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Hotel Harbour View
Two linked stories, both revolving around a deadly female assassin. In "Hotel Harbour View," a Japanese expatriate in Hong Kong spends his time drinking whisky, photographing a high class prostitute and waiting for death at the hands of the assassin he knows is coming for him. In "Brief Encounter," a notorious Parisian assassin is himself marked for assassination and his hunter is no stranger to him.
92 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
7 people are currently reading
155 people want to read
About the author
Jirō Taniguchi
205 books616 followersName (in native language): 谷口 ジロー
Zodiac: Leo
He began to work as assistant of the late mangaka Kyota Ishikawa.
He made his manga debut in 1970 with Kareta Heya (A Desiccated Summer), published in the magazine Young Comic.
From 1976 to 1979, he created several hard-boiled comics with the scenarist Natsuo Sekigawa, such as City Without Defense, The Wind of the West is White and Lindo 3.
From 1984 to 1991, Tanigushi and Natsuo Sekigawa produced the trilogy Bocchan No Jidai.
In the 1990s, he came up with several albums, among which Aruku Hito (歩くひと), Chichi no koyomi (The Almanac of My Father), and Keyaki no ki.
In 2001, he created the Icare (Icaro) series on texts by Mœbius.
Jirô Taniguchi gained several prizes for his work. Among others, the Osamu Tezuka Culture Award (1998) for the trilogy Bocchan No Jidai, the Shogakukan prize with Inu wo Kau, and in 2003, the Alph'Art of the best scenario at the Angoulême International Comics Festival (France) for Harukana Machi-E.
His work has been translated in many languages.
Far from the violent storylines often associated with the manga, Taniguchi has developed a very personal style, more adult. Along with other writers, like Tsukasa Hōjō, his comics focus more on the Japanese society and culture, with a subtle analysis of its customs and habits.
Zodiac: Leo
He began to work as assistant of the late mangaka Kyota Ishikawa.
He made his manga debut in 1970 with Kareta Heya (A Desiccated Summer), published in the magazine Young Comic.
From 1976 to 1979, he created several hard-boiled comics with the scenarist Natsuo Sekigawa, such as City Without Defense, The Wind of the West is White and Lindo 3.
From 1984 to 1991, Tanigushi and Natsuo Sekigawa produced the trilogy Bocchan No Jidai.
In the 1990s, he came up with several albums, among which Aruku Hito (歩くひと), Chichi no koyomi (The Almanac of My Father), and Keyaki no ki.
In 2001, he created the Icare (Icaro) series on texts by Mœbius.
Jirô Taniguchi gained several prizes for his work. Among others, the Osamu Tezuka Culture Award (1998) for the trilogy Bocchan No Jidai, the Shogakukan prize with Inu wo Kau, and in 2003, the Alph'Art of the best scenario at the Angoulême International Comics Festival (France) for Harukana Machi-E.
His work has been translated in many languages.
Far from the violent storylines often associated with the manga, Taniguchi has developed a very personal style, more adult. Along with other writers, like Tsukasa Hōjō, his comics focus more on the Japanese society and culture, with a subtle analysis of its customs and habits.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
November 17, 2019
Continua la mia scoperta del maestro Taniguchi. In questo caso si tratta di un volume con una tematica completamente nuova per me nel mondo del fumetto: omicidio. Sono delle storie brevi crude e di impatto, con riferimenti alla prostituzione, alla mafia, alla vendetta... e in ultima analisi, la morte. Non so bene come commentare perché non è niente il mio genere; tuttavia per completezza mi sembrava giusto leggere tutto di Taniguchi.
May 1, 2017
Created about 10 years earlier than Taniguchi's Benkei in New York, and about 10 times more affecting. Taniguchi's art is extraordinary in both, so we have to credit the writing: Jinpachi Mori's empty revenge narratives have nothing on Natsuo Sekikawa's elegant pas de deux. Sekikawa's stories of sexual nostalgia, melancholy gunfights, and sweet Hawaiian shirts share DNA with the early Wong Kar-wai: Falling Angels, Days of Being Wild. It's irresistible. I haven't read enough crime manga to know if they get much better than this, but I doubt it.
May 6, 2021
Nice art, though it suffers from excessively cinematic sequencing. 80s aesthetic is convincing: the cheapness of luxury. But the stories are thin and shrugging.
November 9, 2018
Cuando más me gusta Jiro Taniguchi es cuando hace Sus Cosas, esos mangas con historias de una belleza apacible y algo melancólica como Barrio lejano, El caminante, El olmo del Cáucaso... También tiene colaboraciones muy interesantes (sus cómics sobre alpinismo están muy bien), pero esta con Natsuo Sekikawa, Hotel Harbour View, no me ha parecido de las mejores. Son historias cortas de tipo noir, recorridas por la presencia, marginal o de más protagonismo, de una asesina a sueldo. Se leen con rapidez pero suenan a relatos de ese género contados ya demasiadas veces. Podría decirse que les falta chicha. A no ser que por chicha se entienda carne turgente de señoras estupendas y desnuditas, porque de eso en este manga hay de sobra.
August 1, 2021
Two noir short stories about hired killers.
Taniguchi's art is great as always, even more in this noir setting.
Hong Kong and Paris look rather interesting in his dark portraits.
Both plots are interesting and mysterious, but some questions remain at the end of these short stories.
All in all, it's a quick read for fans of noir/assassins/Taniguchi.
(Be advised that this is intended for mature readers because of some nudity.)
Taniguchi's art is great as always, even more in this noir setting.
Hong Kong and Paris look rather interesting in his dark portraits.
Both plots are interesting and mysterious, but some questions remain at the end of these short stories.
All in all, it's a quick read for fans of noir/assassins/Taniguchi.
(Be advised that this is intended for mature readers because of some nudity.)
March 28, 2020
Pas très objective quand il s'agit de Taniguchi...
J'ai beaucoup aimé ce recueil de nouvelles noires. Dans la 1ère vie de Ta iguchi, des histoires de privés, de meurtres et de bastons. Une réussite.
J'ai beaucoup aimé ce recueil de nouvelles noires. Dans la 1ère vie de Ta iguchi, des histoires de privés, de meurtres et de bastons. Une réussite.
September 1, 2016
Two stories of deathly love in ultra-sharp noir, straight to the point.
May 14, 2020
I happened to remember about this one when mulling over out-of-print manga I should have not given away that are now difficult to obtain.
I read this years ago on the recommendation of a friend, maybe in 2006 or 2007 at this point. It was my first introduction to anything illustrated by Jiro Taniguchi. I would come to find that I much preferred works where Jiro Taniguchi was responsible for the overarching narrative.
Jiro Taniguchi's art was beautiful, and I much would have preferred this with no dialog. If this was a noir assassin version of "Walking Man" or "Furari," that would have been rad. I found Natsuo Sekikawa's two narratives graphene-thin and derivative. The narratives seemed like an attempt at a mish-mash homage to noir and assassin films and comics (I regard those to actually be somewhat different, though related genres; noir films can have assassins and assassin films can have noir-ish vibes, but the underlying atmosphere and vibe of each genre are very different). However, I felt that the writing lacked the energy and zest for promotion to homage and was at the level of corny, half-hearted pastiche. For me, "Hotel Harbour View" is a reminder that some individual variation and remixing is necessary to contribute the energy necessary for an entertaining homage-filled work (see "Murcielago" for a work that collages cliches, but does so in an energetic, fresh fashion. The Hotel Harbour View chapters lacked identifiable freshness, and maybe part of the reason for that had to do with the brevity of the stories. But perhaps this was just a short diversion for Sekikawa and Taniguchi from their other projects going on at the time, which is fine.
That said, I still wish I did not give this away those years ago. Taniguchi's art is always distinguished, and I think I would be able to enjoy flipping through the pages of the oversized volume as an artbook. This is something that will assuredly never be released again in English; out-of-print, translated manga just gets so scarce from the lower print runs.
I read this years ago on the recommendation of a friend, maybe in 2006 or 2007 at this point. It was my first introduction to anything illustrated by Jiro Taniguchi. I would come to find that I much preferred works where Jiro Taniguchi was responsible for the overarching narrative.
Jiro Taniguchi's art was beautiful, and I much would have preferred this with no dialog. If this was a noir assassin version of "Walking Man" or "Furari," that would have been rad. I found Natsuo Sekikawa's two narratives graphene-thin and derivative. The narratives seemed like an attempt at a mish-mash homage to noir and assassin films and comics (I regard those to actually be somewhat different, though related genres; noir films can have assassins and assassin films can have noir-ish vibes, but the underlying atmosphere and vibe of each genre are very different). However, I felt that the writing lacked the energy and zest for promotion to homage and was at the level of corny, half-hearted pastiche. For me, "Hotel Harbour View" is a reminder that some individual variation and remixing is necessary to contribute the energy necessary for an entertaining homage-filled work (see "Murcielago" for a work that collages cliches, but does so in an energetic, fresh fashion. The Hotel Harbour View chapters lacked identifiable freshness, and maybe part of the reason for that had to do with the brevity of the stories. But perhaps this was just a short diversion for Sekikawa and Taniguchi from their other projects going on at the time, which is fine.
That said, I still wish I did not give this away those years ago. Taniguchi's art is always distinguished, and I think I would be able to enjoy flipping through the pages of the oversized volume as an artbook. This is something that will assuredly never be released again in English; out-of-print, translated manga just gets so scarce from the lower print runs.
September 25, 2020
Jiro Taniguchi è un artista. Splendido illustratore, dà il meglio di sé con le storie intime, quotidiane; quando si occupa di storie maggiormente animate, solitamente è per dar vita alla sceneggiatura di altri autori e qui il valore dell'opera viene inevitabilmente condizionato da quest'ultima. Il sempre ottimo Taniguchi, pertanto, vede un po' sminuita la valutazione dalla qualità degli autori che, solitamente, anche se bravi non riescono a raggiungere il sublime come il senpai. Come in questo caso.
December 22, 2022
I disegni del maestro Taniguchi lasciano senza fiato per la loro espressività, ti fanno immergere davvero nell’atmosfera descritta. Ho però trovato le storie dei racconti brevi che costituiscono questo libro deboli e inconcludenti, in cui la trama è solo accennata. Sono quindi da intendere più che altro come delle diapositive che fotografano alcuni cliché della narrativa noir, di cui godere senza cercare approfondimenti.
December 3, 2023
"Do rosto,ele raspou a fadiga.Do queixo,aparou o desânimo.E,do coração,o temor"
A vibe noir é indiscutivelmente bem estabelecida,tendo tudo que poderia ter,narração introspectiva,femme fatale,tiros...porém os enredos não foram nada memoráveis,pelo contrário,me pareceram tão aleatórios,o primeiro que infelizmente não tem um fim me pareceu o mais promissor,os outros quando não são desinteressantes faltam profundidade.
A vibe noir é indiscutivelmente bem estabelecida,tendo tudo que poderia ter,narração introspectiva,femme fatale,tiros...porém os enredos não foram nada memoráveis,pelo contrário,me pareceram tão aleatórios,o primeiro que infelizmente não tem um fim me pareceu o mais promissor,os outros quando não são desinteressantes faltam profundidade.
December 30, 2019
Interesante colaboración entre Taniguchi y Sekikawa con guión del francés Alain Saumon, muy noir.
January 29, 2021
I am thinking this is one of best Jiro's artwork but the entire manga was kinda messy :/
July 19, 2022
Las historias son medias flojas en su mayoría. Le doy 2⭐ y 1/2. Esa 1/2 estrella más es solo por el trazo que está muy conseguido. De lo más flojo que hemos leído en #dokushokurabu
April 8, 2023
A arte é um espetáculo, Os contos eu mal conseguia terminar, me cansava, não foi uma leitura boa 😴
December 23, 2025
Una graphic novel che categorizzo in quelle che vanno lette per il suo valore nel medium che per la storia in sé che ho comunque trovato molto interessante e a tratti avvincente
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews