Children

Children is a "novel disguised as a collection of short stories" by Kotaro Isaka, composed of five sections: "The Bank," "Children," "The Retrievers," "Children II," and "Inside." The central figure is Jinna, a family court investigator: loud, eccentric, always making trouble for others, yet "young at heart" with a firm sense of justice all his own. The story begins as eighteen-year-old Kamoi and the blind Nagase accompany Jinna to the bank to withdraw his salary—just as the bank is about to close, Jinna barges in like a robber, only for real robbers to burst in with guns and take everyone hostage. Then it is the robbers' turn to suffer, because Jinna has a knack for making them wish they were dead. Thereafter, family court investigator Muto and Jinna face cases involving a boy who steals manga, Kimoto Shiro, and a youth named Marukawa Akira, among others; the lovelorn Jinna, Nagase, and Yuko's interactions, and the guitar performance on the shopping mall rooftop, all connect and echo one another through the first-person narrations of different characters. The novel handles subjects such as a bank robbery and juvenile crime in a light, humorous tone, rendering the question of "how adults and children see each other" both absurd and warm—a typical example of Isaka's narrative style.