Coin Locker Babies, 1980, is a novel by Ryū Murakami about coin-operated-locker babies, translated into English by Stephen Snyder. The translation was published in 1995 by Kodansha International Ltd and republished in 2013 by Pushkin Press. A Bildungsroman novel, Coin Locker Babies is known for transcending genres, containing elements of social commentary, surrealism, dark comedy, philosophy, noir and horror.
Plot summary
It is the surreal story of two boys, Hashi and Kiku, who were both abandoned by their mothers during infancy and locked in coin lockers at a Tokyotrain stationin the summer of 1972. Both boys become wards of the Cherryfield Orphanage in Yokohama, where the tough and athletic Kiku comes to the defense of the slight, and often picked on, Hashi. They both experience difficulties, and are given mental treatment involving playing the sound of an in utero heartbeat to them, a sound they will later search for after having forgotten it. They are adopted by foster parents, the Kuwayamas who live on an island off Kyushu. At the age of 16 both find themselves in a diseased urban wasteland in Tokyo named Toxitown. Hashi, whose voice has a profound effect on those who hear it, becomes a bisexual rock star, employed by an eccentric producer named D. Hashi falls in love with his manager Neva and they marry. Kiku becomes a pole vaulter and with his girlfriend Anemone, a model who has converted her condo into a swamp for her crocodile, searches for a substance named DATURA in order to take his revenge upon the city of Tokyo and destroy it. Along the way, however, in a search for Hashi's real mother, D finds a woman and arranges a meeting with Hashi on live television. Kiku watches and sees Hashi break down, and goes to help, but ends up shooting the woman, who is actually his own mother. He is sentenced to five years in prison. While Kiku is in prison, Hashi's music career grows, but he starts going mad from the stress, eventually trying to kill Neva to try and hear the sound he heard as a child. While in prison, Kiku embarks on a naval training ship, which is caught up in a storm and has to put in to land. Here, he and some other prisoners, Hayashi and Nakakura, make an escape and are picked up by Anemone. They travel to the island of Garagi, where Kiku had read about a large quantity of DATURA being buried in the sea. They go to the dive site and find the DATURA, however Nakakura takes some in and attacks Kiku and Hayashi, killing Hayashi before Kiku kills him. Anemone and Kiku then 'bomb' Tokyo with DATURA. The book ends with a scene of Hashi, now in a mental hospital, escaping to find the city destroyed. He takes in some DATURA and has an urge to destroy a woman he sees nearby, grabbing her by the mouth and trying to rip her apart, when he realises that she is his mother.
Main characters
Kikuyuki Sekiguchi Hashio Mizouchi The Kuwayamas Anemone Mr. D Neva Kimie Numata
The creators of the game stated in an interview that this book was an influence for that game.
The character Anemone from the series Eureka Seven, and her pet Gulliver, were named after the character and her pet alligator from the novel.
Japanese rock band, The Pillows, were originally called "The Coin Locker Babies", after the title of the novel. The name was used from 1986 to 1988 before a major shift in the band's line-up.
