Attention Itoverse fans: could Tomie Barbie finally become a reality? Legendary horror mangaka Junji Ito (Tomie, Uzumaki) inspired fans to share their vision of Tomie Barbie after joyously stepping into his own hot pink Barbie box at San Diego Comic-Con 2023.
“Itoverse Barbie” started to trend during the mangaka’s recent trip to America for SDCC. During the annual comics and pop culture convention, Barbie box photo opportunities popped up in several places to promote Greta Gerwig’s blockbuster movie (any events featuring the film’s talent were canceled due to the SAG-AFTRA strike). It seems that Ito couldn’t resist getting in on the hot pink fun, jumping into one of the Barbie boxes himself for a picture shared by Godswill Ugwa Jr., a community manager for Viz Media.
This single image of Ito in the Barbie box has inspired a lot of fan art. And all I can say is, “No duh. What is more perfect than an Ito-Barbie amalgam?”
In Barbie, Margot Robbie’s Stereotypical Barbie— a.k.a. Intrusive Thoughts of Death Barbie or Creeping Existential Dread Barbie— is literally ushered into her original hot pink box in an attempt to prevent her from compromising the binary perspective of the real world. This is done by a group of cis-male, “straight world” Mattel execs. However, Barbie refuses to be stereotyped by these men, breaking free of her plastic twist ties (and the IRL social norms keeping her boxed in).
Throughout the film, Stereotypical Barbie is plagued by thoughts of her own death. Some fans have drawn comparisons to Ito’s character Tomie, a succubus who is repeatedly killed and reborn. Thus, it’s no surprise that Ito Barbie has inspired fan art and cosplay across the Internet, especially of Tomie Barbie.
If you’re an Itoverse fan and a Barbie girl, congratulations. You just found your next Halloween costume.
(featured image: Viz Media/Warner Bros.)
