DYNASTIA

I started reading Junji Ito from here, and I frankly feel like I should have just skipped this...
It's all undoubtedly very mediocre for a J-Horror saga.

Tomie seems to be a horror creature flimsily assembled from the discarded pieces of several other works, taking some bits of gothic horror, slasher flics, ghost stories, cosmic horror...
A patchwork of mismatched influences all centering on the character of Tomie, a monster with a human figure, but as irresistible as she's indestructible, a ''waifu'' Michael Myers.

For the length of its three volumes, this all remains very repetitive. The art, especially from the earlier chapters, is subpar. Every character is so inconsistent between pages, or even sometimes panels, that I've had trouble telling who is supposed to be who and what the horrible Ito wants us to see in their nonsensical actions. Tomie appears as a monster without explanation or purpose. All Tomie wants is to seduce her victims, but this inevitably leads her to be killed...

The temporality is nonexistent, some stories last for too long, where each non-recurring character tries to stop Tomie, and all inevitably fail because the narrative is too poor to allow for any development, Ito seems unable to write any humane character. The disposable victims are on a level only ever reached by b-grade ''so bad it's good'' schlock, except none of it is funny, just boring. These people stand there, encounter Tomie, try to stop her or fuck her, and get absorbed...

Tomie kills a child, Tomie vs Tomie, Tomie goes to school, Tomie on the moon...
If we think about it, it could have been worse, Ito could have given Tomie alien origins!


I think I will take my leave before I decide to tackle Uzumaki.