News

Fanfare/Ponent Mon to Release Jiro Taniguchi's A Journal of My Father, Solitary Gourmet Manga

Fanfare and Ponent Mon confirmed with ANN on Monday that they will release Jiro Taniguchi's A Journal of My Father (Chichi no Koyomi) manga and Masayuki Kusumi and Taniguchi's Solitary Gourmet (Kodoku no Gourmet) manga in English. Additionally, the companies will publish Yukari Takinami's I Wish I Could Say "Thank You" (Arigatōtte Ieta nara) manga in November.

Fanfare and Ponent Mon stated to ANN that Solitary Gourmet will "most likely" debut in spring 2021.

Solitary Gourmet follows a solitary salesman named Gorō Inagashira as he travels all over Japan and samples the local cuisine found on street corners. The manga has inspired eight live-action television series as well as several TV specials starring Yutaka Matsushige.

Masayuki Kusumi and Jiro Taniguchi first serialized the Kodoku no Gourmet manga from 1994 to 1996 in Fusosha's Monthly Panja magazine (now defunct). Kusumi handled the story, and Taniguchi drew the art. Fusosha published the first collected volume in 1997. Kusumi and Fusosha published the manga's second volume in September 2015.

The manga also inspired a net anime that debuted on Production I.G's "Tate Anime" (Vertical Anime) smartphone app in November 2017.

Fanfare and Ponent Mon have previously released the following manga by Taniguchi in English: The Walking Man, Sky Hawk, Furari, Venice, A Distant Neighborhood, The Guardians of the Louvre, Summit of the Gods, A Zoo in Winter, The Ice Wanderer, The Times of Botchan, and The Quest for the Missing Girl.

Taniguchi (Kodoku no Gourmet) passed away in February 2017 at age 69.

Amazon lists a hardcover edition of A Journal of My Father with a release date of December 15. Amazon describes the story:

KNOW THY FATHER The book opens with some childhood thoughts of Yoichi Yamashita spurred by a phone call at work informing him of his father's death. So, he journeys back to his hometown after an absence of well over a decade during which time he has not seen his father. But as the relatives gather for the funeral and the stories start to flow, Yoichi's childhood starts to resurface. The Spring afternoons playing on the floor of his father's barber shop, the fire that ravaged the city and his family home, his parents' divorce and a new ‘mother’. Through confidences and memories shared with those who knew him best, Yoichi rediscovers the man he had long considered an absent and rather cold father.

Fanfare and Ponent Mon describes I Wish I Could Say "Thank You":

How do you say “thank you” and “goodbye” to a woman who has been domineering and difficult her whole life? Especially when that woman is your mother!

Yukari had long struggled in a chaotic love-hate relationship with her mother Chieko, so when her mother is diagnosed with advanced stage pancreatic cancer with just months to live, she is faced with a difficult situation.

Takinami honestly recounts the turmoil created by this announcement from her sister Nao without ever descending into pathos. At first she thinks of the practical – where should her mother be, who's going to look after her, how can I with my work and my child? Then slowly she starts to face the fact of losing this energetic woman who had never even caught a cold to her memory! After years marked by difficult communication, will they now manage to overcome their conflicts and say what's truly in their hearts before it's too late?

Sources: Email correspondence, Ponent Mon

[Via Manga Mogura, TheOASG]