Juniji Ito’s drawing ability vastly surpasses his writing ability. Reading through Tomie has made that abundantly clear to me.

Tomie would be a better work if you removed all of the text and just left the art. I’m not joking, I’m 100% serious.

Uzumaki, Junji Ito’s more known (for good reason) work, succeeds where Tomie fails. Uzumaki has an overarching story that ties all (well, most) of its chapters together. Thematically, a town that’s cursed by spirals is more interesting and less politically fraught than a girl who gets murdered by an entire class of students who is then cursed to continue being murdered over and over again, forever. Uzumaki has main characters that you follow throughout the story that you actually care and worry about, Tomie doesn’t really.

Just read Uzumaki, no matter how much of a fan you are of Junji Ito’s art, I don’t think having to read through Tomie is worth it.