News

Ponent Mon/Fanfare to Release Jiro Taniguchi's Furari Manga

The publishers Fanfare and Ponent Mon are listing that they will publish Jiro Taniguchi's Furari manga in the United States and in the United Kingdom. The companies list that Kumar Sivasubramanian will translate the 208-page graphic novel, which will retail for US$25. Fanfare and Ponent Mon's official website for the manga is currently also hosting a five-page preview.

The online retailer Amazon is listing that the two companies will ship the graphic novel in March 2014. Ponent Mon and Fanfare describe the manga as follows:

Slowly but surely he takes a promenade through Edo. "Furari" could be translated as 'aimlessly', 'at random', 'bend with the wind'; or 'go with the flow'. But our stroller this time leaves nothing to chance. Jiro Taniguchi returns with this delightful and insightful tale of life in a Japan long forgotten. Inspired by an historical figure, Tadataka Ino (1745 – 1818), Taniguchi invites us to join this unnamed but appealing and picturesque figure as he strolls through the various districts of Edo, the ancient Tokyo, with its thousand little pleasures. Now retired from business he surveys, measures, draws and takes notes whilst giving free rein to his taste for simple poetry and his inexhaustible capacity for wonder.

As he did in The Times of Botchan with lead character the writer Soseki, Taniguchi slips easily into the heart and mind of this early cartographer and reveals his world to us in full graphic detail so we may fully perceive and understand.

The two companies will also release a new edition of Taniguchi's The Walking Man manga to commemorate 10 years since they first published the book.

Ponent Mon and Fanfare previously published these other works by Taniguchi: The Summit of the Gods, A Zoo in Winter, A Distant Neighborhood, The Ice Wanderer, The Times of Botchan, and Quest for the Missing Girl. JManga published some of Taniguchi's Kodoku no Gourmet manga digitally before the company ended service in May.

Taniguchi's works were nominated for an Ignatz Award in 2010 and several Eisner Awards in 2007-2010. Taniguchi himself was knighted in France in 2011.

Thanks to Rachel S. for the news tip.