Live action TV
Description
Dr. Tachibana is a physician working at the hospital where a young girl is brought in for emergency surgery. He is present in the operating room alongside the hospital director, Dr. Kenzo Morita, when the surgical team discovers a disembodied but living head inside the girl's abdomen, which identifies itself as Tomie. Following this traumatic event, Dr. Tachibana is one of the few people who directly witnessed the supernatural horror of the operation. While the other nurses present soon leave the hospital and Director Morita disappears entirely, Dr. Tachibana remains, though he is deeply affected by the experience.

His personality is marked by a profound and visible trauma. In the aftermath of the surgery, Dr. Tachibana has a haunted, shell-shocked appearance, carrying the weight of a terrible knowledge that he can barely endure. A review of his performance notes that he is portrayed as a man who has become strange and is clearly not long for this world. Despite his deteriorating mental state, he retains a sense of purpose and morality. His primary motivation becomes ensuring that the truth about what happened in the operating room is not lost. He understands the danger that Tomie represents and the fate that has befallen the director, and he takes action to pass this vital information on to someone who might continue the search for answers.

Dr. Tachibana's role in the story is crucial, acting as a catalyst for the main character, Yumi Morita. When Yumi comes to the hospital looking for her missing father, Dr. Tachibana is the one who meets her. He does not offer any long, comforting explanation but instead performs a single, decisive act: he entrusts Yumi with a diary recently written by her father. This journal contains the director's ravings about Tomie, written in blood, and reveals that both he and another doctor were infected with Tomie's blood during the operation, which is now regenerating inside them and driving them to madness. His relationship with Director Morita is defined by their shared, horrific experience in the surgery, and his connection to Yumi is brief yet critical, positioning him as the keeper of the secret she needs to begin her investigation.

His character arc is short but complete. Having fulfilled his self-appointed duty of delivering the director's diary to his daughter, Dr. Tachibana can no longer resist the psychological and supernatural corruption that has been affecting him since the surgery. Immediately after giving the journal to Yumi, he commits suicide, ending his own torment while simultaneously adding another layer of mystery and urgency to the situation Yumi now faces. His death underscores the lethal and insidious influence of Tomie, demonstrating that even secondary exposure can lead to destruction.

Dr. Tachibana does not possess any supernatural or combat abilities. His significance comes from his ordinary role as a doctor and his function as a witness and messenger. His most notable ability is his strength of will, which, despite being broken by horror, is just enough to resist the madness long enough to pass on the crucial evidence contained in the journal.