YOU CAN BUY THE THUMBNAIL OF THIS POST AS MERCH ON REDBUBBLE! YAY!
Ok, 4 things to note:
- This isn’t a very obscure thing, but I doubt you will easily run into an English print of Domu nowadays, at least an official one and not a shitty Malaysian unauthorized reprint
- Yes, I know of the Otomo Complete Works Edition, but that’s a Japanese print
- Yes, this is the first blog post and I’m already bending the rules. Sue me.
- If this will be another Evangelion situation where people paid scalpers a fortune for the DVD and then the series got rereleased I’m gonna lose my shit.
Otomo is the most influential mangaka of the past 50 years, and the second most influential ever after Tezuka. I would argue that, after his main inspiration, Moebius, Otomo is the most important person who worked in comics of any kind.
The fact that the English translation of his breakout manga, Domu, has been out of print for decades is criminal. It is also fertile ground for scalpers to do what they do best and drive the prices of original prints to outrageous heights.
There is an interview between Otomo and Naoki Urasawa where they discussed Domu, part of Urasawa’s Manben tv show on mangaka, but NHK went nuclear on unofficial uploads online, so I can’t find it anymore. A shame, since they don’t provide it themselves on their official platform…
Instead, here’s a cool article titled Naoki Urasawa and Hisashi Eguchi talk about manga in the 70s and 80s, mostly Otomo. Courtesy of Manga Brog, who does cool translations of japanese interviews. Go over there and check out their stuff, and say that I sent you ❤️.
I’ll update you on the timeline of my order:
February 10
I ordered the only available original print I found from Amazon UK. It is apparently an Australian print from 1995. Hope they didn’t use “mate” or “c*nt” too much in their translation.
February 11
I have a (partially) irrational fear that the manga will end up damaged on my shelf, so I look into acrylic cases to protect it. Give up and settle on ordering a pack of manga sleeves instead. Now, if the manga already arrives damaged, I’ll feel pretty silly.
February 12
Package is stopped at the border and I find that I must have an EORI number to allow for the UK import to arrive. They are needed for out of EU imports and exports (apparently most shops who buy cheap crap from China handle this themselves). Yay, time to do the thing I hate most in this world: interact with my government.
February 16
Got my EORI number, yay! Submitted the info on the DHL website.
February 17
Paid the customs tax. Hopefully now there’s nothing left to do.
February 19
Oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit oh shit it’s here!!!
So, the manga arrived, quite ahead of the estimated time, and to my relief, it seems to be in pretty good shape. I also see that it is actually a UK print, so the info on Amazon must have been wrong. Can’t complain, as the quality of the book was my only concern. There is minimal wear, especially for a print this old. I have manga less than 3 years old that are in worse shape. Needless to say, the second that the manga sleeves arrive, I will wrap this bad boy and keep it on the shelf.
So, am I happy with my purchase? Definitely! Otomo is one of my favorite artists, not only in the field of manga and comics, but art in general. This is the work that put him on the map and changed the course of manga forever, so it’s a must for any collector. I intend to keep it on my shelf and only take it out when doing a reread for inspiration. Otomo has a great eye for composition, his panels having a cinematic quality you won’t really find even in contemporary artists. He had a knack for using the strengths of the medium and pushing its limits, to the point where you can sometimes visualize a whole sequence in just a panel (a great example from Naoki Urasawa below from manga “Fireball” (1979) – sourced from the mangabrog article)
Did I overpay for this? Well, considering that the original print had a price of 9 British pounds in 1994 (not 1995 it seems), adjusted for inflation, that would put the price at 24 gbp in 2026. Even when you factor in the transport costs and import taxes there’s still an around 500% increase (to 145 gbp before tax and transport) that’s pretty much just markup, or good ol’ scalping.
Well, the manga is in great condition, so I can’t complain much I suppose. And I don’t intend to sell it down the line, so that’s a cost that I’m ok with not recovering.
I don’t know if Otomo will ever rerelease Domu in English. I heard fantastic things about the rereleased in Japan (see the halcyonrealms link at the beginning of the article), but in terms of publishing rights outside Japan, I think it’s out of Otomo’s hands. Dark Horse has the rights, according to Wikipedia, as of 2026 the company still exists, so they pretty much just sit on the publishing and republishing rights at this moment.
I’m just happy to own a little piece of manga history from one of my favorite artists, so in the end, I think it was a steal.
Until next time!
Mannix.
88 Gemstones 
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