Itou Junji: Collection - Tomie

Memories, both good and bad, suffuse the high school experience. Whether it's hanging out with friends or cramming for tests, everyone has something they will remember from that time in their lives. At a certain high school, one class is faced with an event that can cause people to look back on their high school days in sadness: the death of a student.

The deceased is not just any student—she's Tomie Kawakami, a popular girl with an almost otherworldly beauty. Her death was particularly gruesome: her body was dismembered and the pieces scattered. As the class tries to make sense of the situation, they are shocked when a familiar voice calls out to them from the doorway, apologizing for being late.

With raven hair and a beauty mark under her left eye, this girl is the spitting image of their murdered classmate. But she can't actually be Tomie, right?

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Tomie Main

Suegara, Rie Japanese

Reiko Supporting

Hanba, Tomoe Japanese

Tadashi, Kitayama Supporting

Terashima, Takuma Japanese

Yukiko, Mio Supporting

Yamamoto Supporting

Kimura, Ryouhei Japanese

Takagi Supporting

Gouda, Hozumi Japanese

Cook, Justin Producer

Herek, Samantha Assistant Producer

Tagashira, Shinobu Director, Episode Director, Storyboard, Key Animation, Character Design, Chief Animation Director, Animation Director

Gouda, Hozumi Sound Director

Reviews

May 4, 2024

jaekyungssgf

Recommended

We begin with Tomie's funeral, revealing she was murdered and mutilated. Her teacher discusses the incident, only for Tomie herself to casually appear. Flashbacks detail the gruesome incident.

The anime's main issue lies in pacing. Adapting twenty manga chapters into twenty minutes necessitates cuts, hindering the horror's buildup. Despite this, the premise remains strong, and while not overly frightening, it's unsettling.

Characterization suffers in the anime. Limited time leaves characters underdeveloped and generic, lacking likability.

Artwork is commendable, with subdued yet impactful body horror. The deliberate framing maximizes disturbing scenes.

Sound and acting are adequate, but lack complexity due to shallow characters.
...
Improvements include lengthening the runtime for depth, adding complexity to characters, and further developing major plot points.

In conclusion, while visually striking with a solid premise and atmosphere, the anime's brevity hampers its potential. Though not awful, it falls short of fully realizing the Itou Junji classic, earning a 7/10 for its short horror experience and untapped potential.

Reviewer’s Rating: 7

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Oct 14, 2023

ktulu007

Mixed Feelings

Itou Junji is a well known figure in Japanese horror known for a lot of body horror. I've talked about him once before with the Gyo anime. This time around we're delving into the Itou Junji collection from Studio Deen. Specifically, the Tomie special adapting one of Itou's best known titles.

Story:

We open with Tomie's funeral. Apparently, she was murdered and horrifically mutilated. Her teacher is discussing the incident with his class when Tomie herself strolls in like nothing happened. This quickly leads into a flashback of the actual incident and the gruesome details of what precisely happened.

The big problem with the ... anime version is the pacing. In all fairness to Deen, they are trying to turn twenty chapters of a manga into twenty minutes of an anime which is going to necessitate making a lot of cuts. However, horror as a genre functions best when it has time to breathe and build up. Especially when you're doing a complete story as opposed to the kind of short form content you would see in something like Yami Shibai. And you lose a lot of the impact when there's a very brief respite between scares and not much in terms of build up.

On the positive side, the premise of the story is really solid. And the anime version, while not particularly frightening, does manage to be unsettling and disturbing in a way that's actually kind of horrific. They also do a good job of incorporating all of the most important plot points even if they don't properly extrapolate on all of them.

Characters:

This is an area where the anime definitely drops the proverbial ball. One of the factors that usually lets horror shine is concern for the characters. But due to the pacing issues, we don't really know shit about any of the characters. They're very under-developed and generic. Especially in the first episode where they juggle three major characters (not including Tomie herself), a slew of minor characters and all the background details. It doesn't help that none of the characters in the first part come across as likeable.

Art:

The artwork here deserves a lot of praise. It's not as outlandish with its body horror as Gyo was. If anything, it's surprisingly subdued for an Itou Junji work. However, that makes the body horror elements a lot more impactful when they do get used. There's some very twisted and disturbing moments in this. Deen is very deliberate and skilled with how they frame the most disturbing scenes as well in order to maximize their impact.

Sound:

The acting is fine. It could be better if the characters had more complexity for the actors to work with but, as previously discussed, there's just not much there. The music is very atmospheric.

Ho-yay:

There isn't any.

Areas of Improvement:

This really would have benefitted from being longer. Like, film length long instead of cramming everything into twenty minutes.

They needed more character complexity.

The major plot points needed more development.

Final Thoughts:

While the visual horror, premise and atmosphere all work pretty competently, the special is let down by its short, condensed run time. The characters don't get the development they need. The build up isn't what it should be. The important plot points are under-developed. Is it an absolutely awful anime? No. Is it a worthy version of the Itou Junji classic? No. Overall, I would give it the same rating I gave Gyo, a 6/10. It's decent enough for a short horror experience but it's also a bit frustrating because you know there's a more fully fleshed out and better executed story hidden inside there.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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May 27, 2021

karyli

Not Recommended

Well, seems like this is gonna be my first review.

As someone who has read the manga before and decided "oh, there´s an anime adaptation of it, I should go watch it" I'm feeling a lot of regret.
Not only did the anime not covered everything about the story, as it is even confusing for me, who as read the manga.
The story is confusing, jumping from place to place without any background to it, and introducing new characters without actually introducing them, no background, nothing.
I really like the work of Ito Junji and I think his mangas have a lot of potential for everyone who is ... interested in the theme and knows how to interpret it,but the adaptation is awful, please just read the manga, it's way better and you will actually enjoy it and know what Tomie is about and not see her as some type of "ghost"

Reviewer’s Rating: 3

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	Poll: Tomie Episode 2 Discussion Unowen - Sep 6, 2018	25 replies	by bushman66 »» May 5, 11:24 AM
	Poll: Tomie Episode 1 Discussion ibraheem234 - Sep 6, 2018	27 replies	by bushman66 »» May 5, 11:23 AM
	Is Tomie considered one of Junji Ito's best works? Rayn3698 - Feb 2, 2018	10 replies	by Haunt88 »» Aug 4, 2023 4:33 AM
	Intriguing. [Warning: Spoiler] Asphiee - Oct 31, 2022	11 replies	by Asphiee »» Nov 4, 2022 7:41 AM
	My favorite Juni story but the Anime was a huge let down. WildCardBevin - Oct 20, 2021	2 replies	by Max-OG »» Oct 22, 2021 1:48 PM