Or how manga can change your life.

I was really disappointed when I discovered that most of the work of Jirô Taniguchi was not translated in english: it’s a great loss for non-japanese readers (We, french people, are lucky enough to have a good part of his latest novels in our local bookstores). I’ve decided to make an article anyway, for those of you who are lucky enough to find one of his book nearby.

Jirô Taniguchi writes Seinen Mangas, that is to say, adults mangas — without the erotic part, I’m sorry about that.
And he writes mostly about everyday life. Not as in boring everyday life, mind you. His stories describe precisely what makes each instant memorable, each little thing in life that you forget to look at on your daily routine.
In “Haruka Na Machi He”,  traduced  as “Quartier lointain“, in french, he tells the story of a 48 years old salary man, who suddenly fells back to 14 years old. What may seems like a quite unoriginal plot, takes a brilliant turn, when the young boy is confronted to the mixed feelings of his adult mind and his freshly regained youth. He suddenly feels aware of every little details, his happy childhood, the pleasure to learn, the innocence of the very first love… All of this darkened by the soon to come disappearance of his father. His struggle to make him stay home reflects his own life, with his wife and daughters. Why do I love this book? Not for the graphics, that look quite a bit like those of Monster (by Urasawa): great but not incredible.

I just love how you feel that all of this is real — just like in the ten books I couldn’t live without. I didn’t read “Aruku Hito“, The walking man, that describes the walk of a man and his dog, but I’m pretty sure that the feeling is the same. You just get stuck in the character’s skin. You can feel everything as if real. And that is amazing. (Yeah, weird also.)

But to be honest, this is like a good japanese non-action movie: it’s slow, poetic, and a bit long to read. If you love action, I suggest you to read a good old shônen manga. This is for dreamers only.