“Train Man can be read as a prime example of the ‘pure love’ (jun’ai) stories that were proliferating at the time and marketed toward both men and women. Pure-love stories have emerged as a distinct genre with its own defining conventions and tropes. In most cases, one or more of the characters falls in love for the first time, and the couple needs to overcome obstacles to be together. The stories end or a character dies before the love can become soiled with more mundane aspects of domestic life.”
