Tomie

Book review:

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This is a trio of Junji Ito’s addictive and unsettling short manga. Amongst them is the eponymously titled volume Tomie, where the poster girl of horror manga debuted. Take a walk on the macabre side with Tomie Kawakami, an original, and literal, femme fatale.

Meet Tomie Kawakami, a preternaturally desirable but compulsively malignant teenage girl… and she has just been murdered. The opening of the first story begins not long after her gruesome but unsolved death. Her grieving class are gathered in the aftermath of her memorial service and none are prepared when she seemingly reappears whole and unharmed but without memory of her final moments. Intriguing and full of disturbing imagery, this is a collection of 19 separate short stories where Tomie is often the star, villian, victim, cause and effect.

This was Junji Ito’s breakthrough effort when, in the mid-eighties, he was still working as a dental technician and living in somewhat shabby conditions. Tomie won him an honourable mention and has seen such success that it has been adapted into nine films. Something of an institution, the signature character is played by a different actress in each film. There is an adaptation in the works for release on the startup mobile platform Quibi.

Two more of Junji Ito’s translated works are also newly added to our library collection: Shiver and Fragments of Horror. These are collections of (mostly) unconnected short manga. This is, in fact, very similar to the independent storylines of the Tomie anthology except without the recurring central character. All stories are mild to moderately unsettling without ever resorting to hardcore guro. An absence of lingering mindplay might help avoid having to sleep with the lights on. The chills here are served by the macabre tales and the grotesque artwork.

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These books will feature in a special reading lounge as a part of the Retro Horror exhibition in our gallery (October 18, 2019 - January 24, 2020). On display will be over 70 original genga drawings from supernatural and occult postwar Japanese manga. For the duration of the programme, these books will be unavailable to borrow but may be read on-site. After the exhibition, the books will be available to borrow as normal. For exhibition details and related events please see: https://jpf.org.au/events/retro-horror-supernatural-and-the-occult-in-postwar-japanese-manga/

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Shelf: 726.1 ITO
Tomie.
story & art by Junji Ito ; translator, Naomi Kokubo ; touch-up & lettering, Eric Erbes.
Complete deluxe edition.
San Francisco, Calif. : Viz Media, 2016.
740 pages : chiefly illustrations ; 22 cm.
Originally published in Japan in 2011 by Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc., Tokyo –Title page verso.
Translated into English from the Japanese.
ISBN: 978-1-4215-9056-1

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