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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Apr 17, 2021

Underson

Mixed Feelings

Summarizing: the manga itself was written in an episodic way, making it really easy to take... say, 2 chapters and adapt to anime. Hell, they didn't even had to make it chronologically, just take two really cool stories and adapt it...
But no, they choose to make TWO 10 minutes episodes that can't even cover 1 chapter properly and the result is... bad.

I mean, the voice acting is really good, the sound track is very cool, but it's not worth it. I enjoyed cause I just finished the series and it was refreshing to go over some plot points again, the animation is not bad, and ... the ost is nice so it wasn't all that bad for me, but as I said, it's not worth it

For me, this anime looks like a bonus that could come along with the manga so we can have a little fun hearing the voice acting of some classic scenes (and if you think about it, it could be much better anyway)

I'm not sure why they decided to make this in the first place, cause the result is not satisfying for most people who enjoyed the manga and it doesn't tell a proper Tomie story, specially to a new audience (I read some reviews of people that didn't read the manga and it's just sad).

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Sep 9, 2018

garyborken

Not Recommended

If you think "Ito Junji: Collection" was not good, well this is worse. Being an BD special OVA of said series, the art and animation is poor even for this series' stander. And it's rushed as hell, lots of monologue from the source material of episode 1 was cut out. Episode 2 was not as noticeable but they still cut out more than a little stuff, which hurts the atmosphere of the story, since those parts really helped building up mood in the manga.

Episode 1, You'd think this being an adaptation of Ito's first story ever, there are lots of place they could have improved. ... But they didn't. The editing on transition is especially bad...

Episode 2, this was actually the first half of a two parter in the manga... why would they choose to adapt this but not the second half? If you can only do one more episode maybe choose one that's actually stand alone?

Also, somehow they still forced two story into one 22min episode for This. It doesn't have that time limit here! It's an OVA, you can make it how ever long it needed to be.

It's a mess, my local streaming service got this one for some reason, otherwise if I had to pay for the BD to watch this... I would be pissed.

Ito deserves better, Tomie deserves better.

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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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