Super Frog

   In “Super-Frog Saves Tokyo,” the magic serves a healing purpose. If we choose to accept Frog’s claims at face value—that Tokyo is indeed being threatened with destruction—then magic is there to heal the city’s psychic damage by destroying Worm. But even if we don’t believe this and believe that Katagiri has imagined Frog, then we can still say that magic has healed him—even if the magic only lives in Katagiri’s mind. Katagiri is a lonely, friendless man with no real connection to the world he lives in. When Frog comes to him, telling him that he has secretly been selected for a dangerous task, Katagiri’s life gains a sense of meaning. Everything he has done thus far in his life has prepared him for this moment. Katagiri has gained a true friend in the  monstrous Frog, someone he is drawn to, cares for, and respects.