Tommie short review. One of the most famous manga by Junji Ito Tommie is for the most part a set of onechapter short independent stories that are only connected by the presence of the monster? ghost? alien? experiment? god????????? named Tommie. There are however a bunch of chapters 2 3 4 6 18 20 that are connected and form three different arcs that form distinct larger storylines although each arc is independent from one another. Whats interesting about Tommie is that while these are a bunch of separate stories each one gives us more information on how Tommie works and plays with the concept in a different way. Which makes it feel as if we were unraveling the mystery of the monster while at the same time making the work cohesive and avoiding repetition. Luckily the author avoids going into too much detail about the monster and still leaves a lot to the imagination thus not ruining its own horror. The manga tries to tackle themes about beauty envy abuse impulse identity obsession etc. And at times it does a great job at covering those but for the most part the story is plotfocused and puts its emphasis on creating horror which is pretty good at. The first chapter of Tommie was the first story that Ito published and you can tell by the art although the paneling and composition were fantastic even then. The rest of the chapters were published a lot of time after the OG and with a lot of time inbetween them so you can see Ito get better at drawing people backgrounds creatures and more with each chapter. Already by chapter 6 he is at an impressive level. Panelingwise Ito is known for his page turn and his control of pacing and all you need to know is that both are incredible all the way through. The worst that you can say about Tommie is that the chapters vary wildly in quality and that at times it can get a little bit repetitive. Also given a point most of the stories stop being scary due to overexposure to the monster. Yet Ito manages to keep them thrilling creepy or shocking at the very least. Aside from that it is a very good read. Here are some small reviews for each chapter: Chapter 1: Basic but it works well. 8. Hospital: The concept here is horrifying. 8.5. Basement: A good finale for the first big arc. One of the best page turns not for being scary but unsettling with a sense of weird beauty to it. 8.6. Photographs: Amazing sense of growing tension + the ending is just plot turn after plot turn of insanity. 91. Kiss: This was just bad boring and too long. Yamazaki is stupid. 5. Mansion: Fun at times in a goosebumps kind of way with the mansion setting it has one of the best monstrosities out there I wish I hadnt seen the monster before online to get the surprise here and an ending with a good sense of tragedy and sadness to it. I wish Yamazaki wasnt so stupid although she is smarter in this chapter than in the last. 85. Revenge: Ok. 7. Waterfall: SPOOOOOKYYY. 87. Painter: Its fine but I dont see what everyone else sees in this chapter. 82. Murder: Ads a lot to the monster mythos and the ending puts you in the shoes of the protagonist in a clever way by playing with information and the core concept of Tommie. Incredible. 9. Hair: Has potential to be fleshed out more but is cool nonetheless. 86. Orphan girl: Fun. Tommie is a bad person. 82. Little finger: Just fucking cruel with how it deals with abuse positive. Great ending. 8.7. Kid: P.Diddy ahh chapter. The premise of an openminded liberal family teaching his son lefty stuff so that he can be taken advantage of by a much older woman traumatizing him for life therefore building a warning for the dark side of these ideologies is clever but it is barely explored. Still the ending is creepy and a good example of Tommie just fucking around with people for her own enjoyment thus making it more cruel these last three chapters have been cruel holy shit. 87. Moromi: Goofy and dumb the two mains are painfully stupid. Kind of breaks the lore of the character. Has some of the most beautiful illustrations though. At least it is not as long as Kiss. 55. Babysitter: Boring and completely inconsequential. At least Kiss was part of a larger storyline. 4. Gathering. Okay. Seems like a worse version of Lovesickness another Ito manga with much less buildup more predictability and a lesser sense of paranoia. Still kind of fun in a goofy way. 6. Passing demon: Fun. 85. Top model: The best commentary on beauty vanity and ego of the series. One of the best page turns and great grotesque imagery. The twist at the end is fantastic. 9. Old and ugly: Bruh. Could have been great with the chaos caused by the confrontation of the three and shit but the protagonist Ayakos sister actions make little sense and the pacing feels too fast. The ending is great though. 7 Thats it. Overall I really recommend this series. Bye bye. Thanks for reading.