"Kasa wo motanai aritachi wa" - Summary
"There she blows!"
Hello everybody who's still here.
I come back to post my summary of Shige's short stories included in his latest book "Kasa wo motanai aritachi wa".
I am not a big fan of short stories usually, but once again I should have been more trustful of Shige, because these were really nice. Each of them, as Shige's previous novels, has unexpected turns and are totally surprising and exciting to read.
I also appreciated the difference of styles: we have a love story, a spy-like business novel, a meta story, a sci-fi one, a creepy story and finally a bildungsroman.
Please enjoy my not too much detailed summary, I hope it will make happy the fans who cannot read Japanese :)
Senshoku
(Paint)
The main character is an art student specialized in graphics at his last year of college. For his friends he has everything: good grades, style, an incoming exhibit and a girlfriend.
During a night in a pub with friends he first meets a mysterious girl, strong and lonesome, with her arms painted in black. Some nights later, after the exhibit, he finds himself wandering, he gets lost and falls asleep in a park by a bridge. When he wakes up he notices a hooded figure painting beautiful graffiti on a wall nearby, who, alarmed by the noise, tries to escape. Somehow the main character decides to stop him and that's when he realizes the street artist is a girl, the same weird girl seen in the pub.
From here the two begin having an artistic collaboration (he helps her completing her unfinished pieces and they go together to paint graffiti under the tag name "Hands") and an affair, a silent, occasional but surprisingly intimate one. Every day she paints her arms in different colors, every time he's with her he can't avoid getting that paint on his arms as well, that's what link them together. The guy though keeps seeing his girlfriend and keeps every aspect of the new relationship a secret.
After a while she tells him her resolution to drop school and go to London to pursuit her artistic career, she asks him what he wants to do and he finally realizes that he has no idea. His future seems to be already written, a stable career in graphics, a family and all, not really knowing if that's what he wishes for himself for real. She asks him half-joking if he wants to come with her but he keeps silent. Suddenly confused and lost, they stop seeing each other and before he realizes she's gone. One day he reaches her old apartment, goes in and breaks into tears, calling his girlfriend he says "Maybe we won't be seeing each other anymore from now on".
Undress
The story begins with a man on his last day of work. Onishi is about to retire from an ad agency after many years to become a freelancer. His colleagues throw a goodbye party for him and everybody seems to get along well, but Onishi gives his last piece of advice to his friend Koganei, telling him to leave the agency as soon as possible and revealing he hated that place. At the end of the night the main character leaves with his young assistant, Risa, who is also his lover.
Some days after the man is enjoying his new, unemployed life taking a walk at the park. There he finds a yellow scarf, he recognizes it as a present he gave to Risa and takes it as a fated sign, along with the number 999 seen on a passing car, to go visit her in Osaka during a work trip. The girl taught him about the hidden meaning of numbers, how to read the signs to understand your fate. The number 9 means "conclusion" or "destiny", he finally realizes he loves her for real and he believes she will be part of his future life. Arrived in Osaka he meets Risa but she doesn't look too happy to see him, she confesses that her mother is sick and that she's thinking to go back to her hometown to support her, having to break up with him. The same night Onishi goes to drink with an old friend, at the pub he recognizes Ishida, one of his old colleagues, and astonished he realizes he's with Risa, looking more than just ex coworkers. He decides to follow them to the hotel, when he's sure that they're in the same room he calls Risa and asks for explanations. Ishida reaches him and the two men go to a near bar, the story unveils.
Some months earlier Onishi was working on a big project for an important partner, one day some information leaked and the agreement blew up, making both the partners lose a big amount of money. Risa suggested to Onishi to give the blame to Ishida, who's immediately fired. In reality everything was a plan for them to be able to date normally, they had been together for 4 years, and it was actually Ishida who pushed Risa's application to become Onishi's assistant. The revelations are not over yet though.
The day after Onishi takes the train to go back to Tokyo, on a newspaper he reads that Koganei has become the new head of the agency. At the phone Koganei reveals he's the son of the previous boss, and that he's part of the plan against Onishi as well. He knew everything and he was the one to place the scarf at the park to send Onishi to Osaka, and he also leaked the information to gain support to his personal project. Koganei hates Onishi, he cannot stand that he has no respect or love for his father's agency and that he's always been selfish and disdainful towards his colleagues. He also spread the rumor that Onishi betrayed the agency and blamed an innocent person, to make sure he wouldn't find any other job in the future. Koganei cuts the phone call telling that all the other colleagues agreed with him and hated Onishi, so much that they threw all his old stuff in the lake at the park. Broken-hearted and desperate Onishi goes to that park, there he meets his old boss, who tries to console him and who finally offers him a job in one of his friend's agency.
Ren'ai shosetsu (kari)
A love novel (temporary)
The main character, who writes in first person, is a novelist who's supposed to write a love story for an important magazine. He's a sci-fi/fantasy writer so he doesn't feel comfortable writing about love and human feelings, but he cannot refuse because the offer is too good and it would be great for his career. After asking advice to a friend he begins writing the novel, but after few lines (more or less the same amount of characters of a tweet) describing a girl he falls asleep. In his dreams he lives the exact scene he just wrote. Waking up amazed he begins to prove what happened trying to change the description and falling asleep again and again, helping himself to sleep drinking alcohol. Told everything to his friend, of course he doesn't believe him but suggests to base the love story on that.
After some days the writer is invited to a middle school reunion, he decides to go to meet again his first love, a popular girl who seemed to like him but then rejected him. Sadly at the party he's told that the girl has died in a car accident some years before. Back home the writer cannot stop thinking to that girl and he decides to recall her face through writing. Once again when he falls asleep he dreams the exact scene he described. He figures that the magic really works all the time, unless he writes more than that certain number of characters. He begins a routine of writing and sleeping, always helped by pills and alcohol, he writes and deletes more and more scenes, where he and the girl go on dates, fall in love, have fun together, etc. He always ends the scenes with the phrase "what do you want to do now?" so that the girl in the dream can decide what he has to write. He believes that doing this he's giving the dead girl the possibility to do all the things she wanted to do in life. He falls in love with his dreams, he arrives to write the scene of their marriage but there he wakes up in a hospital. His friend was worried for him, not having heard from him for weeks and when he reached his house he found him passed out because of the mix of drugs and alcohol.
Finally the writer understands that he cannot go on like this, he writes the last happy ending scene with the girl and he deletes the file.
Iganu no ame
Rain of Iganu
The story is set in a close future, around 10 years from now. A teenage girl lives with her parents and her grandpa, who enjoys cooking very much and is very strict with food. Most of all, the girl and her family are forbidden to eat Iganu's meat. Iganu are weird animals (fish/octopus like, with three eyes, they're called "iganu" for their cry) that started raining from the sky around our present days, their meat is delicious and super energetic, full of proteins and nutritional value, so much that it stopped the hunger issues in the poorest countries. Kids under 18 cannot eat Iganu, because scientists haven't found out yet what are the effects on human body. Another particularity of Iganu is that when eaten it "hypnotizes" people, they forget every other taste because Iganu is literally irresistible.
At the beginning of summer holidays the girl is out with her boyfriend and friends, but she feels very uncomfortable when they go to a Iganu restaurant because she's the only one in the group who has never tried it, even if underage all her friends ate Iganu at home regularly. After fighting with her friends she decides to try a bit of it and she's immediately mesmerized. Back home though, her grandpa smells the particular scent of Iganu on her and they have a huge fight. The grandpa refuses to give a rational reason for his hatred towards Iganu's meat and he kicks the girl out of home. She finds shelter at her friend's house, where she begins eating Iganu every day like everybody else. One day her mother calls to tell her grandpa died. At home the girl finds a letter for her written by the grandpa, it's the explanation she requested.
Grandpa had always loved cooking and had worked in agriculture and kitchens all his life. All the good memories he had with his late wife, his children and grandchildren included food: his wife's favorite carrots, waiting for the pumpkins season to cook for the whole family, going to markets and taste more expensive food only for celebrations as birthdays or anniversaries. Iganu takes that away from people, that's why he hated it so much. Because of it a lot of agricultural industries closed, the production of many vegetables stopped, nobody cooked with care anymore, moreover Iganu makes you forget about other tastes. He was afraid and disgusted of a world like that, he didn't want his family to stop eating good food made with love.
The girl finally understands her grandpa's feelings and regrets eating all that Iganu, forgetting the pumpkins and the carrots she last ate with him. She receives a shock when she sees that the food prepared for the grandpa's funeral was Iganu, she sees her parents and relatives eating it and she bursts out in anger. She blames her parents for ignoring grandpa's request, to not care about him and his will. Desperate she flees the reception and she runs and runs in the city. During her escape Iganu start raining from the sky, people everywhere run to the street to catch them in joy. The girl keeps running disgusted, until she comes back home and falls asleep. The next morning the sky is sunny and the city's back to normal, relieved she opens the window, the air smells of Iganu, filling her room, on the roof she sees one of the last animals dying. She gags and realizes nothing is ever gonna be the same again.
Intercept
The story is parted in two, narrated from a man and a woman's point of view.
In the first part we're inside the mind of a man, popular and with a good position at work, who's attending a colleague's wedding. Pushed by his other coworkers he decides to try to flirt with the most mysterious girl of the office, who's always distant and rejects every man. Using what he knows about psychology he tries to chat her up without big results, until he notices that the lock screen of her phone is the logo of his favorite American football's team. The two of them start talking about sports passionately, but the night seems over when she spills her drink and escapes to the toilet crying. He decides to wait for her and drive her home, she confesses that she's being followed by a stalker and that's why she had that bad reaction earlier. Finally she invites him home, the morning after he wakes up in her apartment, in search for the toilet he enters a weird room. The book shelves are full of football and psychology's books, things he finds strangely familiar, and to a wall there's a big poster: a photo of him. The girl embraces him from behind and says "Please, don't throw me".
We relive the night from the woman's point of view to find out the truth. She was a lonely girl, harassed by a teacher in school, with her parents living abroad and basically ignoring her. She lived her early 20s like a complete hikikomori, but one day she's saved by an image: Watching an American football match in TV she noticed in the crowd a beautiful Japanese boy. She fell for him immediately, she recorded the match and watched and watched it. She managed to find him on Facebook and discover every possible detail about his life. She followed at home, went through his trash, reading the books he read, stealing broken objects. She enrolled to the same university and finally got employed in the same agency. She created her character to make sure every guy in the office fell for her, she wanted him to desire her. That night she was waiting for him making the first step through his beloved psychology and she used the same tactics to attract him even more. Everything went perfectly according her plan, he was finally hers.
Nibe mo naku, yorube mo naku
(No friends in the world)
Jun and Keisuke are two 14 years old boys, they are best friends since their birth, always attended the same school and class in their little sea town. Every day after school they go to an old fisherman's house, Nitsujii, who's hated/feared by the whole town and has only them as friends. The story begins with a mystery short novel set in Tokyo, written by one of their senpai at school. The story won a literary prize so it became a big hit in town, the guys ask Nitsujii to buy it for them so that they can finally read it. Jun and Keisuke have different opinions about it: Keisuke admires the senpai a lot and thinks the story is awesome, Jun has a repulsion for Tokyo (because his beloved older brother went there to study and work but came back home broken and depressed) and thinks it's rubbish. To resolve their doubts they want to ask the senpai if he's ever really gone to Tokyo and they think the best moment would be the ending ceremony of the school year. They search for the senpai and find him on the beach, he's with a classmate, hidden behind a boat kissing. Jun and Keisuke are shocked, but once again for different reasons. Jun cannot believe that their popular senpai is gay, while Keisuke starts crying finally confessing to his friend that he had a crush for the senpai.
Jun doesn't know what to think or do, during the summer holidays he tries hard to accept the news and to be understanding with Keisuke but he cannot make up his mind. He thinks of homosexuality as "dirty", he has never thought much about sexuality before, but he cannot understand how his best friend can be attracted by other men. He keeps thinking about it and cannot help but to see Keisuke with different eyes, while some part of him is a little jealous of his best friend, selfishly thinking that he should have fallen for him before anybody else.
The two of them begins their last year of middle school, but they're parted in different classes this time. With new classmates and school activities the old friends are distant, they do not talk to each other anymore and they don't even go visit Nitsujii together. But while Keisuke is popular, always surrounded by friends and very busy with the swimming club, Jun is lonely and can't get along with his classmates. He keeps thinking of Keisuke blaming himself for growing apart, because he couldn't accept him and make him feel welcomed and loved. Trying to open himself up a little with Nitsujii, the old man explains his personal way of life: Accept everything as unavoidable, don't let yourself feel sad, because happiness has a limit but sadness can become infinite.
One day Jun goes seeing the swimming club training and hears a couple of guys making fun of Keisuke, he hits one of them and is suspended from school for 10 days. During these days Jun keeps on wondering about his behavior and his attachment to Keisuke, but is "rescued" by a female classmate, Mai, who's come to bring him home works. After a while he realizes he likes her and with the excuse of studying for the final test he asks her out. The two start dating in secret, Jun is afraid that the other kids might start ignoring Mai because of his bad attitude and reputation, but also doesn't want Keisuke to know, thinking that it might part them forever. The relationship really helps Jun, finally able to forget his sadness.
During the summer holidays though, he meets Keisuke again, realizing once again that their relationship is broken and can never go back to the past. Once again depressed, he runs to Mai and forces her to have sex with him for the first time, the event leaves him empty, with the girl crying on the bed. He runs away to Nitsujii who tells him that Keisuke came to visit and told him about Jun's girlfriend. Jun runs away once again, to the beach, there he's obsessed by the feeling of being dirty and to be the worst person in the earth, having betrayed his best friend and now his girlfriend too. He throws himself in the sea and starts swimming until he can't go back anymore. When everything seems lost he's rescued by Keisuke himself. The two friends finally have the chance to talk with open heart, Jun apologizes, while Keisuke says that everything's fine with him. They're back to their older selves. The day after Jun apologizes also to Mai and the three of them seems to become good friends.
Here the story jumps ahead, the narrator is an older Jun, who's become a fisherman as Nitsujii. After all everybody attended to different high schools and finally grew apart for good. Jun's driving in Tokyo with his fiancé and after many years finds out that the famous short story of their senpai was indeed rubbish. Tokyo's completely different from that description.