The libretto of Manga-Café freely based on Densha Otoko(The Man on the Train). This title is well known to aficionados of contemporary Japanese culture. The hero of Densha Otoko is a twentyish otaku who, one evening in a Tokyo train, intercedes to save a stunning young woman who us being attacked by a drunk. Wishing to win her over, he writes about this alterca- tion on a forum for singles, and asks for their help to overcome his shyness and win Makiko.

This incident was discussed on the 2 Channel forum. It was then turned into a novel, a manga, a feature film and finally a television series shown on FujiTV in 2005. The phone calls, relooking, dinners, declarations of love and so on where all more or less ro- manticised by various media. Like the producers, there are people who attest to the authenticity of this adventure and claim to have had contact with the real “man on the train”.