The Walking Man (manga)

The end of walking man (Japanese歩く ひと, Aruku hito ) is a manga by the Japanese illustrator Jiro Taniguchi from the year 1990. The 152 -page work is considered one of the most important of the artist.

Content

In 18 short chapters the experiences of a young man are described, which has moved in the suburbs with his wife in their own house. He discovered on walks the environment, parks and narrow streets that makes everyday experiences. After his wife found a dog and both received him, the man usually takes him on his walks.

It never the name of the man, his career, or Handlungsort is known.

Publication

The manga was released in Japan in 1990 and 1991 in the manga magazine Weekly Morning of the publisher Shogakukan. This released the chapter then in a tankōbon.

The first publication of the work was done outside of Japan in 1995 in France by the publisher Casterman under the title L' Homme qui marche. Later, among other translations followed into Italian, Spanish and English. 2009, the band appeared at the Carlsen Verlag in German.

Style and Analysis

The manga contains relatively few speech bubbles. The work is held in a manga for the unusually detailed and realistic drawing style, which is heavily influenced by European ligne claire. According to Andreas Platthaus but show in the described situations, the Japanese roots of art Taniguchi. He compares the work with the images cycle Tsuki hyakushi of ukiyo -e artist Yonejiro Owariya better known as Tsukioka / Taiso Yoshitoshi 19th century. The cycle shows 100 different aspects of the moon where the moon is rarely the main theme of the individual images. Just Taniguchi show the aspects of walking in man and so am continuing the tradition of Ukiyo -e. He adaptiere the experiments Hokusai and Hiroshige 19th century, the time would be inspired as well by western painters themselves.

Together with the simultaneously published work dreams of happiness would lead the man walking in the end also fortunate as the essence of human life before. The protagonist embarks on its surroundings and learns it gradually know. Platthaus denotes the manga as " disguised autobiography ", the stories showed recognizable personal experiences of the artist.

Significance and reception

The man walking in the end was the first manga Taniguchi, who was moved outside Japan.

According to Andreas Platthaus the story is a magnificent fusion of content and form. Paul Gravett writes of a " swinging clear line " and contemplative stillness in a " collection of silent pictures." In comic radio show is called a special vision and reading pleasure.