Highway Star

is a graphic novel by Katsuhiro Otomo. It is his second published collection of short stories, each running at roughly 20 pages, and includes Otomo's second-earliest collected story. It has been reprinted four times, the last time in 1997. Stories Kazoku (Family) A young family - father, pregnant mother, young daughter and a baby - leave their home under clouded circumstances. It develops that the parents have gone bankrupt and are about to lose everything, and are - in despair - contemplating joint suicide. After giving their kids one last idyllic day of family activities, they check into a hotel and prepare lethal doses of sleeping pills. But even the gravest undertaking can be derailed by random absurdity... Suka To Sukkiri (Refreshment) An unbearable heat in Tokyo during Summer forces a man to steal a ventilator in a store, only to fail and get chased away. He decides to hide in a family's house and take them hostage, though to his dismay they lack a ventilator too, and so comes up with another idea... Sakai Sanchi No Yukie Chan A young girl named Yukie wishes to resemble a famous dancer she sees on TV, and so sets out dressed like her along with her gang of friends. The mothers soon start to worry, as the kids have totally disappeared and a pervert is roaming the streets...