Japan Sinks:2020
Per Wikipedia: Japan Sinks: 2020, was animated by Science Saru, with Pyeon-Gang Ho serving as the series’ director and Masaaki Yuasa as director. Toshio Yoshitaka handled series composition, Naoya Wada designed the characters, and Kensuke Ushio composed the series’ music. Yuko Sasaki, Reina Ueda and Tomo Muranaka are credited with starring roles. It was released worldwide on Netflix on July 9, 2020. Original story by Sakyo Komatu Original title is 日本沈没, which probably means “Tokyo bites the big one again.”
You might think that 2020 being what it is, the public may have tired of disaster stories. There’s the pandemic, the economy, Trump, crocodiles on meth and killer fucking hornets. People want more bad news?
Turns out they do. And nobody does disaster entertainment like Japan. In the era of the rubber monsters using the Japanese capital as their own personal litter boxes, a significant portion of the population augmented income by running wildly, faces contorted in horror, hands flapping about in the air, all part of the infamous “Japanese Cast.” With lots of practice, Japan got really good at it.
A few years back, there was a notable anime, Tokyo 8.0 in which a giant quake hits the city. (The Japanese scale of earthquake intensity only goes up to 7). It had fantastic verisimilitude, and anyone living in a subduction zone probably found it both jarring and sobering. It came out in 2009, two years before the nation was hit by a 9.0 quake and large tsunami.
The scale of Japan Sinks is much larger, involving the entire archipelago and neighboring islands.
While the excellent artwork captures in lurid detail the scale and scope of the destruction the nation experiences before sinking, the true power of the series is in the microcosmic dread and hope that the collection of characters experience. Some make it out alive, and some don’t. Some of the most terrifying moments are quiet little events: a flock of birds taking flight. A slight rattling sound aboard a fishing trawler. An innocent little plume of smoke high on the flanks of Mt. Fujiyama.
The characters—a family of five, a neighbor, and assorted people they meet while trying to escape the worst of the destruction—are relatable and fully realized, even the annoying little boy. They all, each in their own way, show courage and determination, some quietly, some boisterously.
The series has it’s fair share of “holy shit!” moments (think of the red wedding), but for the most part, the story depends on personal courage and fear, and a quiet sense of dread.
The writing and art are superb, and the series will leave you with an odd sense of satisfaction, and perhaps a sense that being human isn’t the entire shitheap it appears to be on the news.
Now on Netflix.