The Horror of Junji Ito's Tomie 

I feel like she kind of lost her humanity with each regeneration, as if every time the piece of the original girl became smaller and smaller

she could literally take over the world if she started streaming on twitch

There's not much evidence to support this, but the thought of Tomie once being a totally normal teenager only to live through constant violence and find herself slowly transform into something less and less human is pretty terrifying to imagine. I like to think she was seriously confused and scared in the beginning while trying to maintain normalcy, only to give up hope and relinquish her humanity.

It’s also interesting because her personality changes overtime

I'm a simple man. I see Junji Ito, I click, I like, I turn into an eldritch horror.

Considering Tomie's ability to multiply, it is possible that the odd divergences in her behavior from story arc to story arc could possibly be a result of each copy developing in a different way partially as a result of the environment they end up in. After all, it's never established if they share some kind of mental link to dictate how they should behave, just that they share the same base personality and abilities.

I believe the molestation implication in “Boy” is intended. The horror of child abuse is something Junji Ito has delved into before, namely in his short story “Bully”. Great video, I love seeing videos on Ito’s work!

I've always found Tomie fascinating as a character. She's nasty, vicious, and malicious; but at the same time there are these poignant moments when she seems wounded, self-loathing, and pitiable.

Tomie is a pretty obvious allegory. She's representative of men who blame women for their actions. The stories where she is resisted show that these men are still responsible. The reason why the story of the boy is last, is because it's the completion of her as a monster after constant abuse. She, like many abused women, pushes her abuse onto her "child".

I think the classmates cutting her up has a deeper meaning. In the end, she was completely cut off from the society, dismembered and abandoned, so she could become something else. The monster with unknown purpose. OR it's just some BS like you said

One thing that I like about the Umihara arc is that is shows one of Tomies weaknesses: true love. While Umihara is affected by her, getting those sunken eyes. But he didn’t lose his mind, and the only think she could replace in his dream was his late wife’s face.

Tomie is similar to the short story The enigma of a amagari fault. The horror of compulsion. The horror of doing things without knowing why.

Tomie can regenerate her body parts? So when God said "Go forth and multiply", this is not what he really meant.

God, I checked Tomie out from the public library when I was 11 years old. It was one of my first manga after... Kitchen Princess. It fundamentally changed me as a human.

I think the story is about a cycle of abusive and toxic relationships. Tomie started off as being sexually involved with her teacher (which, by the way, is not acceptable in Japan, despite what anime fans might tell you), who then proceeds to murder her and cover it up. Every incarnation of Tomie is a bit different, since they are affected by the environment they “grow” in. The bad thing is that every version of Tomie that comes to life isn’t necessarily in the best situation; sometimes she’s isolated, sometimes she’s stalked, she’s murdered constantly, tortured, and attracts all manner of crazy men (although whether they were always crazy or Tomie causes them to be is something else). Plus, every version of Tomie remembers what’s happened to her, so they carry that baggage with them forever. Of course, she doesn’t do much to make herself look like a good person, since she’s rude, conceited and generally a bully. But even though Tomie is a terrible person, she rarely actually does anything violent herself, tbh. She’s not even really good at manipulating people, since anyone not under her spell gets suspicious. The only times she does anything terrible herself, it’s usually because she doesn’t have any guys available that can do it for her, or she’s backed into a corner, or she has a clear power and experience advantage over someone (like the kid in “Boy”). She’s better at convincing others to do harm than putting in the labor to do so; whether it’s out of laziness or just enjoying the turmoil between others is up for debate. Is Tomie naturally cruel and uses some powers to manipulate men into doing horrific things? Or is Tomie’s cruelty the result of mistreatment by the hands of others? Are the men brainwashed by her and is she doing it on purpose, or were they already mentally vulnerable to crazy actions and Tomie just hit the right buttons? A lot of the guys in the story who fall victim often have something about them that she can exploit; sometimes their reclusive, or objectify women already and react violently when she rejects them, or feel entitled to her feelings, or are already lonely and just want ANYONE’s companionship, or, in the case of “Boy”, are too young and naive to understand that she shouldn’t be trusted. One of the biggest ones that made me think about this was the story with the painter. Tomie criticizes his artwork, calls his model ugly, and straight up insults him to his face, and yet, the root of his obsession with her is in part because she isn’t impressed and he wants to show off his skills by capturing her beauty. Instead she literally convinced him that his insanely accurate painting of her is somehow incorrect, and no matter how he paints her, it’s never right. As an artist, I’ve seen plenty of artists get very uppity about perfecting their work, and it’s likely Ito has too. It’s possible that his actions are not entirely due to Tomie, but his own insecurities leaking to the surface. Compare this to Umehara, who, by all means, should be another victim, but somehow isn’t. There’s nothing really special or supernatural about him that should allow him to resist Tomie, he’s just a dude with no time for BS lmao. This kinda reflects how real abuse works; people are more likely to be abusers if they themselves have suffered from it, and are more likely to be victims because abusers pick out their insecurities. As Tomie evolves, she becomes more jaded, more cruel, and less of the person she once was, and every version of her birthed from the violence of her past relationship goes on to repeat the same behavior, until eventually, she takes it out on a child, in the same way her teacher did to her. Of course, I’m not defending Tomie, just pointing out a theory. Edit: someone mentioned that later on it’s revealed Tomie existed long before the first story, but I think my other points about cyclic abuse still stand. Tomie’s stories exist as a cycle; she finds a guy, treats him like garbage, and he either gets fed up and kills her, she ditches him, or he stays her willing but mistreated partner indefinitely. Whether Tomie’s true origins involve her being the victim of abuse is true or not, I still think her constantly being in violent and destructive “relationships” still has clear symbolism.

To me Tomie represents the most terrifying kind of monster; One that’s told over and over that she is despite her intentions, and ultimately becoming what people claim. With Ito I have learned that what you see is what you get.

Tomie regenerating from chunks of her corpse always, always reminds me of succulents as someone who has a borderline hoarding problem with succulents and is awfully clumsy. Succulents can grow plantlets from almost any part you break off of it, I've chopped off the top of multiple and smaller plants grow out from the stump if you leave it in the pot. So I always saw tomie as a kind of organism that reproduces by compelling people to kill her lol.

Tomie's behavior toward those that don't fall under her spell epitomizes the assertion that "everything is about sex--except sex. Sex is about power." A man that is not drawn to her by lust is exciting or interesting because he is powerful, but frightening because he exposes her weakness.

So basically she has master the art of getting people to simp for her?

I think that in the first chapter, Tomie's teacher and classmates were already influenced by Tomie's power. That's why they made absurd decision of mutilating her, because Tomie's power made them to be bloodlust or something. Madness seeped in resulting in illogical action without them realizing it.

I feel like you missed the point of the story - it’s about the excuses abusers make to justify their actions. “She made me so it, it was she who wanted it and invited me in. She forced me to do it.” Tomie is the personification of the way they describe their victims. “She was the one who started trying to seduce me. I had no choice but to kill her. She made me.” It’s why the “honest” and “not interested” men are “safe” from her “power to make them lust after her and want to kill her”. In fact, it is that since they aren’t interested in molesting her or hurting her that they are “safe” - in reality, it is she who is safe from them, as they don’t attack her, and thus, they don’t need to make excuses for why they hurt her. And “the boy” is about abuse being cyclical. She was a child when she was abused and exploited. And in the end, people who have been abused themselves can become so scarred that they inflict the same kind of pain into others.

Tomie was underage and pretty. Her pedo teacher groomed her. The boys liked her for her beauty only. Girls didn't like that. Tomie wanted her teacher to divorce his wife which made him furious and he started to hate her. The boys of the school started hating her too because they can't have a chance with her anymore. And altogether everyone thought tomie was the villan when actually she was the victim. Someone said this series wasn't good because Tomie was just dying and coming back again, there's no end to her and all that. I think as long as misogyny and sexism exists in this world, Tomie will continue to exist as well.

Such a shame Junji Ito himself doesn't seem to like Tomie - she's by far the best character he's ever created.

In the beginning, Tomie was underaged and was engaged with an adult In the end, Tomie ends up being the one taking advantage of a young boy Before then, I thought she might’ve been a sympathetic villain, but that all ended when she did those wretched things, to a young boy no less, at that point I knew she was irredeemable

Though I don’t know the age of Tomei so this may be wrong, but seeing that she was sleeping with her teacher the story could partially be exploring the cycle of abuse. As by the boy she is the one know abusing a child

Okay, so I want to add something to the topic of the chapter "Boy." That is, I don't think your interpretation of the story being about child abuse to be too far off, I do think you're missing a piece: the cyclical nature of abuse. Tomie was, before she was anything else, a school girl who was having sex with a teacher. We can debate Japan's age of consent laws and the supposed desire she had for said teacher up the ying yang but the result remains fixed; an adult man had sex with someone who is neurologically underdeveloped and a child, in the biological, mental and neurological sense of the word. Not to mention that, from the reports of young boys and girls who have survived such abusove relationships, we know that their supposed desire usually is the result of psychological grooming by an adult to trick them into thinking that their abuse is a good, desirable thing. Add to that the fact that, although most abuse victims do not become abusers, almost all abusers have been abused and... Tomie, as a monster, is reliving her grooming and sexual abuse at the hands of her teacher from the position of the powerful adult to make herself feel secure and in control. Cyclical abuse.

I think the story "Painter" is a good example of Tomie as a whole. She wants to preserve her beauty and power, but obviously cant in pictures, so seeks after male artists to manipulate. Junji Ito says that Painter was intended to be about Tomie, but not focus on all of the previous stories about her. It was meant to be self contained and has a lot of her personality, as well as Junji saying he tried to make her as beautiful as possible.

I think there’s multiple Tomies from her scattered pieces with different vices. The one that manipulated the boy is not the same one who died by her enraged cultists. All of them share original Tomie’s drive to be loved and cared for and search for it differently, and never handles it well. At the end of the day, she really was just a teenager who was manipulated and mistreated until she died.

My theory for her classmates to end up participating in a class murder is that everyone just purely despises her. She's hated by every girl (except her friend) in her class for being all high and mighty along side her beauty that guys find attractive. It's been portrayed in a few japanese media that girls can be hella vindictive over pretty co-workers or classmates. The only difference is, Tomie can fight back hence many choose to keep their mouth shut. Next is that they found out how she was seducing their 'beloved' homeroom teacher and cheating on her boyfriend. Once they caught wind of how she's willing to blackmail him, everyone chalked her up as 'scum' and someone who doesn't deserve redemption. Keep in mind that their teacher is also pretty hot and can sway their reasoning. He can score a chalk ton of sympathy points from very naive teenagers who has yet to even mature into full adulthood to realize that 'oh, this shit is wrong'. He also needs to dispose of her asap before anyone finds out he knocked her up. Whether it was true or not, Tomie would definitely end his career if she lived. Guys who might've been ridiculed or rejected (maybe even ignored) by Tomie finally can get their revenge. Some of them might've thought things like 'Who's laughing now? You're not hot after all lol.' By the time they even realize she was alive, the damage was far too gone. What were they supposed to do? Let her live? Have the cops arrest the class for attempted murder? Nope, it's all or nothing at that point.

It's still a "pretty women are scary" story but a couple of nuances in it like the boy showing she is a truly awful person compared with how little control she has over her own life when the men she enchants try to kill her. It's like a cycle of abuse

I really like how in each chapter the art style gets better and better

Even though it's just Junji Ito's art style getting better over time, I kinda like imagining that Tomie became more and more beautiful the more she embraced her new abilities, even if it is tragic.

I do understand Ito’s use of the misogynistic trope of “girls hating other girls when they’re pretty and popular”. He wasn’t trying to be sexist, he was basically mocking the trope with what kind of a character she is.

Tomie is the embodiment of the phrase "Hurt people, hurt people" taken to the extreme of course.

We’re looking at a different Tomie every time

I still maintain the theory that Tomie is still actually a ghost of somesort. Simply because she never actually directly killed or harmed anyone by her own hands everything she had done she had done through manipulating others. This is supported by the ending of the final chapter and... ***SPOILERS*** You have been warned ok? When there is an old man who remembers Tomie from long ago that Tomie was entombed in a concrete slab and couldn't resist picking the slab apart to see if she is there. And when it is finally opened he is there with another character too accompany him. Once the slab is opened the old many is horrified that Tomie is there but the other character and the reader sees nothing but a plain and ordinary concrete slab Tomie is not there. The old man can see her but nobod yelse can.

Although some of the comments mention this, I feel like each time she dies and regenerates, she loses more of her humanity, almost like a monster is slowly taking over her. And ik that over this manga it shows junji ito's progression of art style, but in terms of how the characters view her, she gets more and more seductive. (for example, in the first chapter everyone just was baffled by how she was alive and didn't pay as much attention to her beauty compared to gathering)

A good thing to keep in mind is Tomie’s human personality and Tomie’s monster personality are completely different entities.

The difference between then is that a Femme Fatale is ultimately a male fantasy while Tomie is a villain that is subverts what it really means to scare the male audience. Femme Fatales are sexy and seductive that uses her sexuality to make good men do bad things. But she is still a male fantasy and is subjected to the male gaze ( meaning created, albeit villainous, to male pleasure). The men who do bad things have their guilts removed cuz they have "no control" over their sexuality. This is why Tomie is a male horror in my opnion. Tomie's power actually uses Male Gaze as the weakness to exploit men. She does not give sexual favors and doesnt give anyshit towards male pleasure, and YET men who only see women as sex objects ARE the very ones who are under her control. The men who does evil things for her becomes crazy BECAUSE their guilt isnt absorbed by Tomie, instead they are haunted by their OWN conscience. And so driven mad the ultimate choice for these men is to kill tomie, as violence is the male tool for dominating women in films. AND still Tomie grows back from the remains, the embodiment of a man's worst nightmare.

When hunters Dreams theme started playing i knew imma love this video.

19:14 - "Let's talk about... Boy" *Happy Kratos noises*

Men who would do anything just to get with her? Ito knows the horror of simping.

Tomie: SCP 6211 Class: Keter.

She sounds like she could be a SCP

The chapter “Boy” hits close to home. A lot of the people who hurt me groomed me also. They’d tell me they’d be my new “mom” or “dad”, and give me “rewards”. I became enthralled with these people because I thought they were the only ones who truly wanted me. Ugh

So in short, get the Flamer. The HEAVY Flamer.

Interestingly, Junji Ito based Tomie on the concept of beheading snakes and their bodies wiggling as if still alive. So he combined really well both her being a "snake" and that of being undying.

i always thought she was kind of a metaphor for all young women. sexuality is ascribed to her by men; even though they despise the way she acts, can't or won't understand her, they see her beauty and desire her, and that desire always turns into violence against her. in our world, desire for and violence against women often aren't that easy to distinguish. in the end, tomie's "power" isn't one she chose or even really wants. she's beautiful, and men can't help but want to kill her. her existence is suffering. and, every time she tries to reach out to a female character, instead of helping her the relationship quickly turns manipulative, jealous, and pointlessly bad for both of them. idk, i always found her pretty apt. just the teenage girl experience, junji ito'd.

you missed the point, its about tomie's beauty and men wanting to own that beauty, i think it's clearly to highlight men's extremely superficial attraction to women, the complete objectification and therefore dehuminization of women that is often mistaken as 'love', which ironically leads to brutality, violence and murder. Also, she was not having an 'affair' with her teacher, she was taken advantage of, manipulated,groomed, raped, murdered and mutilated. A child cannot give consent to an adult, especially in a position of power. The real horror is that all that it takes is for a woman to be unlikeable in order to justify and accept extreme, unspeakable brutality done against her by men.

I feel like this whole story is about the cycle of abuse considering she was in a sexual relationship with her teacher (which may or may not be a result of grooming on the teacher’s end) and was literally torn apart by men over and over again until she was such a shadow of her former self that she took out her pain and hatred on an innocent child.

Mmh I feel Tomie in general is about Narcissism and codependency. Both the Narcisist and codependent lose their sense of selves to eachother. The Narcisist wants to be pleased and tolerates nothing else and the codepended wants to please and is manipulated into doing anything the Narcisist wants. When the codependent sees through the facade (mask) of the narcisist and finds the monster insided they might attempt to escape or destroy the Narcisist in some manner and fail, because to a narcisist even negative attention grows their ego. Others will simply be used up and discarded. The Narcisist will also simply find a new codepented to leech attention from in a never ending cycle. People who are not codependent will often see through the mask much faster and will have the sense to not give the Narcisist attention at all though gray slating. Narcisists are confidant, manipulative and often liars and do everything to make themselvse the center of everyones attention. And to preserve their self image of perfection. They are incredibly two-faced and will ruin peoples lives. Anyone that has dealt with a narcisist will be able to attest to this.

The boy in the last chapter was supposedly Mr. Satoru the teacher who Tomie was having an affair with in the first chapter. They have the same name, Satoru Tagaki. The wiki infers that they're supposed to be the same people.

There’s a Netflix show that’s literally “Tomie” it’s called Girl From Nowhere I think I’m serious if you watch it it’s literally this character. It’s an anthology of the same girl with different stories

Tomie feels like the entire story of how an ito monster is born whereas usually we see only the end result like ribs woman or the birdwoman, how someone that used to be human slowly becomes less and less so until they lose any and all motivation and simply begin acting out in nearly mindless evil.

So basically, she's got the Jedi mind trick, and she uses it to ruin people.

This reminded me of an old short comic book story that appeared in Eerie magazine back in the 70s which was later adapted into an episode of Showtime's masters of horror called Jennifer. I believe Bernie wrightson Illustrated it.

The Boy and the Little Finger story for me are peak Tomie as she is pure evil there, even I wanted to tear her apart at the end of those chapters.

"A beauty to die for"

This kind of reminds me of the series "the girl from nowhere". Like the episode where she was in a relationship with the teacher, or the episode where her new "friends" killed her, buried her, and then the next day just casually attended class like nothing happened. I think Nanno and Tomie kind of has a similar look, too. I think The girl from nowhere was inspired by this comic.

Tomie: *exists* Asexuals: you have no power here

I think Tomie was inspired by/partly based on the real-life BRUTAL kidnapping, torture and murder of Junko Furuta. Don't look into it if you're squeamish, but know that many of the details are similar or identical to the story of Tomie outside of the supernatural elements, and it received a lot of media coverage. A Japanese reader would have a hard time not thinking of Junko Furuta when reading Ito's story.

i am almost done reading the full collection on her stories- she is my most favorite villain i love her so much

The classmates felt that she fell off the cliff because of them, the teacher also said that they would be in trouble too, when they see her alive they realised they had gone too far and she had already seen them in a compromised position trying to hack her up. So they finished the job.

I would think that tomie fell in love with the guy who never really had an interest in her was because she didnt expect it. I mean, she can manipulate her looks and make men do whatever she pleases, whether its her curse or not. Im guessing it has been a while since her *real* death, so she doesnt expect much from her followers. But ill take this as the same way Junji Ito took it in his other book, uzumaki. Uzumaki's Chapter 3, the scar, details the main character, Kirie makes a friend with another girl, azami, who people fall in love with. Unlike tomie, Azami has simply no interest, blaming it on the scar on her forehead that "makes people fall for her." Soon she meets kirie's boyfriend, who is very unhinged, and he simply runs away from her since she displays in aura that is connected to the spiral. Azami falls in love with kirie's boyfriend, gets consumed with the spiral and she just disappears. Like tomie, Azami manipulates guys so she can get what she wants, and with her scar, she goes away and is never seen throughout the whole book. I think Azami and Tomie have the same blueprint when it comes to falling in love with the man that wants NOTHING to do with them, and i can see why. Just like any person with low self esteem, They would be surprised that people fall for them, then fall in love and there goes a relationship, a person who had been fallen for countless times again and again, they would be surprised when a person does NOT display any attraction to them at all, and soon wonder why. Being "different" from the rest gives you a position where you are "special" and "real", therefore being cherished and sought after. These people never felt rejection, and because of that they feel they are in a lower standard than you and want to be at the same level as you, they want that validation from you because YOU are different and YOU dont fall into their hands like the others. Just like a person with low self esteem, being rejected however many times, when a person displays interest, they feel a need to be with them because they are different. And that concludes why Tomie is a nicegirl/r

It's a great example of how those with influence can turn everyone against anyone they deem a threat; The way social media has seen certain figures marshall their followers to dogpile, dox, harass and in every way attempt to ruin or destroy their critics or rivals mirrors this very closely.

Some people have taken to the interpretation that Tomie (as a narrative and character) is a metaphor for sexual abuse. If her claim of pregnancy is to be believed then she was in fact statutorily raped by her teacher. Her post-mortem return is often seen as the spread of abuse from one person to another and how sometimes the victim themselves becomes corrupted and turns into the abuser. Because of the sporadic nature of the stories being told it falls apart in some instances (The final chapters with the Tomie clone children) or exemplified in others (as mentioned Boy but also the story with the old couple and the maid). Whether intentional or not, I love Juni's work here and look forward to reading more...when I'm less afraid.

Tomie is Junji Ito's best work, for me. Since it's where you see the largest improvements in art. And how everything is corruptible, by Tomie. Best Girl BTW. Boofire. I think you missed the part, where many of the chapters, Tomie takes the form of folklore horror beings, inheriting their 'powers'. Also her schtick is that, once seen, you can never unsee her. She's a curse. A Pure Evil, which can not be defeated, other than your own death. The curse robs the persons innermost sanctum place, or their Ego, and replaces it with her own image. Once touched, you're fugged. You may "defeat" the one image before you, but she's like a hivemind of individuals spreading across the land/world, each time she dies, she reproduces uncountable times. And sooner or later, as some of the beginning of another chapter implies. Those who "defeated her" are often missing, or become a vessel to transport a part of Tomie around. Or are seen later, killed off by a thrall of madness.

I must say that in chapter 19 ("Top Model"), Tomie did nothing wrong. That Ryo dude was a jerk and deserved everything that happened to him.

I can't watch or read anything from him anymore because his stuff literally keeps me awake at night. Undoubtedly, he is an amazing storyteller and artist but, this is not for me. 😂👏 I remember losing my appetite after the mountain holes chapter! (If you know, you KNOW) 😰

I personally think that her changing personalities and behaviors are results from different sort of personalities of her being in individual bodies

there is something about the way tomie has an influence over some men that it makes them kill her. it almost reminds me of the way abusers talk about their victims as provoking them into doing harm instead of just admitting they're awful people and the only ones to blame. like i know there are chapters where that allegory doesn't apply (like the one with the little boy, maybe the one with the two girls too), but for the ones in which it applies, it fits pretty well.

Great video, but I have one thing I disagree with. You've said that Junji Ito's work is straightforward, and that's simply not true. His work was always deeply tied with social, psychological and mental problems, usually describing issues in Japan society. Army of one, for example. That story follows one boy, who alienated himself from society and social interactions, and thus been able to survive the longest. Because in nowadays Japan you just have to belong, and if you don't, you can feel like others are going to try to "fix" you. The enigma of Amigara fault is about fitting in. You've got your role in a society and no matter what, you've got to take that path. Even if you know that this ain't right. Again, that hit very close to Japan traditions. For this two I'm positively sure of what they represent, but Tomie - I still can't figure her out yet. On one hand you've got an obsession about young girls, oversextualization of teenagers and pervert culture, on another - she represents sometimes old demons of Japan, centuries described in folklore. She is a mix of all: she is a ghost, a victim, a malicious evil, an abused child and a girl, who's been taken advantage of. It was said in the comments that she evolves, and after one sadistic act after another she becomes less and less human, losing parts of her psychie. And it is indeed, quite sad. Anyway, amazing video, thank you so much for your work!

I don't think the Tomie origin story where all her classmates hacked her to pieces has to be "realistic", because it depicts the horror of crowd mentality/peer pressure (something that's quite culturally Japanese), and it also reminds me of how there are a lot of victims of sexual abuse that really have no one to turn to who would defend them. And the last part you said about how Tomie is a character that people can easily walk away from makes it even more like real life. There are a lot of people that most people can see as obviously toxic, but some still gravitate towards them and would do things for them, because those people are somewhat dysfunctional themselves or vulnerable to manipulations.

"She lacks any of the personality traits....she may have it on the surface but falls apart" all that line describes me

I find Tomie to be a really interesting character for a few reasons. Her powers can affect anyone and she is mean spirited. I do see her ways of talking as the soothing voice trying to wear down a person, but I think that her being attractive just like everything else about her is a tool to wear down someone. I think that it is great that Ito didn't show whether she always had these powers or not and leaves it up to the imagination of the audience. People did terrible things to Tomie, but they never seemed like the actions of humans. There were plenty of people that respected Tomie and just mysteriously got homicidal; so I definitely think that it is her power over people. No one would do to people what Tomie did. Her control is quite evident. She may be a created evil as with Ju-On where because of the original event, she became an evil entity, but the thing is that with her personality, it seems the same as before she died. This is why I love how Ito wrote her. We really don't know if Tomie was always this way or not. It is either a tragedy or Tomie being Tomie. She is actually frightening in the sense that she can pretend to be to whatever person what she knows hits them hard. Whether they are a lonely old couple, a child, the rejected, the perfectionists, she knows their vulnerabilities and doesn't hold back. I think that if she was a victim in the opening, then it is sad, but it is no excuse for what she became. If she has always been this way, then she is a demon. I think that she is meant to be 17/18 in the first part which is common for manga characters. I have heard theories such as people in Japan seeing that time of youth as the prime time of someones life as it all goes downhill in adulthood. I don't know if Ito was trying to talk about the abuse of children specifically. I do think that it is possible, but I don't see it with her character. I do think that in Japan that there is an oversexualisation of teenagers under the age of 18 which I have always found disturbing, but Ito doesn't seem to try and make Tomie some anime girl. It is like he is showing her to be the girl next door in appearance; so her demonic actions are more shocking. Ito is a fan of Lovecraft; so it wouldn't shock me if Tomie is actually on another level in terms of power and that people do unspeakable things because they are confronted by a power that is beyond anything that they could imagine. There could be other reasons as other commenters have mentioned, but the beauty of what Ito has written is that there is no set explanation for any of the events. I have seen comments saying that it is this and it is that, but it actually isn't. There are plenty of plausible ways to look at it including everything in this comment section as how to look at it. It is great to see all kinds of comments about it and see what different people think about the story of Tomie.

Most people love what they can't have. It's why Azami was so obsessed with Shuichi in Uzumaki. In Tomie's case, she never encountered a person like this before, a man who has the will and common sense to reject her. Before she met this guy, she seemed to see herself as a superior being with no equal to her own and while she's satisfied with the toys she plays with, until she gets bored of them, the toys she can't have give her a challenge. In all essence, that man became her equal and she felt he completed her. She was an unstoppable force and he was an immovable object. Like Batman and The Joker.

She does had supernatural powers over women, its just not the same as the men. I see it this way, Men want to be with her, women want to BE her.

My friends find Tomie really annoying and honestly I also find her annoying but for me she is also a very interesting character.I mean, I have never read or saw a ghost\character like her before,she is really intriguing.

Junji Ito is a breath of fresh air. when the entire horror genre is just rehashing the same old ideas, he's bringing in so many new concepts for a kind of horror not many pursue in media.

You can't believe how much I missed your videos

I'm pretty sure that it was Implied or mentioned that each tomie is different from eachother in their own ways. I don't think every chapter is the same tomie, but it's just another tomie from around the world. In this case, this tomie was disgusting and was just fully malicious without a reason to be.

I really like the theory, that Tomie (or her unborn baby) is actually a weird supernatural kind of fungus, that multiplies by beeing cut to pieces. Ever since i read it, it always kinda stuck around with me, because it just makes (weird) sense. Why she is so unnatural, how she grew so weirdly into a monster in one Chapter, how the people around her get crazy and obsessed over her (poisenous/hallucinating and addictiv spores). Also she evolves very rapidly. In the beginning, she is a regular, avarage girl, then dies and returns significantly more beautiful (maybe unnoticed by the other people, but not the reader). She remembers her own past expieriences to some degree and uses that knowlage to quicker seduce and manipulate people. That also explains her hostal behaviour against "herself" (see the "old and ugly chapter" where three tomies send assassins to each other), because they are more or less other members of her kind, so she tries to get rid of her rivals, so her own "spores" have a higher chance of survival. Its a bit convoluted, but in my opinion fits very very neatly into the story. Also that would not be junjis weirdest narrativ

Considering her pieces can regenerate into complete human beings, it would be interesting to see two Tomies squaring it off. Perhaps, as her personality possibly differs after every "reincarnation", there possibly could be a very corrupt, malicious Tomie and a "good" Tomie, exploring themes how different experiences shape people.

"She made me do it, no other choice" I think that's a similar pattern of thinking with every Tomie story, and it is a horror reimbodiment of toxic/abusive relationships. For the first story, at 5:56, OP mentions that he finds it hard to believe that everyone would be on board to hacking Tomie's body. The reason everyone is compliant is because Tomie has this aura that leads everyone to eventually killing her and or wanting to abuse her, and its almost hypnosis at that point and no one questions the morality in it. That's unfortunately a reflection of abusive relationships; the abuser believes they are doing the right with the abuse towards their partner and therefore feels virtually no guilt in behaving that way

Well, she's an example that abuse goes both ways. At first she's a victim, then she's the abuser gradually getting worse.

She’s influential and gives birth to other shows’ characters such like Nanno

The Gathering chapter was just depressing to me. He gets away but the memories of his wife, the woman he loved so much that it kept him from being manipulated by Tomie, are forever corrupted with her. The last thing this man had of the love of his life forever ruined.

if you think Tomie's hold on men is supernatural, you haven't met the thirsty boys of the internet yet. IMO she doesn't have supernatural powers other than her regeneration, she's just extremely beautiful and makes weaker men go simp-town with just a glance to the point of becoming an instant cult leader.

I first learned of Tomie through the movies. I watched the first four (I say "first" in case they've made more since then) before I'd ever read the manga or anything by Junji Ito for that matter. I don't remember the manga version of her too much, but I remember the movie version being a somewhat pitiable character. She couldn't help that men became obsessed with her and eventually they'd kill her. It's only natural she'd treat them terribly as she does. What really disappointed me was the fourth movie, Forbidden Fruit. I had seen the trailer for it and from the trailer, the story looked interesting. My hopes were that the story would go like this (based on the trailer). Tomie finds a girl that she likes and can become close to, since her powers don't affect women, they can have a normal friendship (and maybe more). Then some guy or guys "imprint" on her and they do their normal thing of going nuts and killing her. She comes back as the weird head form that she comes back as and her friend takes care of her, hunting down the men that killed her, and feeding them to her so she could regenerate. Would have been a nice story, really working up the sympathetic angle of Tomie that they'd seemed to have been working towards in the movies. Unfortunately, IIRC, it was just like all the other Tomie movies except with a girl taking care of her instead of a guy, with Tomie acting the same as always. I was quite sad about that. They had the chance to do something different and interesting and chose mediocrity instead.

This is an amazing video and i really enjoyed aswell as appreciated it.tome is quite the chilling character is i absolutely love junji's storytelling and stunning artwork!

isn’t this like that one show on netflix called girl from nowhere

Everything made by Junji Ito can easily fit into the SCP Foundation, specially this one since its memetically hazardous

I feel like the second part with photo girl & her being trapped in a suit of armor may be like a metaphor for photo girl feeling trapped and on her ownwhile having to be strong and fearless when facing the outside threats from the antagonist

Make more of these this content was great 👍🏼

the Hunters Dream song 💕 and i also love Tomie so much, great video!

It’s a shame you didn’t cover the final few chapters with the three Tomies battling each other and the relationship between the Tomie and her sister, but this was a fantastic analysis. I totally agree that the “Boy” chapter is genuinely terrifying, still creeps me out when I read it

With the first chapter, I always thought it was unrealistic as well. But as I personally thought about it, It wasn't that Tomie had BECOME a monster before then, but more so that she was revealed to be one. Just like in the following chapters, everyone is willing to go along because, while the teacher was the one directly involved, they're all compelled by what Tomie is to dismember her. She already ISN'T human, so her classmates are fine with dismembering here much like how one wouldn't bat an eye at a pig getting slaughtered.

this video earned you my subscription. very well done

i think another interesting additive is that junji ito used to exclusively draw for shoujo/girls magazines before he got into horror, so it's an interesting between the dichotomy of drawing good girls who do good & get only good things to tomie, who is the complete opposite

This is a super good video !