Domu: A Child's Dream
| Domu : A Child's Dream | |
Cover of the Domu tankōbon volume, as published by Kodansha on August 18, 1983.
|
|
|
童夢 (Dōmu) |
|
|---|---|
| Genre | Horror, Supernatural |
| Manga | |
| Written by | Katsuhiro Otomo |
| Published by | Kodansha |
| English publisher | |
| Demographic | Seinen |
| Magazine | Young Magazine |
| Original run | January 19, 1980 – July 6, 1981 |
| Volumes | 1 |
Domu (童夢 Dōmu?) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Katsuhiro Otomo. Similar to his work Akira, the story centers on an old man and a child possessing extrasensory powers. It was serialized between 1980 and 1981, with the chapters collected and published as a tankōbon in 1983. The main inspiration for Domu came partly from an apartment complex Otomo lived in when he first moved to Tokyo & partly from a news report he heard about a rash of suicides that occurred at a different apartment complex.
It has sold over 500,000 copies in Japan, was granted an excellence award at the 1981 Japan Cartoonists Association Award, was the first manga to win the Nihon SF Taisho Award, and won the 1984 Seiun Award for Comic of the Year. It was released in English in individual volumes in 1995, compiled altogether in 1996 (reissued 2001), and was one of publisher Dark Horse Comics' top sellers for that year.
Mr. Ueno, a tenant of the tower block apartments at the Tsutsumi Housing Complex, jumps from the roof of one of the buildings in an apparent suicide. His is the latest of the thirty-two mysterious deaths that have taken place there in only three years. Inspector Yamagawa and Inspector Takayama investigate the death and find that it was impossible for Mr. Ueno to get on the roof, as the lock of the access door has long been rusted shut.
Yamagawa interviews the complex's manager and is told of a few residents that have caused problems with in the past, including Mrs. Tezuka, an eccentric woman who was sent to a mental hospital after a miscarriage; Yoshio Fujiyama, nicknamed "Little Yo", a strong but mentally disabled man who was accused of child molestation by other residents; and Yoshikawa, an abusive alcoholic. The manager also mentions Chojiro Uchida, nicknamed "Old Cho", a senile old man who lives alone.
...
Wikipedia