after the quakenote (Japanese: 神の子どもたちはみな踊る, kami no kodomo-tachi wa mina odorunote ) is a 2000 collection of short stories that take place after the Kobe Earthquake of Japan in 1995, by author Haruki Murakami.
The stories are:
- "ufo in kushiro"
- "landscape with flatiron"
- "all god's children can dance"
- "thailand"
- "super frog saves tokyo"
- "honey pie"
All stories contain characters affected by the Kobe Earthquake in one way or another, and contain Murakami's trademark moments of the occasionally inexplicable.
The short stories contains examples of:
- Affectionate Nickname: Junko and Junpei both have "Jun".
- Yoshiya got "Super Frog", on account of his dancing. Possibly an unintended reference to "super-frog saves tokyo".
- All Just a Dream: Possibly in "super-frog saves tokyo". Before he can rendezvous with Frog for their confrontation with Worm, Katagiri is shot on the way to work. Katagiri later wakes up in a hospital bed, but learns that he'd collapsed from exhaustion, and that he hadn't been shot at all. The nurse also notes that Katagiri had been mumbling encouragements to "Frog", just as Frog had planned for him to do earlier.
- all lowercase letters: The title lacks capitalization, and all the chapter titles are in lowercase, too.
- Author Appeal: Jazz music, especially in "thailand". Satsuki's father used to play his records and force her to listen to them, giving her candy if she got the performers right.
- Central Theme: How a disaster makes people reexamine their lives, even if they are not directly affected by it.
- "ufo in kushiro": Komura comes one step closer to realizing how disconnected he was from his emotions after the quake, which hadn't affected either him or his wife due to not living there and having no family or friends there when it struck.
- "landscape with flatiron": Junko's friend Miyake had someone in Kobe when the earthquake struck, and he doesn't want to bring it up any further than he has to.
- "thailand": Satsuki, with the help of Nimit and the old woman he takes her to, reflects on how she felt regarding "him" (possibly her ex-husband) and whether he survived the Kobe earthquake.
- "super-frog saves tokyo": Frog seeks to save Tokyo from a coming earthquake, one worse than the one in Kobe. Hard to say how much of this happened, though... In the case of Katagiri, this could be his subconscious wish to actually matter to other people in the wake of a devastating earthquake, even if the thought of another earthquake terrifies him.
- "honey pie": Young Sala has nightmares about a man and a maw that will swallow her up. Likely a result of seeing the quake through the news, on top of being a little kid processing that news.
- Follow That Car: "all god's children can dance". Yoshiya tells a taxi driver to tail the car that the man he thinks is his father is in. He lies about being in a company that wants him, and that companies really do scramble over people like that.
- Four Is Death: Downplayed example in "honey pie". At the end of Part I, Takatsuki muses on how he, Sayoko, Sala, and Junpei make a group of four. Part II begins with Sayoko learning about Takatsuki's infidelity with another woman, resulting in a divorce. The trio of friends is shaken, but not entirely broken; Sayoko and Junpei don't break off contact with Takatsuki, and Takatsuki encourages Junpei to be with Sayoko.
- Inciting Incident:
- In "ufo in kushiro", Komura's wife leaves him five days after the quake, leading him to head to Hokkaido for a trip.
- In "landscape with flatiron", Junko is contacted by her friend Miyake in the middle of the night, inviting her for another bonfire.
- In "super-frog saves tokyo", Katagiri enters his apartment to find a six-foot-tall frog in his home.
- Intergenerational Friendship: "landscape with flatiron". Junko, a girl who's a bit past highschool-age; and Miyake, a man in his mid-forties.
- Japanese Christian: "all god's children can dance". Yoshiyo, his mother, and his mentor.
- Market-Based Title: In Japan, the collection is titled "all god's children can dance", after Yoshiya's story.
- No Ending: "honey pie" ends with Junpei resolving to change the bears' story from a Downer Ending to a Happily Ever After, something that Sala and Sayoko will surely love. However, that's about where the short ends.
- Oddball in the Series: "super-frog saves tokyo" is the only short story of the collection that has overtly supernatural and inexplicable elements as expected from Murakami.
- Punch-Clock Villain: "super-frog saves tokyo". Katagiri is a collections officer for a trust bank, which the narration describes as "sixteen years of daily combat" with people he needs to collect money from. This thankless job might factor into Frog's appearance at his home requesting his aid.
- The Runaway: "landscape with flatiron". Junko ran away from home in her third year of high school.
- Titled After the Song: "honey pie", for a song by The Beatles.
- Title Drop:
- "honey pie": During Junpei's story about bears, honey pies are mentioned as a possible product for the bear to sell.
- Two Guys and a Girl: "honey pie". Sayoko ended up marrying Takatsuki, and Junpei was the best man. Takatsuki has a mistress and Sayoko is distressed when she finds out, because they have a child (Sala), as well. Takatsuki apologizes but says that he couldn't help it and encourages Junpei instead, since Sala likes him and he knows he always loved Sayoko, too. At the end, Junpei finally decides to propose to Sayoko.
