is a Japanese

nonfiction Nonfiction, or non-fiction, is any document or media content that attempts, in good faith, to provide information (and sometimes opinions) grounded only in facts and real life, rather than in imagination. Nonfiction is often associated with be ...

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series authored by Hirohiko Yokomi and illustrated by Naoe Kikuchi. The manga was serialized in

Shogakukan is a Japanese publisher of dictionaries, literature, comics (manga), non-fiction, DVDs, and other media in Japan. Shogakukan founded Shueisha, which also founded Hakusensha. These are three separate companies, but are together called the Hit ...

's ''seinen'' manga magazine ''

Monthly Ikki was a monthly ''seinen'' manga magazine published by Shogakukan. It tended to specialize in underground or alternative manga, but it had its share of major hits as well. The magazine started in 2000 as a spin-off of Shogakukan's ''Weekly Big ...

'' between 2001 and 2006. A thirteen-episode

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

television series adaptation by

Group TAC was a Japanese animation and computer graphics studio located in Shibuya, Tokyo, and founded in 1968 from former Mushi Pro staff. They worked on movies, videos, TV shows, and commercials, and contributed to all stages of the process, including p ...

was broadcast in 2007.

Overview

''Tetsuko no Tabi'' is a

series. It is inspired on the book ''Getting On and Off of JR’s 4600 Stations'' by Hirohiko Yokomi, published in 1998, which chronicles his experience visiting all of Japan rail's train stations. The editor in chief of

's ''

'', Hideki Egami, wanted to recapture Yokomi's experience in manga. Masahiko Ishikawa, Shogakukan's editor and a rail fan, recruited Naoe Kikuchi, a new manga artist who worked with Shogakukan on a number of shorts, and this would be her first serialized work. ''Tetsuko no Tabi'' is about Kikuchi herself, traveling with Yokomi and Ishikawa, illustrating a manga based on their experiences.

Characters

;Hirohiko Yokomi : :The travel-writer, who turns out to be a huge train-fan. He has a lot of energy and passion for trains, and sometimes girls, but also micro-manages all their trips, planning every detail down to the second. He cares mostly about following the schedule and successfully achieving his planned goals (e.g. visiting all stations on a line in a completely bizarre order to accommodate infrequent trains). ;Naoe Kikuchi : :A manga artist. She has no interest in trains whatsoever, and she keeps getting freaked out by Yokomi's antics. She is also cynical, sarcastic, and rather lazy, mainly looking forward to the next ''

ekiben are a specific type of ''bento'' boxed meals, sold on trains and at train stations in Japan. They come with disposable chopsticks (when necessary) or spoons. ''Ekiben'' containers can be made from plastic, wood, or ceramic. Many train stations ...

''. ;Masahiko Ishikawa : :Kikuchi's editor, another train geek. ;Masaki Kamimura : :Kikuchi's second editor.

Media

Manga

Created by Hirohiko Yokomi and Naoe Kikuchi, ''Tetsuko no Tabi'' debuted in

's ''Spirits Zōkan Ikki'' on November 30, 2001. The series finished on October 25, 2006. Shogakukan collected its chapters in six ''

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

'' volumes, released from November 30, 2004, to February 28, 2007. The series was again intermittently serialized from 2007, with chapters collected in a single volume, titled ''Tetsuko no Tabi Plus'', released on February 25, 2009. A sequel, titled , illustrated by Kanoko Hoashi, was serialized in ''Monthly Ikki'' from May 25, 2009, to January 25, 2013. Shogakukan collected its chapters in five ''tankōbon'', released from February 25, 2010, to March 29, 2013. Another manga series, titled , illustrated by Akira Kirioka, was serialized in ''

Monthly Sunday Gene-X , often abbreviated as , is a ''seinen'' manga magazine published by Shogakukan. Like many other manga magazines, it is an " anthology magazine", with each issue featuring new chapters of several manga series. The series are also published in '' ...

'' from May 19, 2016, to January 19, 2019. Shogakukan collected its chapters in four volumes, released from February 17, 2017, to July 19, 2019.

Anime

A thirteen-episode

television series adaptation by

was broadcast on the

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

station

Family Gekijo is a Japanese cable television station which was founded during Japan's cable TV boom of late 1990s. It carries mostly domestic TV programs and has several popular anime titles on its program list. Distributed by Sky PerfecTV and Dish Network ...

from June 24 to September 23, 2007.

Notes

References

External links

Official anime website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tetsuko No Tabi 2001 manga Autobiographical anime and manga Group TAC Non-fiction comics Railway culture in Japan Seinen manga Shogakukan manga