Books: Dominion TPB (4th Edition)

Dominion dates back from 1986, but I don’t mean “dates” in the sense that it’s “dated.” In fact, it’s probably one of the better things Masamune Shirow has done: it’s relatively easy to follow, funny, spirited, and doesn’t confuse story with mere ideas.

The problem I’ve long had with Shirow is that while he’s a fantastic visualizer and has thrown away more ideas than most people ever have, he’s been a pretty scattershot storyteller. Or, maybe better to say that over time he’s subordinated storytelling to simply throwing big uncooked lumps of ideas at the reader, and most of his best work is not really his but rather the work derived from his core concepts. Case in point: Ghost in the Shell. The original comic is actually only okay, and its follow-ups are virtually (pun intended) incoherent. It’s what other people have done with the idea that have really shone. Mamoru Oshii’s two films were dreamtime meditations on the ideas and characters brought up in the book, but it was Kenji Kamiyama’s TV series and subsequent movie that really kicked the whole thing up to the level where it deserved to be.

Article originally written for AMN. Click here to read full text.