MadInkBeard

Taniguchi, Jiro. A Distant Neighborhood v.1. Fanfare/Pontent Mon, 2009. ISBN: 9788492444281.

I read the first volume (of two) of Jiro Taniguchi’s A Distant Neighborhood the other night. I am so far not very impressed. At this point the story reads like a partially autobiographical story that indulges in the often wished for desire to “do things over” with the benefit of hindsight. The protagonist, Hiroshi, somehow travels back in time to be a 40 year old man in his 12 year old body. That his past life immediately starts changing is no surprise, surely we’d all end up approaching life in different ways if we had years to think back on what happens. Unfortunately, so far, Taniguchi doesn’t seem to know what to do with the concept to make it really engaging. Hiroshi’s better at talking to girls now, surprise! Hiroshi’s better at school, shocking!

The art is exactly what you’d expect, if you’ve seen any of his other works.

One aspect that caught my attention is when Hiroshi has forgotten a person or event from his past. So many things that seem so very important to as, at the moment, become, over the years, distant and forgotten (this sense of the transitory and fleeting nature of our lives is a very Japanese sentiment). But, even here, Taniguchi seems to primarily use this to introduce the reader to background information and characters. I recently read a short story by Inio Asano that takes up this issue (forgotten school memories) in a much more interesting fashion (and in a lot fewer pages).

I have to wonder how Taniguchi will deal with the paradoxical issues that come along with any time travel story. Perhaps he’ll do something really spectacular with volume two, though I’m doubting it right now. After being unimpressed with his Ice Wanderer collection, I’m starting to think Walking Man (which I really love) was his one real solo success. I wish Fanfare/Ponent Mon would have spent their time/money getting the rest of the much more successful and engaging Times of Botchan (I wrote on it here and here) (which, by the way, was published in France in fewer and larger volumes) released rather than all these other new series by Taniguchi.

[This is part 2 of a 30 part series where I am writing daily reviews for the month of December.]