Tony Takitani (トニー滝谷)

That's good.

How about using some more colors?

Tony.

Yes?

Tony Takitani's real name was...

It really was Tony Takitani.

Tony's father

was Takitani Shozaburo,

a jazz musician.

Right before the Pacific War began,

Shozaburo caused some trouble

and made his way from Tokyo to China.

Takitani passed the violent war years,

breezily playing trombone

in a Shanghai night club.

And when the war ended,

his longstanding ties with shady characters caught up with him,

and they locked him up

in prison for a long time.

Most of his fellow prisoners

were executed, one after another,

with hardly any benefit of a trial.

The executions always took place at two in the afternoon.

One day,

without warning,

they'd drag him to the courtyard, too, and shoot him in the head

with an automatic rifle.

In that place, the boundary between life and death...

Was as slim as a single strand of hair.

Takitani Shozaburo

returned to Japan, no more than a bag of bones,

in the spring

of 1946.

He found his home

had been destroyed in the firebombing, and his parents

and his only brother,

lost to the same fate.

In other words, he was then...

utterly alone in the world.

Eventually,

he married a distant relative on his mother's side.

A year after they were married, they had a baby boy,

and three days after the child's birth,

his mother died.

Her death came abruptly,

as did her cremation.

An American Major, a friend of Takitani's,

consoled him for the loss of his wife like family.

And the Major said,

"You should name your kid Tony, after me".

What with American influence likely to endure,

the idea of giving his son an American name seemed...

Not half bad.

That's what Shozaburo thought

Not half bad, Tony Takitani...

Not half bad...

And yet,

because of that American name,

whenever Tony introduced himself,

people looked at him oddly...

Some even got mad.

Tony Takitani

was a boy who kept to himself for this and other reasons.

For as long as he could remember,

his father was off touring with his band.

Spending time alone was the most natural thing

in the world for Tony.

When he was young,

a housekeeper looked after him,

but once he started junior high,

he cooked for himself,

locked up

and went to bed on his own.

I'll take care of my own supper tomorrow.

I see, bye.

Good night.

Good night.

I never thought I was especially lonely.

TONY TAKITANI

You need to do Self Criticism on that.

That's what you think, and we're staying back, so we're fine,

but who knows about next year...

You're good,

but I don't feel any warmth.

That just makes you a capitalist running dog.

That's a little extreme, isn't it?

That's flawed logic.

What's flawed about it?

Tony couldn't fathom the value of the kinds of paintings

his classmates argued over,

paintings imbued with artistry or ideology.

To him, such paintings were just immature,

and ugly.

And inaccurate.

Have you ever gone out with a woman?

I did,

but we broke up.

Ever considered marriage?

Never.

Right...

Did Hayashida already go home?

He left half an hour ago.

I thought I'd have lunch with him...

How's things?

Oh, looks good, OK.

Listen,

the axis of an ellipse...

Tony was best at drawing machines.

His detailed renditions of cars, radios, and engines

were more scrupulous than anyone else's.

That he became an illustrator...

Was only natural.

We're in the red for the second half.

Yes, well, the price of paints rose...

In paints and in paper, our expenses have increased

along with our staff.

From magazine covers to advertising illustrations,

Tony accepted any job related to mechanics.

The work was agreeable

and the money was good.

I'm off.

Heading home.

I'm sorry I kept you waiting.

Come inside.

Thank you.

Here are the layouts you sent me.

There's A, B and C...

This one...

is A.

This one's B...

and C's...

Yes, thank you.

- And there's D and E. - Yes, I'll take them.

You're new, right?

Yes, I'm Konuma Eiko.

It's nice to meet you.

Oh, likewise.

I'll look after these, then.

She was like a bird taking flight for a distant land...

She wore her clothes naturally,

as though enveloped by a special breeze.

She returned to Tony's office several times.

And one day, Tony asked her out

to lunch.

I've never met anyone who inhabits her clothes

with such obvious relish as you.

I feel like clothes...

That they...

fill up...

what's missing

inside me.

I'm self-centered

And I...

love...

to indulge...

myself.

So...

I spend almost my entire salary on clothes.

I never spend money on anything except paints and supplies.

I think I've gone and fallen in love.

I'm thinking about getting married for the first time ever.

So, what do you like about her?

How can I put it...

It's like she was born to dress up.

That's great.

Shozaburo and Tony

only saw each other once every two or three years.

Once they'd settled matters,

there wasn't much left

for the two to discuss.

Takitani Shozaburo wasn't

naturally suited to being a father,

nor was Tony Takitani

naturally suited to being a son.

On their fifth date,

Tony proposed to her.

But she'd already been seeing

another man for some time,

and Tony was fifteen years

her senior.

That wasn't me, was it?

"Please let me think it over",

is what she said.

Loneliness...

is like a prison,

that's how Tony saw it.

If she says she won't marry me,

I might just have to die.

Tony wanted

to make this clear to her.

I'm sorry, out of the blue like this.

There's no denying there's 15 years between us...

How lonely his life had been,

how much he had already lost...

And how meeting her,

had finally made him recognize it.

The lonely times were over for Tony Takitani.

As soon as he woke up,

he sought her.

When he saw her sleeping figure beside him, he relaxed