Graphic Novel Review - 'Sleepless Domain - Book One: The Price of Magic' by Mary Cagle, Oscar Vega

'Sleepless Domain' is a Magical GirlsTM webcomic that definitely wears its 'Puella Magi Madoka Magica' influence on its sleeve. Its puffy, ribbony, yet tragic sleeve.

It looks like a 'Pretty Cure' series, or even 'Ojamajo Doremi', but there is a darkness to it, that lurks, and then pounces, blows, shocks and shatters at the middle of the book, and after that, nothing is the same again.

There's also a bit of 'Mystery Men', 'Silent Hill', 'Nimona', and school drama (a school for magical girls!) in 'Sleepless Domain'. I love the art and aesthetic of the whole comic - so colourful, bold, sparkly, and alive, which makes the tragedy, grief and guilt turn all the more effective. Together with its claustrophobic fantasy city setting - where everyone is boxed in for their "protection" from monsters from the outside world (or so it seems), and where practically every one of the limited cast of characters is a magical girl, and not by choice - there is a feeling of doom and entrapment throughout. This major theme has even been spelled out to readers from the very beginning with the comic's rather ominous title.

'Sleepless Domain' is really diverse. There are people with different body types and faces, and of different races, and there is a subtle sapphic inclusion and bloom. Bright anime hair colours, eye colours and costume colours are not the only things that matter here.

Disappointingly, the first published volume is four chapters long, and it has no real conclusion. Loads of plot points, threads, and characters are left hanging. Loads of mysteries. It feels like an introduction to a series more than anything else. It is a webseries that started in 2015, and this volume was published in 2018, but as far as I know, 'Sleepless Domain - Book One: The Price of Magic' has no Book Two. It is supposedly continuing, but is it? Does it have an ending? If not, will it ever get one? You can't leave us hanging like this! It's not fair!

'Sleepless Domain' - at the risk and danger of spoiling anything further, I'll leave off by saying, admittedly depressingly, yet fittingly enough, that it is a Magical GirlsTM story that twists the "pink magical girl is always the leader and the most powerful and saves the day by herself at the end" cliché on its decapitated head, and it asks the question, "What would happen if Sailor Mercury suffered the worst tragedy of her life?", with the beginnings of an answer.

Highly recommended for magical girl fans and readers of webcomics.

Final Score: 3.5/5