Said teacher then leads his male students into cutting her body into pieces, and the female students dispose of the body parts. Readers see her boyfriend slap her across the face because he caught her flirting with her teacher, causing her to fall to her death. A few pages later, a flashback to how she died reveals the real reason her classmates are shocked by her return. Shortly after, Tomie arrives for class, shocking her classmates. The story opens with the narrator telling readers Tomie has died. Tomie initially seems sympathetic in her first appearance. She possesses every trait of a “bad girl.” And we, the readers, accept this because her personality is unappealing and vile in a way that closely connects to her femininity and beauty. Though so often a victim of male violence, the narrative still blames Tomie. Tomie is killed in most chapters by the men who claimed to love her in the first place. This is how the stories justify and disguise their displays of male misogynistic violence: as uncontrollable supernatural urges in response to an unknowable, distinctly female evil. The cruel, conniving woman who “gets what she deserves” after her manipulation of a man blows up in her face.įor Tomie, though, it happens over and over.

She is the succubus whose beauty drains men of their life and the siren who compels sailors to throw themselves into the ocean. Tomie is just one version of a story we’ve heard about women over and over.

She is the villain in every story, a vain and selfish woman who controls and manipulates others.

Every separated piece of her body, however, grows back as a new Tomie, creating countless copies across Japan. He’s known for Uzumaki, a story about a town obsessed with spirals Gyo, about undead deadly fish and “The Enigma of Amigara Fault,” about a compelling canyon with human-shaped holes in the rocks.īut his most famous character is arguably Tomie, a supernatural being who compels men into becoming obsessed with her and, often, to eventually kill and mutilate her. If you’re a fan of horror manga, you’ve most likely heard of Junji Ito and his memorably skin-crawling work. CONTENT WARNING: Body horror, misogyny, violence toward women.

Tomie revenge