Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Tomie by Junji Ito

18 reviews

veggiecats's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

i'm a huge fan of junji ito and i think now i may be about halfway reading through the books hes put out. tomie was less on the existential side of horror, and more focused on gore, manipulation, and more real world horrors. as the story progress, i had grown more and more of a distaste for tomie (the character), wishing that she would just leave these innocent people alone.

when i was reading, i couldn't stop thinking about the girl who got the kidney transplant and became tomie instead. really, that made me so sad. also i'm a bit unnerved that the story implies that tomie was a teenager for most of her lives.

if you're a fan of junji ito, you'll like this- but if you're just getting into his work, i suggest picking up a quicker read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cannibalism, Gore, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Confinement, Self harm, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Stalking, Suicide, Torture, Alcoholism, Body horror, and Fire/Fire injury

keycard's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

girl boss Tomie deserved better 🤞🏻this is a rambly review since it’s mostly for me and I’m just spitting out all my thoughts incoherently lol.  in my opinion this collection shows how men believe that they own women and are entitled to do enact violence upon them because of their feelings. As mean as some of her actions are, I don’t consider her to be a femme fatale. she doesn’t really do anything to seduce the men involved with her or say anything nice to endear herself to them, in fact she generally rejects them. they just lust after her. 

even in situations where Tomie hasn’t really done anything or actively seduced anyone,

like in revenge

  at the end of the day a man will kill her because he is obsessed with her. it’s interesting how a lot of them say things you would expect to hear from a perpetrator of femicide in real life, using that same example, the younger brother actually says

“it was an urge that drove him. he couldn’t help it. it was an expression of his love” in regards to his brother cutting Tomie up into pieces, killing and abandoning her on the mountain.

In my opinion, Tomie is the story of a tragic victim who progressively becomes worse as men continue to abuse her because they “love her too much”. She is continually blamed for the torture she is forced to endure and relive when men realize they cannot control her. 

though extremely effective, my least favorite was definitely

boy

and while I understand that it has a purpose and puts an important emphasis on how horrible of a person she can become, it probably needs a trigger warning for

grooming, pedophilia and implied molestation

. It doesn’t quite fit in against the other situations we see her in imo and made me extremely uncomfortable (which was the point but still lol). I think it symbolizes

the cycle of abuse, as in her origin story she is groomed by her teacher and in this story she is the adult who grooms a young boy. this is by far her most monstrous action in my opinion and to me symbolizes her giving up her last semblance of humanity as the victim becomes an abuser.

my favorite chapters are definitely revenge, assassins, photo and painter and coincidentally they illustrate my interpretation of the story pretty well :) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Torture, Violence, Body horror, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Gore

Minor: Bullying, Confinement, and Pedophilia

mermaidsherbet's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Cannibalism, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, and Terminal illness

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Car accident, Classism, Cursing, Grief, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Rape, and Incest

booksthoughtsandtea's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Horrific. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

gracetrimper's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, and Stalking

theleppy's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Murder, Stalking, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Kidnapping

lauren_elizabeth's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I was desperate to read some Junji Ito and wanted to start chronologically from his early career. The art is amazing and only develops and grows more sophisticated, especially in personalising faces (I was a bit unnerved by some early stories in which other female characters greatly resembled Tomie; she herself could only be distinguished by the distinctive close-up panels on her heavy-lidded eyes and beauty mark).

I can see why people might not like this, or feel some reservations at the violence perpetrated by men against Tomie. But I liked it! I might expand on it later but some rough thoughts that I have is that it seems like a satirical dig at gender roles and heterosexual relationships and courtship. While it could get repetitive, some stories were really original and memorable.

I also liked that, from the outset, Tomie is not just an otherworldly femme fatale but explicitly grotesque — more a virus than a girl — with a lot of focus on bodily fluids, multiplying and regrowing body parts, multiple Tomies, even transubstantiation into liquid. I feel like this could have been taken further, as all the men she enchants appear to have the same modus operandi. In this strain of virus and contagion, I found myself thinking of films like Ring. Again, these ideas are underdeveloped and I would have loved to have seen a fuller conclusion to the stories (and maybe some more interiority for Tomie herself, who is largely shallow and unsympathetic), but for an early serial that’s also beautifully illustrated, I found it a fun and thought-provoking read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Physical abuse, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Suicide, Sexual assault, Confinement, and Medical trauma

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Infidelity, Cursing, and Alcoholism

f18's review against another edition

dark funny tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, Torture, Medical trauma, Gore, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Cannibalism, Confinement, and Suicide

Minor: Alcoholism, Pedophilia, and Incest