I have read a novel by Project Itoh (伊藤計劃) and Toh EnJoe (円城塔), “The Empire of Corpses”. It is a story for people who want to know a secret of the words, souls and materials. Temporally and socio-politically it is a mixture of parodies of many materials such as Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Фёдор Достое́вский’s “Братья Карамазовы”, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s “Sherlock Holmes”, Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” and other materials, which consist the world of 19th century. There are also appearances of characters in real such as Ulysses Grant, Charles Babbage, Charles Darwin and so on. However, it also implies more themes deeply involved in Kabbalah. It is a pity that the original writer Project Itoh died in his early age without completing this story, though this story was meant to be a light one. The successor Toh EnJoe said that he was unable to relate the story to Israel because of his talent. Literary-historically this novel was awarded several prizes in Japan. The animation movie has a different story, such as The One’s character, Friday or the death of Mycroft Holmes, so I recommend to read the novel at first. The story is deeply related to the origin of human mind and definitely it is related to individuality, existence and enhancement of human values. The story as a science fiction casts doubt to the sincerity of the narration and the story is a puzzle to resolve. What are not described, such as Kabbalah are also important to decipher this story.
From the viewpoint of structuralism this novel is a mere story of science fiction and not goes beyond from that. From the viewpoint of postmodernism a lot of intertextual elements appear. There are also materials from psychoanalyses.
Overall, this story is must-read for people who are interested in modern Japanese literature.
