About The Book
Book: Super-Frog Saves Tokyo
Author: Haruki Murakami, translated by Jay Rubin
Standalone or Series: Standalone
Publisher: Harvill
Publication Date (UK): 2nd October 2025
My Review
My third read of the year. It’s been around twenty years since I last read any Murakami, to be honest, I can’t remember what I thought of his work back then but his books were part and parcel of our cult college reads. Back when our personalities were basically The Bell Jar and The Perks of Being a Wallflower… I know, I know.
So I thought I would indulge in some January in Japan reading with this one. It’s incredibly hard to describe. It’s beautifully illustrated, touching and honestly bizarre. There are some cracking takes (better than mine!) on the plot and what really happens on Reddit. Or should that be Ribbit.
Originally published in Japan in 2000, five-years after the Kobe earthquake of 1995 that inspired the story. It later appeared in GQ Magazine and then in after the quake, a collection of six short stories from Murakami. This edition features beautiful illustrations from Seb Agresti and Suzanne Dean. And they truly are wonderful, they really elevate the book.
Bank worker Katigiri basically gets a visit from a giant six-foot frog, who wants to enlist his help in order to save Tokyo from a deadly earthquake. The rest is a bit of a fever dream, littered with literary references and made even more memorable by the standout art.
🐸 Fun fact: I once worked on a game about a prince turned into a frog by a witch, who then got powers from a bottle of Lucozade. And yeah, I’m not sure which sounds more odd.
Beth Reads Crime 
Leave a comment