Nov 28, 2004
Densha Otoko
Yuko was telling me about this book a while back. Seems like it’s really the big hit.
Ostensibly a true story, “Densha Otoko” – literally, “Train Man” – began as a series of postings on Japan’s most popular internet bulletin board after the protagonist, a young Japanese man, rescued a woman from a pushy drunk on the train.
[...]
The format of the book, which strings together emails peppered with slang and emoticons over 364 pages, could well give a headache to readers accustomed to literature as flowing prose.
But the look is familiar to the many young Japanese who spend an increasing number of hours each day chatting via brief text messages on cell phones and computers.
Read the rest of the article here. I saw the book the other day and it’s entirely written like a 2-Channel thread, including all the wacky ASCII art. Really wish I could read it.
Jean Snow is a contributor to 
He will be contributing to the upcoming fifth editions of 
it was originally a thread at 2channel. it was pretty fun, readable in an hour or so though..
I really would like to read this book but it’s unavailable in Thailand now.
Can you help me?
How can I buy this book from abroad?
How much will it cost?
I want both in Japanese and English version because I would like to pratice my poor Japanese.
There is no English version of this book. You can probably order the Japanese version from Amazon Japan.
Ten years before the author of “Densha Otoko” supposedly thought of this title, I began working on a script for a movie titled, Densha Man ( “man” in katakana) based on my real life experiences in Japan and written in the spirit of the Itami Juzo genre.
I posted excerpts of my script on the internet six years ago, stating the Title and theme of my script. It isn’t hard to see that “someone” who read those excerpts has out and out stolen my idea.
Be assured, when the movie goes into production, my lawyers will be hunting for the Japanese clown who wrote the utter piece of crap ” Densha Otoko”.
you think your idea is a piece of crap?
Steve, the movie is out.
Was tired tonight and sat down with a 500 ml Asahi Super Dry for a night of Japanese TV, and was pleasantly surprised to see this show on. I caught it about 1/4 through the episode where he finally meets her. It’s quite amusing and fun to watch even though I don’t understand everything due to my lack of Japanese. Looking forward to watching it next week. It was on tonight (Thursday 7-14-05) at about 10:30PM. But I don’t know when it started. Does anyone know a good site to get Japanese TV listings in English?
P.S. your link to the article no longer works
For TV listings, I use Yahoo! TV.
Oops sorry, I don’t know one in English.
It is readable in Japanese, you just need a little patience. Most of the Kanji is very repetative and even if you dont understand every post you can totally follow the story. I am doing it and it is a true story. It is also a movie and drama so if you dont get it all you can check your progress.
Oh, and it started a week ago yesterday. Runs for 12 weeks I think on channel 8 at 10pm. It was late yesterday because of volleyball
As far as the link goes, it dates from last year, so no big surprise that it’s no longer active.
i just left japan 2 days ago and i am sooo sad that i cant watch the rest of densha otoko..(>_
drama is great!
looking to watching the movie, once i get my hands on it XD
Densha Otoko is simply, one of the best Jdoramas I have ever seen. A definitely must-see!! :)
you can find it at http://www.d-addicts.com with english subs
It must be simply awful to have one’s ideas stolen from them, like Mr. Stratton. Given that Densha Otoko is now both a movie AND a hit TV series, I’m sure his lawyers will be very busy.
Of course, I haven’t seen a single word in the news about that lawsuit he threatened, but I’m sure that’s just because he’s busy, uh, “planning his strategy.”
Uh huh.
And right after that, I imagine Mr. Stratton would like to sue somebody for stealing the words “paranoid” and “delusional” from him, since they’re clearly HIS.
hi everybody,
densha is incredible.
please feel free to download all episodes plus english subtitles at http://www.macphisto.jp.tp/viewtopic.php?t=2
have fun,
mac
http://www.rinji.tv/densha/train1.htm
I dunno about the stolen idea stuff, but I could sure you when those tv series and film goes hits and have large supporter(especially in japan) it just wasting a time to create a copyright issue. Just like those matrix, when fans hate you for what they like…woho. It’s just hit you back.
Right and power of fans are much increadible than laws. just an opinion.
It just like double edge swords, it’s sharp but mishandle it..it just slice youself back..
all of you make me want to know about the people who have lifestyle like this, but in my life, i think it’s impossible, salute for this movie which make everybody cry and laugh
[...] Densha Otoko (電車男) Published October 26th, 2005 in Noteworthy, Entertainment, TV, Japan and J-Things. Tags: Entertainment, J Things, Japan, Noteworthy, TV. Entertainment J Things Japan Noteworthy TVI happened to be researching some Japanese reference (I can’t recall what it was exactly), which then led me to Jean Snow’s posting who mentioned a book based on a supposed true account that came from a posting on the Japanese popular bulletin called 2ã¡ã‚ƒã‚“ãã‚‹ (2 Channel). Along with the book, it was also made into a tv drama and a movie which made it a pretty popular talked about story in Japan. [...]