The Diary of Tortov Roddle - Recommendations

• Vol: 1
• 2006

A wordless journey into the contemporary Japanese psyche. It takes the not unfamiliar plot backdrop of a train ride and turns it into a psychological meditation on the vehicle's architecture and passengers (rather than focusing on the usual narrative-driven concerns such as destination, distance or landscape).

• Vol: 1
• 2007

A group of men arrives at a huge walled garden, only to find it temporarily closed. Their disappointment at not getting to enter does not last long, though, as they stumble across a large gap in the wall nearby. Now inside, they are free to explore the vast garden however they wish. However, the enclosure is not filled with plants and other organic matter, but with bizarre structures like perfectly square lakes, libraries housing impossibly sized books, and glass mountains as far as the eye can see.

• Ch: 10
• 2019 - 2020

Combining a modern artistic approach with a whimsical vision of creation mythology, the story follows the titular “En-chan” who, becoming involved in a natural disaster at a convenience store, time shifts to herself as a 1 year old child…..

• One Shot
• 2015

• Vol: 1
• 2013

The events within the narrative are spare and enigmatic: Yokoyama is as much fascinated by shapes and visual effects as he is by character and plot. First, the protagonists visit a city; then, our heroes watch airplanes departing and arriving at an airport; next, they go on board a ship and cross a river. Eventually, they arrive at a building where a man welcomes and guides them to the “world map room,” where they inspect a library. Eventually they leave, and reach a pond with a sunken ship. Their guide starts to explain the ship’s history, and slowly, with casual suddenness, the novel comes to a close.

• One Shot
• 2014

• One Shot
• 2008

• Vol: 1; Ch: 12
• 2003

Every morning a man wakes up, gets dressed, and heads to work, returning home in the evening to go to sleep. Feeling suffocated by the mundanity and repetitiveness of life, the man takes a detour on his way to work one day. But after being swept up in a tide of piracy, cannibalism, and bizarre religious sects the man starts to wonder: was his boring old life so bad after all?

• Vol: 2; Ch: 7
• 1985 - 1986

• Vol: 1; Ch: 5
• 1992 - 2003

Includes the following chapters:

• 1. Gon lives with the penguins
• 2. Gon goes to mushroom hunting
• 3. Gon journeys into the desert
• 4. Gon and his posse
• 5. A Very, Very Lucky Birth