Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Tomie

What. The. Hell. 😅

Manga is out of my range of genres, but I received this book in a mystery book exchange at NYE 2022 (heading into 2023). The mystery book description was “a collection of heartwarming stories about a very normal girl.” It is not. 🤣

The art is INCREDIBLE! I can’t believe how detailed each page and panel was!

However, with each story, this shit got more and more violent and gory and wild.

CW: murder, suicide, beauty standards, sexism, inappropriate adult-child relationships

It got rough. 😰

Overall, this is an incredible creation and Junji Ito is brilliant.

Content Warnings

snackattackisback69's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

keycard's review against another edition

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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 :)

Content Warnings

bugcollector's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

0.5

Perhaps Uzumaki was a flock.
The artwork there was enchanting and hypnotizing, so it was fine by me ignoring the lacking plot.
However, in Tomie plot is all you got, and it's not good.

It's The same story over and over again. Tomie gets abused sure, but in the end she's boy crazy, self obsessed, materialistic, and enjoys killing boys and making girls jealous.
Minor bitch comments here and there, casual sexism every few pages, Junji Ito can't help it can he?
I don't know what are we supposed to take from Tomie besides hating women a little bit?
Boring, tedious, monotonous, flat, one dimensional, even demonizing.
Took me a while to finish.
It did suprisengly passed the Bechdel test in one scene- two named characters talk about their obsession with Tomies' hair.

After being disappointed and dissatisfied with reading Gyo and No longer human as well, I think I'll end my Junji Ito journey here.

Content Warnings

the_sapphic_witch's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I loved this manga, but I was genuinely not prepared for how disturbing and creepy it was. Im an avid horror reader and this was a whole new level of disturbing in a good way (ish). I dont think I'll be recommending this just purely cause of how disturbing it was even though I throughly enjoyed it, and it gave a fresh take on horror. The characters (espically Tomie) are not meant to be likable and I appreciate that. Sometimes you feel bad about the abuse and violence Tomie goes through, but you are quickly reminded of what a manipulative and entitled bitch she is (espically in Boy that was badddddddd) and quickly recind anything pitiful you had to say about her. (Possible spoiler idk)

The creepiest thing (and simultaneously the best) is Tomie never dies out. She regenerates and multiplies and is an immortal succubus so you always know that Tomie's regin of horror will continue forever. Even with the ending, just think back to Waterfall Basin and you'll remember you can never get rid of Tomie.

All in all, I think Tomie is am excellent Manga and great for lovers of extreme horror and graphic themes, just would only recommend to much older fans (17+) and that checking the trigger warning for this book will be your best friend (Im serious please check the trigger warnings cause oh boy was this manga a lot). Have a lovely day and Blessed be <3.

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