While Kei Sanbe’s latest manga isn’t a time travel fantasy per se, its immature hero’s adulthood has its foundation in a horrific childhood that leaks here and there by virtue of flashbacks, which is to say memory, the most ancient time machine. In this way, For the Kid in my Dreams bears more than a passing similarity to Erased, in that its protagonist also must unravel the mystery of his past, this time aided by a more quixotic–I should say Corsican–power, not only phantom pains, but ghostly glimpses, from his long missing twin. However, Senri and his brother have one up on the Corsican twins, being able not only to share their suffering, but other sensory data, although it works capriciously and according to a set of rules that here in this manga benefits neither brother, but only the mangaka, who structures another tale of childhood mystery around it. Having not only survived the death of his parents, but witnessed the apparent death of his brother via twin telepathy, Senri has grown into a bitter adult with acquired tastes not only for revenge, but exploitation schemes, although the latter seem to be barely profitable after he shares the loot with his gang.

If For the Kid in my Dreams seems more arbitrary and self-conscious than Erased, it may be because the mangaka set himself much easier narrative rules in this manga, unlike the urgency in Erased, in which the creator stranded his tale in the eighties with a serial killer, his known victims, and the limited powers of a child hero. While I enjoyed For the Kid in my Dreams, it was mainly the thrill of reading a new volume by one of my favorite comic authors, immersing myself in the incredible art values and dialogue which could have been captured by a tape recorder from the real world. When I reached the final page, an undercurrent of disappointment tainted my appreciation for this new volume. While I wouldn’t go so far to say that it is a night and day difference, much of what I appreciated in Erased has vanished in For the Kid in my Dreams: the wonderfully-realized settings in Erased have caved in to an ambiguous squalor in For the Kid in my Dreams; countless sympathetic characters (even the villain!) are replaced by grumbling ciphers; even the mangas’ superpowers have traded from a unique viewpoint on time and memory to the twin telepathy shtick. The most telling difference between the two series is that while I have not given up hope that I will see more Erased, any anticipation for the next volume of For the Kid in my Dreams is either fan loyalty or an intellectual curiosity to see the pages, and not the result of a heart-felt immersion in the story.

kid

Yen Press sent the review copy.