after the quake

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death and pregnancy termination.

The collection’s stories feature disconnected characters who live in large cities and are alienated from society, their families, and even themselves. Komura from “ufo in kushiro” and Katagiri from “super-frog saves tokyo” both represent modern men who are successful in their jobs but whose work upholds the status quo and provides little personal fulfillment. In “thailand,” Satsuki is a successful medical professional on a luxury vacation, yet she carries a buried resentment that threatens to erase her compassion for others.

“ufo in kushiro” highlights the hollow consumerism that surrounds Komura’s life. Komura’s clients are mostly “doctors, wealthy independent businessmen, and rich provincials” who buy high-end electronics simply because they have money to burn (3). Unsurprisingly, Komura’s lack of a “something” inside himself reflects the emptiness born from commercialism and social status, where “[t]he most expensive items [a]re the first to sell out” (3). Komura’s wife, who remains nameless throughout the story, is a figure who finds little pleasure in her upper-middle class home and “stylish” husband with a “decent income” (3). Her anonymity represents a sense of alienation in the dense urban crowds and commercial backdrop of Tokyo.