Dream Fossil: The Complete Stories of Satoshi Kon

The genius of Satoshi Kon left us too soon with his passing from cancer a few short years ago. His last film "the dream machine" remains incomplete, stuck in financial/production limbo. However, stateside at least, Vertical and a few other publishers are finally bringing Satoshi Kon's rarely translated Manga work for English readers to enjoy.Vertical's recent release "Dream Fossil- The complete stories of Satoshi Kon" is a gorgeous work of love. This 500+ collection compiles short stories that were published in various magazines throughout his career. Satoshi Kon fans will of course want to get it however there is quite a bit of variety in these tales that would appeal to anyone with an interest in anime, Manga or Japanese culture.Praise goes to Vertical who have put together a beautiful book. It isn't often consumers think about the small decision publishers make that determine a books total look. Here though Vertical have selected a nice paper stock and the binding for this book allows the pages to breath without putting to much stress on the spine (which results in the cracks or breaks in the book spine). Usually with omnibus or larger collection over 400 pages the spines is glued and the books are uncomfortable to hold. The margins for manga are wide which allows the reader to see more art. Color pages are presented if the story had them (most published manga typically does not). And finally the cover has a nice matte finish.Overall Vertical continues to publish gorgeous manga titles and this one is perhaps one of their most gorgeous and entertaining releases yet.

As much as it pains me, I cannot give Dream Fossil a five star review. My rating has absolutely nothing to do with the quality of the manga itself. Indeed, Satoshi Kon is an excellent artist and his brilliant style shines through in this book from front to back. The quality of this book is also excellent, possibly one of the highest quality releases from Vertical. However, I take great offense to the poor quality of the translation on display here. This translation by Yota Okutani reads like it was done by someone who only had a grasp on the most formal of English. It's so bland and robotic it actually made understanding just what was going on confusing and frustrating in pretty much every story. All of the dialogue reads in a neutral voice that makes it hard to distinguish if a character speaking is male or female, child or adult, angry or happy, etc. This severely impacted my enjoyment and is a huge disservice to fans of Satoshi Kon's who wanted this work to be properly expressed in English. If I'm to shell out nearly $20 for a book like this, I expect a professional product in every way, and this simply did not meet my standards. I don't know at this point if Vertical can do anything about it, but I hope that they hear what I'm saying and won't allow a translation like this to be released as a premium commercial product ever again. I know they can do better than this.

Satoshi Kon is one of the greatest directors I have had the pleasure of watching the films of. However, when it comes to his manga, I find it to be hit or miss. Sadly with this collection, I found it to be more misses in terms of the stories. The artwork is beautiful, and there are some gems in here, but as an overall package, I found it rather lacking. I would say this should be reserved for die-hard Kon fans only. You're not missing much if you pass it up!

Purchased as a gift. She loved it!

Good Manga.

Satoshi kon is a good guy, and his story telling style reflects this. Fun little short stories.

Fantastic

Perfect!

The final piece of the Satoshi Kon publication puzzle falls into place, with Vertical's release of "Dream Fossil" completing Kon's manga oeuvre. While this collection is title "The Complete Stories of Satoshi Kon" that's actually a little white lie, as it's more accurately the complete short stories of Satoshi Kon, with his long form manga available in the form of "Tropic of the Sea" (also by Vertical) and Dark Horse's releases of "Opus" and "Seraphim 266613336 wings".Satoshi Kon is best remembered as a film director, but his manga work is still telling of the work he would later create and become known for, and that's as true here as it was in his other manga work. Here we get to see Kon in his formative years, working on oneshot stories for various manga magazines and dabbling in various genres. We get a dash of sci-fi, a pinch of comic slice of life, and a whiff of horror in one neat little package. 15 stories in total (16 if you count his one two parter story as individuals) give a pretty good grasp of the range of his talents, effortlessly swapping between gritty dystopian sci-fi to teen comedy, attacking each with an obvious passion. The stories are presented in the order they were published, with the exception of "Toriko" which ends the collection, most likely because it was Kon's first manga, but also no doubt in part to it being the longest of all the stories, acting as the collection's centerpiece. It also features a short afterword in the form of a short interview with Kon's frequent collaborator Susumu Hirasawa who scored 3 of his works, as well as the as yet unfinished "Dreaming Machine."However, much as I adore Kon's work, these stories are not without faults, and it's very much apparent that he's relatively new to this kind of work. His character design is a little less polished when compared with his later work, and occasionally the panel composition confuses the eye. While Kon is a firm believer in letting the audience fill the gaps (best explained in his analogy of how most directors would show two people meeting in a café by first showing the café exterior, then two people meeting, then the conversation beginning, whereas he preferred to just cut to the chase and skip straight to the conversation) this approach works less well in a manga context, particularly when it's sometimes difficult to tell characters apart, often differentiated only by hairstyle. I found this most problematic in "Desert Dolphin", a tale of WWII tank crewmen, which jumps about quite rapidly, sometimes to convey a passing of time montage, but othertimes just creating confusion, particularly with the somewhat abrupt ending. Additionally, some stories feature a large cast and it can be hard to figure out who's saying what in these scenes (though that may be a fault of the translator/ English adaptation, rather than Kon.)In spite of these niggles,"Dream Fossil" provides an excellent 'pick and mix' of the late, great director and artist, and shows how well he can turn his hand to just about anything. It's also a treat to see his first manga work, "Toriko" at long last, which reflects some themes present in his later films (though also borrows some elements from Katsuhiro Otomo's "Akira", which he worked on as an assistant artist), and the manga's opening story "Carve" is also a strong entry. On the more comedic side "Joyful Bell" and "Kidnappers" bring some amusing moments, with "Waira" blending horror with a classic samurai tale."Dream Fossil" does not represent Kon's best work, but it does represent what he did best, and provides the reader with a sweeping scope of different worlds to enjoy and devour quickly. For any Kon fan this is a must have, but fans of manga in general may also appreciate this look at his one shot stories. This is the last manga publication we will ever see of Satoshi Kon, so it is perhaps appropriate that it ends with the beginning.

Another Masterpiece from Satoshi Kon. Amazing story telling and art. A must have for any manga collector. Reads form right to left.

EVERYONE SHOULD READ SATOSHI KON.

Una recopilación de historias cortas de Satoshi Kon que comprende los primeros años de su carrera como mangaka. Es un libro interesante de tener si es que te interesa conocer a profundidad la trayectoria del mismo, ya que veremos que a través de las historias como tanto el dibujo como la narrativa van evolucionando, no todas las historias son buenas, mas sin embargo hay diversidad de temáticas bastante interesante.

I am big fan of Satoshi kon’s movies & works.This book is very awesome.If you are a manga/anime lover then just buy it.