Category: Manga

Some days ago I realized that I usually pass by the front of a bar called “Shinchan”, just like the main character of the manga Crayon Shin-chan! I don’t think the name of the bar comes from the manga, as Shinchan is a common nickname for people named Shinnosuke; however it caught my attention. Maybe next time I will go inside to see how it is; to enter you have go down the stairs to the left.

My condolences to Yoshito Usui, author of Shin-chan, who died last September in an unfortunate accident while he was enjoying a hiking day at the mountains in Gunma. Be careful if you go hiking in the mountains and enjoy Yoshito’s legacy!

In the middle of this photo you can see the magazine Morning Manga with Vagabond on the front cover. Vagabond is a “serious” manga based on the life of Musashi Miyamoto. The funny thing is that it is surrounded by other manga magazines with sexy Japanese idols on the front cover. It is not unusual to see this kind of strange mixtures on Japanese bookshelves; many Japanese manga magazines put a girl in full color on the front cover only to attract men readers. Inside the magazine 90% of the content are actually black and white cartoons, while the other 10% are some more pictures of the front cover girl, and sometimes even a big poster of her.

Some years ago, I had the chance to read the manga A Distant Neighborhood (遥かな町へ); one of the most famous works of Jiro Taniguchi. It is regarded by readers and critics as an excellent manga aimed for adults. It didn’t disappointed me one bit. It is a manga with very meticulous drawings and a wonderful and witty story that will make you think about your own past, your own life.

The story is about a 40-year-old-ish businessman who involuntarily travels in time, going back to his own 14-year-old self but keeping all his 40-year-old memories. He goes back to his life in high school in post-war Japan (to those of you who are interested in WWII stuff, the atmosphere and insight on Japanese society from post-war Japan can’t be better, as Jiro Taniguchi lived it himself) but with the mind of an adult male. From that moment on, he’ll try to fix the things that he couldn’t fix back in the day. What would you do if you had to go back again to being 14 but with the knowledge and mindset you have today?

After reading it, the conclusion, or the message that I think Taniguchi wants to get across is that the only things that we really regret in life are the things that we don’t do.

I recommend this manga book to everyone, even to those who claim they don’t like manga. It’s compiled into only two volumes, you can grab them here and here.

Finally, I would like to highlight a small detail. When the main character sees himself traveling in time, there is a butterfly, as a reminder of the Chaos Theory. There are other details in the story that make you think Jiro Taniguchi had the Chaos Theory present when he was writing the story.