[Review] Dream Fossil

Shaenon K. Garrity December 31, 2015

Since the great animator Satoshi Kon died in 2010, publishers Vertical and Dark Horse have begun bringing his manga into print in English. Kon began his career as a manga artist (he assisted Katsuhiro Otomo on Akira), and although his manga work may not be as well known as his anime, it provides new insight into films like Perfect Blue, Tokyo Godfathers, and Paprika. The latest Kon manga to make it into translation is Dream Fossil, a collection of short manga from the 1980s.

Unfortunately, these very early one-shot manga are some of Kon’s most unpolished and least interesting works. There are standouts: “Guests” puts a tongue-in-cheek twist on haunted-house stories with the tale of a house filling up with a ridiculous number of ghosts. The wry “Day Has Dawned” follows a trio of high-school seniors to Tokyo’s red-light district to prove their manhood. “Beyond the Sun” turns a story about a lonely, bedridden old lady into unexpected comedy (I was oddly reminded of the Otomo anime Roujin Z, about an old man in a high-tech hospital bed, which Kon would work on a few years later as one of his first animation jobs). The sweet Christmas story “Joyful Bell” presages the melancholy holiday cheer of Kon’s feature Tokyo Godfathers.

But too many of the stories feel unfinished, like rough drafts of an idea, or models with not quite all the parts hooked together. The collection includes Kon’s first published manga, the dystopian science-fiction story “Toriko,” which is nice work for a newcomer, especially in the characters’ detailed and expressive faces, but often muddy and incoherent. Other pieces—baseball stories, war stories, period pieces—are simply too short to have much impact.

On the other hand, it’s impressive to see the range of material Kon tackled in his early career, from wacky sports comedy to grim science fiction to samurai stories to everyday drama. It’s a lesson to aspiring artists: try everything, and don’t worry about the failures. Put it all together in one collection, and it’s hairy and uneven—but hey, so is anyone’s life.