Super-Fr­og Saves Tokyo - Haruki Murakami­: Assignme­nt

Assignment 2

Super-Frog Saves Tokyo by Haruki Murakami

The Underground motif

‘Super-Frog Saves Tokyo’ (Murakami, H., 2002) is a short story about a frog who helps a Japanese citizen understand why he must save Tokyo against the big worm that lives underground and will strike an earthquake. We pick up on a typical archetypal theme ; the descent into the underworld, this is seen in many literary texts.

Murakami compares the underworld of Tokyo to the supposed underworld in Katagiri’s working life, it symbolises his depressing life that he leads above the ground. Murakami also manages to draw a parallel between the big sleeping worm and the criminal underworld that is a lurking threat to Japan’s society. ‘Super-Frog Saves Tokyo’ (Murakami, 2002) was written along with many other short stories in Murakami’s ‘After the quake’ (2002)  in relation to the disaster that hit Kobe in 1995. Lastly, Barthes’ statement ; ‘The writer can only imitate an ever anterior, never original gesture ; his sole power is to mingle writings, to counter some by others, so as never to rely on just one.’ will be discussed.

The archetypal theme of the underworld is common in many stories, the protagonist must descend into a dangerous realm and then return after succeeding in their ‘mission’. The underworld is seen as a descent into the realm of the dead, into hell in most archetypal themes, some kind of evil will be living underground and in the case of Murakami’s ‘Super-Frog Saves Tokyo’ ( 2002) it is a giant worm who will cause the city of Tokyo to collapse and take many lives.

A psychopompous serves as a guide to Katagiri’s journey, also known as ‘frog’, who helps Katagiri to understand the threat Tokyo is under and will need his help. ‘’What I want from you, Mr. Katagiri, is for you to share your simple courage with me, to support me with your whole heart as a true friend.’’ (P.4-5) Frog represents something greater in the story, he represents our human struggle with things that are so large that seem impossible to defeat - the worm- and Murakami makes us realise that the only way to defeat them is to act, no matter how insignificant we or our actions may seem in comparison because any action could help, as .....[read full text]

This allows us to draw parallels between the big worm and the growing criminal underworld that is a lurking threat to Japans society and economy.

When reading the background of Murakami’s ’After the quake’, which ’Super-frog saves tokyo’ is a part of, we understand that it relates to Kobe’s earthquake which took place in 1995. Murakami is able to display the severity of the situations to cause enough panic to the reader, especially if it was a reader who experiences the threats to Japanese society in that period of time.

Through fictionalization, Murakami helps not only himself but the vicitims affected in these national crises, and allows them to accept what has happened to be able to deal with them in a way that isn’t as scarring and horrific as the actual incident. As Katagiri wakes up, he is confused as to what has happened, which often happens in situations where people experience such an event, wondering of it really happened afterwards, giving a sense ofg numbness and confusion.

To still try and keep a certain tension and subtle reality to Murakami’s short story, the frog describes to Katagiri the impact it will have and in doing this intrigues the reader,

 “The number of dead from such a quake would probably exceed 150,000—mostly from accidents involving the commuter system: derailments, falling vehicles, crashes, the collapse of elevated expressways and rail lines, the crushing of subways, the explosion of tanker trucks.

Buildings will be transformed into piles of rubble, their inhabitants crushed to death. Fires everywhere, the road system in a stare of collapse, ambulances and fire trucks useless, people just lying there, dying” (P.3)

He does this by infusing a sense of surrealness into the story, conveying a terror among the victims and including striking images described which can be related back to Kobe and the terror that the victims felt comparing it to the alarm Katagiri felt, a single man, having to save Tokyo with a frog.

When reflecting on this, the story served not only as a piece of fantastic fiction but also as a memory to what happened in real life, resonating a sense of fear and suspens.....