Domu. A Child's Dream.
Written and illustrated by KATAHIRO OTOMO.
Translated by DANA LEWIS and TOREN SMITH. (Dark Horse Comics)


What's a Japanese creation without the subtitle. And what's a Otomo-creation without the wrecking of cities, by children with supernatural power. Also Domu, as well as Otomo's more known product, Akira, is a story about the power of destruction. This time, however, not Akira.
    I wouldn't call it cyberpunk, but things have a tendency to fly around, crash into other things and people, and brake. Violently.

The author was inspired for the setting by a newspaper article about a public house project complex, where dozens of people committed suicide yearly by jumping from the buildings. Suicides and accidents (?) is basically the plot in Domu as well. People die like flies — leaving the detectives with the eternal ridle "Why?" — sometimes with a naïveté you gain from a meaningless and unbreakable law. Perhaps their willpower to live just isn't strong enough.
    I've thought long and hard about the moral of the story (because every manga story has a moral), but the only thing I could come up with is that kids are sometimes more vicious than they may seem. Kids with super powers even dangerous. (Everything isn't always what it seems.)
    The drawing style isn't what one usually expects from a manga comic. It's too realistic. The otherwise familiar manga sweetness is lost.

Domu has sold in over 500,000 copies, and is still in print. So I won't say it's a bad comic. I'll just say how it is. I didn't fully understand it. Perhaps you do.

robin