Junji Ito Tomie what makes her so scary

Tomie, a beautiful yet horrifying girl terrorizing the men in Junji Ito's stories. Let's peal the layers of her monstrous hide.

Published on Saturday, February 17, 2024 by Le Fantôme

True fear is something we have been greatly shielded from in our current society. Some may nowadays associate it to popular monsters such as vampires and zombies and other with a more critic opinion may associate it to the unknown itself.

What if a type of fear could emerge from both the unknown and the known, that is what Junji Ito proposes us in Tomie’s stories.

What is the story of Tomie

Without getting too much in the spoiler territory, the Tomie’s series follow the story of a young and very attractive girl named Tomie with a very execrable character seducing and driving mad people around her, particularly men. She is absolutely irresistible to the men who wouldn’t even hesitate leaving their girlfriends for her, causing great jealousy and drama all around her.

Her egocentric and narcissistic personality is very prone to light the fuse on dramatic events always ending with her getting killed by the men so crazily in love with her.

Here is the twist, Tomie has been “cursed” with regenerative power similar to those of an axolotl but in a way more powerful fashion. Her cut limbs and body parts can fully become new Tomies themselves which will then go on to new territories, terrorizing and driving more men mad as they let themselves lose control over her enigmatic personality.

A nightmarish cycle, which is pretty much unstoppable as the main factors turning the wheels are the victims themselves, that is what Tomie’s stories are about.

They paint a desperate and gore picture as we witness Tomie being violently killed while causing dramatic events around her, but underneath those dark and bloody strokes, there are other aspects of Tomie’s horror, subtle, yet even more disturbing, drawing directly from something we are very familiar with, our human nature.

The known

Something we know should normally not be scary anymore, after harnessing fire or wild animals, our ancestors no longer feared them, but could that principle be applied to everything. We know all the rules around vampires and zombies, but yet we would fear them if we were to see them.

The fear of the known, steam from the danger that thing could present to us, it certainly lost the mysterious aspect that would make us drive ourselves mad thinking about it, but it certainly would make us run away at the first sight.

Tomie isn’t scary at all, in fact she is actually quite attractive which is a contrast with her monstrous nature. Looking at it from a bigger picture, Tomie is never dangerous in her stories, she never takes the initiative to use physical or any other type of direct violence.

That is the one aspect that separate her from your typical monster, Tomie is like any other girl you could meet in the street or in a library, yet beneath that facade lies a more insidious form of horror. Her terror does not come from fangs or claws, but from the way she can convey powerful emotions through simple human interactions, something we are very familiar with.

Tomie’s is like the worst nightmare for any man. Picture yourself in the shoes of a man passing by that girl. Her irresistible beauty would certainly take you to her and try to earn her favor and attention. While you are trying your best, her narcissistic and egocentric side would make you question your worth and self-esteem and you end up desperately trying to please her. You become imprisoned in a cycle of effort in order to get her validation until the point where she takes an unreasonable decision or tries to leave after everything you’ve poured in.

You find yourself in a situation where it’s not conceivable to let her go anymore. She will then start mocking and humiliating you which will then end up in you violently killing her.

Tomie is a form of terror men are well aware of, but still end up falling for even in our actual society.

The unknown

The original form of horror. The unknown has always been what most fascinates and scares us. What fears us is not just the absence of information, but what potential dangers that ignorance conceals to us.

Tomie embodies this “unknown” type of horror in several aspects. While her initial appearance and behavior might seem normal to us, she conceals another layer of absurdity to install a profound sense of dread into the reader.

Her motivations

Tomie represents an enigma nearly impossible to solve, what does she really want ?

Her motivations and objectives are a mystery because it is clear that Tomie’s can entail any men she meets, but to what purpose does she need this ability. It would have been easy to classify her if her objectives were similar to those of your typical vampires and zombies but it is not the case.

Tomie at her core remains a human in her nature, she naturally languishes in human society and expresses desires similar to any narcissistic girl. There is no apparent connection between her behavior and the terrors and chaos she has the potential to cause which is troubling when put into perspective.

Does that mean that any narcissistic person given strange abilities, could naturally create chaos all around them regardless of if they intended it or not.

Combines her behavior with her mysterious abilities and Tomie starts to represent something new altogether. Her ability to regenerate and multiply after death, to ensnare the minds of those around her without any apparent effort, speaks to a deeper, more ancient fear, the fear of the unfathomable and the eternal.

For what purpose has Tomie mysterious and unsettling abilities been granted to her, and why does she remain herself even after all this changes. Does that mean that her original personality is the embodiment of the personality that could propagate chaos and destruction in the most horrifying way. What does that say about human nature itself, does it mean that the most effective way to our own destruction is ourselves.

The crazy men

Tomie’s character sparks a few unsettling questions, but let’s not forget about the ensnared men that violently paint the chaos.

These people are still themselves, but it seems like the attraction and passion for Tomie overrides any other form of logical reasoning. Pleasing Tomie becomes more important than anything else. They are not brainwashed or mindless, they still retain everything about them but their priorities have just all been set to pleasing Tomie.

That form of imprisonment is perhaps the most chilling aspect of Tomie’s horror—the ability to warp and distort the very essence of human will. This isn’t mere manipulation; it’s a profound transformation of one’s values and desires, with Tomie as the catalyst.

Tomie in general embodies some aspect of our human nature and envies it with a cloud of mystery before using them to create chaos and drama all around her. She basically represents a mirror that reflects the dark underbelly of human desires. Her presence acts as a test, revealing the fragility of our morals and ethics when faced with an irresistible force.

Tomie as a victim

In all of Tomie’s stories, a recurring situation seems to always emerge. That situation is Tomie being murdered by a person she ensnared, but another noteworthy aspect of the act itself is that the murderer always blames Tomie for his actions.

Tomie may be manipulative and narcissistic in her demeanor, but she never promises anything to her victim. She doesn’t need to mention her love or anything else, her beauty alone is what makes people act in such a chaotic manner.

The ensnared men are so deeply involved with Tomie and their ideal vision of her that anything could be the catalyst to this unstable cocktail. Tomie’s beauty and the idea of having her love or attention creates deep emotions within them, so anything that is parallel to their vision could spark something within them, but is it Tomie’s fault ?

The men letting themselves be guided by their emotions and committing atrocious acts against Tomie herself is a reflection of the violence done to women in our actual society. “She made do it”, “It’s her fault”, “I loved her too much” are the type of sentences that the murderers of Tomie always seem to sprout once the act is done. The worst part is that in most stories, they are not even reprimanded for their actions.

The people around them will tend to agree with their gruesome actions sometimes because of their deep jealousy or resentment towards Tomie.

Tomie character’s herself is living a terrible nightmare and we are lead as the reader to agree with the murderer’s vision and banalize her suffering. She is essentially a victim, but moreover, she is completely alone.

Conclusion

Looking at the whole Tomie’s horror aspect, it raises an essential question, is the horror of Tomie truly a product of her supernatural qualities, or does it lie in the all-too-human response she evokes? The men who fall into her web are not stripped of their agency; rather, they willingly surrender it, seduced by the promise of something transcendent, only to find themselves in a nightmare of their own making.

Ultimately, the horror of Tomie is not just about the fear of an immortal being capable of unimaginable destruction. It’s about the realization that, within each of us, lies the capacity to be seduced into contributing to that destruction, willingly or not. It’s a testament to Junji Ito’s mastery that Tomie remains an enigmatic figure both familiar and unknowable, drawing us in with the promise of understanding, only to confront us with the abyss that lies at the heart of human nature.

Where to watch

You can discover the first few chapters of Tomie adapted in anime in the Junji Ito Collection on crunchyroll. As of the other stories you will have to turn toward the manga collection named “Tomie”.