IVE Teams Up With Horror Legend Junji Ito — Wonyoung Is Tomie

IVE has officially entered the world of Japanese horror manga — and it looks disturbingly, beautifully natural. The six-member K-pop group has announced a landmark collaboration with iconic horror manga artist Ito Junji for their upcoming 4th Japanese mini album, LUCID DREAM. The moment the illustrated cover dropped, fans immediately noticed something that has since taken over the internet: Jang Wonyoung bears a striking resemblance to Tomie, Ito's most famous — and most terrifying — character.

The collaboration was unveiled on April 17 through IVE's official Japanese social media accounts. Ito Junji personally illustrated the IVE members in his signature horror style for a limited edition version of the album, set to release on May 27 (JST). For anyone who knows Ito's work, "horror style" carries real weight: he is the artist who gave the world Tomie, the eternally beautiful, impossibly dangerous woman who drives men to obsession and murder, and Uzumaki, the spiral-haunted town that inspired one of animation's most disturbing adaptations. Seeing his pen trace the faces of one of K-pop's most visually iconic girl groups is exactly the kind of collision fans did not know they needed.

The JIGSAW Connection: Where K-Pop Meets Horror Drama

Beyond the album art, the collaboration runs deeper. Track #3 from LUCID DREAM, titled "JIGSAW," will serve as the theme song for a brand-new TV Tokyo live-action drama series: Strange — Ito Junji's Strange Tales to Keep You Up at Night, premiering July 3. The drama is based directly on Ito Junji's catalogue of short horror stories, the same anthology style that powered his 2018 anime series and the 2023 Netflix adaptation Junji Ito Maniac.

It is a genuinely unusual placement for a K-pop act. IVE are not scoring a romantic drama OST or a slice-of-life anime — they are soundtracking a Japanese live-action horror series built around one of the most unsettling minds in manga history. "JIGSAW" has not yet been released publicly, but the title alone is doing heavy lifting: there is something dissonant and compelling about IVE, a group known for polished, confident pop, delivering the emotional core of something built around dread and the uncanny.

The limited edition physical album takes the collaboration even further. Ito Junji did not just lend his name to a crossover concept — he personally illustrated the IVE members and the MINIVE mascot characters in his distinctive dark linework, reimagining them through the visual language of horror. The results have been described by fans as simultaneously eerie and oddly flattering, which is about the highest compliment one can offer in Ito Junji's universe.

The Wonyoung-Tomie Moment That Has Everyone Talking

Then came the reactions, and they moved fast.

Korean fans and international followers alike flooded social media the moment the illustrations dropped. The consensus centered quickly on one comparison: Jang Wonyoung, IVE's youngest member and one of K-pop's most-discussed visuals, looks exactly like Tomie — Ito's signature creation, a beauty so perfect and so lethal she cannot fully die. Comments ranged from "묘하게 다 토미에 같다" (somehow they all look like Tomie) to "이토 준지가 그린 장원영이 실존하다" (the Junji Ito version of Wonyoung exists in real life), with one fan summarizing the sentiment: "역시 예쁜 거 제일 잘 그리는 아저씨" — roughly, "he truly is the man who draws beautiful things best."

The comparison is not coming from nowhere. Ito Junji himself previously indicated in an interview that Wonyoung gives off a distinctly Tomie-like energy — a statement that went viral in K-pop communities when it circulated online. For fans who grew up with Ito's work, the comparison is meant as a kind of dark compliment: Tomie is the most beautiful character in his catalogue, a force of nature so aesthetically compelling that she warps the world around her. Applied to Wonyoung, it reads as the ultimate backhanded praise — beautiful to a degree that is almost threatening.

The irony is not lost on anyone. Tomie is a character who refuses to be contained, who regenerates no matter what happens to her, who cannot be stopped. For a generation of K-pop fans used to reading between the lines of idol industry narratives, the metaphor lands harder than probably intended.

IVE's Japanese Expansion in Full Motion

The Junji Ito collaboration arrives as IVE continue what has been a quietly remarkable run in Japan. LUCID DREAM is the group's 4th Japanese mini album, a pace of release that reflects genuine investment in the market rather than a secondary rollout. The album includes the pre-release track "Fashion," which gave international fans their first glimpse of IVE's direction for this era before the full project drops in late May.

Managed by Starship Entertainment and debuting in December 2021, IVE broke through domestically with "LOVE DIVE" and built global momentum through a combination of strong concepts, consistently polished performance, and individual visual identities that translate well across markets. The full six-member lineup — Gaeul, Yujin, Rei, Wonyoung, Liz, and Leeseo — has established itself as one of 4th generation K-pop's most consistent acts.

Rei, IVE's Japanese-born member, has helped the group navigate the Japanese market with an authenticity that many K-pop groups struggle to replicate through promotion alone. The LUCID DREAM cycle, anchored by a collaboration with one of Japan's most culturally significant artists, signals that IVE are approaching their Japanese activities with genuine creative ambition rather than simply repackaging Korean content for a neighboring market.

A Pattern Worth Noting: K-Pop Meets Horror Art

IVE is not the first K-pop group to explore the Junji Ito crossover space. In January 2025, ZEROBASEONE revealed a digital single cover illustrated by Ito Junji for "Doctor! Doctor!", marking what appeared at the time to be an unusual one-off collaboration. The IVE partnership suggests something closer to an ongoing cultural exchange — one finding an audience precisely because the contrast is so stark.

K-pop's visual vocabulary is built on perfection, symmetry, controlled beauty. Junji Ito's manga operates in the opposite register: beauty distorted, horror emerging from the familiar, the body as something unstable and deeply unsafe. The tension between those two aesthetics is what makes these collaborations generate conversation well beyond either fanbase on its own.

Both the TV Tokyo drama and the LUCID DREAM album releases are scheduled for the coming months, meaning the full context of "JIGSAW" — how IVE's sound sits against Ito's imagery in motion — remains to be heard. What is already clear is that the collaboration has done its job: people who had never thought about IVE and Junji Ito in the same sentence are now very much thinking about it.

IVE's LUCID DREAM releases May 27 (JST). The TV Tokyo drama Strange — Ito Junji's Strange Tales to Keep You Up at Night premieres July 3.