"Train Man"-- Must see comedy-drama

a.k.a "Densha Otoko"

Is a Japanese movie, turn drama series that is very entertaining for all you true "Otaku" and anime freak-a-zoids out there.

It is quite a hit in Japan. My wife has been renting the videos like crazy! And she is not even into anime!

It is a comical and whimsical tale of an anime otaku having found his beautiful "Moe" girl on a train ride. He is very shy to an extreme and draws on his strength from the other otaku online that chat continously throughout the story. And boy does he tend to need it. He has to be the most shy and nervous guy that I have ever seen on film, besides Jerry Lewis, for those of you old enough to remember him when he was young.

It really is a comical reflection on Internet Chat, anime, and yes Otaku (Fetish) community and their world that exists in Japan.

Very interesting and sweet, it is very much like an anime itself.

I have only seen it in Japanese however, but don't let that stop you from seeing it if you can. You will surely laugh and reflect on the cel and anime community.

IMO It would be a sure hit in English.

Tried to find a bittorrent (english sub) for this as I've been meaning to see it after hearing about it from another friend too.

Apparently, at one point 2 eps from the first season were English subbed. Anyone have any clues on how to obtain this?

(Side note: from the looks of the info I found on the web, this entire show is populated by one geeky guy and a whole lot of beautiful people.)

I haven't watched it yet so I can't vouch for it's quality, but here is episode 4 English sub:

http://www.d-addicts.com/forum/viewtopic.php?info_hash=9d3f4a84a8851965d7e2876ddef3b50fa33053a5

The have a bunch of other episodes but most don't have sub. Still looking for subtitled batch myself.

yay, downloading. thx.

note to birdie:

that site appears to have 1-11 softsubbed and all the raws available. they have the sub files and the raw files in different threads; use the search thingy on their site.

Well, it's a charming show. Charming enough that I'll get all the episodes and watch them in time.

It seems really sugary sweet though, almost like a sitcom from the 1980s.

The hardest part is putting up with the a) cheesy DV cam production quality (I've seen university short films that look better) and b) the wooden soap-opera acting typical of all Asian TV dramas.

I couldn't help thinking at some points that it was the cast of Dr. Who trapped a feminine hygene product commercial or a bad SNL skit. The guy overacts the part of the geeky guy to annoyance and the girl has one expression -- confused. Everyone involved looks really uncomfortable with their lines.

The ending sequence is pretty cool. I couldn't help thinking that the band featured in the ending credits looked like a Japanese version of Smashmouth.

3 stars out of 5 for the whole "strangers falling in love" genre and only because it's about an anime geek. 2/5 if the main character was a trainspotter or some other kind of weirdo. A 5 is Roman Holiday. A 1 is that misedited scene from the original Manchurian Candidate where they meet on a train and become silent after they realize that the scene they're currently in makes no sense whatsoever (seriously, someone explain that part to me).