AssignmentZero : Crowdsourcing Nonfiction Books : Other Examples
Example : "Train Man" / Densha Otoko (2005) - includes my preliminary research, links, quotes, etc.
- Haven't located the actual blog yet, although there is a book, DVD and Manga.
- www.2ch.net is entirely in Japanese, a language I can't read and Google translator is no help.
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Three volumes, looks like a Manga series:
Train_Man: Densha Otoko, Volume 1 (Train-Man) (Paperback) : Amazon.com
Train_Man: Densha Otoko, Volume 2 (Train-Man) (Paperback) : Amazon.com
Train_man, Volume 3 (Train_man) by Hitori Nakano and Hidenori Hara : Amazon.com
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Train Man: The Novel (Paperback) by Hitori Nakano (Author) : Amazon.com is calling this a novel, yet the Wall Street Journal says it's nonfiction (?)
- Availability: This title will be released on April 24, 2007.
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Train Man : Official website of the movie.
Movie : Train Man: Densha Otoko
Year : 2005
Country : Japan
Director : Masanori Murakami
Starring: Takayuki Yamada (Train Man), Miki Nakatani (Hermes)
Runtime : 102 Minutes
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Love Train : Wired.com article
IT WAS A FAIRY-TALE ROMANCE. A very nerdy fairy-tale romance.
On March 14, 2004, the guy who would become known across Japan as Train Man was just a lonely otaku heading home from Tokyo's Akihabara district, famous for its gadgets and anime. A pretty young woman sat next to him on the subway. He likely wanted to talk to her, but, being a geek, he just sat there.
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TRAIN MAN: A SHOJO MANGA : DelRey Manga website
MANGA BY MACHIKO OCHA. ORIGINAL STORY BY HITORI NAKANO
LONELY HEARTS UNITE! The romantic phenomenon that took Japan by storm done in irresistible shojo style. Sometimes, all it takes to find true love is one moment of courage... and a lot of virtual friends. When Ikumi Saiki meets a beautiful girl on the train ride home, she seems to see his hidden hero within. But will he be brave enough to win her heart for certain? Desperate, he posts a plea on an Internet message board: "Help me win the girl of my dreams!" Now, everyone in the online world is ready to help Ikumi realize that even he has a chance at true love.
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Crowdsourcing for Content in Japan :
Today's Wall Street Journal has an article on the considerable success Japanese book publishers, TV and movie producers are enjoying with fare developed from amateur content posted to the Internet. The most conspicuous example is "Train Man," which started as the chat room conversations of a lovelorn otaku. The book grossed $11 million (big money in Japan), and spawned a franchise of equally successful television and movie adaptations. Train Man is really crowdsourcing twice over: A genuine work of non-fiction, the Train Man himself crowdsourced his book by using a group of authors to generate content, and the publisher is crowdsourcing by using the Internet as a breeding ground for talent.
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"Since its 2004 release in print, the book "Train Man" has sold more than one million copies, with retail sales of $11 million, according to the publisher, Shinchosha Publishing Co. The train man character and the chat site mediator have shared some $1.1 million in royalties, although neither is credited as author. Rather than saying the book was written by Internet chat users, which might turn readers away, the publisher came up with "Nakano Hitori," an imaginary author whose name can mean "one person among them." The book is available in Chinese and Korean translations and is currently being translated into Thai, Italian and English.
"Japanese book publishers are scouring the Internet for the next "Train Man." Kodansha Ltd., Japan's biggest publishing house, hires a firm to keep an eye on thousands of blogs and dig up other material.
"Since January 2004, more than 300 books based on blogs, personal home pages, and bulletin boards have been published in Japan, about three times as many as in English. Lulu, an online self-publisher based in the U.S., this year awarded what may be the first literary award for the genre, the Lulu Blooker Prize."
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Amazon.com Review of the Movie :
"Densha Otoko began as an on-line tale that captivated audiences in Japan: there's a novel, a TV show, and a manga series, in addition to this feature. The title character is a textbook otaku, an anime and video game nerd who divides his time between the electronics stores in Tokyo's Akihabara district and the computer in his cluttered room. One day on a commuter train, he prevents an obnoxious drunk from bothering a pretty girl. She sends him a set of Hermès teacups as a thank-you and a tentative romance begins. Train Man has no idea how to behave with a girl, so an on-line posse tells him how to dress and what to say. Ultimately, his example inspires them to go out into the world. Director Masanori Murakami effectively uses a split screen to create the on-line community. Takayuki Yamada makes a wonderfully maladroit Train Man: when he calls Hermès for the first time, he holds the phone as if he were about to commit seppuku. Miki Nakatami infuses Hermès with a winning mixture of gentleness and independence. This touching romance will delight Gen-Y and -Z members, whose lives are bound to the Internet. (Unrated, suitable for ages 13 and older: minor violence, alcohol and tobacco use)--Charles Solomon"
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Train Man romances Tokyo's computer geeks : Physorg.com article
Impoverished computer geeks are becoming hot commodities in Japan these days, thanks to one blockbusting book that originated on a weblog.
[...]
Japan's love affair with geeks took off with the publication of "Densha Otoko," or "Train Man," in October 2004. Since then, more than 1 million copies have been sold, and it has even been made into a film and television series. The book, however, has no single author. Instead, it is based on the musings of people who had written in after one blogger wrote about his encounter with a woman on a Tokyo commuter train.
The blogger's name is "Train Man," and he writes in to describe how he had to muster up the courage to stop a drunk, disorderly old man from verbally harassing a young woman on the train. The woman thanks him, they exchange addresses, and so the story begins.
The book, however, is not a novel in the conventional sense. Rather, it is simply the compilation of the blog that allegedly appeared on 2 Channel (www.2ch.net), a Web site that allows bloggers to post whatever they like. As a result, the story evolves as Train Man posts the latest development about the woman he meets, and when he finally asks her out to dinner he quickly turns to his cyberspace friends for advice on where to eat.
The postings then evolve into how he should get his hair cut, where he should shop for new clothes, trendy bars that he ought to try ought in advance, and potential topics for discussion during the numerous dates he keeps chatters abreast with.
