かえるくん、東京を救う / Super Frog Saves Tokyo 🐸 Week 3

Japanese Language Book Clubs
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かえるくん、東京を救う / Super Frog Saves Tokyo :frog: Week 3

We’re on to week three of Super Frog! Currently we’re at the call to action… the tension is building …

Please remember that there are two versions of the book: one is a bilingual book, while the other is a short story collection. The bilingual book is only available digitally in Japan, but if you have a VPN, you can also get it outside of Japan.

Week 3 August 29, 2026
Bilingual Book Parts 11 to 15, pages 113 to 165
Short Story Collection pg. 63, para. 4-pg. 64, para. 9
End phrase それをまた両膝の上にぴしゃっと置いた。
Pages 52/1.7
Last Week Week 2
Next week Week 4
Home Thread かえるくん、東京を救う / Super Frog Saves Tokyo :frog:

Vocabulary

Vocabulary list
Thank you very much to @Phryne for creating this list! For those who are reading the short story collection, please note that it includes some items from the introduction to the Bilingual Book.
Please read the guidelines on the first page before adding any words.

Discussion Guidelines

Everybody should feel free to post and ask questions–it’s what makes book clubs fun! But please do not post until you are familiar with Spoiler Courtesy!

Spoiler Courtesy

Please follow these rules to avoid inadvertent ネタバレ. If you’re unsure whether something should have a spoiler tag, err on the side of using one.

  1. Any potential spoiler for the current week’s reading need only be covered by a spoiler tag. Predictions and conjecture made by somebody who has not read ahead still falls into this category.
  2. Any potential spoilers for external sources need to be covered by a spoiler tag and include a label (outside of the spoiler tag) of what might be spoiled. These include but are not limited to: other book club picks, other books, games, movies, anime, etc. I recommend also tagging the severity of the spoiler (for example, I may still look at minor spoilers for something that I don’t intend to read soon).
  3. Any information from later in the book than the current week’s reading (including trigger warnings that haven’t yet manifested) needs to be hidden by spoiler tags and labeled as coming from later sections.
Instructions for Spoiler Tags

Click the cog above the text box and use either the “Hide Details” or “Blur Spoiler” options. The text which says “This text will be hidden” should be replaced with what you are wishing to write. In the case of “Hide Details”, the section in the brackets that is labelled “Summary” can be replaced with whatever you like also (i.e, [details=”Chapter 1, Pg. 1”]).

Hide Details results in the dropdown box like below:

Example

This is an example of the “Hide Details” option.

The “Blur Spoiler” option will simply blur the text it surrounds.

This is an example of the “Blur Spoiler” option.

Posting Advice

  • When asking for help, please mention the page number, and check before posting that your question hasn’t already been asked. As the threads get longer, it becomes more convenient to use the Search function, which is located in the upper right corner of the forum. It is the magnifying glass which is near your profile picture! The best way to search is usually to type part of the sentence you are confused about, and select “in this topic”. This will show you all posts within the current thread which has that string of text.

  • Be sure to join the conversation! It’s fun, and it’s what keeps these book clubs lively! There’s no such thing as a stupid question! We are all learning here, and if the question has crossed your mind, there’s a very good chance it has crossed somebody else’s also! Asking and answering questions is a great learning opportunity for everyone involved, so never hesitate to do so!

Proper Nouns

Name Reading Notes
片桐 かたぎり Mr. Katagiri, Main character
かえるくん Froggy, Main character
ミミズくん Giant worm, villain

Discussion Questions

  1. Based on Mr. Katigiri’s personality traits and sacrifice for his brother and sister described in this chapter, do you think he is the correct person for the mission?

  2. Quests are a common theme in literature (Lord of the Rings, The Odyssey, and of course many more). How is the story shaping up to be similar or different to the quests that you have read or watched previously?

  3. What sentence/passage gave you the most difficulty? Feel free to request some help, or if you figured it out on your own break it down for the rest of us!

  4. What was your favorite new vocab word from this week’s reading?

  5. Was there any passage that you found particularly intriguing? Did it resonate with you (either positively or negatively)? Was it surprising? Offer any insight or new perspective? Was it just beautifully written?

Participation

Will you be reading along with us this week?

  • I’m reading along
  • I have finished this part
  • I’m still reading the book but I haven’t reached this part yet
  • I’m reading this book after the club has finished
  • I’m no longer reading the book
0 voters

If you’ve already read this book but are still going to join the discussion, please select “I have finished this part.”

Don’t forget to set this thread to Watching in order to stay abreast of discussion!

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These are some interesting themes that I noted in the book that you might like to learn more about. Froggy corrects Mr. Katigiri about the degree of formality he should use when addressing him (from san to kun). This page explains some of the Japanese honorifics.

Also, there are of course a lot of references to the Kobe Earthquake in 1995. This page explains the severity of the quake, in case you are not familiar with it. When I was in Kobe in February last year, we went to an art museum that featured an exhibit about the impact of the quake. It’s still very much in the region’s collective unconsciousness, and they had numerous events to commemorate its 30th anniversary.

3

Read through about half the thing. Nothing very hard, but sentences and statements tends to be quite long, and it takes a bit of focus to not lose track.

I also parsed a whole sentence by Kaero thinking it was Katagiri speaking, and was like :thinking:

4

I was originally reading with the short story collection, but I switched to the bilingual book(since I bought both) as I felt there were too many compound kanji I didn’t understand and I wasn’t getting the nuances of the story. For me, I will probably need to wait until my ability catches up with my ambitions before reading other stories in the bilingual book!
It’s easy to get confused about who is saying what!

5

Basically rushed through the second half. Nothing too complicated if you don’t actually try to get every nuance. Maybe I’ll try to do an actual translation of a part to force myself to actually get it.

I smiled at the actual request from Kaeru. After all these things that happened to him (losing his parents, raising ungrateful siblings, have his value ignored at work, Kaeru only wants his cheerleader skills

It’s… Half touching, half weird. Like, “everyone treats you like garbage and you always keep going gimme some of that energy”. Kinda weird. Feels like Joey in friends asking Ross and Chandler to teach him how to repel women.

6

Yes, the underdog cheering you on. Do you think that he should see it as an honor or a challenge?
Or do you think being an underdog is important to Japanese culture? Could Froggie have chosen the most conventionally successful person at the bank for this role?

7

I’m curious to see where this is going now.

Summary

Who is Kaeru ? And most importantly, why is he fighting ? I feel some sort of hopelessness in the way he talks about people. He also says he’s be around a lot an look at “what is worth a look”.

Perhaps he is wondering if saving Tokyo is worth it. Perhaps he knows it will be a difficult fight, and fears he might, because of that, not find the extra bit of willpower in him to finish it.

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I think for anyone, it would be pretty trippy to have this situation happen, with a giant talking frog turning their world upside down. Maybe for an underdog, it’s easier to accept the unexpected?

From personal experience, after having traveled a reasonable amount and living in several countries other than my own, it’s a lot easier to accept differences in others and realize there are very different ways of existing (though I have yet to encounter a charismatic talking frog!.

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Apologies for not being more involved in the discussion so far. I’ve been keeping up but this story has been a stark challenge to my reading ability. I think I’m starting to hit a stride with it at this point, but it’s taking me quite a bit of time throughout the week to get the reading completed.

Probably I should post about that rather than not post at all, but alas. I’ll try to get ahead of the curve a bit more for week 4!

Yeah, such a strange concept! I feel like the profession of debt collector is typically viewed as a negative or dishonorable profession, but Kaeru sorta turns that idea on its head by saying, no, you’re actually the most noble among us because you have the stamina to put up with all this. Or that he’s asking the most burnt-out shell of a person to come be his moral support.

I can’t help but think of this in the context of the market crash and having this worn-out person left dealing with the aftermath of the bubble burst being the hero of the story. I’m not sure what to make of it yet but I feel there’s gotta be some symbolism there.

I really appreciate all of this context and information you’ve been sharing!! Thank you!