The Adventures of a Saintly Slacker -

Tomihiko Morimi

Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc.

2013

336 páginas

11h 12m

ISBN-13: 9784022507860

In this kitschy, comical fantasy set in present-day Kyoto, events unfold in the course of a single Saturday, with the ancient city’s famous Gion Festival scheduled for the following day.
A mysterious character wearing a heavy black cape and an endearing tanuki raccoon-dog mask has been wandering the city for the past year. Although sightings initially prompted calls to the police, it soon became clear that Ponpoko Mask, as the furtive presence came to be called, was dedicated to helping animals and persons in need, and since then he has become quite the popular figure about town.
Early on Saturday morning, Ponpoko Mask asks Kowada, the young protagonist of the tale, to become his successor. Kowada is in his second year at a chemical firm, where he works in the research division developing food-packaging film. On Friday night he was out late at a farewell bash for the head of his division, Director Gotō, who is moving to the head office in Tokyo. Having had too much to drink, Kowada slept rough, and it is when he wakes up the next morning that Ponpoko Mask approaches him. A self-avowed slacker, Kowada likes nothing better than to spend his days off lolling about at home doing nothing, and summarily dismisses the idea of taking over as Ponpoko Mask. Indeed, much of the appeal of this slacker fantasy is that its protagonist does little to exert himself and experiences no real adventure to speak of in the course of the story.