#Train Man

[redsamuraiii]

Train Man / Densha Otoko (2005) : The Movie

"I am an anime and video game maniac who always wander around Akihabara. I always thought, is it really possible for a guy like me to find love? This is how I met her."

Inspired by a true story of an Otaku that found love on a train in the 90s, during the aftermath of Japan's Lost Decade or economic bubble crisis which leave many graduates unemployed.

A time when hikikomori (social recluse of graduates due to social pressure and broken dreams), and karoshi (death from overwork in order to retain their highly competitive jobs) became prominent.

Before the arrival of social media, there were chatrooms where singles talk about their woes, including the man whose username is "Train Man" as he commutes to work and home daily by trains.

A post went "viral" attracting many online users who find the story fascinating. "Train Man" told the story of how he accidentally save a young woman from being harassed by a drunkard salaryman.

He has been pestering the passengers who are mostly women but none dare to stop him. It wasn't until he harass a woman sitting across the "Train Man" that he summoned to courage to stop him.

Despite being terrified as he never confronted anyone before and do not know whether he is armed, he asked the drunkard to stop which caused them to struggle for a short time before others start to help.

They end up at the police station to clarify what happened as the women stepped forward as witness to save "Train Man". The young woman thanked him and asked for his address to send gifts.

Shocked by the incident, "Train Man" rushed home to share his story with online users of gamer addict, social recluse, neglected housewife, burnout salaryman and divorced nurse.

"Train Man" later received said gift from her: an expensive set of cups made by Hermès. Flabbergasted, that the tea set was too expensive to be a mere thank-you gift, he asked online users for advice.

They began giving grooming and dating tips, like getting a clean haircut (no more long hair), nice clothing (no more jeans and anime t-shirts), scouting for dining places (no more cheap ramen shops).

Feeling encouraged and thankful, "Train Man" consistently post updates on his daily situation asking for advice from the enthusiastic and chaotic users who find his new life development interesting.

They push him out of his comfort zone and wish for him to succeed as they hope he will be their inspiration to change their respective lives to find their own happiness too. If he can make it, so can they.

The story starts to get funny, wholesome and heartbreaking, as "Train Man" discovers the joys and hardships of relationships and his first taste of love as he learns that it's not as easy as he thought.

It's a good movie worth watching, about how hard it is for someone with social anxieties struggles to be "normal" like everyone else to find love and happiness, while overcoming his fears and insecurities.

[100659]

[thatonepizzaman]

Just some conductor doodles

+ one batshit insane Lisa

[tiastoleyourtoast]

Guess who just decided to come out as transgender to their teacher over

Google Forms

Now I'm being forced to wait for a few days until the teacher sees it I think❗❗

[Don't question the image]

thats so sick you came out as a train to your teacher man!!!

i as a train think thats awesome!!!!

let's hope your teacher is not a asshole!!!!/srs

[level99challenge]

TRAIN MAN: i was also here

--

Black trans lives matter

[lutrainman]

Welcome to the Loonatics Unleashed: Train Man blog. I just wanted a separate blog for all the sketches and future written content here. I will not be updating consistently. It might be pretty dead here for a while, so you've been warned. This blog is a companion to the Creon in Inkwell askblog.

[externallaughinternalscream]

Manga Review: Train Man - Net Development, the Love Story of a Local Train - 9/10

*Mild Spoilers Ahead*

Proper romance themed seinen manga are hard to come by. Oftentimes, seinen categorized under the romance genre are primarily other kinds of stories that happen to have one or two romantic themes within them. Slow slice of life stories with romantic subtext, comedies that use a character’s crush as a catalyst for further jokes, eroticas and ecchis that use love as an excuse to throw beautiful half naked women at the main character. I do not mean to belittle those kinds of stories nor those that read them, but I would like to point out that more often than not, they don’t focus on being love stories. Train Man, however, is a love story.

Only once in a blue moon is there a seinen romance stories with a capital R, that are marketed towards young men and focus primarily on the characters’ romantic development. Precisely what makes Train Man so remarkable is that it is one such love story with a premise that feels completely grounded while still being truly unique. 

Train Man is based on the supposedly true story of a young man intervening when a drunk began harassing several women on a train. The young man chronicled the story on the forum site 2channel and explained how one of the women mailed him an expensive gift in thanks. Online readers dubbed the young man “Train Man'' for his heroism and the woman “Hermes'' for the expensive brand name of the gift she sent the young man. The titular “Train Man” began harboring a crush on “Hermes,” and at the encouragement of those online, invited her to meetups which eventually culminated in the two dating. Regardless of whether or not the story told by these posts were true, it captured the hearts and minds of enough readers that it prompted several media adaptations, this manga being one of them.

There are plenty of manga about two people going from strangers to lovers due to random happenstance. But you’d be hard pressed to find anything quite like Train Man. Its story centers on a man who has an entire online community of strangers united around their desire to give him advice and encouragement as he attempts to court his crush. 

A major part of what makes this story resonate, especially today, is that it puts the spotlight on how the internet can facilitate positive social interaction, particularly between total strangers. In our day and age, you can go on any forum website and you’ll find countless tight knit communities like the one that forms around our protagonist. Go on any question board and you’ll find people just like our protagonist, looking for real life advice, even if that advice is from anonymous strangers. You’ll also find anonymous strangers looking to help, trying to give useful advice, and genuinely rooting for the questioner’s success. 

What also makes the online community depicted in this manga remarkable is that it acts as an in-universe “real life audience” reacting to the protagonist. In this way, it is reminiscent of the movie the Truman Show, where an audience of real ordinary people watch and react to the life of the protagonist. The major point of difference is in the fact that this audience can speak directly to our protagonist via an internet forum which allows them to act as a very literal audience surrogate in a way that adds an interesting dynamic to the story. How many times have you watched a TV show or read a book and wished the characters could hear your voice and hear your advice? Well, this anonymous audience of everyday people advises the ML to act on his feelings as his courage in turn inspires his audience. Something I loved about this manga and wished it did more of was show how the online readers were encouraged to work on themselves as they watched the protagonist take their encouragement to heart to work on himself.

Speaking of self improvement, the emphasis on such work is what keeps this manga from wandering into the realm of wish fulfillment. The male lead realizes that one good deed isn’t magically going to make the female lead fall in love with him, so he works to make himself more appealing to her. With the encouragement of those online, he puts more care into his appearance and tries to come out of his shell. It can hardly be called wish fulfillment when a major theme of the manga is the protagonist putting in the time, money, and effort to improve himself in order to earn the object of his desire.

Naturally, as a bonafide manga about love, the romance part of the manga is one of its major strengths. Train Man does a good job of depicting what the early stages of courting and dating often look like, both the excitement and the uncertainty. A lot of the spotlight is given to the meetings between the ML and FML and is given to their gradual development from two strangers to acquaintances then eventually something more. All the way there are genuinely cute romantic moments that will make you smile, squeal, and kick your legs excitedly.

The pacing is another one of this manga’s stronger points. While many romance manga either develop so quickly that they feel forced and artificial or so slowly that they become unengaging slogs, Train Man enjoys a very steady sense of progress. The relationship between the two leads is constantly moving forward, with the only real pauses being there to allow the ML and supporting cast of online readers to discuss and reflect on his progress so far. The story is about as long as it needs to be, as if it went on longer the mangaka would have likely been forced to add in the padding and tediously sluggish development that plagues so many other romance manga. Train Man doesn’t overstay its welcome and that's part of what makes its story so engaging.

The manga’s art is made in a more cartoonish, old school style which I am personally fairly fond of. The cartoonish scribbles lend well to the manga’s lighthearted tone, but aren’t particularly aesthetically pleasing. Most readers would probably find art serviceable if occasionally found wanting, but it's not really a manga you’d read to enjoy the art anyway.

The characterization is arguably where Train Man is found most wanting, as you will find no complex or deeply fleshed out characters in this story. The manga is so focused on the relationship between the two leads that it doesn’t develop them out as characters anymore than is absolutely necessary for the narrative. Meanwhile, the supporting cast is made up of unnamed ordinary people whose lives are only really ever shown in brief snapshots as they read and react to the ML’s forum posts. This is an instance where the manga’s concise writing acts as a double edged sword. On the one hand, the narrative develops quickly and the characters are generic to the point of being ordinary and universally relatable. But on the other hand, it means that even the two leads lack much characterization beyond their relationship to one another.

One of Train Man’s quirks is that the male and female leads are never referred to by their real names, instead they are only called by their forum aliases. This was likely done for two reasons: because these aliases were all they were known by in the original forum posts and because it gives them an anonymity and universal character that makes them more relatable. As I read in the moment, I didn’t like this as I felt it robbed our ML and FML of their individual identities, as if neither of them had a birth name and their existence only mattered as it related to this story. But in hindsight I can appreciate this eccentricity as it acts as a narrative device to limit the manga readers’ knowledge about the two main characters to that which the original forum readers would’ve known about by reading the original posts on 2ch. You, the reader, never learn the real names of “Train Man” and “Hermes” because the people who originally read the original posts on 2ch never learned their real names.

Train Man is a story that I think most people would be able to enjoy on some level. However, it is not a manga to read if you are seeking complex characters, an elaborate plot, or gorgeous art.

Ultimately, Train Man only does one very specific thing, but it does it exquisitely. It is a life affirming love story. It is the story of a man who works on himself in order to be worthy of the one he loves, of the people who encourage his growth and are in turn inspired by it, and of the woman that loves him for it.

[little-writing-drabbles]

« Voyage »

Ask: N/A

Genre: x reader

Word count: 2,646

Reader: gender neutral

TW: reader is dead, other forms of death mentioned, general dark content?? [lmk if I should add any]

A/n: when I say short I mean SHORT. tbh I hate how short this is but there's not much I can do with this, maybe it's better that it's short idk maybe lol.

"Hello"

What?

"Ticket please"

Who is that?

"Your ticket will be in any of the pockets on your person,"

Ticket? Where am I?

"If you do not have pockets, the ticket will be attached to the hem of your shirt"

You opened your eyes slowly and found yourself somewhere you don't remember being. You were on a train, it wasn't very bright with the lights that were shining down from the ceiling not being so bright. The light rocking of the moving train cart relaxed you a bit, enough to rock you to sleep if it wasn't for the obvious thing that stuck out to you, you have no memory or ever getting on a train.

In fact, you can't remember ever leaving your house, what prompted you to buy a train ticket, and if you did, for what? Did you even come here of your own will? Where was this train even going? The more you thought about it, the little of what actually happened before now was nothing besides bite-sized pieces of memories if you could even consider them that. "Hello? Hey listen I get your a little confused right now but I need your ticket."

There it was again, the voice that broke you out of whatever trance or sleeping spell you were put under, this time you paid more attention to the man that stood over you. He looked normal to you, you would have spoken to him if you didn't make eye contact with the man, his eyes were split in half across them, having four of them instead of two. One on top, and one on the bottom, what bothered you most was the fact that each pair shared a green iris as if there wasn't a separation between them. You didn't like seeing him blink, all four of the eyes would close quickly and made you feel a little uneasy.

"Right. . . .ticket" you mumbled to yourself and checked your pockets pulling out a silver ticket, and handed it to the man slowly who snatched it away from your fingers rather aggressively. You stood up from your seat to stretch your legs and looked out the windows, the familiar sights confirming you were leaving the town behind. It felt like slow motion, watching the cars drive by without giving the train a passing glance.

"Name?"

"Y/N"

"Last name?"

"L/N"

"Age?"

"Y/A" You answered the man's questions without much thought, if you really were skipping town you might have planned to change your name, maybe. This was all still strange, to you.

"Date of death?"

"What?" You turned your head to the man who was reviewing the information on the ticket you handed to him. He passed you a glance before letting out a sigh and rolled his head on his shoulders to destress, fixing the conductor hat on his head before looking back to you. "No i can't be dead— no I'm not dead— I shouldn't be"

"The number of times I've heard that, listen, it's a lot to take in. I get it, I don't blame you, I wouldn't believe it either if I was you but the thing is," The man took out a box of cigarettes from his back pocket and popped one into his mouth, and lit it before continuing "You are, and I can't really help you unless I get this confirmation business out of the way, so just tell me today's date so we can get this over with" You shook your head and paced a little bit.

The man sighed and rubbed his eyes and took a drag of his cigarette before stepping closer to the windows "Look over there, see that ambulance that got stopped because of the train?" You stood next to him and looked at the ambulance, a sinking feeling formed in your stomach "you're in that right now, or at least your body is." No. . . . .no no no no no this can't be happening.

"What? I'm in, no. . . . . wait so this is—"

"The soul train"

"But that's just an urban legend"

The man sighed heavily again and turned away from you while he took another drag of his cigarette, placing his free hand on his hip "If it's really just an urban legend, how did you get here then?" You turned to him for a second before turning back to the ambulance, "You can't keep up with it, you'll just end up back here" You ignored the man's statement as you kept watching it go by slowly before you started running to keep up with it, tears forming in your eyes.

No! I have to get off this train, this can be how I go I need to go back!

You ran until the ambulance was out of your sight and you collapsed onto the ground covering your eyes as you sobbed lightly, the sound of footsteps was heard behind you and then shuffling right after. You turned to the sound and saw the man sitting casually on the seat with his legs crossed, he didn't look at you besides giving you a quick glance and tapping the ash off of his cigarette. "I'm not here to mock or berate you if that's what you're wondering."

That made you feel a little better, the situation was making your head hurt but more importantly, it made your chest hurt, you couldn't remember what happened to you but you could remember the family and friends you left behind, how were they taking it? Do they know you died or did this happen because of some accident? Whatever the reason was, you didn't like it, this should never have happened, you wanted it to all just be a dream. Oh, what you'd give to be back home.

"What did you say your name was?"

"Name's Santiago, I'm the conductor of the soul train" You wiped your eyes and turned over to Santiago and smiled slightly at his name "feel free to ask me any questions you may have, I'll answer them as long as it's a question I can answer" You sighed and thought about his question before now, so you really did die today.

"What was it you needed to confirm? My death date?" Santiago leaned his head back and nodded casually before reaching into his pocket and looking at the ticket that he now held in his hand.

"Yep, I just need you to say today's date"

"December 30th, 20XX"

"That checks out" You looked down at the ticket and watched as it turned to ash within seconds. "Welcome aboard the soul train" with that, Santiago stood up from the train seat and turned away from you, and walked away. You shook up from the floor and were tempted to follow him but we were slightly alarmed by what looked like a medium-sized stick attached to his back. You didn't say anything but you did rush to him, not wanting to be alone.

"How did I die?"

"That's a great example of a question I can't answer" Santiago turned to you and sighed "Once people are on the train, I just give them a small run down and answer questions that they might have, whatever happened to them before now is something only the person would know" You sighed and thought to yourself for a second too long as you noticed Santiago had already walked away from you, leaving you to run after him.

"Hey, stop walking away from me!" you voiced your thoughts out loud as you followed the man "I can't remember what happened, is there a way for me to remember what happened to me?" Santiago turned to you with a small smile on his face. You jumped back at his sudden change in attitude but also his intense gaze with all of his eyes made you feel uneasy again.

"Now your starting to ask the right questions" Santiago wrapped his arm around your shoulder and walked with you at his side as if you had been friends for longer than a few hours "This is a way to find out what happens, and it's simple really, just examine your own body" Santiago let you go and stood in front of you again, "wounds say a lot about how a person died and the train takes the person in the ambulance how they are, so if it was something like a gunshot that got you, " The man waved his hand to you to continue his thought and confirm that you understood where he was going with it.

"You'd see the wound on your body wherever it hit you"

"Bingo" Santiago mimicked shooting you in the chest with his hand, out of instinct you raised your hands to cover your chest "but, that's not your case is it, I've been watching you since you got on the train and there are no wounds" Santiago took a huff of his cigarette and turned away from you to blow out the smoke "If you went a different way that was more internal, it's gonna be harder" You tried to focus, if there was no wound then what happened?

"When a passenger has a wound, do they still feel the pain?"

"They do, the pain they feel varies from person to person but when they first wake up when it's the worst, it's a sad sight to see really" That must be horrible to see, Santiago clearly was otherworldly but you wondered if he's numb to seeing such horrific sights that no one should see. "Well I'll catch you later if you have any other questions feel free to try and find me but chances are I'll be the one finding you" Santiago left you standing alone in the aisle walking into the next train cart, for being somewhat cold, he didn't hesitate to answer your questions.

You didn't dwell on thinking about the red-haired man for too long, right now you needed to find out what happened to you? Your memories were shot, nothing was coming to the surface, no voices, no images, no important object, nothing. You sat on the seat next to you and watched whatever was out the window, a tunnel, it's been going on for a while, the train cart was pretty dim as it was but because of the tunnel, it felt eerie to you. You had to admit having Santiago around made you feel a little better.

Maybe I should go find him.

You stood up and looked both ways of the empty cart, both doors were equally creepy but you didn't really know where the front of it was, the direction the train moved in changed for you when stood still for too long, leaving you no choice but to go into the direction you were facing, hoping it was the right direction. As you walked, each train cart looked different from the last, some looked like they were from different time periods, others looked like subway carts.

The ever-changing carts were the least of your worries however as the more you walked through the carts, the darker it seemed to get, the lights flickering at a slow pace leaving you mostly in the dark. You didn't feel safe, even if nothing could hurt you now it didn't feel right and the quick shines of light from the tunnel outside of the train cart didn't make you feel nearly as comfortable as you'd like. You sat on the seats nearby and lifted your feet onto it, curling into yourself to soothe your nerves and maybe sleep it off, Santiago did mention he would be the one finding you after all.

It had been hours for you, not a sound besides the moving train and your shallow breathing to get yourself to sleep, what you didn't expect was to hear footsteps. You opened your eyes and sat up a little from your seat to look down the aisle to catch a glimpse of whoever was there but instead you saw a glowing ball, floating there in the dark before moving closer to you while swaying side to side. It blinded you the closer it got to you, squinting your eyes. You focused on the light as you sat back in your seat and hoped this bit of light wouldn't harm you. "Y/N? What are you doing on this part of the train?" A familiar voice rang in your ears and you looked over to it.

The light turned out to be a lantern attached to a stick that was held in place by Santiago "I was looking for you, and I just ended up here" You had adjusted to the light and stood up in front of Santiago and he rubbed his neck "why is it so dark here?" Santiago looked down at you and hummed a little as he changed the hands that held the lantern and began walking back the way he came, motioning for you to come with him and you happily obliged.

"This part of the train is for those who found out what happened to them, and were unable to move on" There was no emotion in the way he said it, if you stretched the idea far enough you could say he felt pity, "The train never stopped moving for them, doomed to stay here sleeping away their anger and sorrows" Santiago stopped walking and turned back to you with a serious expression waiting for you to say something, anything. You said nothing, nodding in understanding as you clung to his free arm to not get left behind.

He hummed at your action and began walking normally, never really shaking you off of him. You closed your eyes as you walked along with him, you didn't know what to expect while here but part of you didn't want to find out. Your eyes were forced open when you tripped on your own feet and nearly dragged down Santiago with you if he didn't catch you "What are you walking with your eyes closed?" You could tell he was annoyed and all you did was open your eyes and stare at the floor, mumbling a small apology before looking up to him.

Santiago turned back in front of him and continued to walk forward with you still sticking to him. "Do you think I'll ever get off the train?" Santiago stopped walking for a second before silently opening the door to the next train car and walked through, leaving you without an answer. He must have been asked this many times, maybe not giving an answer was the best choice he could make instead of giving false hope. You stepped into the next train car after him and were relieved that you could see again and you watched Santiago's light stick morph itself back into a normal stick while he clipped it to his back again.

"You're very hopeful, Y/N" You sat down on the nearby seat and you turned to Santiago who decided to speak. He held a lit cigarette in his mouth for a few seconds before turning to you again, "With that and having a will to find out what happened to you, I think you'll find your stop soon." His words comforted you, even if he said it to be nice the answer seemed to be personal, as if he looked into your soul and told you what he truly believed. Santiago gave your head a gentle pat before he continued walking down the cart and vanished behind another sliding door. You stayed seated in the lonely cart and looked out to the infinite tunnel that was visible through the window and sighed.

It may be a while before you find out the details of your death, but at least you had all the time in the world to find out.

[cinematic-explorations]

(via Train Man: Densha Otoko - AsianWiki)

[worldsofzzt]

Source “Train Man” by Billtcm (2001) [Train Man/TRAINTRA.ZZT] - “Credits” Play This World Online

[mxmorel]

(x)

[redsamuraiii]

Train Man / Densha Otoko (Ep 11)

A place where you can chat with fellow broken hearts over coffee. Where is this place? I need to go!

[100659]

[egophiliac]

was this anyone else's first thought, or

[frownyalfred]

Bruce: Clark is my closest friend. I admire him more than I can ever say. I don’t know what I would do without him.

Also Bruce, teaching his kids how to use super senses against an opponent: so if you turn on the high frequency emitter I’ve added to all of your gauntlets and then go directly for the face while they’re bent over screaming, you can buy yourself a few extra seconds of —

[lutrainman]

lots of old sketches from 2014-2015. And then after that I fell out of interest...then 2021 happened. My drawing style was a bit different, or not. Notes on how Tech and Creon would be characterized. All the background characters and Loonatics were simply "netizens" on the chat forum.

Again, I repeat, these are old concepts. Some concepts still got recycled. And some of the story bites were copied from the J-drama version of "Densha Otoko." I guarantee you that the progression of this idea is now no longer following any cannon and it's completely off the rails.