no forgiveness

tomie (junji ito, 1987–2000)

Tomie: Complete Deluxe Collection (Junji Ito, coll. 2016)¹

I’m going to begin this capsule review with a brief confession: Junji Ito often looks like “manga Chick tract” to me. Here is a bit of the story “Boy” to explain what I mean:

Doesn’t that kid just kind of look, to you, like someone who has gotten a little too into D&D?² (Or, well, not the D&D comic itself really, style-wise, it’s a little more “Cleo.”) I was trying to find the right Chick image before realizing that this project was a waste of time. You are either gonna see it or you aren’t. In any case. A project of mine is to gain more appreciation for the comic book / “graphic novel”³ next year and many people have given me recommendations to that end. All of which I have ignored. I mean I bookmarked them. They’re bookmarked. But I also ignored you. Sorry. I did buy some books. (However, right now, I’m not looking for further recommendations.)

Aside from my basic problems reading comic books—which come down, to quote this New Yor…