Batman The Son of Dreams by Kia Asamiya, review: infinite dreams
Batman The Son of Dreams by Kia Asamiya, review
In conjunction with the theatrical release of The Batman, Panini DC Italia has re-proposed to the readers of the Dark Knight also a series of "exotic" publications or a selection of manga including this Batman The Son of Dreams by Kia Asamiya, perhaps the modern manga starring Batman most famous ever. It is a story published in two parts between 2000 and 2001 in the magazine Magazine Z of Kodansha. At the time the sensei enjoyed a certain fame thanks to works such as Silent Möbius, Dark Angel and Mobile Battleship Nadesico and, after learning of his very strong passion for Batman, DC took the ball by probing his availability and then commissioning this story. which falls well into the experimentalism of those years which found its strongest expression in the second wave of stories in the Batman Black and White anthology and where other Japanese authors, but also European ones, had tried their hand at a fair response.Batman The Son of Dreams by Kia Asamiya
Batman The Son of Dreams by Kia Asamiya: from Tokyo to Gotham and back
The young reporter Yuko Tagi arrives in Gotham City with her TV crew to produce a Batman documentary. Yuko and her seem very lucky as they quickly manage to film Batman's rescue of a group of hostages from Two-Face. Delivered to the police, however, the villain literally withers: he is an impostor or someone who has taken the place and the likeness of Harvey Dent. Yuko and her parents follow Batman in an investigation that leads him to confront "copies" first of the Penguin and then of the Riddler.| ); }When the Joker kidnaps Yuko, Batman finds himself in the presence of another copy and realizes that the Fanatic was just a first clue. There is another substance that is being peddled in the city, similar but much more powerful, and that points directly to Japan. The proof is an unscrupulous attack on him by a copy of him who turns out to be one of the men of Yuko's troupe.
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Batman The Son of Dreams by Kia Asamiya, infinite dreams
Re-reading after more than two decades Batman The Son of Dreams highlights even more the love and respect of Kia Asamiya for the character but also the enormous influence that the vision of the character as perpetrated on the big screen by Tim Burton has greatly influenced a whole generation of artists in every corner of the globe. The plot therefore plays with the classic topos of the mask here, however, first reworked in a distinctly dreamlike way and then decidedly more science fiction. In fact, there is no doubt that the author wants to tell a story that penetrates the classic dualism between Batman and Bruce Wayne and, on the other hand, also of the villains exploited here in a way that is very similar to some stories of the '70s.Il real focal point of the narrative, however, is the contrast between Yuko and the real antagonist or Kenji Tomioka. These are two diametrically opposed points of view through which the figure of Batman is examined. The first in fact is very reminiscent of Batman's Vicky Vale (1989), both in fact offer a "marveled" point of view on the Dark Knight and his mission as well as being attracted by the aura of mystery that surrounds Bruce Wayne. The second, on the other hand, distorts Batman's mission, as in the best tradition of copycat villains, presenting however a plan that is certainly more cunning and well-conceived than other "colleagues" who appeared in Gotham and eager to replace the Dark Knight as The Reaper or Azrael just to mention the most famous.
In this regard, it is evident that part of the charm of the story lies in the graphic style of Kia Asamiya. This is not a radical aesthetic-formal reinterpretation of Batman on the contrary, the sensei is extremely respectful of certain "Western" canons, once again inspired by Burtonian aesthetics. The gothic play of shadows and chiaroscuro is then filtered through a skilful use of halftones and screens. Anatomies and stylistic choices of Batman himself, but also of the villains, net of some freedom on design, are in all respects "western" while the canons of the manga re-emerge in the "original" characters such as Yuko, characterized for example by the typical big eyes of Japanese comics.
What is surprising about Asamiya's work is the ability to implement the dynamism typical of manga thanks to action scenes in which hatching predominates and a particular attention to sculptural anatomy. All this is enhanced by a construction of the table which, although divided into many squares as per Japanese practice, finds its reading coordinate in the vertical thrust as well as a shrewd but very effective use of splashes, even double, and large squares even half a page .
Batman The Son of Dreams by Kia Asamiya
