Taro & Jiro: The Sibling Locomotives is a Children's Picture Book written by Tsurumi Masao, with illustrations by Takahashi Toru.
A long time ago, in the country of Japan, there existed a small branchline in the Fukushima area that ran into the mountains. The line was staffed by two locomotives, who were brothers. The older one was named Taro, and the younger one was named Jiro. With the construction of more roadways, the two have found their line losing traffic and business. All they have to look forward too now is Wednesdays, when Dr. Tomato takes their train into the mountains.
One day, however, Dr. Tomato doesn't come to the station as expected, much to the confusion of the engines. When Taro is taking a train along the line, he sees a car driving into the mountains, and Dr. Tomato is driving it. Taro and Jiro know what this means, and what it'll do for their line.
The book was published on August 1st, 1975. It also has a sequel, Dr. Tomato & The Beetle.
Taro & Jiro: The Sibling Locomotives contains examples of:
- Black Bead Eyes: All the human characters have their faces drawn with little black dot eyes. It's probably because, being smaller characters, their faces can't display as many details.
- Black Dot Pupils: Taro and Jiro have their eyes drawn this way. Being larger characters, their faces can be drawn to display more details.
- Name and Name: Taro & Jiro, of course.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: The story is reflective of how branch lines would start losing traffic and passengers to roads that were being constructed into the mountains. The branch line Taro and Jiro work on is the real life Nicchu branch line.
- Sentient Vehicle: Taro and Jiro. They're JNR Class C11
steam locomotives with faces on their fronts.
