From: miles@gnu.org   
      
    Title:       Tetsuko no Tabi  (鉄子の旅)   
    Author:      Kikuchi Naoe (菊地直恵) + Yokomi Hirohiko (横見浩彦)   
    Publisher:   Shougakukan (小学館)   
      
   This is a slightly odd sort of manga:  basically the "story" is that a   
   manga artist is asked by her boss to accompany him and a travel-writer   
   on various train trips around Japan and draw a manga about it.   
      
   The kicker though, is that it's completely non-fiction -- the creator   
   really did go on all these trips, and the manga simply records what   
   happened, with no embellishment.  There's a little disclaimer at the   
   front that says "This is non-fiction, so I apologize for the lack of   
   drama," and indeed, it mostly is just about them riding trains from   
   place to place, waiting on platforms, etc.; there's none of the silly   
   artificial melodrama that sometimes accompanies info-manga.  Despite the   
   disclaimer, however, it's really very entertaining (I hate most of the   
   "info-manga" [cooking manga and the like] I've read, but I quite like   
   this).   
      
   The "travel writer" turns out to be a super train-otaku who has vast   
   knowledge of the train network, but also micro-manages all their trips,   
   planning every detail down to the second.  He cares mostly about   
   following the schedule and successfully achieving his planned goals   
   (e.g. visiting all stations on a line in a completely bizarre order to   
   accomodate infrequent trains).  The mangaka doesn't really care about   
   trains; she's cynical, sarcastic, and rather lazy (she mainly just looks   
   forward to the next eki-ben); he's completely gung-ho as long as he's   
   following the schedule, and the inevitable conflicts are pretty   
   entertaining.  There's a pleasant feeling of self-awareness about the   
   whole thing -- because she drew the resulting manga, the same attitude   
   comes through in other forms (the train-guy is always a bit over the   
   top) but done very skillfully, so it doesn't feel self-indulgent at all.   
   She knows when to exaggerate a bit, and when to use understatement.   
      
   They try to make the trips interesting in various ways.  On one trip   
   they attend the closing of a old train line; lots of funny stuff   
   happens, but the story is infused with a sort of "inevitable melancholy"   
   (that I think of as being characteristic of Japanese writing).  On   
   another trip, an "idol talent" (along with her manager and make-up guy)   
   comes along [you can purchase a DVD with some video clips of this trip],   
   and the interaction with the train-guy is pretty funny; despite a   
   constant smile, she's quite willing to say everything the mangaka was   
   thinking but not saying...   
      
   Throughout, though, it feels _real_ -- if you've travelled by train in   
   Japan it will all seem very familiar, not just the scenery, but also the   
   atmosphere and feel -- and the artist does a great job of pacing and   
   applying little tweaks to keep it consistently entertaining.  In an   
   additional bit of recursiveness, some of the characters who show up in   
   the manga (who of course are real people, who really did show up) do so   
   because they (really) read previous episodes of the manga!   
      
   In addition of course, you can learn about various out of the way and   
   interesting Japanese train lines and stations; some of them really do   
   look cool (I wanna try some of these trips myself!).  There's always   
   this vague sense of surreality about it however -- the trips are all   
   planned by the train-guy (goal: visit all 9,843 stations in Japan) who   
   seems to consider everything as part of a checklist rather than an   
   experience to be enjoyed.  You learn a bit about train-otaku culture   
   too; there's really only the one guy in the story, but train-otaku   
   culture is a sort of constant peripheral presence.   
      
   The art is basic, but clean and appealing.   
      
   Anyway, I found it pretty fun (I like trains generally though).   
      
   http://skygarden.shogakukan.co.jp/skygarden/owa/solrenew_tosho?tosho_id=20590   
      
   -Miles   
   --   
   My spirit felt washed.  With blood.  [Eli Shin, on "The Passion of the Christ"]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)