The Walking Man

Have you ever returned from work and instead of taking your usual walk home you spontaneously decide to explore a different part of the city? Suddenly you end up in a street you have never seen before and it feels like another city although you haven’t strayed far from the normal route. Maybe it’s a bird's nest you see, kids playing in the street or just another view of the same building that you usually only see from one perspective.

Jirou Taniguchi’s Walking Man follows an unnamed protagonist that goes on small walks around his new neighbourhood after moving from another city. Each chapter he explores different streets and shops and meets new people. Whether it is observing birds with an old man or buying a childrens toy after seeing two school boys using their little money to buy a spinning toy, he enjoys every moment of his short walks.

The idea of enjoying the smaller moments in life isn’t exclusive to Japanese culture but definitely plays a huge role in it. “Ikigai” is a word that you might have heard in a similar context. Often used as a title for self-help books that are marketed for westerners, it describes the purpose of life or at least what we should live for. Our modern life is often so stressful and cluttered that we forget the small moments in life. Drinking a cup of coffee in the morning, seeing an old friend you haven’t met in a while or just seeing a candy wrapper that reminds you of your youth - these are all moments that might seem short and forgettable but harvest a greater power once you realize it.
There is a chapter in the middle of the manga where the protagonist decides to leave the train one station before his work and just walk to his destination. He goes through new quiet streets, sees cats relaxing in the sun and ends up at a riverbed where he talks to an old man. Realizing how stressful his normal life is he takes a moment to enjoy the peaceful moment alongside the birds and stream of the river. Thirty minutes later he will be sitting in his office dealing with business related tasks but that doesn’t matter right now. What matters is the current moment, if we only look into the stressful future we won’t have the ability to see the joy in the present.

All this is beautifully shown through Taniguchi’s realistic illustrations. Largely influenced by French, Belgian and Italian artists, his style is detailed and very atypical for manga.

"The paradox is that while being mangaka, my style is quite close to comics the European and that I put a lot of elements in each image. I am probably somewhere between comics and manga from this point of view. And maybe that's why for some Japanese readers my manga are difficult to read .

It works perfectly especially for a manga that features minimal dialogue. His drawings alone already tell a story that doesn’t need dialogues to explain itself. One chapter shows a “walking battle” where the protagonist and an old man keep overtaking one another as they slowly traverse the city. Except for sound bubbles there is not a single line of dialogue. The facial expressions of both characters are already enough for us to decipher how they are feeling.