Train Man: The Novel

By Hitori Nakano

Book Overview

An instant bestseller when it was first published in Japan, Train Man became a multimedia sensation, generating a smash-hit TV series, a blockbuster film, and multiple manga series. Now here's the novel that started it all.

Boy--bashful and not overly brave--defends girl from obnoxious drunk on a Tokyo train. Girl sends boy a thank-you pair of pricey Herm s teacups. Boy's a geek and doesn't know what to do next. End of story for most nerds--but this one turns to the world's largest online message board and asks for help, so for him it's just the beginning. This matchless love story is told through a series of Internet chat room threads.

As Train Man, our hero charts his progress and unveils each new crisis--from making conversation to deciding what to wear on a date and beyond--in return, he receives advice, encouragement, warnings, and sympathy from the anonymous netizens. And Train Man discovers the secret to what makes the world go round--and proves we really do live in a universe where anything can happen.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0345498690
• ISBN13: 9780345498694
• Release Date: April 2007
• Publisher: Del Rey Books
• Length: 416 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.0" x 7.4"

Customer Reviews

highly recommended

Though I had watched the j-dorama Densha Otoko (Train Man) before I read the book, the story was extremly funny. I couldn't put the book away. If you are interested in modern Japanese culture, like Otaku but also in interpersonal relationships then please read this book. It's not a novel, but only internet posts with a lot of humor and a lot of special meaning emoticons (Japanese type of smilies) and a special illustrations... You will be pleasantly surprised and you will laugh a lot, I assure you. Beautiful book. I would also like to add that translation is superb.

Where is started...kind of...

A boy, a hard core anime fan, a gamer, a guy who sends his time living, sleeping, eating Geek related subjects and all that goes with it, saves some women on a train from a drunk. And this book is about what happened to him from his point of view. But in message board form! There is lots of editing, there had to be, just this is the main threads, the major points of his story, from when he gets a thank you note from one of the younger women, to their first date and budding romance. These threads are collected from over a three month period, so I doubt you get every single message, but it's not half bad as a story. I started at 5 PM and out it down about 9:30 PM, so if you're a fast reader, that's how long it will take. If you are slower than me, or wish to savory it, then you may take a whole day. Lots of humor, internet artwork and everything else that makes a story great. Now, there is a debate of if this really happened or if somebody was pulling the Geeks' chain, but don't forget. Even the most solid fact becomes a legend afterwards, so why stress out about it? Now three different mangas, a movie AND a TV series!