TOMIE

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 that "Tomie" has been on Earth long before the time represented in the manga. Every chapter is episodic leading to a different group of people being effected every chapter. The first couple of chapters were really interesting but after maybe chapter 9, things started to get really repetitive.

ART: This is Junji Ito's first manga so in the beginning the art wasn't that great but as it progressed there was a huge improvement in style and it looks more like what everyone else is familiar with if you have read his other works. At moments Tomie was drawn very beautifully and a lot of the gore scenes were really well drawn out and they were very powerful moments but again the manga itself isnt totally outstanding.

CHARACTERS: as far as art goes, some where unique enough to temporarily remember. most of the high school boys look practically identical. because the story is episodic, the characters in each chapter switch so there really is no importance in knowing who they are anyways except for obviously Tomie and her teacher Mr. Tagaki as he often comes back to forward the plot.

ENJOYMENT: There were some chapters that were genuinely interesting and i was very invested in the plot, other chapters barely had me engaged because of the very flat story arc. It will tend to get flat towards the end because you can predict how to chapters are going to play out.

OVERALL 6: it wasnt awful but it wasnt amazing. Junji Ito definitely found his niche in horror manga and continued with it in his later years. If you read any of this other works (which i highly recommend) you can see the amount of improvement he underwent as a artist and a story teller. It's a good intro into Ito's other works and it passed the time but I wouldnt put it as my favorites

Story - All I knew when I started this manga was that 'Tomie' was a woman who could make men fall madly in love with her at first sight. As you can imagine, I wasn't really expecting much and was very impressed by what I read. I loved every chapter and felt they were all very original and well thought out to how each 'Tomie' manipulated and charmed each character in the manga which eventually ends in her own demise.

Art - As the other review has mentioned, the one strength to this anime is that Tomie is truely beautifully drawn in the manga with her beautiful eyes and shiny hair and there is a lot of attention to detail, especially when her beautiful form is distorted by the 'monster' beneath.

Character - The smaller characters are simply prop to the many 'Tomies' that prop up in all the stories. It is especially unkind to the men who fall madly for Tomie in each arc. Not much is known about Tomie except for her supernatural abilities and as you get more and more used to her character, the stories seem to get more complicated and baffling. Great! And a real challenge for the mind!

Enjoyment - I throughly enoyed 'Tomie' and despite it not being as 'terrifying' as I thought it could be, I found it was a very interesting concept about a strange multiplying girl with no purpose but to make people love her as much as she loves herself.

Overall - Definitely an interesting manga if you like different story arcs and strange characters and plotlines. It can be a little gory/strange in places but hey - what can you do?!

I had read Junji Itou's 'Uzumaki' around two years ago and was impressed by his creativity at horror storytelling because it actually made me freak out (which rarely happens to me while reading horror manga). And that was one reason why I picked up 'Tomie' nearly two years later. The other reason was, well, I wanted to pass my time.

When I read the plot, I was excited and expected it to be as scary and thrilling as 'Uzumaki' was, or if possible, more than that. However, it turned out to be a bit of disappoint for me by the time I reached the 6th chapter. Why? Because, there is basically one common plot for every chapter with different settings and different set of characters. The story basically goes like this: There is a pretty, attractive girl named Tomie who can make almost every man fall for her, and then due to some absolutely out-of-the-blue circumstance, she is beheaded or cut into pieces (how scary and ridiculous does that sound?), and then she regenerates herself in an utterly pathetic manner to spread havoc and shed gallons of blood! Each chapter portrays Tomie as the antagonist who never dies. None of the chapters mentions or gives at least a subtle hint about her past or why she is like that. Is she a witch? A monster? Or perhaps an alien with the power of regeneration?! No one really knows. The mangaka uses this as a frame for each chapter. When I began to read the manga, I honestly enjoyed reading the first few chapters but gradually it became boring and I lost interest, mainly due to the use of the same plot again and again for every chapter.

The art is quite good because it has realistic human figures unlike the mainstream manga art styles with the characters having large eyes and abnormally long limbs! It is perfect for portraying horror and gore.

The characters are nothing special. They are not likable but not unlikable either. This is mainly due to the fact that every chapter has different characters who play their roles and when the particular chapter is over, their roles are over as well. This way we don't get to know the characters properly. Tomie is of course an exception as she is the primary character but I feel that the mangaka's purpose to create her character is only to scare the readers. You hardly get to know anything else about her.

To conclude my review, I'd say that you may pick this one if you're looking for something scary and freaky to read but most probably you'll end up losing interest in it after reading the first few chapters like it happened in my case.

Story: 7 | Art: 8 | Character: 6 | Enjoyment: 7 | Overall: 7

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 but after the 1st volume things started to get predictable and repetitive which got a bit annoying. I thought it was cool how in the 1st volume she comes back to school after everyone killed her, and they were all shocked. it would’ve been ‘nicer’ if the plot focused on that a bit more y’kno.
All the short stories felt like it was unfinished. Like ‘oh ok, nothing else’. So whilst reading it you don’t feel any satisfaction

ART:7
Well I mean his work is really amazing. From the distortion of her face and how he portrayed her beauty was great but all the male characters just kind of just look the same? But I mean that doesn’t really matter.

CHARACTERS:5
No one in the manga really made an impact other than tomie. Since it’s snippets of different stories you don’t really get to ‘feel’ for the characters so it was difficult to feel remorseful towards them. Because of this it was hard to get ‘scared’ or ‘frightened’ while reading the manga.

ENJOYMENT:5
To be completely honest, I absolutely loved the story volume 1 and 2 but after that it just went downhill. After volume 2 everything just became predictable and it doesn’t keep you wondering. There were no other stories that really stood out. All I felt after vol 2 was ‘yah, she should just fucking die.”

Without a doubt, this is the best horror manga I've read.

The story is splendid start to finish, being made up of different times in the lifes of Tomie.

As for the art, I feel like it deserves more than a mere 10. Even if in the beginning it is not very readable, or even good for that matter. you can see Junji Ito's development and how he gets better and better at character design and at making Tomie the beautifully crazy girl she is. Not to mention, he has been my inspiration for art for a long time now.

The characters are also very good, Tomie is this narcissistic sociopath and compulsive liar who any guy innevitably falls for before losing their mind.

It was very enjoyable, and the ending really was worth it.

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 often male) serving as her object of affection and the device that shall eventually put an end to her life.
By the end of nearly each chapter Tomie is slashed to pieces only to be miraculously reanimated in the next one.
Perhaps based on a folklore or an urban legend, Tomie does deserve your attention as it has pretty gory stuff in it, but hardly three volumes of attention...

Tomie is one of my favorite manga, so ill try not to be as biased.
Now before you start reading Tomie, beware that its intended for adults only since it depicts extremely graphic scenes.
There isnt really a main Story, there are some minor and major arcs, there is one character, Tomie, that always reappears in each of the different stories though. Each story has something that makes it interesting in its own with different kinds of side-characters being impacted differently by the main character. It's hard trying to explain the story without spoiling so if this review wakes your interest you should definitely check it out.
The art-style is pretty unusual from what you normally see, personally I actually quite like the more depressing, realistic approach from Junji Ito. Considering the age of the manga it's quite impressing. It might be a bit off-putting for those who have only read the more usual stuff but you should definitely give the arstyle a chance.
As i said before there is one reoccuring character throughout the story and that is Tomie. So ill warn you now there might be some spoilers ahead!
Tomie isnt quite like other main character, throughout the story her actions and personality is similar, but the character is never actually the same person, she lives on forever basically. She also has the special ability to seduce any man she wants and make said man do a certain thing.
Again if you want to know more definitely read the manga.
I greatly enjoyed Tomie from the beginning to the end, it was different, it was special and it sometimes scared the living shit out of me. A great combination in my opinion 9/10

This was pogs. The art is amazing and actually made me feel scared and uneasy sometimes. Ito's art will never fail to amaze you. The story was pretty good to. Although i sometimes wish it delve a bit more deep into Tomie's past a little. so much mystery behind her. characters were some what ok. Loved the main character and I especially loved Tomie as well. There were some downsides though. some characters were meh and some you'd practically wouldn't have gave a shit about. And I do wish Ito delve a bit more deeper into the lore of Tomie. there were a lot of things and small hints that intrigued me while reading. but of course, I enjoyed it nonetheless and I'm pretty sure you will too if your are an advent fan of horror.

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 time to time.

Enjoyment: 7/10: What really made me enjoy this book was mainly the illustration. The story line was fair.

Overall: 6/10: Although the art was fantastic, overall you need a good story and the characters are what make the story happen. If you don't enjoy the manga a lot, it's not the best manga.

Sounds so obscure for a book that includes this type of horrific depictions, but i ended up reading this within two public train journeys back and forth. Genuinely it was so immensely interesting that i was so enamoured and focused with this book that I nearly missed my stop.

I would seriously recommend this book to any of my friends, even if they're not a fan of manga or anything Japanese, cause it seriously feels like it's so much more than just that. I damn loved it, and having the hard-back of the book made it so much more satisfying to read and have on display :).