“Super-Frog Saves Tokyo” is a unique and praiseworthy short story. There are several important themes, the main one concerning responsibilities that people should take on regardless of rewards or recognition. Additionally, the author uses place intelligently, both literally and symbolically, to further accentuate the themes.
The place underneath the ground is a destination of anxiety as it is the enemy’s abode and also could be the cause of an earthquake. To get to Worm’s den, Frog and Katagiri experience a chain of places which are secret from the eyes of the wider community, similar to the metaphorical “underground” where Katagiri resided for a great deal of his previous life. Katagiri works principally with the shifty unlawful gangland in the red-light area of Kabuki-cho. It is rife with gangsters and “money flowing beneath the surface from one murky den to another.” This appearance of murky, concealed rivers causes the symbolic notion of an underground market an honest one. The criminals of Kabuki-cho and deceitful directors of Big Bear Trading tend to circulate in covered fraud. Murakami consequently makes use of the underground idea to illustrate similarities between the slumbering, horrific Worm and unlawful underworld, mutually depicted as prowling intimidations to society in Japan. Furthermore, the concept of the underground links “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo” and the subway violence in Aum Shinrikyo and the true to life earthquake in Kobe. These two cases incidents shook the shared personality of Japan and were shocks of the underground.
A chief theme in “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo” is that there exist certain duties which an individual needs to take up in life, even when gratitude or return is doubtful. Katagiri has adopted responsibilities such as these for most of his life. Following the death of his mother and father, Katagiri devoted himself to bringing up his two siblings, seeing them through education and organising marriages. In his work life, Katagiri adopts the most difficult tasks, working with aggressive clients in a hazardous area of the city; he never gets the rewards or acknowledgement that he should. Frog alters Katagiri’s life as he assists him in accepting that virtue is a reward in itself. He is aware that Katagiri has been powerfully driven by a sense of responsibility and duty. Katagiri shows an unwillingness to fight Worm, and Frog uses this by informing him that the fight is “a matter of responsibility and honor,” rather than of glory. If either of them does well, nobody will know, and if they die, nobody will suffer. However, Frog succeeds in making this appear positive and worthy. Nevertheless, despite all of this, Frog in fact repays Katagiri. At the narrative’s conclusion, Katagiri finds gratification from having taken part in a magnificent and immense fight, having devoted his life to routine work. Possibly more significantly, however, Frog gives Katagiri recognition, acknowledging the routine pains of his former life and giving him an emotive relief that he had never before felt. By the close of “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo” readers are left feeling that Super-Frog saved Katagiri in addition to Tokyo.
This interesting short story has a wonderful sense of place which the author has used in both literal and representative ways. Furthermore, the set up in the underground serves to highlight the themes.
