Offbeat and absurd yet entertaining in its incongruity. This is the
story of a robotic turtle and his increasing difficulty in living a normal life
when his amnesic past and a looming biological deadline conspire against him.
A basic description of this book is not too difficult.
It is set some vague amount of time in Earth’s future and, excepting a few “anachronisms”,
many aspects of this world remain quite familiar. Events take place nearly
entirely within a quiet Japanese suburb. The neighbourhood features a park with
a stream, a bathhouse, and a library (with physical books). Daily lifestyle habits
still include the need to work in an office and rent an apartment. Laptop computers
are still around. The only glaringly futuristic aspect of this book is its main
character, Kame-kun (Mr. Turtle), who
is literally a sentient, humanoid, robotic turtle.
The robotic turtle species seems to have been mass
produced for a recent war in the space near Jupiter. They are known to the human population at large but uncommonly encountered enough to be viewed as mild
novelties. Society, or at least the portion portrayed, treats them with an
offhanded discrimination that ranges from outright prejudice to benevolent
curiosity. In spite of this, Kame-kun’s new civilian life has an almost idyllic
feel to it. The main shadows on his life are the sections of his own memory
that have been encrypted, his somewhat dubious new “job” and that he has a “hibernation”
date.
Author Yusaku Kitano, clearly knows his sci fi and kindred
fans of Western 1980s science fiction and pop culture will likely find their
enjoyment of this book is enhanced. Philip K Dick’s signature work Do Androids
Dream of Electric Sheep? is even sought by the protagonist turtle from the in-story
library. One of Kyoko Koizumi’s hits is sung. References to video are
suspiciously suggestive of VHS tape. The hero is a turtle, yet not a
ninja and not in a desert. Chapter titles are word plays on 80s sci fi movies. All of which are enigmatically distracting as the story becomes increasingly abstract.
Shelf 9th: 913.6 KIT Mr. Turtle. by Yusaku Kitano ; translated by Tyran Grillo. Fukuoka, Japan : Kurodahan, Press. 2016 ix, 172 pages : illustration ; 21 cm. Originally published in Japanese by Tokuma Shoten in 2001. Translated into English from the Japanese. ISBN: 978-4-902075-80-9
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