Doomed Megalopolis - Differences From The Original Novel

Differences From The Original Novel

Due to time constraints of the animated adaptation and difference in audience, Doomed Megalopolis takes many deviations from the source material. In general, the content of the animated adaptation is much more graphic, obscene and simplified from the original novel. Some areas where the original novel differ include, but are not limited to, the following:

• In the original novel, Kato is more human in his portrayal and has several personal interactions with the main characters. At the beginning of the book, he converses with Yoichiro Tatsumiya and slowly gains the trust of him and his family. In the anime, Kato isn't even identified by name until the middle of the first episode and he never interacts with any of the main characters outside of frightening them with spiritual apparitions or threatening them.

• Kato takes Yukari out on a date into town to see a kabuki play. After the show, Kato feeds her a candy which is actually a Fukuchu-Mushi (Inside Belly Worm) egg.

• There is no magical skirmish between Yasumasa Hirai and Kato by the riverside in the original book. Koda Rohan finds Yukari wandering around in a trance near the river bank and takes her to get help.

• The Fukuchu-Mushi itself is not an enormous worm with a phallic shaped head as portrayed in the anime. Rather it is merely an orange shapeless mass about the size of a rat. Yukari regurgitates it during a trance state and it immediately escapes into the reeds along the riverbank.

• Ogai Mori has a more active role in the book.

• In the book, Kato sponsors Karl Haushofer into a Chinese secret society working to free China and Korea from Japanese control. Kato is also actively involved with underground Chinese and Korean organizations. None of these plot points are ever touched upon in the animated adaptation.

• When Kato approaches Masakado's grave during the Year of the Boar, he is confronted only by Koda Rohan and Narutaki. The character of Kamo is not present and thus, nobody dies in the encounter at Masakado's grave.

• The anime concludes its story in 1927 at the end of the fourth book in the novel. However the story of the original novel continues for eight more books from 1927 all the way to the end of the 20th century. Likewise the climax of the fourth book is slightly more open-ended.