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Do you know the elephant man?
Ladies and gentlemen, a Japanese vision of Ganesha:
That is the cover illustration to Mizuno Keiya's bestselling novel Yume wo Kanaeru Zō ("The Wish-Granting Elephant"). The book is about an ambitious but lazy salaryman who one day discovers that the Hindu god Ganesha is crashing at his house. And "crashing" is the right word for it - In this story, Ganesha is described as a NEET whose major habit is "sleeping." But Ganesha promises to dispense advice to the salaryman to help him find success in life. The blurb on the jacket of the book sells it like an Odd Couple story: "The ambitious but failing salaryman and the good-for-nothing god! A fantasy story full of love and smiles!"
Although the book doesn't read like a coherent story at all, it's more of a series of pithy self-help speeches delivered by a chain-smoking down-on-his-luck elephant god who speaks in the dialect of a grouchy 120-year-old Japanese man.
And check out this excellent introductory animation. Excellent.
The best part? The book is apparently slated to become a TV drama sometime later this year. If this at all involves some Japanese dude wearing a giant rubber elephant costume, I am so there. I mean, it couldn't possibly be worse than dressing up a white British dude in a cardboard elephant mask and calling him God, right?
Aw, who am I kidding. The Japanese version of Ganesha will probably be CGI.
That is the cover illustration to Mizuno Keiya's bestselling novel Yume wo Kanaeru Zō ("The Wish-Granting Elephant"). The book is about an ambitious but lazy salaryman who one day discovers that the Hindu god Ganesha is crashing at his house. And "crashing" is the right word for it - In this story, Ganesha is described as a NEET whose major habit is "sleeping." But Ganesha promises to dispense advice to the salaryman to help him find success in life. The blurb on the jacket of the book sells it like an Odd Couple story: "The ambitious but failing salaryman and the good-for-nothing god! A fantasy story full of love and smiles!"
Although the book doesn't read like a coherent story at all, it's more of a series of pithy self-help speeches delivered by a chain-smoking down-on-his-luck elephant god who speaks in the dialect of a grouchy 120-year-old Japanese man.
And check out this excellent introductory animation. Excellent.
The best part? The book is apparently slated to become a TV drama sometime later this year. If this at all involves some Japanese dude wearing a giant rubber elephant costume, I am so there. I mean, it couldn't possibly be worse than dressing up a white British dude in a cardboard elephant mask and calling him God, right?
Aw, who am I kidding. The Japanese version of Ganesha will probably be CGI.