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童夢 [Dōmu] #1-3
Domu: A Child's Dream
A twisted old man, gifted with extrasensory powers, silently holds sway over an entire block of apartments. The occupants are puppets for him to control. Life is his to give . . . and to take. But suddenly there is a new voice in his head . . . and before he knows it, a young girl with her own battery of psychic abilities has arrived to challenge him! From the creator of the acclaimed comic epic, Akira, comes a horrific tale of extrasensory powers, mind control, and psychic war! Dark Horse is proud to present -- for the first time ever in the U.S. -- the collected, translated version of Katsuhiro Otomo's Domu.
240 pages, Paperback
First published August 18, 1983
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2222 people want to read
About the author
Katsuhiro Otomo
316 books877 followersKatsuhiro Otomo is a Japanese manga artist, film director, and screenwriter. For his works in Japanese see 大友克洋. He is perhaps best known for being the creator of the manga Akira and its anime adaptation, which are extremely famous and influential. Otomo has also directed several live-action films, such as the recent 2006 feature film adaptation of the Mushishi manga.
Katsuhiro Otomo was born in the former town of Hasama, in Miyagi Prefecture.
As a teenager growing up in the turbulent 1960s, he was surrounded by the demonstrations of both students and workers against the Japanese government. The riots, demonstrations, and overall chaotic conditions of this time would serve as the inspiration for his best known work, Akira. Some would argue that this seminal work is an allegory of 1960s Japan, and that one could easily substitute the year 2019 for 1969 and leave little difference in the basic story.
The animation from this period (especially the works coming out of Tokyo animation studios Mushi Production and Toei Doga, now known as TOEI Animation) were influencing young Otomo. Works like Tetsujin 28-go, Astro Boy, and Hols: Prince of the Sun would help push Otomo toward a career in animation. However, it was the films coming out of America that were driving his rebellious nature. Five Easy Pieces and Easy Rider would serve as inspiration for Shotaro Kaneda and his biker gang in Akira: rebellious youth who took too many drugs and didn't care about authority or the pressures put on them by their parents' generation.
Otomo has recently worked extensively with noted studio Sunrise with the studio animating and producing his most recent projects, the 2004 feature film Steamboy, 2006's Freedom Project and his latest project, SOS! Tokyo Metro Explorers: The Next, released in 2007.
Otomo grew up a fanatic of American blockbusters, which has influenced his cinematic style throughout his huge career. He grew fond of the work of artists like Moebius, and is often regarded as the person who brought a Westernized style into manga. From the late seventies onwards, Otomo created numerous volumes of anthologies and short stories, which usually ran at 23 pages each. Serialization for Fireball was cancelled, though the premise and themes were later to appear in the Sci-Fi Grand Prix award winning Domu and Akira. Otomo later moved onto directing and creating notable anime like the film adaption of Akira, Memories, and Steamboy. His most recent manga have been the scripting of Mother Sarah and the short story Park released in an issue of Pafu last year. He has also directed several live action films, such as World Apartment Horror, Give Us A Gun/Give Us Freedom, and the 2006 feature film adaptation of the Mushishi manga.
Katsuhiro Otomo was born in the former town of Hasama, in Miyagi Prefecture.
As a teenager growing up in the turbulent 1960s, he was surrounded by the demonstrations of both students and workers against the Japanese government. The riots, demonstrations, and overall chaotic conditions of this time would serve as the inspiration for his best known work, Akira. Some would argue that this seminal work is an allegory of 1960s Japan, and that one could easily substitute the year 2019 for 1969 and leave little difference in the basic story.
The animation from this period (especially the works coming out of Tokyo animation studios Mushi Production and Toei Doga, now known as TOEI Animation) were influencing young Otomo. Works like Tetsujin 28-go, Astro Boy, and Hols: Prince of the Sun would help push Otomo toward a career in animation. However, it was the films coming out of America that were driving his rebellious nature. Five Easy Pieces and Easy Rider would serve as inspiration for Shotaro Kaneda and his biker gang in Akira: rebellious youth who took too many drugs and didn't care about authority or the pressures put on them by their parents' generation.
Otomo has recently worked extensively with noted studio Sunrise with the studio animating and producing his most recent projects, the 2004 feature film Steamboy, 2006's Freedom Project and his latest project, SOS! Tokyo Metro Explorers: The Next, released in 2007.
Otomo grew up a fanatic of American blockbusters, which has influenced his cinematic style throughout his huge career. He grew fond of the work of artists like Moebius, and is often regarded as the person who brought a Westernized style into manga. From the late seventies onwards, Otomo created numerous volumes of anthologies and short stories, which usually ran at 23 pages each. Serialization for Fireball was cancelled, though the premise and themes were later to appear in the Sci-Fi Grand Prix award winning Domu and Akira. Otomo later moved onto directing and creating notable anime like the film adaption of Akira, Memories, and Steamboy. His most recent manga have been the scripting of Mother Sarah and the short story Park released in an issue of Pafu last year. He has also directed several live action films, such as World Apartment Horror, Give Us A Gun/Give Us Freedom, and the 2006 feature film adaptation of the Mushishi manga.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 192 reviews
May 6, 2019
Domu: Otomo's Pre-Akira Masterpiece
The uncontrollable power of 'Akira' threatens to swallow everything in tentacle range, even it's older sibling, with whom the mega-manga shares it's own dramatis personae of troubled telekinetic characters: DOMU...
'Domu', Otomo's first masterpiece, has always been overshadowed by the grandeur of Akira, but both the art and the story display the full range of his creative powers. It's tempting to see it as a 300-page 'test-run' for the 2000+-page magnum opus, but that ignores the fact that 'Domu' is Manga perfection...
In an apartment mega-complex with thousands of residents, the suicide rate has risen dramatically. An old man with terrifying psychic abilities has become senile, and is now indulging his deadly and selfish whims, manipulating the residents like puppets and sending some to their deaths.
The families of the victims are baffled. The police investigating the deaths don't know what to make of it all, but as they follow the bizarre trail of clues, they get closer to a killer they're incapable of stopping. But when a little girl moves in with her family, the old man is suddenly confronted by someone determined to stop his malevolent games, a child with powers that might exceed his own. The town-sized apartment complex becomes a battlefield between two psychic juggernauts, and the old man's malicious games unleash a storm of telekinetic fury that threatens to kill hundreds of innocent people.
Katsuhiro Otomo is like the Philip K. Dick of Manga. By the time PKD dropped 'A Scanner Darkly', he had already changed the way readers & writers saw science fiction. The fantastic level of detail & sophistication in Otomo's artwork married European graphic complexity with the decompressed narrative of Manga. 'Domu' is suspenseful & cinematic in a way no one had ever come close to achieving; it was shocking & unpredictable in a way many would attempt to replicate, but most failed miserably. Katsuhiro lets the tension build naturally, and he's not looking for a gimmicky 'twist'... you know there's storm clouds on the horizon, but you're completely unprepared for the - metaphorical - city-swallowing tsunami.
Otomo was far ahead of his time, and his genius for graphic storytelling inspired an entire generation of young mangaka. Domu holds up remarkably well, and deserves to have a much wider audience; unbelievably, this is somehow out of print in North America. I don't know what the fuck Kodansha is thinking, but they need to publish a new edition and promote it, pronto. Promonto. Promotopromondopronto.
If you belong to the oppressed faction who have been unjustly denied their Nerdly Right to read 'Domu', stop whatever you're doing and run blindly through swamp, forest, and city streets, screaming 'DOOOMUUUuuu...' until someone finally tries to pacify you with a copy, or you're hit by a Garbage truck. If some asshole 'friend' shows up in the hospital with 'Appleseed', see if you can spray them with a stream of projectile vomit, and never speak to them again. Shirow is Pyrite to someone prospecting the comic shops for pure Otomo Gold. Inexplicably Out-Of-Print Gold. Accept no substitutes.
An Excellent Review of 'Domu: A Child's Dream' That Should Convince You Of Its Brilliance
November 4, 2015
It’s a little bit sad to me that many or even most of the people who know the name Katsuhiro Otomo will likely only know him for his sprawling vision for a post-apocalyptic Neo Tokyo, as found in Akira. In a way, that’s kind of like saying that it’s sad that most people will only ever know Herman Melville for Moby Dick. That is: it’s not really sad at all and that there is a good reason why the great torrential works are the ones that imprint on the shared cultural experience. There is a reason why when someone mentions Melville, Murakami, or Tolkien, better than nine-tenths of the time, that person isn’t going to bring up (respectively) “Bartleby the Scrivener,” Sputnik Sweetheart, or Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. And there is a reason that when people talk Otomo, it’s a safe bet they aren’t bringing up Domu.
And it has nothing to do with the quality of the work. Really, pound for pound, I find Domu a more exciting read packed with more thrills and better character moments than Akira. It’s more tightly plotted and possibly even more insane, though I wouldn’t argue the latter with any ferocity. There’s just, perhaps, a feeling that we owe the larger work our fidelity simply for the tremendous effort involved. 2666 is the superior work because it’s a bazillion pages long. Moby Dick is the superior work because it’s a bazillion pages long. Akira is the superior work because it’s longer than Moby Dick and 2666 put together in some glorious back-alley slash-fiction disaster by Melville and Bolaño’s ferociously ugly in vitro lovechild.
Because I’ve a touch of the contrarian in me, I have to guard against preferring the lesser known work for virtue of its obscurity. I prefer Domu to Akira, but do I do so justly? It’s hard to say. I mean, how could I ever know? In the end, the question might not even be worth asking, Which Is Better? Instead, the more worthwhile route may be simply to suggest that whatever the merits of the longer work—however completely awesome Akira might be[1]—Domu is wholly on its own merits worth the time it takes to track down the book and settle into its wacky brand of urban horror.
The lion’s portion of what makes Domu so incredible is Otomo’s artistic vision for the book. Not entirely of course, and the script is tightly plotted and wonderful, but Domu would not have been half so successful a realization of Otomo’s story had it not been for his prodigious talent with a pen or brush. Here. Look at this panel.
And now this.
And now this.
[Check out the detail on this apartment complex. Before computers.]
Do you feel bad yet for being nowhere near so accomplished in whatever skill it is that you have professed to become an expert in? Otomo may not be as awesome a father to my children as I am, but I am not near so awesome a father to my children as he is an illustrator. Probably the most painful thing about it is how little of Otomo’s work there actually is. Like, imagine if Hayao Miyazaki’s last film was Porco Rosso. We’d be thankful for what we had, of course, but in our heart of hearts we’d always be mournful for what was never made.[2]
And really, it’s not even all down to the intricacy of his work either. His sense of design is impeccable. You know how there are a few directors/cinematographers who just bear astonishing aptitude for their work, who shoot angles and vistas that eclipse the actors themselves. That’s Otomo. Think back on the work of Sergio Leone. The Good, the Bad & the Ugly.[3] Sure, the film stars cinematic superstars Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach, but without Leone’s peculiar framing, long posed shots, and extreme close-ups (remember the final duel and the combatants’ eyes), the film would have been inert. That is what Otomo offers his characters. The chance to be enveloped in something preordained in such a way as to show off every facet in its most dynamic and awestriking light.
Again, an example.
[2-Page spread—hence the weird scanner stuff at the crease.]
And another.
[2-Page spread—hence the weird scnner stuff at the crease.
Also, Otomo here vertically flips the orientation so that the gound is at the top of the page and the sky at bottom. We see the rooftops with lamps on top. The two figures twist in the air high above the complex.]
[Close-up on Etsuko and Old Cho.]
And one more.
[This is Otomo’s version of Leone’s gunfights.]
And interestingly, Otomo’s ability to convey action so dynamically capitalizes dramatically on his story’s sense of irony. Beyond the horror aspect of the book, Otomo presents a story deeply concerned with futility—which plays on his character’s extreme impotence. Of all Domu's characters, so many of whom try so hard to effect their own destinies, only two (and then, really only one) ever have any ability to affect the outcome of the book’s machinations. The crazy woman, the mentally arrested giant, the hoodlum, the kid, the young detective, the chief detective, the spiritist. They’re each incompetent to alter their own destinies and the destinies around them. Domu focuses heavily on police work and the reader spends a lot of time following an investigation that will ultimately be resolved in the most delicious deus ex machina—and by an unlikely deus.
[The lighting choices here are phenomenal.]
Domu is an almost perfect work. It may actually be perfect. I don’t really have the apparatus to judge perfection, so I tend to talk in aimless vagaries like this. Whether perfect or not, the sheer talent invested into its every page is formidable and affecting. It’s easy to see, for instance, how Domu might have influenced Rian Johnson in his execution of Looper's Rainmaker character—one could easily guess that Etsuko stepped right out of Otomo’s Tokyo’s high-rise developments and into Johnson’s Midwestern cornfields. When I first encountered Domu fifteen years ago, I was certain the book would stick with me throughout my life. I’ve been right so far. It is after all a masterwork, so we shouldn’t be surprised.
_______
[Review courtesy of Good Ok Bad.]
_______
Footnotes
1) And Akira *is* awesome, of course. Every month in 1990 featured me hotly anticipating the next gorgeously coloured issue from Marvel’s Epic line. I loved the heck out of Akira. Even the bizarro film adaptation.
2) I actually feel like this pretty much constantly for the premature loss of Satoshi Kon.
3) Even more apt, actually, is Once Upon a Time in the West, but too few have seen it. Nearly fifty years after The Good, the Bad & the Ugly and too few have seen even that, so it seems a vain hope to figure on the contemporary reader being conversant with Leone’s superior-though-less popular film. But suppose you were familiar with it, think back on how the opening seven minutes nearly dominates entirely the three hours that follow. There is nearly no dialogue. Just three men waiting for a train. But through his command of sight and sound Leone crafts one of the most maddeningly memorable sequences in cinematic history.
April 3, 2022
3,5
En un complejo de edificios se comienza a investigar la muerte de Ueno, pero esto será solo el comienzo y la policía se deberá enfrentar a lo que no entiende y desconocen completamente.
Fui con un poco de duda a leer este manga, pero me ha sorprendido lo rápido de la trama en torno a una base de ciencia ficción.
Los personajes no están minuciosamente desarrollados y aún así la trama nos va entregando suficiente de ellos para que veamos diferentes realidades.
Es una historia que aumenta gradualmente la acción, y que se va elevando en cuanto a tensión llegando a generar una atmósfera psicológica atrapante.
Me ha gustado, desde el inicio nos deja entrever pequeños detalles de la parte sobrenatural que va tejiendo, mas en dibujo que en diálogos, y es por esto que hay que considerar que el dibujo entrega mucho a la historia que se quiere contar.
En un complejo de edificios se comienza a investigar la muerte de Ueno, pero esto será solo el comienzo y la policía se deberá enfrentar a lo que no entiende y desconocen completamente.
Fui con un poco de duda a leer este manga, pero me ha sorprendido lo rápido de la trama en torno a una base de ciencia ficción.
Los personajes no están minuciosamente desarrollados y aún así la trama nos va entregando suficiente de ellos para que veamos diferentes realidades.
Es una historia que aumenta gradualmente la acción, y que se va elevando en cuanto a tensión llegando a generar una atmósfera psicológica atrapante.
Me ha gustado, desde el inicio nos deja entrever pequeños detalles de la parte sobrenatural que va tejiendo, mas en dibujo que en diálogos, y es por esto que hay que considerar que el dibujo entrega mucho a la historia que se quiere contar.
April 16, 2023
little manga classic with a climax of telekinetic proportions. ;)
by the creator of akira. ‘nuff said.
by the creator of akira. ‘nuff said.
June 10, 2016
Following a parade of suicides in a park-side spread of apartment complexes, an ineffective police investigation fails to detect that the culprit is a shrunken geriatric whose mask of senility hides a very potent command of psychokinesis as well as a sadistic streak. When a young girl with a messy head of hair and equally wild and dangerous psychic abilities moves into a flat with her family, an extravaganza of carnage and mayhem soon follows. Sort of the Japanese answer to David Cronenberg's schizoid classic Scanners, Otomo's Domu is a high-octane romp that once again plumbs the blood-splattered possibilities of death by staring contest.
July 3, 2022
It's basically Proto-Akira, good for all the same reasons but generally to a lesser extent: there's less story, less character development, less psychic powers, and less amazing art. A bit greater focus on murder mysteries and other such tense spooky stuff, though, up until towards the end when the espers go all-out.
January 29, 2016
An eerie noir set in a sprawling housing complex, building into a conflagration of battling wills. It's the prior work by the author/illustrator of Akira, and even though I've only seen the film version of that one, it shows, especially in the huge, cinematic confrontation sequences. At its strongest in its contexts: the housing complex is rendered in mind-bogglingly perfect architectural detail, fully conveying the inhuman scale of the place, even as the lives of a huge cast of residents are sketched in brief, bold strokes.
August 15, 2015
Mi reacción ante las obras de Katsuhiro Otomo en 10 sencillos pasos:
1.- No entiendo nada
2.- Hay demasiados personajes irrelevantes.
3.- No entiendo nada
[3a, 3b, 3c ... 3n.- No entiendo nada]
4.- Oh. Han muerto los personajes irrelevantes.
5.- Oh. Hay un personaje con poderes.
6.- Oh. Veo que nadie va a explicarme nada.
7.- No entiendo nada.
8.- Oh. Hay hostias.
9.- Oh. Vale, lo he entendido.
10.- ¿Y esto es todo?
1.- No entiendo nada
2.- Hay demasiados personajes irrelevantes.
3.- No entiendo nada
[3a, 3b, 3c ... 3n.- No entiendo nada]
4.- Oh. Han muerto los personajes irrelevantes.
5.- Oh. Hay un personaje con poderes.
6.- Oh. Veo que nadie va a explicarme nada.
7.- No entiendo nada.
8.- Oh. Hay hostias.
9.- Oh. Vale, lo he entendido.
10.- ¿Y esto es todo?
September 20, 2025
Despite not liking it myself, I do think Domu is worth reading. You'd probably have a better time reading if you don't go into this having any expectations for it to match up to Otomo's other work, Akira.
Or better yet, don't be a massive Akira fan when going into this, you'll gain more that way.
Or better yet, don't be a massive Akira fan when going into this, you'll gain more that way.
July 9, 2013
To many Otomo's Akira is the absolute swan song of his career--& they would not be wrong. I would find it hard to argue because I too am in awe of it.
But my heart belongs to Domu: A Child's Dream. To me, it is Otomo's true masterpiece. It would be the forerunner to Akira--the "shades of things to come" & a glimpse into the imagination that would one day create a graphic novel epic to rival all others. It is a deeply moving piece of work that has inspired me throughout all my creative impulses when writing comix. It is the graphic novel which makes me look at my scripts & say: "I can do better!"
Domu: A Child's Dream involves one of my favorite plot devices within the genre of science fiction: Psionics!
I love stories of telepathy, pyrokenesis, telekenesis, & all other types of psionic ablilities (& if there is a combination of more than one, all the better!). This graphic novel delivers everything I love about the concept & goes deeper than just a tale of two psionic rivals.
An old man with incredible psionic abilities lives in one of Japan's massive housing projects--gigantic monolithic buildings housing the multitudes who are overpopulating the large island they live on. He is bored, lonely & has a massive maturity problem--he is like a misbehaving little brat who views the world through cruel, bitter eyes. He kills for fun--using his psionics to cause "accidents" which end with the deaths of unsuspecting tenants.
Until a little girl & her parents move into the housing project. She knows what the old man is because she possesses the same abilities & she isn't happy with the homicidal little prick. What follows is a gargantuan psychic war that climaxes into a apocalyptic confrontation that destroys the Stonehenge-like buildings of the housing projects that are always looming up around them like walls of some super-prison. It is a symbolic battle--one between generations (the little old man & the little girl)--& a comment on the country's continuing problem with overpopulation. These factors & the images Otomo's pen creates drives the story to an incredible ending.
It is comix like Otomo's Domu: A Child's Dream that make me want to write comix. It is the type of comic that I would spend many hours trying to find if it were out-of-print. As a matter of fact, it is. So start searching because it is an essential graphic novel you must read & own. If you find two copies, buy them both--it's that good & that important. Now give that second copy to your best friend. They will thank you & will be forever in your debt.
There is no question that this graphic novel is no more than a masterpiece. Anyone--anyone!--who disagrees is a fool!
But my heart belongs to Domu: A Child's Dream. To me, it is Otomo's true masterpiece. It would be the forerunner to Akira--the "shades of things to come" & a glimpse into the imagination that would one day create a graphic novel epic to rival all others. It is a deeply moving piece of work that has inspired me throughout all my creative impulses when writing comix. It is the graphic novel which makes me look at my scripts & say: "I can do better!"
Domu: A Child's Dream involves one of my favorite plot devices within the genre of science fiction: Psionics!
I love stories of telepathy, pyrokenesis, telekenesis, & all other types of psionic ablilities (& if there is a combination of more than one, all the better!). This graphic novel delivers everything I love about the concept & goes deeper than just a tale of two psionic rivals.
An old man with incredible psionic abilities lives in one of Japan's massive housing projects--gigantic monolithic buildings housing the multitudes who are overpopulating the large island they live on. He is bored, lonely & has a massive maturity problem--he is like a misbehaving little brat who views the world through cruel, bitter eyes. He kills for fun--using his psionics to cause "accidents" which end with the deaths of unsuspecting tenants.
Until a little girl & her parents move into the housing project. She knows what the old man is because she possesses the same abilities & she isn't happy with the homicidal little prick. What follows is a gargantuan psychic war that climaxes into a apocalyptic confrontation that destroys the Stonehenge-like buildings of the housing projects that are always looming up around them like walls of some super-prison. It is a symbolic battle--one between generations (the little old man & the little girl)--& a comment on the country's continuing problem with overpopulation. These factors & the images Otomo's pen creates drives the story to an incredible ending.
It is comix like Otomo's Domu: A Child's Dream that make me want to write comix. It is the type of comic that I would spend many hours trying to find if it were out-of-print. As a matter of fact, it is. So start searching because it is an essential graphic novel you must read & own. If you find two copies, buy them both--it's that good & that important. Now give that second copy to your best friend. They will thank you & will be forever in your debt.
There is no question that this graphic novel is no more than a masterpiece. Anyone--anyone!--who disagrees is a fool!
March 31, 2018
Well this was a deception to me, I had read this book a couple of years ago and I forget the name and most of the history but I was looking forward to re-read it, so when I finally found it I was really happy, but this time it was a disappoint to me, the history fells undeveloped, there are so many characters that end up not having any development or connection, it's just fells like for me is a really incomplete and weak history, the drawing is amazing, I can say that.
September 7, 2010
If there is anything that I learn about reading mangas, that there is always one title that stands out among the rest from the creator. For me, one of my personal favorite from Katsuhiro Otomo has always been Domu: A Child's Dream.
Domu is a simple, gripping dark-tale that was drawn and written in a cinematic way that let your eyes follow panel by panel in such a way how a director intends the audience to see his movie as it was meant to be. It started off with a mystery that leads to murder and soon Otomo pour out a group of interesting characters that were introduced in a manner easily related to. Right in the middle, a tease between two main characters and soon leads to an explosive finale that ends with a nice epilogue aftermath, ending what was yet a mystery will always remain a mystery (but only us readers will know what was going on).
Although it is not as epic as Akira (which was over 2000 pages long), Domu creates a nice one tale manga about two people and their power struggle of good and evil of right and wrong in a morality world of madness and chaos. What I enjoy most was how Otomo captures a cinematic feel reading Domu and how he guides the reader to where he wants us to be and guide our eyes to beautifully detailed art and yet intrigued us, building a suspense thrilling tale that follows with a satisfying ending.
If you enjoy reading Otomo's Akira epic science fiction fantasy manga graphic novels, give Domu: A Child's Dream a try. You will not regret it.
Domu is a simple, gripping dark-tale that was drawn and written in a cinematic way that let your eyes follow panel by panel in such a way how a director intends the audience to see his movie as it was meant to be. It started off with a mystery that leads to murder and soon Otomo pour out a group of interesting characters that were introduced in a manner easily related to. Right in the middle, a tease between two main characters and soon leads to an explosive finale that ends with a nice epilogue aftermath, ending what was yet a mystery will always remain a mystery (but only us readers will know what was going on).
Although it is not as epic as Akira (which was over 2000 pages long), Domu creates a nice one tale manga about two people and their power struggle of good and evil of right and wrong in a morality world of madness and chaos. What I enjoy most was how Otomo captures a cinematic feel reading Domu and how he guides the reader to where he wants us to be and guide our eyes to beautifully detailed art and yet intrigued us, building a suspense thrilling tale that follows with a satisfying ending.
If you enjoy reading Otomo's Akira epic science fiction fantasy manga graphic novels, give Domu: A Child's Dream a try. You will not regret it.
May 14, 2016
*8'5/10*
Estamos ante el hombre que trajo Akira al mundo, y hay que quererlo por ello. Está historia es anterior a la misma pero realmente no se nota demasiado la falta de experiencia de Otomo ni nada por el estilo.
El mundo que se nos presenta no es más que un gran complejo de apartamentos, sus alrededores y una comisaria de policía de vez en cuando. No necesitamos nada más. Y hablando del emplazamiento en el que toma lugar este cómic, el complejo de apartamentos se posicionan como un personaje más de la historia, con una presencia palpable y un importante peso en la historia.
Lo que hace un poco especial a esta historia es que a los que menos conocemos es a los personajes principales, no sabemos nada de ellos y el mismo halo de misterio que envuelve al lugar los abraza también a ellos. Sin embargo a los personajes secundarios los conocemos un poco más, son menos impredecibles y podemos cogerles algo de cariño.
Una historia con un buen ritmo, interesante, misteriosa y que en su tramo final me tuvo pegado al papel. Otomo es un maestro en esto y se nota. La única pega que puedo ponerle es que el final es un poco confuso, realmente no sabes a ciencia cierta por qué ha pasado ni sabes lo que va a pasar después de ello, pero supongo que es parte de su encanto.
Estamos ante el hombre que trajo Akira al mundo, y hay que quererlo por ello. Está historia es anterior a la misma pero realmente no se nota demasiado la falta de experiencia de Otomo ni nada por el estilo.
El mundo que se nos presenta no es más que un gran complejo de apartamentos, sus alrededores y una comisaria de policía de vez en cuando. No necesitamos nada más. Y hablando del emplazamiento en el que toma lugar este cómic, el complejo de apartamentos se posicionan como un personaje más de la historia, con una presencia palpable y un importante peso en la historia.
Lo que hace un poco especial a esta historia es que a los que menos conocemos es a los personajes principales, no sabemos nada de ellos y el mismo halo de misterio que envuelve al lugar los abraza también a ellos. Sin embargo a los personajes secundarios los conocemos un poco más, son menos impredecibles y podemos cogerles algo de cariño.
Una historia con un buen ritmo, interesante, misteriosa y que en su tramo final me tuvo pegado al papel. Otomo es un maestro en esto y se nota. La única pega que puedo ponerle es que el final es un poco confuso, realmente no sabes a ciencia cierta por qué ha pasado ni sabes lo que va a pasar después de ello, pero supongo que es parte de su encanto.
February 18, 2019
This graphic novel is mad good. The illustration is incredible, drawn in a style that manages to be both painstakingly intricate and wildly frenetic at the same time. The story is instantly engrossing. Set almost entirely in a Ballardian tower block complex, inescapably huge and haunted by the horrors of modern life, this is the place that a cast of troubled souls call home. People are dying here day after day but no one knows why. What follows is a supernatural tale totally devoid of creaking floorboards and cobwebbed attics, instead manipulating the architecture's sheet glass and chipped concrete to create some genuinely creepy scenes. As must be the case for many readers, Otomo's Akira was my gateway to Manga. Whilst it seems a fairly niche area of literature, there are gems like Domu which shouldn't be overlooked, not just by habitual readers of graphic novels but by anyone who enjoys their stories dark and lively.
July 24, 2022
Curioso caso de asesinatos multiples en un edificio colmena, donde la vida sigue pase lo que pase. Genial el arte en las explosiones.
May 13, 2021
Una obra que puede verse como la precursora de Akira. Una simple historia donde en un bloque de edificios comienzan a ocurrir una serie de asesinatos extraños que parecen tener relación con un viejo excéntrico y una niña pequeña. El dibujo, los poderes de algunos personajes y el toque violento de algunos asesinatos nos recuerdan lo que haría Otomo más tarde en su obra magna. No está mal pero la historia podría haber tenido más chicha.
June 20, 2020
De este autor solo había trabajado hasta ahora su opus magna en versión anime, Akira, y por alguna razón pensaba que estaba encasillado en ciertos géneros o ambientaciones cuando, tras esta lectura, descubro que está más obsesionado con conceptos como la capacidad sobrenatural de la infancia en sus diversas manifestaciones. Aún recuerdo algunas escenas de Akira que me produjeron fuertes reacciones fisiológicas durante el primer visionado, ¡qué tiernecito estaba antes de reproducir aquel VHS!
Lo más impactante de este manga: el dibujo. Qué maestría, qué atención al detalle, qué gráfica manera de narrar como si la sucesión de viñetas tuviera la continuidad de una película... Sublime hasta llegar a la obsesión por estudiar cada minucia que sirvió sobre el papel en los escenarios más abarrotados: las imágenes en gran angular de las fachadas de los complejos de apartamentos, los artículos del Diógenes de Cho-San... Una maravilla en la primera visita y en todas las posteriores.
Si hubiera alguna pega que poner, opino (por enésima vez) que algo se escapa en los matices dialógicos al traducir del japonés al castellano. Hay expresiones que pierden sentido, métodos comunicativos que chocan culturalmente, y una probable ausencia de detección de matices. Esto no es culpa de la obra, sino de la riqueza idiomática de ambas partes y la dificultad al tender puentes identitarios entre ellas; en realidad solo es un aviso a navegantes que pudieran confundir esto con una escasa calidad.
Lo más impactante de este manga: el dibujo. Qué maestría, qué atención al detalle, qué gráfica manera de narrar como si la sucesión de viñetas tuviera la continuidad de una película... Sublime hasta llegar a la obsesión por estudiar cada minucia que sirvió sobre el papel en los escenarios más abarrotados: las imágenes en gran angular de las fachadas de los complejos de apartamentos, los artículos del Diógenes de Cho-San... Una maravilla en la primera visita y en todas las posteriores.
Si hubiera alguna pega que poner, opino (por enésima vez) que algo se escapa en los matices dialógicos al traducir del japonés al castellano. Hay expresiones que pierden sentido, métodos comunicativos que chocan culturalmente, y una probable ausencia de detección de matices. Esto no es culpa de la obra, sino de la riqueza idiomática de ambas partes y la dificultad al tender puentes identitarios entre ellas; en realidad solo es un aviso a navegantes que pudieran confundir esto con una escasa calidad.
January 6, 2018
Yes i have watched the classic anime film 'Akira' directed by Katsuhiro Otomo, based on the 2000-page manga of Otomo.
But i encountered 'Domu' thru a true comics review guide (a book) that i got years before and after i watched Akira in the late 1990s.
I was blown away by the clean detailed art, not your usual fanfare manga art. Great story too. But what i like best in this volume is the short selection about author/creator. This is a really fine volume from one of the finest artists of the medium of comics, not just manga.
I have not read the manga of Akira but i love this first acclaimed sci-fi work of Otomo. I think it is a must have of Otomo's works.
But i encountered 'Domu' thru a true comics review guide (a book) that i got years before and after i watched Akira in the late 1990s.
I was blown away by the clean detailed art, not your usual fanfare manga art. Great story too. But what i like best in this volume is the short selection about author/creator. This is a really fine volume from one of the finest artists of the medium of comics, not just manga.
I have not read the manga of Akira but i love this first acclaimed sci-fi work of Otomo. I think it is a must have of Otomo's works.
July 20, 2009
What can I say about Otomo's Domu - it's quite simply one of the best graphic fictions I have ever read. The art is so meticulously detailed. Each panel reads like a movie still, pushing the narrative along at Otomo's undulating pace. The story - a deceptively simple murder mystery is so subtly revealed, so elegantly told that it reads like visual poetry. Being an artist I've learned much from reading Domu over and over. It's a grand example of the potential comics can reach. Everyone, comics fan or not, should read this book.
July 28, 2016
It was a promising start but the second half was a let-down in my opinion. The characters were one dimensional and if the book had been in text form I would have been unable to tell them apart. I'm still confused what the plot was about or what the point of the whole thing was. It was almost as if it was trying to be creepy for the sake of being creepy.
December 10, 2017
Katsuhiro Otomo's precursor of Akira. The combination of mundane and supernatural makes for a really eerie atmosphere, which serves for creating immense tension to the damn great climax.
4 out of 5 stars.
4 out of 5 stars.
January 1, 2017
Maybe there's more to this than I'm seeing but I just thought: Ah, that's it? That was kind of disappointing.
April 19, 2018
Obra maestra! te mantiene en tensión a la vez del disfrute de las ilustraciones.
February 22, 2019
Crítica completa en https://elantrodelosvampirosyotrosmon...
¿Qué es un hogar? ¿Tienen los sitios memoria? ¿Existen los fantasmas? ¿Quién tiene poder en un mundo donde se ha perdido la magia? ¿Qué supone el terror? ¿Cuál es la responsabilidad de aquellos que están por encima de nosotros? Preguntas que nos vienen a la cabeza mientras leemos el manga Pesadillas, obra emblemática del creador Katsuhiro Ōtomo.
Pese al título que ha recibido en España, Pesadillas (en japonés Domu, “sueños infantiles”) está más cerca del género de la ciencia ficción que el del terror. Sí, hay ciertos elementos macabros o una ambientación lúgubre, pero lo principal es la reflexión sobre el poder. Para todos los seguidores de la obra de Katsuhiro Ōtomo, ciertos rasgos de la obra del creador de Roujin Z quedan claros y evidentes: la vejez, la juventud, la consideración del poder y la contraposición clara de la moral frente a este, tal y como ya vimos en la famosa obra Akira que lo consagró como uno de los grandes del género.
Pesadillas cuenta la historia de unos personajes ligados a un siniestro bloque de pisos donde se están repitiendo una serie de extraños hechos; la muerte de varias personas son el desencadenante de una investigación policial que llevará a varios sucesos aún más inquietantes, como suicidios o asesinatos. Este microcosmos y su destino queda representando con el villano que el lector no puede esperar y una pequeña heroína que se contraponen igual que las generaciones a las que pertenecen (pese a cierta doble lectura que tiene que ver con el bebé muerto de una de las vecinas).
Este cómic japonés es una obra muy particular que puede llegar a resultar una “marcianada” para todos aquellos que nunca han disfrutado del manga ni de la obra de Katsuhiro Ōtomo, pero aquellos que partan de un pensamiento más libre o que ya conozcan al autor lo disfrutarán (pese al caos que puebla sus páginas, donde vemos críticas hacia el desempleo, la pobreza, los alcohólicos, la discriminación, la veneración de la vejez, el olvido de los sobrenatural...).
Es indudable que el potencial argumental, subyugado por la fuerza visual de Katsuhiro Ōtomo, está ahí a lo largo de cada uno de los momentos de la historia, pese a que se resuelve mediante una batalla que da pie, a modo de epílogo, a un duelo en un parque infantil que llega a recordarnos a un western urbano muy particular y, sobre todo, original.
Crítica completa en https://elantrodelosvampirosyotrosmon...
¿Qué es un hogar? ¿Tienen los sitios memoria? ¿Existen los fantasmas? ¿Quién tiene poder en un mundo donde se ha perdido la magia? ¿Qué supone el terror? ¿Cuál es la responsabilidad de aquellos que están por encima de nosotros? Preguntas que nos vienen a la cabeza mientras leemos el manga Pesadillas, obra emblemática del creador Katsuhiro Ōtomo.
Pese al título que ha recibido en España, Pesadillas (en japonés Domu, “sueños infantiles”) está más cerca del género de la ciencia ficción que el del terror. Sí, hay ciertos elementos macabros o una ambientación lúgubre, pero lo principal es la reflexión sobre el poder. Para todos los seguidores de la obra de Katsuhiro Ōtomo, ciertos rasgos de la obra del creador de Roujin Z quedan claros y evidentes: la vejez, la juventud, la consideración del poder y la contraposición clara de la moral frente a este, tal y como ya vimos en la famosa obra Akira que lo consagró como uno de los grandes del género.
Pesadillas cuenta la historia de unos personajes ligados a un siniestro bloque de pisos donde se están repitiendo una serie de extraños hechos; la muerte de varias personas son el desencadenante de una investigación policial que llevará a varios sucesos aún más inquietantes, como suicidios o asesinatos. Este microcosmos y su destino queda representando con el villano que el lector no puede esperar y una pequeña heroína que se contraponen igual que las generaciones a las que pertenecen (pese a cierta doble lectura que tiene que ver con el bebé muerto de una de las vecinas).
Este cómic japonés es una obra muy particular que puede llegar a resultar una “marcianada” para todos aquellos que nunca han disfrutado del manga ni de la obra de Katsuhiro Ōtomo, pero aquellos que partan de un pensamiento más libre o que ya conozcan al autor lo disfrutarán (pese al caos que puebla sus páginas, donde vemos críticas hacia el desempleo, la pobreza, los alcohólicos, la discriminación, la veneración de la vejez, el olvido de los sobrenatural...).
Es indudable que el potencial argumental, subyugado por la fuerza visual de Katsuhiro Ōtomo, está ahí a lo largo de cada uno de los momentos de la historia, pese a que se resuelve mediante una batalla que da pie, a modo de epílogo, a un duelo en un parque infantil que llega a recordarnos a un western urbano muy particular y, sobre todo, original.
Crítica completa en https://elantrodelosvampirosyotrosmon...
March 24, 2022
|| 3,5 ||
No tenía mucha idea de qué esperar de este manga; sabía que el mangaka era conocido por su obra Akira, pero más allá de ser consciente de que es un manga de mucho peso, no sabía más sobre él. Buscaba algo corto, con acción, dinámico e interesante, y esta historia me lo dio.
El manga está localizado en un complejo de apartamentos en el que cosas extrañas no tardan en comenzar a suceder: suicidios, accidentes de riesgo, objetos que desaparecen, pero a pesar de lo mucho que se involucra la policía, no parecen encontrar salida alguna.
Las cosas escalan cuando una nueva familia se muda al complejo y la mente maestra de todo esto podría verse en peligro.
Me pareció un manga muy interesante; a pesar de enfocarse en las habilidades psíquicas, hay también aspectos paranormales. No hay espacio para demasiada indagación (una pena, porque aunque el hecho de que no se explique tanto deja un aura un tanto cruda, siempre me interesa cuando se ahonda en la cuestión psicológica en este tipo de situaciones; el contraste de edades entre los personajes de más peso también me lo hizo aún más interesante).
Es un manga fuerte, con mucha sangre, que juega con la locura y la fragilidad de la mente humana, detalle a tener en cuenta antes de arrancarlo. Eso sí, me quedé con ganas de indagar más en la historia.
No tenía mucha idea de qué esperar de este manga; sabía que el mangaka era conocido por su obra Akira, pero más allá de ser consciente de que es un manga de mucho peso, no sabía más sobre él. Buscaba algo corto, con acción, dinámico e interesante, y esta historia me lo dio.
El manga está localizado en un complejo de apartamentos en el que cosas extrañas no tardan en comenzar a suceder: suicidios, accidentes de riesgo, objetos que desaparecen, pero a pesar de lo mucho que se involucra la policía, no parecen encontrar salida alguna.
Las cosas escalan cuando una nueva familia se muda al complejo y la mente maestra de todo esto podría verse en peligro.
Me pareció un manga muy interesante; a pesar de enfocarse en las habilidades psíquicas, hay también aspectos paranormales. No hay espacio para demasiada indagación (una pena, porque aunque el hecho de que no se explique tanto deja un aura un tanto cruda, siempre me interesa cuando se ahonda en la cuestión psicológica en este tipo de situaciones; el contraste de edades entre los personajes de más peso también me lo hizo aún más interesante).
Es un manga fuerte, con mucha sangre, que juega con la locura y la fragilidad de la mente humana, detalle a tener en cuenta antes de arrancarlo. Eso sí, me quedé con ganas de indagar más en la historia.
June 27, 2017
Domu is the story of a little corner of spiraling chaos in an otherwise ordinary neighborhood. It's a clash of opposing forces and their effects on the surrounding community, and a wonderful tale of the extraordinary in the monotony of the everyday.
At first a slow creeping mystery, Domu ends in a staggering set piece of destruction and confusion, as seen through a number of different characters, and it's these characters - the heroine, the villain, and the clueless police officers assigned to the case - that leave the story with a wonderful, lingering sense of uncertainty.
At first a slow creeping mystery, Domu ends in a staggering set piece of destruction and confusion, as seen through a number of different characters, and it's these characters - the heroine, the villain, and the clueless police officers assigned to the case - that leave the story with a wonderful, lingering sense of uncertainty.
January 2, 2026
Trabajo pre-Akira, donde ya encontramos un Otomo consolidado. Muy potente, dibujo cargado de fuerza, historia dotada de misterio. El edificio donde transcurre la acción forma un micro-universo con mucho carácter. La batalla privada entre el anciano Cho-san y la niña Etsuko, advertida solo por el resto de niños que habitan el complejo residencial, es muy memorable.
Nota: Había visto la película noruega The Innocents y no sabía hasta qué punto se basaba en este manga.
9/10
Nota: Había visto la película noruega The Innocents y no sabía hasta qué punto se basaba en este manga.
9/10
December 24, 2022
Domu is certainly like Akira, but it's more about the crime and mystery parts instead of the grand world-changing conspiracy. It's got a host of characters but without much time spent characterizing them outside of their roles in the story. And it's got some fantastic art, particularly towards the end when the psychic powers start to go all-out.
January 21, 2023
Me gustó más que Akira extrañamente, supongo que porque este tenía ese toque de "horror" que lo hacía más interesante.
Una pelea de niños que sobrepasa los límites de la realidad, me gustó muchísimo, quizás lo vuelva a leer porque fue una gran sorpresa
Una pelea de niños que sobrepasa los límites de la realidad, me gustó muchísimo, quizás lo vuelva a leer porque fue una gran sorpresa
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