Domu; A Child's Dream is actually my favorite and not Akira ... strange, huh? Actually Domu is scary stuff - in my opinion better than Akira - quite short but
scary none the less."
The name Katsuhiro Otomo may not ring any bells but mention his most famous creation, Akira, and you'll have a strong show of hands of people who've been blown away by either Otomu's original manga or the anime that was inspired by it.
Akira is probably Otomo's most recognised work but the man has been a comic writer since 1973 when he began with Jusei. Fans of Otomu's work will usually point out Domu as the more accomplished work. It won Otomu the Japan SF Grand Prix prize in 1983. It was the first manga to win that prestigious prize.
It must be noted that the images used here are the copyright of Katsuhiro Otomo and his publisher.
Domu; A Child's Dream is actually my favorite and not Akira ... strange, huh? Actually Domu is scary stuff - in my opinion better than Akira - quite short but
scary none the less."
Born in 1954 in the Miyagi Prefecture, this current Tokyo-ite is a self-confessed movie addict. In fact, it was his love of movies like Easy Rider, Bonnie & Clyde and The Strawberry Statement that helped him shape and visualise the stories that he creates. His work has a cinematic look that is evident in the manga of Domu, Akira and Memories amongst others.
Memories is a collection of his short stories that have only recently been published in English. It was this collection - compiled originally in Japanese in the late 70s - that showed the promise inherent in Otomo. But it is the rarely seen Fireball that marked Otomu's foray into the sci-fi genre. This unfinished body of work that began in 1979 was to prove the catalyst for the dark, apocalyptic universes of Domu and Akira.
The success of Domu - first published in 1980 - encouraged Otomo to create the masterpiece by which he is known for, the dystopia of Neo-Tokyo that provides the backdrop for the darkly bleak Akira.
Encompassing six volumes and over 2,000 pages of artwork, Akira would become a cultural icon. It was a stunning body of work that helped sell manga and anime to the rest of the world. It inspired an animated feature directed by Otomo himself and - strangely for such a dark subject - actually had healthy sales in terms of merchandise as varied as t-shirts and lunch boxes.