Train Man, Hitori Nakano

A Japanese geek with the nickname ‘Train Man’ is acting different from usual when he saves two ladies from a drunk man in the train. As an appreciation for his help, one of the ladies sends him a pair of expensive Hermes teacups as a thank you gift. The ‘Train Man’ is not sure how to proceed after receiving the gift. He asks for advices from his fellow geeks on an online message board. Since then, his love story becomes an Internet sensation. He receives unlimited advices, encouragements, and supports from anonymous netizens and they hope he will win the girl’s heart someday.

I liked how this story is being told. It’s unusual but interesting. This book contains the collection of posts from the 2channel bulletin board. Basically, we are reading online posts to keep track of the story which is different from novel with text paragraphs or comics with drawings.

Initially, I felt worried that the threads will be boring but surprisingly, this is an interesting read. The netizens involved in the bulletin board were funny and supportive at the same time. Some of them even provided analysis based on the story’s development. There were lots of emotions and feelings exist within the board. I enjoyed reading the threads with mixture of feelings – funny, touching, miraculous, inspirational.

I liked the ASCII art but unfortunately, it’s no longer trendy. It seems a lot of effort to create them but actually you can use ASCII Generator to convert pictures to ASCII text art.

Rating: ★★★★
More reviews can be found on Goodreads: Train Man.