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User:HelloAnnyong/Densha Otoko

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Densha Otoko (電車男, usually translated as Train Man), is a love story that originated as posts on the 2channel message boards. The term is based on the username of the forum member who posted the story. As a deeply moving story, it was turned into a tankōbon, as well as manga, a movie, a television drama, and a theater show. As a pure love story that started on the Internet, it is a topic discussed all over the world.

Synopsis

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On the 2ch single male board (独身男性板, dokushin dansei-ban, also known as 毒男板, or dokuo-ban), there was a thing called "男達が後ろから撃たれるスレ" (lit. men attacked from behind thread). In this, posters would copy and paste writings from people in the "couple forum" (カップル板), which made the single men feel depressed. Some of the writers in these threads would report in real time the whole story of their trials with love, which would in turn cause other writers to be in anguish.

On March 14, 2004, at 9:55 pm, a casual writer using the number 731 wrote the first part of a story. He wrote that while he was on the train, he helped a woman who was having an argument with a drunkard, and she later thanked him. Several days later, he received a set of Hermès teacups from her. All of this was written at once in the thread, and the author was looking for assistance from the forum members. At first the author used the number 731, but later changed his name to "Densha Otoko" (電車男), and the woman came to be referred to as "Hermes" (エルメス), and would later use this name as his handle.

The man wrote admitted things about himself, such as that his number of years without girlfriends equaled his age (「彼女いない歴＝年齢」), that he was an Akihabara nerd and an otaku, and that he hadn't yet been on a date. In his writing, he asked what he should say when he calls her to thank her for the gift, how he should ask her out, what would be good clothing to buy, and so on. In response to this, other 2ch forum members - including some women - gave him advice, such as how to plan a date, fashion advice, told him to get rid of his otaku stuff, and so on, until he grew up and could befriend Hermes. For two months the forum members helped him as he patiently posted about things, until at last on May 9, he wrote that he confessed to Hermes that he loved her. The board received many congratulatory messages.

Densha Otoko's posts continued for awhile longer, but on May 17, there were posts about being on the verge of having sex, forum members made inappropriate comments (they had been expressing their opinions and thoughts about him). Later that night, Densha Otoko left the boards.

Popularity

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The Densha Otoko story grew in popularity as a result of word of mouth, such as blogs and the popular website that edited and cleaned up the Train Man-related 2channel threads.

Although the love story itself was rather mundane, the single and loveless men who congregated people on the thread were eager to help each other with romance, which caused a manual sympathy and emotional sentiment between the readers. When the famous blogs and news sites picked up the story, starting in around May 2004, there was a huge boom on the Internet about the story, and 2channel was approached with a wish to do a publication.

Publication

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A tankōbon called "Densha Otoko" (ISBN 4104715018) was published by Shinchosha on October 22, 2004.

The story is written in the form of message board postings. It takes place from March 14 to May 16. For people who do not know what 2chan is, the book aims to try to convey the feeling of the threads. As it is not a short story, ASCII art directly from the threads are included, as are 2chan vocabulary words and explanations. However, a large majority of the threads that were posted were not directly copied; rather they originated on the "Matome site". According to "Fūin sareta 'Densha Otoko'" (封印された「電車男」) by Kenji Andō, only 6.4% of the sentences published in the special Densha Otoko book were left alone.

The author of the special book used the name "Nakano Hitori" (中野独人), this being a pun on the Japanese term "Naka no hitori", a term that refers to all the people who are part of message boards on the Internet. There isn't a specific person that is credited as the author; rather, it is close to a shared pseudonym.

The editor of the "matome site" said that the fixed username "Naka no hito" (中の人) was used, and that it was planned to use that name in the publication.

When the story was turned into manga, movie and theater performances, as the number of copies of the book had exceeded 1,015,000 copies.

In July 2006, the English translation of the story was published as "Train Man". It was published by Constable and Robinson (ISBN 1845293517).

Media franchise

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The book was used as a basis for the franchising of the series.

Film

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On June 4, 2005, Toho released the film version. The film's theme song was ORANGE RANGE's "Love Parade." As a pure love film, the film became a big hit. The film does not use the name "2channel" to refer to the forums. On the 40th day of the film's release (June 13), Toho released a statement saying that more than two million people had seen the film, and that they would be creating a television drama. When the film was released on DVD, Toho announced that the film's revenue had surpassed more than 3.5 billion yen (more than $34 million USD).

Cast

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  • Densha Otoko: Takayuki Yamada - made a guest appearance in the first episode of the TV show
  • Hermes: Miki Nakatani (she appeared due to her similarity to the real girl)
  • Drunk: Ren Ōzuki
  • Hermes' mother: Reiko Tajima
  • Hermes' friend: Naomi Nishida
  • Young man: Atsushi Itō - played Densha otoko in the TV show
  • Young woman: Misaki Ito - played Hermes in the TV show
2chan forum members
  • Hikikomori: Eita
  • Rika, the registered nurse: Ryoko Kuninaka
  • Otaku A, Yoshiga: Yoshinori Okada
  • Otaku B, Tamura: Hiroki Miyake
  • Otaku B, Mutō: Makoto Sakamoto
  • Hisashi, the salaryman: Kuranosuke Sasaki
  • Michiko, the housewife: Tae Kimura

Staff

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  • Music: Takayuki Hattori
  • Executive producer: Hiroyoshi Koiwai
  • Director: Shosuke Murakami
  • Script: Arisa Kaneko

Television drama

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Further information: Densha Otoko (drama)

Theater

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The theater version was performed in Toko from August 5, 2005 to August 27, 2005. It was also performed in Osaka, Nagoya, Sendai, Kitakyushu, and Nagasaki. The run ended on September 11.

Cast

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  • Densha Otoko: Shinji Takeda
  • Hermes: Yūka (voice acting?)
  • Masahiko Kawahara
  • Kazumi Suzuki
  • Morooka Moro
  • Arata Saeki
  • Tomohiro Waki
  • Shouta Chiyo

Staff

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Manga

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After 2004, the following manga were published.

  • "Train Man - Internet Local Train Love Story" (電車男 ネット発、各駅停車のラブ・ストーリー) (Hidenori Hara (原秀則))
    "Weekly Young Sunday" (Shogakukan) serialization, 3 separate volumes
    French edition - Kurokawa, "Densha otoko - l'homme du train"
    English edition - Viz Media, "Train Man: Densha Otoko"
  • "Train Man - You can do it, geek!" (電車男 がんばれ毒男!) (Daisuke Dōke (道家大輔))
    "Young Champion" (Akita Shoten) serialization, 3 separate volumes
    French edition - Taifu Comics, "Le garçon du train"
  • Train Man - But, I start my journey (電車男 でも、俺旅立つよ) (Wataru Watanabe (渡辺航))
    "Champion Red" (Akita Shoten) serialization, 3 separate volumes
    English edition - CMX, "Densha Otoko: The Story of a Train Man Who Fell in Love With A Girl"
  • "Train Man - Beautiful Woman and the naive young nerd: an Internet love story" (電車男 美女と純情ヲタク青年のネット発ラブストーリー) (Machiko Ocha (御茶まちこ))
    "Desert" (Kodansha), 1 volume
    English version - Del Ray, "Train_Man: A Shōjo Manga"
  • "Train Man - Spring is Coming" (Raika Hashimoto (橋本ライカ]]))
    "Judy" (Shogakukan), 3 serialized books

Recitations

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From March 12, 2005 to March 14, 2005, and again on May 9, 2005, the show was performed.

Cast

CD Drama

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Volume 1 was released on September 22, 2005.

Other

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  • An adult film titled "Densha Otoko: Kissing and Sex" (電車男の接吻とセックス) was made. It was directed by Kirari Koizumi and starred Hitoshi Nimura. Text from the threads on the board were used.
  • On December 21, 2004, according to an announcement by Shinchou, royalties from the manga and film versions were donated to reconstruction following the 2004 Chūetsu earthquake. Royalties from the book version were not collected.[1]

Actors that appeared in both the film and TV forms

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Considerations

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Generally speaking, "a savage and strong message board is rare, and a heartwarming anecdote" is captured in the Densha otoko story. The following harsh criticisms are similar to what was seen on 2channel's single male boards, though the truth is still being questioned.

Unclarified issues

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These questions were raised earlier on on the 2chan thread.

  • The image of Hermes is unclear. In the image, she looks like a character from a dating sim. It was said that "for the guy, she was a convenient girl", though in reality she seemed to be an unlikely match (pigtails, etc).
  • After the events, the Densha Otoko never posted again using that name. Regardless of the existence of excitement in the media, there wasn't even a mosaiced face that was shown (although in Internet chat, the condition to not show one's face, in the Fuji Television version it does).
  • For Densha Otoko and Hermes, aside from the comments in the thread, no other action from them is seen to prove their existence.
  • Occasionally, criminals' personal information - even simple details - leaks out onto the Internet; although there are many people who were part of the conversations, details as to the existence of Densha Otoko and Hermes, such as who or where they are, are not available.

Production

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Due to these considerations, there is a theory that the Train Man's story is fiction - that is, something that he made up or a delusion, and since then this claim has been more firmly rooted. However, the head editor of Shinchou stated that he has spoken to Densha Otoko[citation needed], as did hiroyuki, the founder of 2ch.[2] In an article published in the Asahi Shimbun, a theory was proposed that hiroyuki was the Train Man.[citation needed] Because the Train Man's writings say they took place along the Keihin-Tōhoku Line, people questioned hiroyuki which stations it took place on, and finally he answered, "I don't know."[3]

On the other hand, even if the Train Man's story is fiction, the interaction between the people on the threads definitely happened and cannot be changed. Although there are differing opinions, and there is a theory that the Train Man was a regular forum member who deceived them by "acting in his own play", and whose writings were blended in.[citation needed]

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When the book was translated, there was doubt over the copyright of the collection on the "matome site" and of 2ch's threads in general, and a number of people stated that "the (collecting) deeds were done with good intention and for free, and were exchanged for money, so we cannot consent," but Shinchosha still published based on the following:[citation needed]

  • Because they cannot specifically determine who the authors are on an anonymous message board, writing copyright falls to the administrator of 2ch - hiroyuki - who had given his consent.
  • When contributors post on the board, it is affirmed that their posts may be reused by secondary sources.
  • The Train Man himself had given his consent.

Previously, the administrator of the message board had not given his consent, they criticized that the posts that were reproduced (such as hotel experiences and assessments) was copyright infringement.[4], though in the case of 2ch, it can be difficult to demonstrate individual writings (though on the site's agreement it says that people must be careful of differences). Copyright infringement is a crime where the victim must file a formal complaint in order to prosecute (called a 親告罪, shinkokuzai), and so far no one has pushed for a lawsuit.

May 17 farewell posting

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The book form has postings from March 14 to May 16, but on May 17th Densha Otoko posted about his having sex with Hermes, and was criticized for writing poor erotica. This point changed the entire story, but in the book it does not appear at all. It is though that one reason why it is not there is because the Train Man himself wrote "I wish that the 'matome site' did not have that post", but since the train man established the story as a true love story, there is a view that the May 17th episode the stamp is perhaps not necessary (Takahashi Genichiro said this).[citation needed] The novelist Tooru Honda wrote a book called Denpa Otoko (電波男) (lit. Nonsense man), where he pointed out this discrepancy. In the same book, Honda criticized the Densha Otoko story itself.

Influence

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The tankōbon became a best seller, and in 2005 the manga and film adaptations were quickly put into development. The production of the film version was forced into a schedule of only two months from the start of filming to the roadshow, and in the same span of time, the manga version was developed concurrently with unprecedented speed. While the film was being created, several dramatizations were created, and the influence of the 2ch members on the Train Man became relatively light.

On the 2ch single male board, nearly every day there was a disturbance of visitors caused by the boom from the 'matome site' and elsewhere on the Internet. There was a flood of threads asking why the Train Man did it and why and so on, and as a result the original function of the board was almost entirely trapped in a state of paralysis, and as a way to cope, the true forum members made "Densha Otoko" a taboo/foridden word. One of the effects of the film becoming a big hit was another flood of threads, and as a result a second board, called "second Densha Otoko" (第二の電車男) forum was created for actual love discussions. Yet another flood came when the dramatization and television shows aired, and threads about the relation between the story and another show, "Queen's Classroom" (女王の教室), and the forum members' followed this by expressing their dissatisfaction. Although the existence of the 2ch community itself became famous with the film version, this popularity was largely due to an influx of people who were just visiting the site, or chūbō (厨房) - people who make childish posts - and fad followers, and the quality of the forums dropped considerably. Furthermore, the new users would post without understanding the rules of each forum and the older members would criticize them. As a result of this, the new users would repeatedly create abusive treads that would bury other threads, and the quality of 2ch quickly dropped. Additionally, the appearance of stories like Densha Otoko were overproduced, and a negative image of forum members being evil otaku, called kimoota (キモオタ), took root around the world, which caused a dissatisfaction among the users.

2chan secret?

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At first the topic of the book version was a "2ch 発" for sale, but when the film was released, 2ch was hardly referenced.[5]

On June 7, 2005, on the morning television show Tokudane!, Tomoaki Ogura (小倉智昭) said that "Densha Otoko was born on a blog", and two days later on June 9, on Mezamashi TV Shin'ichi Karube (軽部真一) said that "the meaning of Densha Otoko was a Fuji TV film." On June 11, on Mezamashi Saturday's blog feature, Ogura again referred to Densha Otoko being born on a blog, without any reference at all to 2chan. In the drama version of the story, though, references to 2chan were largely left out (though it is referred to as 'Arajin channel', or A-channel for short).

On July 7, 2005, on Tokudane!, a commentator said that "because 2channel was the origin, he had read the logs that were created prior to the short story"; on the same day, on a show called "F2 Smile", it was stated that "2chan was the origin", and performers explained the 2chan vocabulary, stating that "if you understood (this terminology) the drama version was more enjoyable." Still, Atsushi Itō, who starred as Densha Otoko in the play, stated that he did not know of the 2ch link. Despite this, he had almost entirely passed a 2chan vocab quiz, and on the show it was said that he could have been a 2ch forum member.

However, on virtually all of the dramatized versions that aired on TV, the name '2channel' itself is not used, and instead "A-channel" is. Fuji Television has done similar things to 2002 FIFA World Cup, as well as during the Turkish war, the Enoshima objections and Sakurai Ken'ichirō, and because of this, a bitter enemy relationship has been pointed out between 2chan and the channel. (See the 2channeler article.)

Story borm from the Internet - episodes

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このほか、○○男と呼ばれる人物がネットで話題になることも多くなり、中でも痴漢男は書籍化・映画化された。

Notes

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赤松健

  • 2007年8月8日放送の「世界バリバリ★バリュー」で、売れている漫画家の一人として紹介された際、右上のテロップで「リアル電車男」と紹介されており、実際に妻の佳音との馴れ初めを披露し、赤松自身「電車男はある」と言った。

Footnotes

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  1. ^ http://www.zakzak.co.jp/gei/2004_12/g2004122109.html
  2. ^ 探偵ファイル
  3. ^ 東京kittyアンテナ（個人ブログ）
  4. ^ http://www.law.co.jp/cases/hotel2.htm
  5. ^ 映画の公式サイトやパンフレットには「2ちゃんねる」と書かれた文章は無かった（「きぼんぬ」や「うｐ」などの2ちゃんねる用語自体は登場した）

Works cited

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  • Getsumento Heiki Mina
  • Napoleon Dynamite)
  • ("A Working Poor in a Troubled Company" (ブラック会社に勤めてるんだが、もう俺は限界かもしれない) - a book of logs from 2channel
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