie is a great example of what a world of difference a proper backstory and characterization can do. Could I defend Jennifer's actions? No, but at the very least I knew enough about Jennifer and her story to know WHY she was doing what she was doing. And unlike with "Tomie", the subtle messaging about victim-blaming (among other themes) was both more creative and better-connected to the narrative. As a whole, this series has a lot of moments where it sets up characters and plotlines only to never really use them to their full potential. That was frustrating to me.

Finally, I want to point out that, in tandem with a lack of backstory for Tomie, there's a lack of explanation of who or what she is and how her "powers" even work. And I think this is a problem because it creates inconsistencies and confusion in the narrative that makes piecing together what's going on even more difficult. I felt at several points that Junji Ito was just kind of... making things up as he went, and in my mind that is not the kind of impression you want to give your readers. For example, at some point there are rumors spread about a whole horde of Tomies living in a lake (which is true), and yet when the villagers go to investigate, they find no one there. But then, later in the chapter, all the Tomies emerge from the water. Maybe I'm just stupid but I find moments like these to be annoying, especially because simple questions like "Where did all the Tomies go?" could have been easily resolved with one or two cutaway panels.

As a whole, this isn't a bad work but it's definitely not my most favorite thing I've read. It's good to read if you want to make a small commitment to something short, but otherwise I wouldn't get my hopes up much. Maybe you'll find some sort of meaning in it that I missed.

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Jun 23, 2024

gbupp

Mixed Feelings

As with so many Junji Ito stories, it is more a "silly story with horror elements" than a real horror story. Tomie is no different, and while the first 2-3 and last 2-3 stories try their best to form a beginning and end narrative, the whole thing feels like so many other Junji Ito stores - half baked. Overall - it is okay. Generally interesting enough, and some of the panels are really well done and fun to look at. As with other Junji Ito works, it suffers from character design (so many characters look the same both within this story and to other books) ...

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Oct 25, 2024

Mara2463

Mixed Feelings

Tomie – Spoiler Free – Mixed Feelings

TLDR
Overall: 6/10

Disclaimer: due to the nature of this work – a collection of short stories –, my normal parameters of Story, Art, Characters and Enjoyment with a weighted average won’t be applied. Instead, a global overview will be offered.

Tomie's probably one of Junji Ito’s biggest short story compilations known to date, even surpassing Uzumaki. Comprising almost 800 pages, Tomie’s stories are united by a common figure – a succubus called Tomie. Contrary to Uzumaki or Gyo, there isn’t a single story being told, but just an exploration of the adventures and capabilities of this succubus in her multiple forms. ...
Unfortunately, most stories are mid at best, without being scary at all. However, opposing some other of his larger stories, Tomie doesn’t have that many leaps of faith, for the simple reason that the logic inherent to the succubus rules out classical logic for characters. Her superhuman powers come to the fore, justifying the hysteria surrounding her; this is a common aspect in many of Tomie’s stories. It does make it, however, for some very predictable stories with a turn of the supernatural around the corner: men get enchanted by Tomie, and she either drives them crazy or commands them to do something heinous, and the story develops almost always with this premise in mind. The stories also aren’t memorable, with the few exceptions almost exclusively at the beginning of the manga.
Some stories, although fewer in number in comparison to Uzumaki, are also funny, such as in the last pages of Moromi – but there aren’t many, being much more serious than Gyo or even Uzumaki. In comparison, one must also state that Uzumaki is still the best of his longer stories, although the allure in Uzumaki was the small village and the spirals, here is the character.
In fact, one of the most more intriguing aspects of this manga is Tomie’s character design: her character is beautiful, seducing men at ease. The fact that she is a succubus makes sense with her design. Moreover, in terms of art, we have great panels, such as at the beginning of the Painter chapter, for instance. This touches on one may focus of Tomie’s success: her charm. The reader is charmed by the likes of Tomie; it has a certain donaire, a gracefulness that justifies its cult-like status. It’s not about Tomie’s stories that set it aside in the grand scheme of Junji Ito’s (very) long career: it’s the character’s elegance and eloquence; it’s the allure, the “je ne sais quoi” in Tomie. This is perfect for a character as ominous as her, and as Junji Ito’s greatest character to date – not that he is known for his complex characters. The remaining characters in Tomie – all of them, for that matter – play according to her tune and dance to her liking. They merely serve to fulfil her murderous and manipulative wishes.
Tomie, however, cannot be recommended for its stories, for they are mid; but while the character compensates for some of its shortcomings, a story without a robust narrative – or narratives and concepts, in the case of short stories – is nothing but a shell of itself. While the stories are worse than in Uzumaki, the character is definitely better. But it is doesn’t deserve more than a 6 – or fine – score. For these reasons, Tomie deserves a Mixed Feelings stamp.

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Nov 16, 2024

PeejayEejay

Mixed Feelings

This was alright. There was a mix of pretty good stories and not so good ones. Some were very creative while others felt empty or samey. I think the concept of tomie could have been fully explored with half as many chapters. The fact that a lot of these chapters were his early works, where his art is quite lacking detracts a bit considering his art style is the main draw of his stories. I also didn't feel very attatched to many of the characters, which might be a matter of the plot being segmented and not necessarily related. It was enjoyable but I much ...

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Apr 21, 2021

02_RK

Mixed Feelings

I expected better plot from the manga, but it disappointed me. After all it is Juni Ito's first manga. The art were Mediocre from first few chapters, then quality increased bit by bit.
Characters were not well written, caused the zero interlink between chapters. It's just main character Tomie, who is all over place. Story were like different events represented in a single book. Didn't got to know the secret behind all these cause of event, that was pretty disappointing.
Flow of the storyline was bit off and there was unnecessary ending to many events in the chapter. As for horror it's fine as Tomie remained a ...

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Nov 26, 2022

kiwilover8

Mixed Feelings

As someone who LOVED Uzumaki i was left feeling kind of dissapointed when I finished Tomie. Tomie barely has a coherent plot, it felt like a bunch of short stories that don’t have one single conclusion. Because of this the story line feels hollow. After a while the same premise over and over again also just becomes kind of stale.

Having said that I still absolutely adore the artstyle of Junji Ito, he is a master in creating images that make you want to throw up and I absolutely love that about him.

If you are debating which of Junji Ito’s work you should read I ...

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