WW...Huh? Batman: Child of Dreams

There are many stories and characters that can be appreciated cross-culturally. Shows like Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex or Full Metal Alchemist are Japanese to their core, but a quick search for on-line episodes reveals a fan base fanning out through Europe, South America, and North America. Likewise, American stories like Star Trek have found success (and adoration) globally. Where things tend to get lost in translation is when people try to translate another culture's story into their own equivalent - A Fistful of Dollars, or Shall We Dansu?, for example.

Batman: Child of Dreams is a manga by renowned artist Kia Asamiya (Dark Angel). Apparently, Batman is quite popular in Japan, and being familiar with some of their own illustrated characters its easy to see why. Troubled childhood? Check! Dark, violent streak? Check! Strong desire to do good and save innocents? Check! Conflicted, cool, tech-oriented, ninja-like...you get the picture. On the surface, it seems like Batman is the perfect American story to put a Japanese spin on.

Child of Dreams sees Batman off to Tokyo after a local news crew visits Gotham, attempting to get an interview with the Bat when things go sour. It seems that Batman's rogues gallery has escaped and/or returned, but things get especially fishy when our hero notices that a) these rogues are fundamentally different in character than the ones hes come to know over the years, and b) shortly after Batman defeats them, they have nervous breakdowns, age rapidly, mummify, and die, all in the space of a short trip to the cop shop. A quick visit to Arkham, and some DNA tests, confirm Batman's suspicions - the culprit here is a new drug that enables people to live out their biggest dreams, become their idols, literally. Equally suspicious is the appearance of these impostors coinciding with the aforementioned news crew's visit. Young reporter Yuko Yagi has made a meteoric rise through the newsroom ranks, partly due to the patronage of her uncle, who owns the station, and just happens to be a pharmaceutical magnate (dum dum duuuuuum!). Enter a meeting between Yuko and Bruce Wayne, and a subsequent "business trip" to investigate the source of the drug. You can probably see where this is going.

And that, I think, is the problem with Child of Dreams. Asamiya said that he deliberately kept this story from being manga by avoiding the manga convention of suspension of disbelief; you know, how right in the middle of a manga or anime will be something just ludicrous, but you roll with it because that's part of the fun? I'm hardly the expert on manga that Asamiya is, but I don't feel this story succeeded in being something separate. Bruce Wayne and Batman, though they share many international traits, are quintessentially American characters, and the context in which Batman stories have been told is also quintessentially American. I just didn't find it translated well to Japanese sensibilities. I think a large part of this is the melodrama factor. For one thing, Japanese is a very loquacious, emotional language, a factor that survives any good translation, and loquacious and emotional (and dramatic!) aren't really good matches for Batman. Child of Dreams, in its core, isn't about Batman per se, but about poor lovely young Yuko as she realizes her uncle's treachery, sees her childhood dreams of Batman come true, and begins a whirlwind affair with Bruce. It's melodramatic. Batman doesn't work as melodrama. I don't even see this particular story being gripping even if it weren't hampered by its Batman angle.

It's an interesting cultural excercise, so it could be recommended in that respect, but as a story, I was bored and couldn't wait to finish it. At any rate, its nice to know that it's not only American auteurs who can take foreign stories out of their native contexts and not succeed.