This time it’s Enzo’s recommending a series for Samu - and it’s another seinen manga! Habits seem to be forming. A Distant Neighborhood by the iconic Jiro Taniguchi is a 2-volume series about a father in his forties who is transported back to his teenage years leading up to the event that still lingers within him: the night his father disappeared and left his family behind. Could this be his chance to uncover the truth of the incident or perhaps even change the future by preventing it?

Timestamps:

0:00 Introduction - continuing our conversation on trends in our differing tastes

5:43 Establishing ‘A Distant Neighborhood’ and our initial impressions

10:14 The premise: time travel, the human condition, a reflection of youth

12:36 Exploring the concept of reliving our teenage lives if put into this situation

17:01 The internal age-gap romance with Tomoko - is it icky or successfully explored?

21:06 Jiro Taniguchi is one of the most influential manga of all time, his realism

23:23 Why is he particularly popular in Europe?

27:07 Spoiler discussion begins

27:39 The countdown to understanding his father’s actions and their relationship

30:26 “No one ever truly becomes an adult” and “What is happiness?”

32:26 What would we do if we were in Hiroshi’s situation??

34:07 Understanding his father and what lead to his decision and the morality behind it

43:48 Predicting our envision endings as reader to compare with the author’s vision

47:35 The ending - Samu’s theory on how he thought it was conclude

49:50 Enzo’s preference for stripped back stories, comparisons to Spirit Circle

51:25 Was it a happy ending? Stories that appeal to the head or the heart

52:41 Enzo’s Recommendation: ERASED by Kei Sanbe

56:18 Samu’s Film Recommendation: Only Yesterday (film by Isao Takahata)

57:38 Samu’s Recommendation: Barefoot Gen by Keiji Nakazawa

1:00:46 Overview and final scores