The setting for this adaptation is moved from 1970s Japan to 2020, just after the Tokyo Olympics. The
story centers on the Mutou family, and the siblings Ayumu and Gou. The four members of the Mutou
family are caught in an earthquake that hits Tokyo, and attempt to escape the city, while disaster
claws at their heels.
(Source: Anime News Network)
~~~img1000(https://i.ibb.co/QpfgZ5j/1.png)~~~ # ~~~ Tragedy hits hard. ~~~ I'm not going to pretend that I've had my fair share of any. People have been through far worse than I could ever comprehend. Yet, I get by. I know it's an arrogant thing to say, but it's the truth. Everyday I ignore all the bad things that happen in the greater world. Wars, poverty, depravity and death. I compartmentalize, I tell myself that the bad things aren't happening to me. These things exist, and there will be people to overcome those adversities when they inevitably knock on their doors. But what happens when you can't run away? What happens when it's time to face the music? What happens when those doors come crashing down, and your whole life along with it? I just binged *Japan Sinks: 2020* (JS), here are my thoughts. This review will be mostly spoiler-free, but feel free to check out my Tl;Dr if you wish to go in blind. Also, I'll be referencing *Devilman Crybaby* quite a bit, as I feel that both stories showing up in director Masaaki Yuasa's filmography and their thematic parallels are too important to ignore in this review. ~~~img1000(https://i.ibb.co/yS60yRL/5.png)~~~ # ~~~ 8 minutes. That's all the reprieve you get. ~~~ During this time we meet the Mutou family, the characters whom we'll be experiencing this journey with. Ayumu, the family's 14 year old daughter, is a track-and-field athlete and the anchor for an upcoming meet. Her mother Mari is on a plane about to land at Haneda Airport. Kouchiro is the breadwinner, working his day job in construction. The son, Go, is an epic gamer with his bright eyes set on the future. Set in present-day Japan, life goes on the way you'd expect: the unremarkable hubbub of daily life ensues. Even when the first earthquake hits, most of the populace remain undeterred. People pull out their smartphones and break into excited discussion, as if some mere celebrity scandal got Trending on Twitter. In a place where earthquakes and other natural disasters are almost commonplace, life goes on as usual. Here's the thing about earthquakes: the first wave isn't the most dangerous part. It's the aftershocks that hit the hardest. After 8 minutes, all hell breaks loose throughout Japan. # ~~~ If it hasn't been made apparent by this point, JS is not a show for the faint of heart. ~~~ The island country is rumored to sink underwater from tumultuous seismic activity, and the scale of this threat looms large in every episode. The elements are a ticking time bomb for Ayumu and her family, as they race to find an escape from the chaos. The Mutou's race against time is powerful and devastating; the tension had me tugging at my hair on multiple occasions. Science SARU's latest outing looks surprisingly grounded (this isn't a pun I SWEAR), and this change from Yuasa's signature art style is fitting for what the show is going for. JS looks detailed and immaculate, with painstakingly well-crafted imagery of the ravaged cities and countryside. But occasionally his idiosyncratic free-flowing animation and pronounced facial expressions find their way into the show, wringing every bit of emotion from several big scenes. Former Yuasa collaborator Kensuke Ushio scores the show and complements those moments with both tense and soft pieces. These elements form a medley in service of hitting me with some of the most devastating moments I have ever experienced in my time with anime. I won't go as far as to say the show is pure nightmare fuel, my momma didn't raise a wuss. However, what I watched felt uncompromising and honest in its depiction. It's not just gratuitous torture porn for four hours, but rather a fully immersive experience which pulls me under the weight of such a disaster. ~~~img1000(https://i.ibb.co/tCsgbmM/6.png)~~~ Audio flashbacks are played at several points in the show. Wildly at odds with the havoc taking place, these monologues serve to demonstrate where the show's real focus lies. # ~~~ JS, while dark, is a tale about human nature. ~~~ The show unflinchingly puts humanity front-and-center. Conflict in JS can easily go from the external to more inward. It captures people with a variety of ideologies and goes to lengths to show several ways people respond to the world shattering around them. Much like *Devilman Crybaby*, JS isn't afraid to show the depraved places people can go to under adverse situations. But while *Devilman*'s take on these ideas were nihilistic, JS acknowledges this capacity for immorality and responds with hope. Even amidst despair, we are given glimpses of this hope. The capacity for kindness, perseverance and love. Tears and loss make their way into many key moments, but they allow for each small victory that follows to mean so much more. Tragedy hits hard, yet it's often punctuated by brilliant showcases of resilience. JS pulls at your heart and fills it up again. It was a tiring experience binging this, but also one made worth it by that hope. ~~~img1000(https://i.ibb.co/R76BCj5/2.png)~~~ # ~~~ JS is not short of pitfalls, ~~~ and those faults (I really need to stop with the puns) do make this amazing work a tad harder to sit through. The first big issue that would affect your watch is, as I said before, the disturbing imagery and content. While purposeful, it can be really hard to stomach at times, especially during the few instances the show goes unnecessarily overboard. This ties into my next qualm, which is that of doing things for shock value. Some scenes feel like jump-scares and leave far weaker an impression than so many of the carefully built-up climaxes. JS can also be pretty frustrating with its cliffhangers, and there's one or two I found particularly infuriating. Not just 'cause they were cliffhangers, but because the story could have functioned perfectly fine without them. I also find that certain elements regarding the sorrow in the show could have been portrayed better. For starters, I know the score is superb, but maybe don't blast hype *Devilman Crybaby* music over characters dying? Also, how characters react to some of these deaths feel somewhat disjointed. We don't get a whole lot of grieving in between these moments, which then come across like mere plot points that need to be checked. Saving the worst for last, probably the biggest complaint I could lodge against the show would be its middle stretch of episodes. Our main characters don't have much to do in that arc, and it felt like a footnote happening behind the scenes instead of incidents I deeply cared about. ~~~img1000(https://i.ibb.co/17PhBHg/3.png)~~~ # ~~~ **Tl;Dr:** ~~~ *Japan Sinks: 2020* is not easy to watch. Suffering and loss, amplified with strong visuals and sound design, permeate the show throughout the journey. JS holds no punches demonstrating the massive scale of such a disaster. But when I watched the show end I wasn't thinking about the earthquake. I was thinking of what we do when the bad things happen. And what we humans do is carry on. There are still things to learn, people to love, futures to strive towards. The human spirit has gotten us through troubles time and time again. There's no stopping what we can achieve, not even if you take the ground away from our feet. 6/10~ # ~~~ STRAY RAMBLINGS (**SPOILERS**): ~~~ - A small disclaimer: I'm not all clear on exactly how much of the show as a whole I can attribute to Yuasa. He's a co-director in the project and I'm not clear on how much creative influence he had. But the parallels between JS and *Devilman Crybaby* seem pretty clear in my eyes, which is why I felt it was right to make those comparisons. - Yuasa's adaptation in *Devilman Crybaby* added the running motif to the original story. Seems like he's a big fan of track, 'cause he brought it back here. ~~~img1000(https://i.ibb.co/xs3ygtW/4.png)~~~ - In Ep 2 the date shows 18 Sep 2020 on the KITE's Youtube video where Okinawa sinks. Fingers crossed that this year doesn't get any worse :s ~~~img1000(https://i.ibb.co/cX6BrPc/7.png)~~~ - Why do they keep making Go speak English every now and then? I kinda see the point, but speaking basic English doesn't make you more of an epic gamer or anything. - As detailed as the backgrounds and art are, the characters don't look dirty enough in most scenes. I know I sound like a nitpicking prick but it kinda takes me out of it when a disaster of such scale is occurring and their clothes look like they're fresh out of the dryer. - Smoking in a gas station is straight-up dumb, no two ways about it. - Ayumu needed to get her leg checked out like, 30 mins into the show. - I was super scared for some weird shit to go down when I saw dance lights in Ep 5. We all know what happened the last time Yuasa did a scene in that setting… ~!img1000(https://strangequeerthings.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/devilman1.gif?w=511)!~ - ~!Credit where credit is due, the Shan City subplot is interesting on paper. Ultimately pointless however, Ep 6 is so far removed from the rest of the show. The stuff that went down felt really pointless, I didn't care that much for it.!~ - ~!That photo motif breaks my heart. Almost every time a pic is taken, it spells death for a character. Breaking out that Polaroid only got more painful the further we got into the show.!~ - ~!KITE became a V-Tuber. Absolute legend.!~ - The first episode is probably my favorite. It told the entire story of the show in 20 minutes. The setup before the incident was expertly done, ~!with the most impactful detail being that of Ayumu's track partner making an unfulfilled promise to our anchor runner.!~ I got chills down my spine. - BEST GIRL: I don't wanna, not for this show :'( - Thanks so much for making it this far! I apologize if the review isn't completely up to stuff, I usually take more time to prepare. Penning this review was an enriching experience, and I look forward to doing [more in future](https://anilist.co/user/AnimeDweeb/reviews). Peace~ - "Though the sun may set, it will always rise again."
__[MODERATE SPOILERS]__ img1000(https://i.imgur.com/NK6EMuG.jpg) If I could somehow give Japan Sinks: 2020 both a 2/10 and an 8/10, I would. So to that end, this will be two separate reviews. Sort of. First that 2/10. I won't spend much time here, but the gist of it is that Japan Sinks is not good. The animation nosedives to abysmal depths as early as episode 3, the soundtrack is underwhelming and often poorly utilized, the story meanders and takes absurd tangents, and the tone is as confused as I was in the locker rooms of ninth-grade PE. There's not much, on a technical level, that I can honestly defend about this whole thing, and if you're crunched for time or just not particularly interested, I'm gonna say pass on this one. It's a bad series, and that's my honest take. You can stop reading here, if you like. ...But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy Japan Sinks. It starts strong enough, with a first episode that at least somewhat resembles a competent production, even if the faults already start to show: the animation is a bit stiff; the earthquake is rendered with just a bunch of still frames jittering and blurring; weird, stilted pauses jeopardize the moment-to-moment pacing. But throw in a fiercely resilient protagonist and some horrific on-screen deaths and I'm hooked enough to follow through on a second episode. That second episode is noticeably weaker, but a bombshell in the last moment drags me into episode three, where the Japanese landscape is a muddy, CG mess with cut-and-paste trees, character walk cycles average about 3 frames while the models just sorta shrink into the distance like puppets on popsicle sticks, and the gang's reactions to certain traumatic and outlandish events are both underwhelming and baffling. But in the last few minutes our protagonists are dodging arrows in a department store and I'm clutching the edge of my seat and frantically muttering at my screen for this obnoxious little kid to run for cover behind the produce shelves. img1000(https://i.imgur.com/K9h5W8d.jpg) This is where Japan Sinks both falls apart and begins to make sense. This won't be a series to make you sob over the loss of beloved characters. This won't be a series with much of anything meaningful to say about tragedy or disaster or the human spirit or whatever. It might try, but any insight here comes out ungainly and awkward. If someone tries to sell you on this show with those tags, just nod politely and look for an exit. No, Japan sinks is not Yuasa's next masterful entry to his dazzling repertoire. __Instead, Japan Sinks is the animated equivalent of a made-for-TV, B-rated disaster flick that airs on SYFY on a Tuesday night. And in this sense, with this lens, it's an absolute ride.__ That's how I began to love Japan Sinks. The plot contorts and corkscrews and often literally explodes, and it's impossible to justify some of those narrative turns beyond shrugging my shoulders and saying, "Yeah, sure why not? They might as well join a cult in episode four." New obstacles are ridiculous and serve mostly as theme park attractions that will inevitably dispatch a character or two and, oh boy, characters are dispatched frequently and in spectacular fashion. If nothing else, the show is a constant rollercoaster of huge set-pieces and gruesome deaths, and for some that'll be enough. img1000(https://i.imgur.com/AL9XL06.jpg) But more than anything, and most importantly to me, Japan Sinks nails the dodgy, are-they-serious?, naively earnest B-movie vibe. This is an absurd journey told with utmost gravity. Characters make heartfelt exit-monologues before sacrificing themselves to convoluted ends. They wax poetic about the beauty of Japan. They engage in rap battles about the dangers of nationalism. Japan Sinks is starry-eyed enough to make you buy into the delusion that maybe this *is* a serious matter, and it's that delusion that really sells the better parts of this show, the moments where the animation gets its act together enough to deliver something unexpected and astounding; where the grating optimism of its characters wins you over because fuck, dude, they've earned it, let's give them this, at least; where you cheer for characters who just barely slip through incredible danger and salute those who didn't make it; and where the quieter moments might actually make your eyes wet, just a little. Don't get me wrong, these moments have little to do with legitimately good writing, it's just that Japan Sinks so stubbornly constructs an atmosphere that convinces me to believe in it as much and in the same way as it wants believes in itself. It's like rooting from the sidelines of a little league baseball game: on any professional scale, these kids suck. But the bases are loaded and the little tyke at bat has an unpredictable swing and something magical just might happen. img1000(https://i.imgur.com/OxxDaae.png) So no, Japan Sinks is not good. It's a show you have to meet on its own ridiculous, hokey, schlocky terms, and even then every moment of its wonky visuals and bizarre plot will warn you against stepping foot on its unsteady and crumbling ground. But if you do that, if you can overcome more than a few rupturing fault lines and look at them not so much as weaknesses but as endearingly busted gears in an inane carnival ride, then maybe you'll come to enjoy it as much as I did, despite your better judgement. 5/10, because I can't give it both a 2 and an 8 so we'll meet them in the middle.
# __Imagine my shock when Japan Sinks 2020 goes from an incredibly poignant opener [8/10], to an unintentional comedy [6/10]. __ img720(https://lostinanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Nihon-Chinbotsu-2020-01-15.jpg) To be fair, how could you blame me for getting invested, I don't have 2020 vision.This show started off as depressing to watch, then went to depressing to watch. >~~If you just yelled at me from behind your screen, all i have to say to that is ''fair''.~~ To start off the list of things that turned my off from this show—I find the character designs to be generally ugly. As much as I am a Yuasa fan, that's one of my reoccurring gripes with his catalog of work. The facial features in this show tend to look very weird. webm(https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/6804e8c57d4aff7f90011f9e2cf8580a.mp4) The designs are incredibly simplistic and yet instead of being more fluid and expressive, they look wonky. The animation itself isn't much better, with numerous occasions where characters move in clunky ways. >I get that this is a show about disaster, and plenty of other dark subjects, but the characters are just straight up unappealing to look at the majority of the time. img720(https://cdn.animationexplore.com/thumbs/nihon-chinbotsu-2020-episode-10-english-subbed.jpg) The fact that the characters usually aren't shaded also contributes to my distaste for the dull visual aesthetic. I also find it sad that the backgrounds left next to zero impact on me (excluding episode 1). The overall production value of this series leaves a bad taste in my mouth. One of the few redeeming qualities I did find from this show is the OP, which has gorgeous storyboards, and a theme that might be intentionally far too delicate for it's subject matter. img720(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SeCqKgNbd1M/maxresdefault.jpg) #__ Contrary to what you'd expect, Japan Sinks is actually pretty funny, and that's part of the problem. __ While the show initially nailed the sense of dread and tragedy, since as early as episode five the show's tone completely disintegrates. I'm not supposed to burst out laughing when a child gets smashed in the head by a piece of the ceiling, while his mother grieves his death. >>This started off as a poignant, hard hitting disaster story of a Family surviving Japan's largest earthquake. And now I just watched a wheelchair bound Grandpa 360 no scope an armed gunman with a bow and arrow. >>>No I am not making this up. The cult arc is hands down the worst stretch of episodes in the show, and after that point I stopped caring about whatever story the show was trying to convey. To add insult to injury, Daniel joins the cast. All that was left is baffling plot points, poorly handled character drama and an attempt to make a point about Japanese nationalism. More-so then perseverance, I'd posit that the main theme in Japan sinks is the dangers of bathos. > When the boat full of racists sank thirty seconds after Gou hoped that very thing would happen, I snapped and just started laughing I'm not the type of person to complain much about perceived plot holes, but Ayumu failing to get treatment for her leg, ending with it getting amputated is exactly the kind of nonsense I was hoping I wouldn't see. When it eventually happened in the final episode I groaned, not just because it was contrived, but because it was such a transparently lazy way to have an inspiring visual that did not feel earned. As a whole the climax failed to evoke anything in me. webm(https://www.sakugabooru.com/data/002f31d79176296d7306ad234a37a5ad.mp4) Generally I find the cast flaccid, with the exception of racist grandpa and the e-boy Youtuber, but I've rambled about this show enough. Kite is a bad-ass, that has access to every kind of transportation on the planet, and every other member of the cast is less obnoxious than Ayumu is. Nuff said. img720(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/KxsU0btOdas/maxresdefault.jpg) Could I honestly recommend this show? No. You'd probably be better off watching the rest of [Science Saru's catalog](https://anilist.co/anime/109298/Keep-Your-Hands-Off-Eizouken/) or an ad for Japanese tourism. Viva the Olympics.
First I'll say that I didn't think this was a masterpiece by any means, but it is good. The thing is, I wouldn't want to watch it again. It's something you watch once, survive through it, and never watch again. That doesn't mean it's bad! There is hope in the core of this anime's message, but in order to get there you do have to be prepared to go through a lot of physical and emotional trauma. We follow a family that is trying to survive in the midst of a fictional disaster the likes Japan has never seen before. As you might expect, not everyone is going to make it, and the deaths are treated as par for the course for such a devastating circumstance. Don't get too attached to any one character though because no one is really safe. Although I say no one is really safe, there are times when it is inconceivable that certain characters survive, especially given the realism of other deaths, but I get that the story is trying to tell us something and so it's good to just go along with it. If you get too bogged down saying, "there is no way they would have survived that" or "WHY killed them now!" you won't like this anime, which I think, would be a shame because one can tell that there is a lot of thought behind the execution of it, even if sometimes it feels clunky. The art is classic Yuasa so ugly it's beautiful at times, so beautiful it's transcendent at others. The character models are somewhat bulky and strangely geometrical at times but have enough details to convey emotional moments without dialog. The score is made to wring emotion out of you, but it's also there to give you hope, it is almost telling you not to give up hope even when the story is giving you nothing but pain. It does act as a warning to you, letting you know when something dramatic is going to happen, and for that, I am honestly grateful. It can also let you know when it is okay for you to be at ease, which, in an anime like this, is important. The characters are the weakest point in this anime, but that doesn't mean they are bad. The story is not here to give you fleshed out backstories and motivations. Nevertheless, from what little they give you, you understand them and they do feel like individuals. I would have liked to get more characterization and to have a more personal human drama, but this is not that. It is a fable, told for the purpose of delivering a message. That said, all in all, this is a story about being proud of who you are without forgetting that we are all in this world together. It is a love letter to Japan but also a warning. And taken like that, I really really liked it. Many will only see it as suffering porn and won't like it, but if you look a bit beyond, you'll find something worth watching.
Japan sinks is something original, and that's always worth praise in my eyes. In the age of the generic, Science SARU put out something memorable, something that created discussion and debate, something that wont immediately sink into the recess of your mind as yet another seasonal anime nobody cares about. It tells a story of human sacrifice, compassion, self-sacrifice and of motivation, whilst touching on themes of nationalism, identity, racism and inner strength. The disaster setting is very striking since the sinking of an island nation isn't *that* far removed from the horrific earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes and other natural disasters that do plague certain countries and it's that root in realism that allows Japan Sinks to plant emotional hooks in you to yank out now and then. Characters & tragedy are where this show excels. Each main character serves a clear purpose in the story and together they laugh, cry and grow. The realistic range of emotions they show matches up nicely with Science SARU's distinctive style that I think lends itself well to a story with its roots in realism. Each character design is very distinctive and unique from their body, to their hair, to their face and the environments often look superb. Expressions are also a highlight here as Science SARU show no fear in portraying the ugly side of their characters with both vicious words and particularly well-done 'ugly' facial expressions. People aren't really cute when they cry, they aren't cute when they scream or are going through physically demanding scenarios, and the studio clearly know this painting all kinds of colourful expressions on their realistic character designs. The sort of character arcs present in this show are very impressive given it's narrow scope. The focus rarely extends beyond the main family unit yet we see a wide range of problems covered in such a short runtime. The decision to have a mixed race family was also excellent, it serves a clear purpose in the story and adds an additional layer to themes of nationalism and identity. On the note of identity I also want to take a moment to appreciate how cleanly this story was modernised. Modern technology is used in the story to very good effect and the decision to have a famous YouTuber character was one I was initially sceptical of, but it ultimately played out very well, the character never felt out of place to me. The story framing these excellent characters isn't always the most original, certain character deaths and self-sacrifices can be seen a mile away, but it's clear the creators knew this as none of the deaths rely on shock value; they all serve a purpose, completing a character's arc or further developing others over time. The storytelling on show here is an excellent mix of obvious and subtle and has a surprising amount of thought put into it. To demonstrate this I'm going to talk about the somewhat infamous cult people seem to hate. To me, it was one of the best portrayals of a cult in recent media. No comically evil cult leader, no awkward mass suicide or ritual sacrifice seen. This cult is a bunch of people that were in pain who found a Medium that could soften the pain and a society that accepted anyone. There are nice implications about the origin, purpose and development of the cult and when all is said and done, it's one of the most respectful portrayals of a radical group like that. I kept waiting for the scene where they make everyone drink poisoned kool-aid with the ire this series seems to draw from some but it never came. There are a few scenes that look a little off visually that some people exacerbate the flaws of significantly. Boar-wrestling, arrow-shooting, rocks-falling. Yet these slight hiccups in visual quality would easily be skipped over in any other show and are only notable here to some people due to the distinctive visual style Science SARU have and their own scepticism. As far as I'm concerned they're no worse than the hiccups notable in almost any anime. Ultimately, for me, this show is essentially perfect. Any tiny visual hiccup didn't take away from the experience whatsoever for my own enjoyment and at a time when most anime are failing to elicit any kind of emotional response from me, this show came along and hit me with an addicting 10 episodes and a fierce emotional core to it's story.
This was... something. Japan Sinks 2020 starts off with a bang, and moves at a steady clip. The first episode is some of the most evocative disaster film that I've ever seen. It really evokes the terror, confusion, and dread of a mass-panic situation. The use of chaos and social unrest, as well as honest portrayals of fight or flight, grief, and the realistic portrayals of violence and the indiscriminate brutality of disasters is spot on. img(https://i0.wp.com/butwhythopodcast.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Japan-sinks.jpg?resize=735%2C403&ssl=1) Then the show goes completely off the rails. The big issue with the series is that it dedicates significant portions of its runtime AWAY from the disaster of Japan sinking into the sea, which you might think is a really critical thing to worry about. But instead, it diverges to social commentary on Japanese bureaucracy, unexploded ordinance, and Japanese racism to foreigners. These are interesting topics, to be sure, but they are explored as intimately as a bull in a china shop. And these are the issues that the show handles well. The show also has a string of episodes dedicated to a pot-farming religious cult dedicated to talking to the dead, it discusses a character with morphine addiction, it analyzes the geological predictions of a mad scientist... It's very confused throughout, as if the team behind the anime couldn't decide what the show would be about, and just through every idea they had at the wall hoping something would stick. And unfortunately, nothing did. img(https://img.republicworld.com/republic-prod/stories/promolarge/xxhdpi/bmw1wuklprqxs9rw_1594226150.jpeg?tr=w-812,h-464) It runs deeper than just the story. The characters themselves are also all quite flawed. Again, the beginning of the show is excellently executed on all parts, and everyone has a believable opening to the narrative. But death is omnipresent in Japan Sinks 2020. Main characters die with extreme regularity, to the point that any shock of their death is completely lost. Characters also begin to lose the structure, acting completely out of character, and doing extremely irrational things. Sometimes characters will be bawling their eyes out, only to be perfectly calm seconds later. Other characters are clearly caricatures, but get extensive screen time, exploring subplots that have nothing to do with the immediate family or the disaster. Meanwhile, still other characters seem to have extensive, superhuman knowledge. How is the Youtube extreme sports athlete also knowledgeable about advanced medical techniques, plate tectonics, poisonous gas, and Japanese culture? Your guess is as good as anyone else. + img(https://pa1.narvii.com/7619/6dd19f64d80ff328aff35e6107e505684944a8c0r1-600-338_hq.gif) The most shining element of the show is definitely the background art, showcasing beautiful scenes of idyllic Japan as well as abject horror and destruction. The scene of Tokyo destroyed, huge sections of landmass falling apart, and assorted destruction are A+. But the animation rarely backs up the beautiful artwork. Some scenes are rendered fantastically, while others seem choppy, and unlike the quality that I expect from Science SARU's team. The soundtrack is also lackluster; it is by the same artist who orchestrated Devilman Crybaby's music, but it falls more flat this time around, with only a few songs that were consistently exhilarating or tension-rising. All in all, this was unfortunately not a good show. It had a lot to say, but then tripped down a staircase trying to say everything at once. A shorter series focused more on the disaster, and focused less on the myriad subplots that misdirect from the core messaging of the film would have served the runtime of the show better.
>#####___This review contains spoilers.___ ~~~
When I saw the trailer for _Japan Sinks: 2020_ for the first time, I was almost immediately sceptical of its quality and what was in store for me as a viewer. Even though the name of one of my favourite directors in the medium was plastered all over the promotional materials, I anticipated witnessing a failure of massive proportions, unable to evoke any meaningful emotions or produce a remarkable experience. To no one's surprise, I unconditionally loathed _Japan Sinks: 2020_ on every level imaginable.
Thanks to the wonderful invention that is the Internet, I have exposed myself to a lot of awful-looking products throughout my life, like [Berserk 2016](https://anilist.co/anime/21560/Berserk/), [the Spawn movie](https://letterboxd.com/film/spawn/) and Twitter. However, very few of them come even remotely close to the sheer hideousness of _Japan Sinks: 2020_'s visuals. More often than not, I could not believe my eyes, as what I was forced to experience can only be compared to a barrel full of toxic waste.
At every moment, it almost seemed like the animation and the art style were fiercely duking it out to earn the title of the worst. They provided us with a bunch of asinine scenes and images, which looked like something straight out of a drawing competition held in a kindergarten where every child contender is under the influence of narcotics. Both the textures and the colour pallet are like a speck of watered-down dirt splattered all over the screen. They constantly reminded me of the fact that the series has as much life and vividity in it as a corpse. There are only a few shots where colours are somewhat vibrant, like the scene where one of the cities was engulfed in flames. The same goes for the background pictures as they are either somewhat passable or a complete disaster you can feast your eyes on, and the minimalistic approach of the overall art style does not excuse their quality one bit. In the bargain, the animation is rigid, awkward and dull to the point where the show feels like a PowerPoint presentation rather than an animated series. People move as if they were electrocuted, and it looks pretty goofy for the most part. What is even funnier is how every scene with CGI in it is so wacky, you wish you could unsee it. On account of that, most scenes are unbearable to watch and are pure torture for your senses.
The icing on this disgusting cake, though, is the character designs, which might be the worst-looking thing I have ever had the displeasure of witnessing. I find it genuinely astonishing how many times a character's face and the shape of their head could change in rapid succession. In one scene, they look off-model but we can try to ignore it, no biggie. A mere second later, they resemble a potato, [Crimson Chin](https://fairlyoddparents.fandom.com/wiki/Crimson_Chin), a goblin, a deformed fetus or a combination of all of these. It is way too distracting and laughter-inducing to take anything seriously which is insane considering the solemn tone _Japan Sinks: 2020_ is going for. It is also the chief reason why every single death scene looks like a poorly executed YouTube prank (gone wrong!) instead of a moment that brings forth a tangible emotion. For instance, out of nowhere, a rock falls on an unimportant character's head, killing them immediately, and we are not supposed to manically laugh at that. I am sorry, but it is not possible. At this point, it is more than apparent that the production was rushed and had a lot of issues unless going for an inconsistent mess was the creators' goal all along, which I highly doubt. Nevertheless, it is not just a matter of visuals.
If they were the only aspect of the show which failed miserably, I would not be sitting here, trying to think of the 200th negative adjective which can appropriately describe this animated circus; the writing here stinks like a skunk's spray. Its quality is comparable to a Tumblr fanfiction written by an awkward teenager whose storytelling skills are as advanced and well-honed as their social skills. Most of the time, I would scratch my head from the sheer idiocy of the plot and its development, the characters' decisions and everything in between; the number of what the fucks I have said over the course of _Japan Sinks: 2020_ is probably in the thousands. For example, when [one of the main characters](https://anilist.co/character/164621/Ayumu-Mutou) cut her leg in the very first episode. She kept on ignoring it and did not want to treat it, in spite of having the opportunity to bandage it at the petrol station or a literal hospital. No one seemed to care or notice this enormous wound either. Later on, she ended up losing that leg, and it was used for some motivational nonsense. It is just laughable and irritating. Additionally, cell phone batteries seem to have an unlimited supply of power, being able to literally run for days without a charger in sight. Should that surprise me? Characters often pull out various items from thin air, like supplies or military vehicles, which is, of course, totally normal in the established logic of the show. Oh, there is a scene where [an old man in a wheelchair](https://anilist.co/character/174142/Kunio-Hikita) does a 360 and kills two background characters with a bow and arrow. I almost forgot about that very serious and realistic moment.
When it comes to the pacing, it is all over the place, and the episodes are either like Usain Bolt or a bedridden grandma, which is all the more incredible when you remember that _Japan Sinks: 2020_ is shorter than a one-cour anime series. Hell, somehow, the middle portion of the show feels like filler, with not a whole lot to offer. As for the themes, which is always my favourite part of any show, the main ones appear to be unity and racism, which if executed properly could have offered a little bit of substance and something to chew on, but they are so in-your-face and forced down our throats, it is nothing short of nauseating. I am tired.
Despite being a story about a series of enormous natural disasters, the biggest disaster in _Japan Sinks: 2020_ seems to be its cast of characters. None of these individuals feels like human beings, but rather alien impostors who decided to spend their summer vacation in Japan. Their personalities are so one-dimensional, insipid and constantly changing, I could barely remember their names, what they looked like, or what their goals were. The fact that we can sufficiently explain every one of them, using but a few words, is hilarious to me. We have got [the Mom](https://anilist.co/character/164623/Mari-Mutou), [the Dad](https://anilist.co/character/164622/Kouichirou-Mutou) or more like the Dead, [the annoying daughter](https://anilist.co/character/164621/Ayumu-Mutou), [the "video gamer"](https://anilist.co/character/164624/Gou-Mutou), [the weird shut-in](https://anilist.co/character/174139/Haruo-Koga) who undergoes a completely unnatural shift in personality after eating weed curry, and [the "famous YouTuber"](https://anilist.co/character/174141/Kite) who is like Jesus Christ, capable of doing everything. In the case of some of these folks, shouting out random, out-of-place English lines for no reason at all is their only personality trait. Combine that with terrible and hard-to-get-behind voice acting, and you have got one hell of a mix that is as explosive as yams.
We only get a very shallow glimpse into their lives through other characters' inner monologues, and dialogues with people around them. It is not only extremely lazy but also not effective in the slightest. We are spoon-fed information that is devoid of any worth and merit since it does not develop or build the characters in any way, and it comes off as immensely unnatural and offputting. They are doomed to be cardboard cutouts with no way out. Whenever they witnessed someone's death, whether it was a relative or not, they seemed utterly unfazed by it. For a brief moment, they would stand still shocked, only to continue their journey with a happy-go-lucky attitude mere seconds later. The Mom's death is the best example of that. After she drowned, her children and friends decided to do a rap battle about Japan and living there. I wish I was joking. Naturally, the soundtrack accompanies these scenes, and it further amplifies this ridiculous tonal whiplash. I love [agraph](https://anilist.co/staff/119254/Kensuke-Ushio) and his work, yet his tracks here are remarkably ill-fitting, and they break the mood and immersion regularly. Following death and destruction with a cheerful song does not seem to be the wittiest of ideas, but that is what _Japan Sinks: 2020_ is.
After watching it, I believe it is safe to say that one of the greatest catastrophes of 2020 is a 10-episode Netflix anime series. The amount of problems this show has is so extensive I can hardly fit them into my cranium, and it is beyond mind-boggling how this came to be. It is hideous and takes itself extremely seriously, even though it is more akin to a comedy for the most part. I am merely speechless at this point. It has to be a dream. It has to.
"You're kidding!" -A main character mere seconds before succumbing to one of the stupidest anime deaths this year, Japan Sinks 2020 Hope, while often necessary, can be a ruinous thing to have in the midst of a disaster. Despite the catastrophically negative reception among friends and the similarly dismal scores the show has, I still had hope that it could be at least entertaining in some regard. Even an Inuyashiki tier “so bad it’s good” title would’ve been enough to be satisfying, if still ultimately bizarre given how this is treated as a Yuasa work...more on that later. Unfortunately, this ONA is just an abject failure in almost all regards, and outside of some moments in the second half, is a dull and frustrating slog. If we’re going to start anywhere, might as well do so at the visuals to get some things out of the way. The name “Masaaki Yuasa” most certainly got thousands to check this show out, as he’s one of the most acclaimed directors of the 2010s for his work on hits such as Tatami Galaxy and Ping Pong The Animation. Unfortunately, it’s a name that isn’t as baked into the show as with most other titles he is involved with, as Korean first-time director Pyeonggang Heo was the series director. Needless to say, it really shows when the only other credit Yuasa had for this show was storyboarding for 4 episodes. Those episodes have a few genuinely nice shots, even if they aren’t anything special by his standards. However, even in those episodes, the artwork in this show can be rough, to put it generously. While there are moments that look nice, such as when two characters are playing fighting games or when one of the characters is in a dream sequence that looks like an MMORPG, the show’s main art style is generally unappealing, The artwork rarely stays on model, and it all just comes off like a discount Devilman Crybaby. The animation often feels incredibly choppy, and that’s when it doesn’t become a slideshow or otherwise feel standard at best. For the first half of the show, there is almost no awful CGI outside of some of the water in the show, but that’s not exactly praise, now is it? Then we get to the second half where the already subpar production plummets below the earth’s surface. There are a few decent shots with our characters at sea in episode 8, but the artwork consistently dips through the floor and is where most of the meme screenshots come from. The abysmal CGI grows more rampant by the episode and the choppy visuals get even more stilted. The slideshow moments and other cost-cutting techniques increase as well, indicating that in an already likely outsourced production, the latter half received considerably less attention and time than the first half. Science SARU is still listed as the production studio for this show, but this is a far cry from even their less visually stable works prior to this. The production values are far from the only baffling thing about the show. There’s a disturbing number of scenes where I don’t know that the aim of them being there was apart from filling time. The lack of handling regarding the show’s tone further accentuates the issue, as I generally don’t even know how I’m supposed to feel during most scenes. I get the idea of the show being how one must persevere and have hope in the face of adversity as that’s the only way to get through. However, it just feels like characters have no time to grieve and instead just become happy go lucky mere moments later, forgetting about any trauma entirely. Immediately after one of the main characters dies in the second episode, the third is just everyone walking while being slightly mopey. Whenever someone dies in episode 8, the survivors get sad for less than a minute before riding off in a motorboat while someone screams “LET’S GO CRAZYYYYYYYYY” in glorious Engrish, and upbeat electronic music plays. This is followed up by a rap battle, by the way. It doesn’t feel like the characters are lifting their spirits organically, and more like death is never a lasting consequence on anyone’s psyches or mood outside of one character moping on occasion. As a result, it’s difficult for these deaths to stick as impactful for the audience either. It doesn’t help when episodes just start introducing off the wall concepts and plotlines out of nowhere like when our characters are enveloped into a cult or when a bunch of people are having a mexican standoff over a vault of gold where a medium between life and death pulls out a katana on everyone. Are we supposed to take this show seriously and address the supposedly realistic elements like characters scavenging for food and water, or go with these fantastical concepts and ignore things like the MC receiving a laceration on her leg until it’s convenient for the plot to make her stumble? By the time an old man started 360 no-scoping people on a wheelchair with a bow and arrow, I stopped being sure about anything anymore. Yes, this show’s writing and structuring are abysmal, and that’s not even the half of it. Even outside of the aforementioned example, the show is so absurdly contrived that in the first episode, we get an out of nowhere plane failure that coincidentally happened alongside the earthquake, and the convenient path of colored trees the main lead and her mom found afterwards that let them know the dad was alive without us being given any reason at the time to assume there was any correlation. This is just so they can have complications and then meet up. In episode 3, poison gas coming out of the ground is sprouted for that scene only, and it’s so they can unceremoniously kill off and immediately replace a character that was close to our main leads with a Youtuber. Japan Sinks also pulls a Devilman Crybaby and introduces cliffhangers for shock value and then immediately disarming them or forgetting about them at the start of the next, rendering them entirely pointless. After instilling a somber yet hopeful tone for the last few minutes, episode 1 decides to end on a random helicopter crashing as bloodied corpses fall from the sky and onto a bunch of civilians, including our main characters. Episode 3 has it even worse, with one of our main characters getting shot in the heart area where his gaming handheld is. In the first 2 minutes of the very next episode, they pull it out of the gadget and all that happened to him was that he hurt his head a little and needs his green PS Vita repaired. Perhaps even more insulting than all of that is something I’ve never seen any piece of media do until now. Whenever a character is dying or a building related to them is crumbling, we’re given flashback dialogue in order to manipulate the audience into feeling for a character’s death or the destruction of something related to them when often times, this is the first we’ve even learned anything about why these people and places are special. The only exceptions are the deaths of two characters in 8 and 9 where we learn things about them in advance, only to still get these verbal flashbacks. Oh, but don’t you worry. You’ll get your precious visual flashbacks in the 20 minute epilogue 10 minutes into the finale. Hope you don’t mind all the slideshows and how most of the time, we probably could have been shown things about the characters’ pasts and attempts to grieve rather than told about them several episodes later! Enjoy the endless suffering as you barely know what’s going on, why certain characters are here, why things are even happening, or why you should even care about any of these characters beyond half of them being family members and some of them just being sometimes kind people! It’s not like character establishment is important and that several scenes in the first half could have actually expanded on the characters and dynamics beyond the shallowest of traits! Oh yeah, that’s right. We should probably talk about the characters now. Ayumu is our main lead. She’s a daughter, one who whines sometimes and gives people water only to be taken advantage of. There’s not much to her beyond that outside of being the stupidest motherfucker to ever get a cut that never hurts until she needs to be crippled for a moment. She never examines or tries to treat it even after working at a hospital in the middle of the show, and no one else seems to notice the pretty deep wound she has until moments before the epilogue. You’d be surprised how much that can get under a viewer’s skin for 10 episodes, which, I remind you, is the show’s entire run time. She gets into arguments with her mom in conversations that resemble a toddler saying “I hate you” to her mom and the mom parroting it to shove the kid’s childishness back at them. The dialogue barely even feels human or genuine, doubly so when random Engrish is plastered onto tense scenes all the time. Speaking of the mom, we have Mari. She’s dependable and has her own secrets, making her the most complex character in the show, for what little that’s worth. She sometimes feels like she has genuine human interactions. I don’t know why there’s a track star turned NEET named Haruo here outside of the fact that they need a character to develop in the middle of the show, as forced, out of nowhere, unearned, and immediate as it is. There’s also the son, Go, who hates Japan and blurts English phrases. That’s about it for him. I guess there are other characters such as the pragmatic YouTuber (KITE) who ends up being probably the best character, but outside of him and the survivalist dad, just about no one else matters or is worth talking about. There are less than 5 scenes where characters have genuine and charming interactions to make them seem remotely fleshed out and alive. There’s virtually nothing to them, and almost no redeeming qualities about some of them, including the worst/main character, Ayumu. As the eight deadly words of TV Tropes go: “I do not care what happens to these people.” I guess the least awful aspect of the show is the music. I needed some faint semblance of positivity before losing my mind, so I’ll say that the opening sequence was a nice and tender song. Kensuke Ushio’s OST has some decent ambient tracks to convey a sense of emergency or tragedy, even if they aren’t particularly memorable. The episode 10 ED isn’t absurdly terrible...oh wait, that’s it. Japan Sinks 2020 might be the worst work with Yuasa’s name on it, and a crushing directorial debut for Pyeonggang Heo. What went wrong here?! Was there not enough time for Yuasa to do any more hands-on work or for episodes to get refined visually? What happened here? Did the writers not have a decent understanding of how to adapt the 1973 novel of the same name while modernizing it? Either way, what we got was a disastrous waste that will probably be but a miserable footnote for Yuasa and the industry in the coming years. Oh God, I didn’t even talk about the gaudy rape attempts or the shark scene. I didn’t even talk about the “That’s a video gamer for you” line which ranks up there with FLCL Progressive’s “tsundere routine” line as one of the worst pieces of dialogue I’ve ever heard, either! Jesus, this show sucks!
~~~img(https://starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Japan-Sinks-Banner.png)~~~ [Masaaki Yuasa](https://anilist.co/staff/100068/Masaaki-Yuasa) is, without a doubt, my favorite director in anime. His 2014 adaptation of _[Ping Pong the Animation](https://anilist.co/anime/20607/Ping-Pong-the-Animation/)_ is my favorite anime of all time, while _[Tatami Galaxy](https://anilist.co/anime/7785/The-Tatami-Galaxy/)_ sits at a close 2nd. Among his more recent works, _[Devilman Crybaby](https://anilist.co/anime/98460/Devilman-Crybaby/)_ was imperfect but ultimately a visual treat, while _[Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken](https://anilist.co/anime/109298/Keep-Your-Hands-Off-Eizouken/)_ is my current anime of the year. The man has a visual style unlike any other, and the works he adapts often resonate with something deeply personal, to put it simply, utterly human. So when I heard he was working on another series, also to be released this year, I was ecstatic. That it was based off of a famed novel from the 70's and would be his last work as President of [Science Saru](https://anilist.co/studio/6145/Science-SARU) only fueled this fire. I was expecting something incredible, a rival for *Eizouken*! Sadly, *Japan Sinks* was nothing of the sort. Simply put, *Japan Sinks* was a complete and utter failure, the likes of which I was not prepared for. There are themes to be found, and moments of Masaaki Yuasa's usual brilliance to be found. But they are few and far between. The tone is jarring and throughout the whole thing I wasn't sure if I was supposed to be laughing, crying or just shocked. Japan Sinks is, in a word or two, jarringly inconsistent, questionably paced and poorly timed in regards to current world events. With all of that said, the ending score should come as now surprise, it was an utter failure. But the question remains as to why, why did it fail, why does it not work? So without further ado, let's talk details, and strap in because this is going to get wordy. Also fair warning this review will contain spoilers for Japan Sinks. __(_Disclaimer_: This review contains minor spoilers for _Japan Sinks_. I am also working to make 50 the new "average". 70 is not an average score people. 70 is above average. You can also find individual episode write ups and comment on this review on my [Star Crossed blog](https://starcrossedanime.com/japan-sinks-2020-anime-review-22-100/). Also apologies for how long this took, motivation was low with this piece.)__ ~~~img(https://starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Japan-Sinks-9.1.png)~~~ # __~~~Art/Animation~~~__ First up, as always, the art and animation of _Japan Sinks_ is... I want to say its largely fine, but it's so inconsistent that it really isn't. Take the character designs for instance. Like many of Yuasa's other works, the designs relatively simple and straight forward with solid colors, simple lines and no complex shading. This simplicity often allows his works a greater degree of freedom in their movement, there are no complex patterns or anything to keep on model and they lend themselves well to more organic and exaggerated animation. It's what gets us some of _Japan Sinks_ more stunning scenes, such as episodes 8 and 9. The downside to this though is that they suffer when sitting still. When not in motion, lacking any eye catching details or interesting line work, the designs just look... well derpy. And _Japan Sinks_ sits still *a lot*. This is most likely due to what I believe was a rocky production for _Japan Sinks_. As based on interviews and articles, it was supposedly largely "done" before Eizouken's own finale earlier this year. Combine this with rumors of outsourcing and designs that require an experienced animators touch, and you have what we see here. The simplistic and free designs of _Japan Sinks_ came back to bite it in the ass. Not just any animator can take designs like these and make them work, and make them expressive and filled with life. Some, such as [Takashi Kojima](https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=52562), are able to make beautiful scenes with them. But for most they simply lack the finesse, and the end result is... ultimately disappointing. _Japan Sinks_ begins and ends with some fantastic scenes, the kind of animation I was originally expecting. But it fails to even prop itself up in the interim between. This isn't to say that _Japan Sinks_ is without merit visually, as that isn't the case. Rather I think the backgrounds and wide shots make for some of the most beautiful parts of the show. _Japan Sinks_ is filled with scenes that bring the broken and collapsed landscapes of the show to life. From the 1st episode, showing the lit up path of the shrine, to the stormy oceans or sunlit clouds of early morning, _Japan Sinks_ is beautiful. There are some odd framing issues of course, often some scenes won't line up properly and this is likely due to the destruction of the earthquakes. But as far as the art itself goes, it call it anything short of stunning would be a lie. Sadly it's this inconsistency, between the backgrounds to the designs to the animation, that makes _Japan Sinks_ annoying at best and difficult to watch at worst. ~~~img(https://starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Japan-Sinks-1.2.png)~~~ #~~~__Setting/Story__~~~ Moving on we come to the narrative and oh boy, is this the big stinker. Based loosely on a 1973 novel of the same name by [Sakyo Komatsu](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sakyo_Komatsu), _Japan Sinks_ is a complete departure from it's source. Where the original dealt with politics and politicians, events on a national scale, the anime chooses to zoom in and focus on a single family surviving this national disaster. On paper this seems like a great idea. Shifting the focus to a more personal level while tackling themes of loss and national identity in the face of massive devastation is an incredible concept. However _Japan Sinks_ fails to execute on this in all but the most basic of ways. Yes, national identity and religion are tackled in the work. However its done through a group of xenophobic racists or insane cultists who die like everyone else in the end. If that wasn't enough however, the lead characters themselves are also a mess. _Japan Sinks_ presents itself as a grounded, if dramatized, character drama. For that to work however the characters themselves need to be well and believably written. Instead we get a cast of eccentrics who die in increasingly random ways with no regards to any kind of character arc. Meanwhile, many of these deaths are avoidable if the characters were rational people. What rational person ignores an open wound on their leg for weeks or "accidentally" shoots someone with an arrow? What rational person finds an aquatic military vehicle in the middle of a flood, complete with keys?! The story of _Japan Sinks_ is driven by coincidence and whatever the author needs to happen to get the characters to the next scene, regardless of how any of it might fit together into a cohesive whole. None of this however, from the questionable character arcs to the ridiculous coincidences driving the story, are the real issue. We have seen plenty of "out there" disaster movies, and those still manage to be entertaining. There is enough suspension of disbelief any viewer has going into one of these that _Japan Sinks_ could have worked had it not royally screwed up it's tone. If you want to tell a serious disaster story, then set those promises early and stick to them. If you want to tell a wholesome family drama, set those promises and stick to them. _Japan Sinks_ makes these promises early, and then continues to ignore every single one. From comedic and absurd deaths of core characters to [Japanese Dale Gribble](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTAXUYLbFYk) [360 no-scoping people on a scooter](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBaxQXnYMgI), _Japan Sinks_ is tonally a complete mess. And this holds back anything everything else it attempted during its run. Across the board, _Japan Sinks_ is a narrative mess. It has a few promising episodes, with the 1st and the 8/9th being personal favorites of mine. But these are so few and far between that the rest of the show holds the back. Dimming whatever brilliance they might have had with the shadow of mediocrity. And it wouldn't be so bad if at least the characters were interesting, yet I had stopped caring about them by the end of episode 3. Why? Well lets talk about them for a moment. ~~~img(https://starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Japan-Sinks-3.2.png)~~~ #~~~__Characters__~~~ As many others have said, the characters of _Japan Sinks_ feel like just that, characters. They come across as one-dimensional and vapid, a collection of character quirks. Take for example Gou, the son and youngest child of the Mutou family. For the life of me I am unable to remember anything interesting or engaging about him. All that springs to mind when thinking of him is random English words, him being a "gamer" and one line about Amazon product placement. Gou is not alone in this however, it extends to the entire cast. From the foreign mother to the "I didn't have enough screen time" father to the aforementioned Japanese Dale Gribble of Kunio Hikita. The cast of _Japan Sinks_ is not a group of people trying to survive a disaster. Rather its just a collection of stereotypes thrown together to represent Japan's myriad of social groups. To be fair, a cast such as this isn't enough to sink a show on it's own. There are multiple, dare I say even most, shows every season with the same level of characterization in their cast. You have the Genki girl, the Tsundere, the Kirito-MC etc, and they appear every season. However the reason these shows can get away with it comes down to one thing: expectations. Nobody goes into shows like _[Monster Girl Doctor](https://anilist.co/anime/113286/Monster-Girl-Doctor/)_ or _[Peter Grill](https://anilist.co/anime/111965/Peter-Grill-and-the-Philosophers-Time/)_ expecting ground characterizations. But when you bill your series as a character focused disaster drama, you are giving viewers a some specific expectations. And _Japan Sinks_ failed to live up to those expectations. If you watch these characters as just another rag-tag band of silly characters, you will come out the other side fine. Personally however, I wanted actual people. Or as close as I can get in anime at least. ~~~youtube(https://youtu.be/pQNyAvTtvqU)~~~ #~~~__OST/Sound Design__~~~ Finally we come to the one part of the review that I can actually be pretty positive about, the OST. [Kensuke Ushio](https://anilist.co/staff/119254/Kensuke-Ushio), the man behind the music of *Ping Pong the Animation* and *Devilman Crybaby* among others has done it again. From absolute bops such as ["nice weather day"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V52eplmoaOg&t=1163s) and ["warm up"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V52eplmoaOg&t=3674s) to the hauntingly beautiful in ["prayer"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V52eplmoaOg&t=1709s), ["in a dream"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V52eplmoaOg&t=1709s) and ["last moments"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V52eplmoaOg&t=1709s) and wrapping back around to hopeful/natural in ["a shelter"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V52eplmoaOg&t=1709s) and ["dad i"](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V52eplmoaOg&t=1709s). Suffice to say, I love this OST and if the amount of links I have provided here hasn't convinced you, nothing will. For all the issues I have with this anime, the soundtrack is not one of them. So if you want my suggestion, just skip the anime and go straight to the OST. Because for as beautiful as it is, _Japan Sinks_ completely and utterly misuses it in all the worst ways. All of the above tracks play a few times throughout _Japan Sinks_ run, but rarely do they ever fit. Whether it a peppy beat after a lead character brutally dies, a somber melody over cooking dinner or just random shit while Dale Gribble shoots people. _Japan Sinks_ has no idea how to make use of its incredible OST. It's only in the rare moments where animation, tone and track all finally agree that we are able to see what could have been. The clearest example of this is, in my opinion, the best scene of the entire series in episode 9. The running animation, the music, backgrounds and lighting. They all come together to form a cohesive whole, making the end hit that much harder. But _Japan Sinks_ is lucky to have 2, maybe 3 of these scenes across its entire run if you're generous. And that just isn't enough. ~~~img(https://starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Japan-Sinks-5.1.png)~~~ #~~~__Failure of Themes - The Travel Commercial__~~~ At this point I have covered all the major parts of _Japan Sinks_ and why I think it fails. Before we close though I want to talk about a more overarching issue, that of themes and tonal dissonance. Because _Japan Sinks_ is chock full of thematic elements, both in relation to the original novel and to the modern day. You have the idea of a national identity surviving a calamity that literally destroys the very land the nation sits on. Of the many toxic ways that national identity can take shape, from xenophobic to religious, to the more understandable ones in pride and belonging. Early on there are even themes of naturalism, of nature taking back the world, forcing humans to learn to survive and find their place in it. Everything from family units to national identity is present in _Japan Sinks_, but it commits to none of them. _Japan Sinks_ tackles each of these in a myriad of ways but never really commits to one. Not for more than an episode at least. One episode we might see xenophobic racists excluding half-japanese from their boat only for the next to be about saving the world and bringing hope to their nation, only for the one after that to basically be a travel advertisement for Japan itself. It's this finale of _Japan Sinks_, the aforementioned travel advert, says it all. The series is so concerned about the breadth of what it can tackle, of how many different ways it can portray and analyze Japan, that it never bothered to ask if it was taking on to much. And when combined with the production issues throughout the show, it becomes the straw that broke the camels back. ~~~img(https://starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Japan-Sinks-10.1.png)~~~ #~~~__Conclusion__~~~ So all in all, how was _Japan Sinks_? As I said at the start, I found it to be a complete and utter disappointment. The first episode and a half were great, the scene was set and everything was in motion. But the moment episode 2 ended that all came crashing down to the level works like Sharknado. The kind of movies that people only watch in a "its so bad it's good" sort of way. Except _Japan Sinks_ doesn't even have that, because it has to contend with having the name of Masaaki Yuasa attached to it and all that weight that brings. If you go into _Japan Sinks_ looking for a stupid disaster comedy/drama, with 0 expectations, I suspect you can enjoy it. However if you were looking for something more, like I was, then you will be sorely disappointed. As for my final verdict? Just avoid it. This is going down with the likes of "Highlander 2" for me, in the sense that after this review goes up, I doubt I will ever acknowledge its existence. Except for the OST, that can stay. Thanks for reading.
Shortly after the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, an earthquake hits Japan! Shortly after, the whole country appears to sink. The anime follows the Mutou-family and other characters of the group in their story to survive this horrible event that is unlike anything else. What sounds like a very intriguing hook for a good story sadly develops to be a shitshow. Plotholes are actively dug, at least when it isn't time to kill off another (main) character in an unbelievably stupid way. This anime tries to catch you with its shock value but fails to create the emotions and drama behind losing a character or even a main character. Even worse: It fails to put any meaning behind the deaths of these characters, the other characters who just saw someone die don't seem to care or have somewhat of a "well, okay let's continue" attitude and constantly jump from wanting to grief and joking about death. This does not mean that this show fails everything it tries, though. There are some moments (especially within the first and eighth episode of the series) that genuinely felt well produced and had the right pacing and great emotions in it. It is just such a shame that these episodes are between so many weird and stupid scenes where characters do the most stupid things they could ever do. Gore elements exist, such as heavy usage of blood effects, detached extremities, and graphic depictions of tattered corpses. These elements seem to try to add seriousness to the story but they ultimately make the anime seem like a splatter movie. They are too graphic for what they try to invoke in the viewer and have horrible pacing as well. Even the production value is getting killed episode by episode. Compare the first and the last episode and you might think those are two different shows. There are also additional problems because the anime was released on Netflix. A lack of subtitles made scenes where people spoke Russian or even morse code make no sense and signs are not explained either. I was really interested in a more serious take on the doomsday survival theme, but this is not the experience I was hoping to get. There are small glimpses of it, but it ultimately fails with the story, dialogue, style, and pacing. The only thing that was constantly good was the music. I've watched Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 before this and was hoping for a more serious, less "mystical" version of that. I would not recommend you investing around four hours in this show. ~!The ending was also extremely unsatisfying. They used 3/4th of that episode to show us how Japan is rising again after the horrible things that happened, but there honestly wasn't much the Mutou-family did. They just survived, barely even. Saying I was disappointed would not be enough.!~
_Tw: blood, violent scenes_ The main focus of the story is not violence itself, but of course given how this tragic adventure goes on, some bloody scenes will be witnessed. ___Japan is undergoing huge earthquakes that keep destroying living environments. In the first episode, after the foremost earthquake a family gets reunited and they start seeking for a way out of the current situation by getting through together and whitstanding the difficulties of their position. The family starts looking for a place where to migrate to in order to survive. Meanwhile more natural disasters keep occurring during their journey, they meet new people who will join their party.___ While not being a fan of the used animation style, what caught my eye particularly was the contrast between the succession of events combined with nostalgic narration and soothing soundtrack. The opposition between the events in the story and recalling of limited moments of happiness that created everyday lives. Moments that were taken for granted, narrated with such innocence resulted quite moving because it’s also how real life works. Once you lose something that was supposed to be there all the time, you feel lost and confused, realizing that perhaps you did not savour the moments enough. It is a very sorrow-inducing and realistic concept I was not expecting to be marked so powerfully in this anime. The first half of this series results very impressive and inducing curiosity. The merciless act of taking away everything from personages’ lives from their little belongings to family members is set so cruelly to not present any necessity to elaborate the brief scenes. The second part is more on an almost surreal side and lacking impact. Heads up, some scenes might cause the viewer to tear up, others may be seen as forcefully placed taking away an emotional impact. Maybe, what the sequences of the plot are lacking is a way in between - focusing always on trying to make a solid impact, some parts end up lacking it. While appreciating a lot the first part and not the rest, like the second half for example, that caused a slight bending to the plot, as well as the ending that was not satisfying and strong enough, it is still recommended to watch this short anime series. Why? Fundamentally because it might change the way of seeing the ordinary. Second, the optimistic characters do not miss to brighten the darkness of the plot, therefore it helps clearing your mind a bit and motivates you to work hard in case of difficulties. Overall it is not only a 10 episode long heartbreaking series, it is also a nice watch with substantial soundtrack and a little time you can give yourself to elaborate your own thoughts.
~~~img(https://i.imgur.com/NZG4qWs.png) ~~~ __RECENSIONE #2__ (Era un) Dissing (mescolato alla recensione) vs i norxxx (poi, per motivi di regolamento, ho dovuto modificare la recensione per poterla rendere pubblica, eliminando "potenziali offese" :/ aggiungendo parole una accanto all’altra. Ho tradotto in lingua inglese con "google traduttore" correggerendo solo "Souls", sennò penseranno che vedo i fantasmi). __Japan Sinks o Japan Stinks?__ Mi aspettavo il solito anime mediocre, disegnato bene ma dal contenuto frivolo pieno di frasi fatte tutte cuorecuore dokidoki con svolgimenti e conclusioni viste e riviste, invece posso tranquillamente affermare che Japan Sinks 2020 è un capolavoro, ovviamente non privo di difetti. Anime così sono incredibilmente rari. La serie si apre con la soleggiata e splendente città di Tokyo mostrando tante persone felici svolgere il loro lavoro, fare sport e famiglie che passeggiano in una calda giornata estativa. Sempre in questa introduzione, una bambina grida "quanto sono carini gli uccellini!" o qualcosa di simile, poi più in là dirò quanto sono carini. I protagonisti della storia verranno mostrati mentre svolgono le loro attività in un clima normale e sereno ma questa serenità verrà improvvisamente distrutta da un forte terremoto che provocherà uno tsunami e innumerevoli morti. I protagonisti non erano insieme durante il disastro ma fortunosamente stanno bene. Una volta riusciti a ricongiungersi, partiranno in cerca di un posto sicuro senza sapere cosa realmente sta accadendo. Japan Sinks 2020, non è assolutamente una storia sui terremoti come in molti hanno creduto. Si, i terremoti ci sono ma più come contorno, questo anime è molto più profondo, in tutti i sensi, rappresenta i lati negativi umani come il razzismo, sul come possiamo diventare degli esseri schifosi pieni di egoismo, il ritardo mentale di soggetti credenti e disperati che gettano le loro speranze nel nulla, dopotutto è così che agisce la maggior parte quando gli accadono disgrazie. Verrà attaccata ogni forma di irrazionalità e crudeltà punendo questo tipo di persone in ogni modo, addirittura col Karma. Purtroppo non manca la rappresentazione dei lati positivi come l’importanza di restare uniti in ogni momento e situazione, non mollare mai continuando ad andare avanti senza mai arrendersi, senza mai gettarsi nella disperazione totale lanciandosi in braccio alla morte, praticamente essere sempre ottimisti. Tuttavia molti concetti, sia positivi che negativi, non vengono raccontati in maniera diretta, spesso sono "poco marcati", nascosti tra cose quasi assurde, ciò non li rende comprensibili a tutti. JSinks2020 non è solo un anime drammatico ma è anche violento con atmosfere cupe piene di sofferenza. La violenza, oltre quella umana, è più presente nella natura che si vedrà protagonista spezzando vite senza distinzioni. Si vedranno cadaveri di ogni genere e in ogni luogo, pure di bambini (che moriranno male), ci saranno presenti dolci scene dove "uccellini carini" mangiano cadaveri in stato di decomposizione/putrefazione, molti moriranno all’improvviso, così senza che nessuno se lo aspetti, perché è così che spesso arriva la morte. Morti e tante scene brutali non sono messe lì a caso solo per dare continui shock allo spettatore, qui sta accadendo un disastro apocalittico che quasi tutti non sarebbero in grado di affrontare, infatti molti moriranno per semplice ignoranza, negligenza o per mancanza di lucidità mentale. Lo stile dei disegni utilizzato, per alcuni ritenuti orribili, sono perfettamente adatti alla storia e al genere, spesso privi di ombre rendendo l'animazione meno elaboriosa, conditi con degli scenari pazzeschi. L'animazione è buona anche se certi tipi di scene non sono riuscite tanto bene come ad esempio certe distruzioni durante i terremoti o alcune prospettive ma niente che può portare a dire "fanno schifo" perché non rovinano per nulla l'opera e sono orrori di pochi secondi, già secondi, non millesimi ma comunque non rovinano la visione. Storia incredibile che ti attaccherà allo schermo portandoti a completarlo come se fosse un lungo film, senza accorgertene, con uno sviluppo ricco di situazioni spesso al limite, quasi all'inverosimile per via di questa immensa catastrofe. Sono presenti momenti drammatici ma anche un pò drammaticomicodemenziali, perché dico comico-demenziali? Perché fanno ridere però se poi ci pensi, ridi lo stesso ma capisci che non sarebbe molto divertente, questo non ti rende una "persona orribile", come alcuni hanno detto di essersi sentiti dopo averlo visto, è che noi umani ridiamo delle disgrazie altrui ma quasi mai se accadono a noi. Le morti bizzarre possono accadere, quindi quello che vedrai non sono prese per i fondelli. Alcuni sviluppi si possono definire un pò forzati però dipende dai punti di vista, secondo me è possibile che certa gente abbia il fondoschiena rotto/spaccato in 4.000 pezzi ma se per te questa gente non esiste allora si può dire che sono presenti delle leggere forzature ma le botte di culo esistono, soprattutto in persone come i protagonisti di questa serie, almeno riequilibrano un pò (il karma) viste le oltre mille sfortune. OST davvero ben scelte accompagneranno perfettamente le situazioni in cui vengono inserite. La caratterizzazione dei personaggi è un altro dei punti di forza dell'anime, veramente grandiosi e di tutti i tipi, di cui i miei preferiti sono stati l'anziano, che è una sorta di Trevor di GTA V in versione Arrow, e il paralizzato, nominato "Best Rapper 2020" che possiede un'abilità canina però molto più sviluppata. Le critiche negative li descrivono come personaggi assurdi, solo perché reagiscono diversamente da come avrebbero reagito loro (a mente lucida), ritenendoli dei completi idioti. Avranno detto questo perché non sono riusciti ad immergersi, neanche con tutta quell'acqua presente, non riuscendo a cogliere il perché di tali azioni e poi non tutte le persone sono uguali. Un esempio può essere Ayumu che si ferisce alla gamba, molti si sono chiesti "per quale motivo dice nulla?" per me perché all'inizio se ne era dimenticata per via della situazione che l'ha scombussolata, solo dopo inizia a farci caso ma capisce il momento difficile e non vuole creare altre preoccupazioni ma allo stesso tempo pensa che non sia nulla di grave. Ricordo che qui c'è molto ottimismo ed è proprio uno dei messaggi che vuole lasciare, se cadi rialzati, non arrenderti e riparti. Non dirò nulla sugli avvenimenti perché sono altri spoiler che, se non hai visto l'anime, se letti quando li avrai davanti agli occhi, li vedrai e percepirai in maniera differente. Spoilero solo una cosa, se proprio vuoi rovinarti un pò di dubbi o speranze, che potrà renderti felice o triste, dipende dai tuoi gusti, ~!non ci sarà nessuna storiella amorosa tra ragazzini come fa pensare l'inizio e secondo me a molti questa cosa li ha uccisi nel profondo, facendoli morire annegati dentro se stessi perché il loro triangolo delle Bermude che stava emergendo è affondato, infatti il numero di episodi da cui a molti gli inizia a fare schifo coincide.!~ Se cerchi qualcosa di leggero, quest'anime fa per te, se cerchi qualcosa di serio e profondo, quest'anime fa per te. Se cerchi della semplice ansia, quest'anime fa per te. Japan Sinks 2020 ha tutto, ma la cosa più importante è che questi mix non vanno in conflitto ed è un anime incredibile dall'inizio alla fine che non ti annoierà. Se sei un figlio di Satana, come me, non piangerai (come in nessun altro anime/film o qualsiasi altra cosa) ma in caso contrario, come dicono le ragazzine, "prepara i fazzoletti", frase che direi solo se starei a suggerire un hentai. Buona visione. https://www.netflix.com/it/title/80993018 Qui c'è il trailer ufficiale con i sottotitoli in italiano: youtube(https://youtu.be/8rKcVvNM6Qc) Qui c'è il link dell'OP di Japan Sinks 2020, davvero bella e adatta anche questa criticata per i disegni che vedi, disegni per me adatti, si poteva fare di meglio ma non stonano: youtube(https://youtu.be/TWSFcx1FcD4) Qui c'è il link del Best Rapper così vedi anche un pò il design dei personaggi, incuriosito? Ti è venuta voglia di guardare per capire? webm(https://i.imgur.com/1fgwsS1.mp4) La scena rap è stata odiata e derisa da molti fan di anime, molto probabilmente perché non è il loro genere di musica preferito come non lo è neanche il mio. Però, anche in questo caso, secondo me hanno fatto un buco nell'acqua a criticarla così male. Vi lascio il messaggio del regista Masaaki Yuasa su "Shizumanukibou" (la canzone della scena rap) >Japan Sinks 2020 contiene il tema della preziosità di ciò che viene goduto ogni giorno, che può essere compreso solo dopo aver perso. È nel cuore di ogni singola persona nella società moderna (nella crisi del coronavirus), chiunque può essere il protagonista di questo lavoro. Attraverso 「シズマヌキボウ｣ ("Shizumanukibou"?), sarei felice se poteste sentire le preoccupazioni e i conflitti delle persone che si vivono nel presente e, soprattutto, la forza del cammino verso la speranza. Il video della canzone è meglio se lo aprite dopo aver visto la serie, contiene scene spoiler. youtube(https://youtu.be/6QIEK5NbEAY) Ancora mi chiedo come sia stato possibile che, un anime di questo calibro, abbia ricevuto così tanto disprezzo... ~~~img220(https://i.imgur.com/TYXp3rK.png)~~~ ____ https://i.imgur.com/NZG4qWs.png __REVIEW #2__ (It was a) Dissing (mixed with review) vs norxxx (then, for regulatory reasons, I had to edit the review in order to make it public, eliminating "potential offenses" :/ adding words next to each other. Translated into English with "google translator" correcting only "Souls", otherwise they will think that I see ghosts). [Anime in Italian means souls] __Japan Sinks or Japan Stinks?__ I was expecting the usual mediocre anime, well designed but with a frivolous content full of phrases made all dokidoki with developments and conclusions seen and re-seen, instead I can safely say that Japan Sinks 2020 is a masterpiece, obviously not without flaws. Anime like that are incredibly rare. The series opens by showing the sunny and bright city of Tokyo with lots of happy people doing their jobs, playing sports and families strolling on a hot summer day. In this introduction, a little girl shouts "how cute the birds are!" or something similar, then later I'll tell how cute they are. The protagonists of the story will be shown carrying out their activities in a normal and serene atmosphere but this serenity will be suddenly destroyed by a strong earthquake that will cause a tsunami and countless deaths. The protagonists weren't together during the disaster but fortunately they are fine. Once they are to reunite, they will leave in search of a safe place without knowing what is really going on. Japan Sinks 2020 not is definitely an earthquake story as many have believed. Yes, the earthquakes are there but more as a side dish, this anime is much deeper, in every sense, it represents the human negative sides such as racism, on how we can become lousy beings full of selfishness, the mental retardation of believers and desperate people who throw their hopes into nothingness, after all, this is how most human beings act when misfortunes happen to them. Any form of irrationality and cruelty will be attacked by punishing this type of people in every way, even with Karma. Unfortunately, there is no lack of representation of the positive sides such as the importance of staying united in every moment and situation, never giving up, continuing to move forward without ever giving up, never throwing yourself into total desperation by throwing yourself on death row, practically always being optimistic. However, many concepts, both positive and negative, are not told directly, they are often "not very marked", hidden among almost absurd things, this does not make them understandable to everyone. JSinks2020 is not only a dramatic anime but it is also violent with dark atmospheres full of suffering. Violence, in addition to human violence, is more present in nature which will be seen as the protagonist breaking lives without distinction. We will see corpses of all kinds and in every place, even of children (who will die badly), there will be sweet scenes where "cute birds" eat corpses in a state of decomposition/putrefaction, many will die suddenly, so without anyone if you wait for it, because that's how death often comes. Deaths and so many brutal scenes are not randomly placed there just to give the viewer continuous shock, an apocalyptic disaster is happening here that almost everyone would not be able to face, in fact many will die from simple ignorance, negligence or lack of mental clarity. The style of the drawings used, for some considered horrible, are perfectly suited to the story and the genre, often without shadows making the animation less elaborate, seasoned with crazy scenarios. The animation is good even if certain types of scenes have not turned out very well such as certain destruction during earthquakes or some perspectives but nothing that can lead to say that "they suck" because they do not ruin the work at all and are horrors. of a few seconds, already seconds, not thousandths but still do not spoil the vision. Incredible story that will stick you to the screen leading you to complete it as if it were a long film, without realizing it, with a development full of situations often at the limit, almost beyond belief due to this immense catastrophe. There are dramatic moments but also a bit dramatic-comic, why do I say dramatic-comic? Because they make you laugh but if you think about it, you laugh anyway but you understand that it would not be very funny, this does not make you a "horrible person", as some have said they felt after seeing it, it is that we humans laugh at the misfortunes of others but hardly ever if they happen to us. Bizarre deaths can happen, so what you see is not taken joke you. Some developments can be defined a bit forced but it depends on the point of view, in my opinion it is possible that some people have "the backside broken/split into 4,000 pieces" (very lucky) but if for you these people do not exist then it can be said that there are some slight forcing but the "butt blows" (strokes of luck) exist, especially in people like the protagonists of this series, at least rebalance a little (karma) given the over a thousand misfortunes. Really well-chosen OSTs will perfectly accompany the situations in which they are inserted. The characterization of the characters is another of the strengths of the anime, really great and of all kinds, of which my favorites were the elder, who is a sort of Trevor from GTA V in the Arrow version, and the paralyzed , named "Best Rapper 2020" who has a much more developed canine ability. Negative criticisms describe them as absurd characters, only because they react differently from how they would react (with a clear mind), deeming them complete idiots. They must have said this because they have not been able to dive, even with all that water present, failing to grasp the reason for these actions, not all people are the same. An example can be Ayumu who injures his leg, many have wondered "why doesn't she say anything?" for me because at the beginning she had forgotten about it due to the situation that upset her, only afterwards she starts to notice it but she understands the difficult moment and does not want to create other worries but at the same time she thinks that it is nothing serious. I remember that there is a lot of optimism here and it is one of the messages that she wants to leave, if you fall don't give up and go. I will not say anything about the events because they are other spoilers that, if you have not seen the anime, if you read them when you have them in front of your eyes, you will see and perceive them in a different way. I say just one thing, if you really want to ruin some doubts or hopes, which can make you happy or sad, it depends on your tastes, ~!there will be no love story between kids as the beginning suggests and in my opinion this thing killed them deep inside, drowning them inside themselves because their Bermuda triangle that was emerging has sunk, in fact the number of episodes from which many start to say "It's a garbage anime" coincides.!~ If you are looking for something light, this anime is for you, if you are looking for something serious and profound, this anime is for you. If you are looking for some simple anxiety, this anime is for you. Japan Sinks 2020 has it all, but most importantly, these mixes don't conflict and it's an amazing anime from start to finish that won't bore you. If you are a son of Satan, like me, you will not cry (like in any other anime/film or whatever) but if not, as the little girls say, "prepare the handkerchiefs", a phrase that I would say only if I would suggest a hentai. Here is the official trailer: https://youtu.be/yfys-2KA3oQ Here is the link of Japan Sinks 2020 OP, really beautiful and suitable but also this criticized for the designs you see, designs suitable... for me could have been done better but not bad: https://youtu.be/TWSFcx1FcD4 Here is the link of the Best Rapper so you also see a bit of the character design, intrigued? Did you feel like watching this anime? https://i.imgur.com/1fgwsS1.mp4 The rap scene has been hated and laughed at by many anime fans, most likely because it's not their favorite genre of music and mine isn't either. However, even in this case, I think they made a hole in the water to criticize it so badly. I leave you the message of the director Masaaki Yuasa on "Shizumanukibou" (the song of the rap scene) >Japan Sinks 2020 contains the theme of the preciousness of what is enjoyed every day, which can only be understood after losing. It is in the heart of every single person in modern society (in the coronavirus crisis), anyone can be the protagonist of this work. Through 「シズマヌキボウ｣ ("Shizumanukibou"?), I would be happy if you could feel the worries and conflicts of the people living in the present and, above all, the strength of the path to hope. The video of the song is perhaps better if you open it after watching the series because contains spoiler scenes. youtube(https://youtu.be/6QIEK5NbEAY) I give him 100/100! I wonder how it was possible that anime was so despised... https://i.imgur.com/TYXp3rK.png
~~~img(https://i.ibb.co/4fpMY4d/vlcsnap-2020-07-19-06h59m59s489.png)~~~ One of my favorite videos found online is precisely one about [disaster prevention in Japan](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_XwelKjt5A&t=9s). I found it when reading about the Tokai earthquakes, which blew my mind when I first heard about them, because I couldn’t stop wondering: how can an entire nation be so high-functioning when they are in such a fragile position with sure disaster looming over their heads every day? How do you not live in perpetual fear under this kind of circumstances? How can you live a very normal life dealing with very abnormal conditions (at least for someone like me, who has never dealt with any kind of natural catastrophe bigger than a cyclone)? This upbeat video seemed to have the answer for me: if disaster is unavoidable, and in Japan it is, the attitudes that really matter are being prepared, working collectively and making the most out of everyday life. It is almost mandatory that you do live a normal life exactly because the circumstances are dire. One day, this whole thing you call a life may just disappear! Why am I mentioning this video, you ask? Well, because watching this decade-old 11-minute video on earthquake prevention gave me a lot more depth on the subject and got me thinking a lot more about human nature and resilience than the seemingly never-ending 10 episodes of the latest piece of crap with a Netflix logo launched into the animesphere, _Japan Sinks_. ~~~img(https://i.ibb.co/XF4dKFN/vlcsnap-2020-07-19-07h21m43s878.png)~~~ Ok, I don’t want to be mean. But in all absolute seriousness, it is scary how not good it is. It has so much going for it, this show, especially if you consider the main thing that got many to even want to watch it, which is Masaaki’s name before it. But I will not go on and on about him and how _Japan Sinks_ almost looks like something that could involve him but ultimately lacks any of his trademark creativity, because I’ve read way too many reviews that focus on that. I’ll skip him. He’s great, his visuals are great, yadda-yadda, this work he’s in is shit, the Shinkai Syndrome. That’s pretty much all I’m gonna say regarding Masaaki’s role in this mess. Now… __Spoiler alert__, of course. The opening sequence is soft, kind, ethereal, comforting, watercolor style, and it shows us a variety of calm, little everyday moments carried by a smooth piano and a song that sings on calm, little everyday moments. It is very transparent on its intent to create a soothing “aura” obviously contrasting with the theme of the show, and I think that this kind of play on dichotomy can only work reactively in a viewer if they go in and start out knowing absolutely nothing of the show, which I think means… no one? It’s almost impossible to go blank into a Netflix show, or any show whatsoever, these days, and this one in particular is called “Japan Sinks”, so you can probably guess it won’t be a heartwarming slice of life about the triviality of daily family life. And as the series progresses and the story gets more and more grim and deadly, this opening sequence wears off even more. So, cute, but ineffective. And Japan is indeed sinking, one huge earthquake and volcanic eruption after another, as we follow along the path of survival of the Mutoh family, consisting of Athlete Daughter, Gamer Son, Dumb Dad and Annoying Mom. I am of course joking, these aren’t their names, but I could only really make out their real names around episode 5, so I had to nickname them. Humanizing them by remembering their names won’t really matter though, as you'll understand later. They are supposed to be a plural, multicultural family, according to some creators of the show, to represent a different, more current, much more diverse Japan from the one that is generally portrayed in media. The way they accomplish that is by making the mother be from the Philippines while the dad is Japanese, and throwing around a lot of broken, disconnected sprinkles of English dialogue. It is not enough to carry the weight of all the narrative aspects that surround a multicultural family, and it ends up becoming a stereotype on its own. There are few moments on the show where their double-ethnicity and diversity come into play, and these are usually associated with displays of racial bias and extreme nationalism coming from other characters. This is also a very common trope, one that can only tell stories of foreign bodies through the lenses of the “native” eye. That has been done to exhaustion in non-Japanese media about Japanese people, and it is certainly not the worst thing _Japan Sinks_ has to offer, but it does limit the possibilities of how to explore this sensible family characteristic. ~~~img(https://i.ibb.co/mHPSpj8/vlcsnap-2020-07-19-07h17m19s976.png)~~~ It starts off awkward, but promising. We are right away presented with a major earthquake and we watch how it impacts the family members, who are each in a separate location, so we get to see the destruction and panic that follows from different perspectives: a school, a construction site, an airplane, their own home. This however should also be our first moment of connection to the Mutoh family, since they are the ones who are going to guide us through this tragedy, but that is overwhelmed by the disaster itself, and I believe what was intended to be a subtle or more reactive presentation of the family gets lost under the wreckage. That seemed like a blunder at first, because this is something so common to so many series (failing to captivate us on the first episodes due to being too busy laying out the plot) so I expected the story to catch up with its protagonists down the line; but one episode after another made it clear that it was no blunder, but an actual disregard for its main characters in an almost insensitive way. The main way the creators chose to get us more into the psyche and history of these people are little snippets of voice-over dialogue from past times that are plastered in moments of tension, usually when a character is in peril or about to die. However, these are so poorly made and placed that not only they are not even close to enough to really make us feel any relation to these characters, but they are often dysfunctional, hard to separate from the current scene, sometimes even being difficult to make out as voice-over rather than actual ongoing dialogue. In film school, we often avoided voicing-over because it is like a minefield: too many things can go wrong with it, it is easy to over-use it and it is always an anti-immersive instrument. In _Japan Sinks_, the mines definitely blew up. I read many reviews in which people said they could not care less about the main characters of this show, and I will join them. This family has as much personality and depth as a ham sandwich, which means it has some and I can eat it, but damn, do I wish there was some fucking seasoning in this. And not only does that lack of complexity grow annoying as the show progresses, but it can even make the viewer feel insensitive for not being emotionally involved with bodies that are going through such a horrible struggle. This bad feeling is, however, dimmed by the fact that not even the main characters seem to give much of a crap what happens to them. Take Athlete Daughter, for instance, who cuts her leg immediately during the first wave of earthquakes and provides us with the best example of how _Japan Sinks_ doesn’t give a fuck about this family. She’s a track and field athlete, so she is injured, of course, on her leg, and that cut doesn’t seem to be a problem at any moment… apart from when her athleticism is needed. Then she’s in pain and can’t run! Apart from that, you barely even remember she is hurt, as none of the characters talk about it in worry, and Athlete Daughter herself never discusses it as a serious injury. It is literally a crippling plot device, and I am not here for it. And if it was just a crippling plot device made to keep her from solving issues that could be solved by her being athletic… fine. It would be annoying, but it would be a mere detail that would probably also get lost under the wreckage. But y’all, that cut leads to an amputation at the end. She has to have that leg cut off otherwise she’ll straight up die. She cuts her leg in episode one, no one cares, she goes around with that cut on her leg for days, no one cares, she gets to WORK at an alternative community’s HOSPITAL midway through the show, NO ONE CARES, and then suddenly that cut is the most serious thing going on with her. It makes no narrative sense, it makes no realistic sense, it is just an instrument designed to stop the flow of the narrative and make you feel vewy sowwy for her in the end. Personally, to me, it made me want to tear her other leg off and beat her stupid ass with it. How are you going around with a torn leg and you won’t even ask for some Merthiolate! A Band-aid! Something! Girl, Charlie cut his head in the island and Sayid fixed that shit right up with gun powder and a match. And you are a track-and-field ace who could barely gauze an open wound? I am so angry. ~~~img(https://i.ibb.co/FhHsxrt/vlcsnap-2020-07-19-07h13m32s888.png)~~~ And then there’s the dad. My God, top tier for dumbest anime death ever. Dad dies in episode two, immediately before the credits (so after the episode is through and you have already realized the awkwardness of episode one was just the show being horrible), blown up by an underground mine that he dug up after ignoring multiple, MULTIPLE danger, do-not-enter, do-not-dig-shit-up warnings. By the way, does anyone even know where he got that shovel? I keep trying to remember and I just can’t. He didn’t have a shovel before, right, since they were walking and carrying everything on their backs? And why would there be a shovel laying around at an I-JUST-TOLD-YOU-NOT-TO-FUCKING-DIG-OUT-SHIT-HERE-BITCH site? But I digress. That matters little compared to the other plot absurdities. Fact is: this story is supposed to be about a family, about how a family sticks together through thick and thin, we are supposed to be carried by their emotions and thoughts, and still they killed off Stupid Dad in a remarkable, historical, epically dumb way solely for shock value, for us to care, to feel something, anything. Please, dear viewer, sorrow away for this human being that was just blown to pieces in front of his whole family. His torn hand bearing his wedding ring got thrown right at the feet of his wife! Aren’t you sad, viewer? Aren’t you just so shocked that sad thing happened, even though there were as many flags predicting his death as there were do-not-dig warnings? Isn’t it just a tragedy that such an accident would happen when there’s already such a catastrophe in place? Not really, because it was not an accident, it was pure negligence, and it makes no sense that they would be so negligent and carefree when there’s already such a catastrophe in place. But at least, I thought as I did not clutch to my pearls as the credits rolled, now we’ll start to feel something. Now we’ll see what this family is made of. They seem to be brushing off the disaster surrounding them, as if it was just another everyday earthquaky thing, but an internal crisis like this will shake them up, correct? Wrong as fuck, dummy! Next episode starts off and they’re already moving on, and apart from a very childish fight between Athlete Daughter and Annoying Mom, there is little to no reckoning concerning the traumatic and absolutely avoidable death of Stupid Dad. They barely cry. And contrary to what one optimistic viewer would maybe hope, this is not a one time thing that happened due to the extraordinary circumstances, or the insurmountable pain and trauma that would eventually be dealt with in a better light, no; as the show goes on and more people die around and in the Mutoh family, you realize that there will be no moment of grief and sorrow to address all these horrible incidents. In fact, the creators chose to mark every death with a quick apathetic recovery from the remaining living, an upbeat futuristic soundtrack that strums in whenever there is tension, and an overall sense of nihilism, of oh-well-ness to the whole concept of people dropping like flies during this catastrophic event, even if most deaths are avoidable and/or sacrificial, and not a direct consequence of Japan sinking. And when the characters are so adamantly against caring for what happens to one another, and when characters’ deaths are so dry, meaningless, cut-to-credits kinds of deaths, even the most sensible of viewers (and I consider myself to be one of these, since I am the stereotypical cries-watching-butter-ads-on-TV type of viewer) will feel at least discouraged to care as well. Why should I be bawling my eyes out for Stupid Dad if not even his family is willing to shed a tear for him? I’ll save mine for when I’m watching the next episode of _Fruits Basket_, thank you. ~~~img(https://i.ibb.co/Y7HLS6n/vlcsnap-2020-07-19-07h49m05s218.png)~~~ However cold the deaths in this show are, most of them are particularly shocking if you analyze them on their own: a man being blown to pieces at close range; a child being hit in the head with a massive piece of debris; a wounded old man who may or may not have been eaten alive by seabirds. These are all moments when the animation and art of the show could really popped, since death, as well as the scenery, could be considered a character, and a main one at that; however, most of the horror depicted in Japan Sinks has more of a classic uncanny valley approach to it rather than the grotesque and bizarre possibilities that animation makes available. The only death scene that really made a statement as far as I can remember was when the child I mentioned dies and we are uncomfortably forced to watch his mother’s reaction to it, as her face literally grows in horror in a way that no live-action acting could achieve. I missed more moments like this one: this show could’ve been much greater if there were more of these “only in animation” scenes, ways to represent a catastrophe that would stem away from realistic commonplace depictions and dive into straight-up imagination. Since I mentioned these visuals, the background art representing the disaster is at first fine, but it is so stiff and one-dimensional that it really does become a background feature, rather than what I expect from a landscape that should be, as I said earlier, a protagonist character. But _Japan Sinks_ is obsessed with being a realistic anime, which means basically every single portray of catastrophe in this show is something you probably have seen before, if you ever watched another disaster movie or series. And this lackluster representation goes all the way to the end, when Japan is rebuilt after it does sink, and the scenery is absolutely something any anime fan has seen before, many, many times. There is little to no input of real creativity, imagination, no daring attempt to bring something new to the story. It’s just another island with a bunch of skyscrapers and some beehive holographics. You add that to the brown-and-grey color palette and the… let’s call it “minimalistic” character design, since I don’t want to be mean here, and what you get is boring, generic art that should be at least provocative. ~~~img(https://i.ibb.co/XWXw4ZQ/vlcsnap-2020-07-19-07h11m56s743.png)~~~ I said the visuals are boring, but let me take a moment to give credit where credit is due, and that means I have to stand in awe over how bad the sound is in this show. Not just the soundtrack, which is, as I mentioned, upbeat futuristic trying-too-hard music that gets jammed into moments of tension, such as deaths or rape attempts - yes, because a whole country sinking into the ocean is not horrific or edgy enough, you know you gotta add not one but TWO scenes of sexual assault, so people remember the real catastrophe are men – that feel as inappropriate and misplaced as sexting at your grandmother’s funeral. But it’s not just the soundtrack that is awful, the sound in general is despicable. My sound engineering professor used to say that when a work of art has good sound, you will probably not notice it, but when the sound is bad, you won’t be able to take your attention off of it. To me, that happened heavily while watching _Japan Sinks_, where people’s steps sound like shots fired and even a slight touch of a hand on someone shoulder has a cracking noise, while the best they could do to immerse us in the catastrophe scenes are the usual boom.mp3 you hear in every other anime. I often stared at my cats while watching this show because I honestly thought they were the ones making some of these weird noises. I could go on into more detail about the other absurdities and obscenities of this show, like the insanity of putting a 14 year-old girl as some sort of villain; the deranged old man who attempts to murder a kid in one scene and is immediately pardoned in the next; the fact that the only emotional scene where Mom and Daughter seem to feel bad about Dad’s death is cut by an out of nowhere sex scene between characters that could not be less relevant to this story; the whole cult plot; the annoying photograph taking which serves as a death flag throughout the show and adds nothing to the emotional motif; the way the main characters are always walking or running or driving but they never set an actual goal, a place to go, a person to find, any objective at all: not even surviving, since they will ignore death warnings, throw themselves into dangerous situations needlessly or sacrifice themselves as easily as Shiryu will make himself blind…but I’ll skip these to talk about my least favorite moment of the show, which was when they were finally saved. Gamer Son and Athlete Daughter are finally rescued, taken to a hospital, she finds out her leg will have to sashay away, and then there is this beautiful, gorgeous moment. It’s Athlete Daughter’s 15th birthday, and she is laying in her hospital bed, lit by colorful bright Russian night lights, and she receives a notification on her phone. It’s a birthday video message that everyone recorded days prior to that, in secret as she slept, to be delivered on the day, and she finally allows herself to have a good cry watching her now-dead Crush, her now-dead Mom, her maybe-dead White Friend and her alive little brother cheer for her sweet fifteen. There is a particularly beautiful detail of her tears falling on the cellphone screen, creating this rainbow effect on the droplets. It’s a relief, because we are given a moment to feel with the protagonist, to feel for the protagonist, a moment of grief that has been so repressed during the show that it actually feels relaxing to feel pain, at last. This was my favorite moment of the show, but what followed was something I hate so deeply it made me want to scream and the fact it was preceded by a moment I thought was so delightful only made matters worse. ~~~img(https://i.ibb.co/wKTwQ51/vlcsnap-2020-07-27-16h58m27s332.png)~~~ This short moment of satisfaction is cut by Athlete Daughter riding a bike, in an obvious some-time-later scene, which confused me since we had just found out she was going to have her leg amputated, so I wasn’t expecting to see her up and running just yet. Once again, even something as cliché as an athlete tragically losing the part of their body that made them an athlete is brushed off and skipped forward as Just Another Thing, and we never get to experience what Athlete Daughter felt or thought about it, how that impacted her, nothing. The sequence that follows is literally a slideshow of photos and videos that Annoying Mom kept with her, which show some of the voice-over moments we heard earlier in the show, but these are so disconnected from one another that I only realized they were the same dialogues later as I was discussing the show with my husband. I hate slideshow moments because to me they are a lazy slap in the face of the viewer, but this one could have at least some input of emotion on it, some reaction from Gamer Son and Athlete Daughter, who were literally staring at their whole lives, and their dead parents’ lives, and the best they could do with it was make their apathetic, expressionless faces say “she kept so much, wow”. And then the worst, laziest, most disgusting assholerish feature in cinematographic history makes an appearance: ~~~img(https://i.ibb.co/hcNQh37/vlcsnap-2020-07-27-17h14m09s468.png)~~~ This is a cry for help. So let me get this right: we followed these boring uninteresting emotionless apathetic annoying generic assholes for 10 episodes as they wandered aimlessly through a lackluster landscape of definitely-holding-back destruction, never gathering enough information to make us really aware of what was going on outside of their bubble, and who were either killed off for kicks and shock value or survived with no meaningful transformation, and when we finally get to the big Well, Now What? moment which I believe we were all waiting for, the moment when we were supposed to find out how the fuck is the world going to deal with the fact that Japan just went full Atlantis? How the fuck is the world going to deal with the fact that most Japanese people were wiped out I a day? How the fuck are the survivors meant to rebuild and stand on their own after such massive trauma? No, fuck you, says this show, fuck you who craved any sort of meaningfulness to this whole dumpster fire of audiovisual work, we are skipping this bitch to eight years in the future and all you’ll get will be a voice-over telling you in vague, generic, empty speech what happened during these eight years, and then another slideshow of poorly-drawn “scenes of Japan” that will supposedly strike an emotional chord with anyone who thinks cherry tree flowers and bubble tea are the epitome of Japanese culture, I guess? This show was made for people who think it’s correct to compare _The Last of Us II_ to _Schindler’s List_, people who call themselves “weebs” seriously and people who are proud to say they don’t eat fruits or vegetables. 3/10. Fuck this show.
WARNING SPOILERS AHEAD, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. Yesterday I binge watched Japan Sinks 2020 and from the first episode I was very drawn in to watch more, this is very good with animes because sometimes I feel like I get confused, bored or lose hope when they have a bad start but I was very drawn in to watch more. Following a family in Japan we meet a series of different and interesting people. My personal favourite characters are Go (due to him being a hardcore gamer, plus he was very cute when he spoke english), Haruo (he was very shy at the start but when he got out his shell due to the loss of his mother his true personality came out and he didn't deserve what happened to him at all) and finally Kite (there is no words, he is hot and awesome that it). Ok so here are the spoilers, let's talk about the death of Koichiro...how come only Ayumu seemed physically and mentally hurt after they all witnessed their father kaboom!?! Go was MORE sad when Gramps died, a man who shot Go with an arrow and who he didn't know for long. Yes people handle grief differently but COME ON THEY LIKE FORGOT ABOUT HIM!!!! The overall look of the anime was beautiful, they had very nice backgrounds and you can tell what they spent most their money on during production, 100% spent the most on the natural disasters, since the people seemed choppy and effortless at times which kind of affected the quality of the anime. I feel like this anime could've been better if they didn't do a death after a death, I feel like they killed off characters too quickly before you could really gain a connection with any of the characters. If deaths were more spread I would've been more upset over the deaths rather than laughing at most of them oops. Overall, I did enjoy watching Japan Sinks 2020 but personally I didn't think it was very good, as it was 10 episodes I feel like the natural disasters were put in each episode continuously which caused it to get boring real quickly, if they had more episodes I feel like the anime could've been more interesting and intense when things went bad. Also some deaths didn't seem as serious as they should've been, come on I can't be the ONLY one who laughed at the kid being crushed by a rock...hehe I am going to hell...I just wish there was more to this anime than just death after death after death, I like the whole natural disaster concept as it makes you think about how small we actually are and how anything could happen and just destroy us. It is an emotional rollercoaster, i just wish they would've spent more time and money on more episodes so things didn't get repetitive. Thank you for reading my kinda review, was more like a rant tbh oops..
just fineshed japan sinks (sorry for the english and the spelling) I really don't know how to describe this without including the words "What the hell was that?" actually it wasn't that good and not bad at the same time i enjoyed the first three episodes and the last episode i didnt like that when they wanted something they had to put risk on they're lives and sacrifice them self like the death of the boy with glasses haruo was the stupidest thing that happend ,to begin, the story of this show was all over the place. It jumped from the city, to the countryside, to some sort of cult camp, to the coast, in the ocean for a while, and then they are saved. I can understand the choices of losing loved ones throughout their journey, but these deaths felt empty, that is not how emotions work. It already begins VERY characteristic when we see both a different hue coming from the central characters, the design as a whole that tends to stand out from the vast majority, nothing has been chosen here. This is all going to be related to the 2020 Olympics that would happen this year, but later on I will get to that. The form and decisions made by the characters are somewhat doubtful, the anime almost always manages to surprise by anticipating the thoughts of the viewer. For example, (Spoiler) the character Kouichirou (Father of the family) who gives the impression that he can be killed by a wild boar, and it does not happen, only to then die by a mine / bomb buried in the ground. This anime at all times shows tiny choices, which can always have big consequences, and this is the anime's way of holding us until the end of the series. Already a feature that differentiates it from other animes in this regard, but that does not mean that because it is different, it is good, it could go very wrong, if the anime did not also focus on the visual factor of the world that it created, that if it does in real life, but with its own established rules. The destruction events are very random and with huge consequences, just like the decisions made by the characters, so everything is very connected, and yes, everything works right from what was established. our group living in some cult. (what else could it be?) They stay they for a stint of time, acting as if their lives are not in grave danger because the ground they literally stand on is at risk of collapsing at any time. the mom had absolutely NO reaction to the death of her own husband for several episodes, the mom had a point to die because of her heart and the animation wasn't that good the part when kite was on the balloon was one of funniest thing in the animeand the part when the boy said mom arigato and the rock hit him bruh ii saw that scene on tt but didn't know it was from this anime, the end was pretty good for ten episodes it motivates some people but it didn't work with me,the premise sounded so interesting to me and the artstyle is one i've always thoroughly enjoyed but holy shit the characters are trash, i liked gou the scene when he mention that why did he born in japan it's relatable for me, and ayumu part at the end they showed her like before but when she was worming up for swimming her body suddenly was so big, and i liked the oppening it was pretty good, i'll give it 6/10.
Japan Sinks 2020 is going to be very difficult to review, because of how wild it is. the main plot is basically like the title, Japan sinks, and a family of people and some other people try to survive through it. You think the plot is that simple? WELL think again ,because storywise, this show is majorly on some fuck shit.It is chaotic the places the story goes. i honestly don't want to spoil much for you, but our ragtag group of people go from one place to the other. It starts out pretty strong though with a super chaotic first episode that was more graphic than i thought, but then watching the rest of the anime is the equivalent of taking my head and twisting it inwards like im in a junji iTo manga or something. First it starts off fine, then the anime turns into Midsommar and Life of Pi, and 8 Mile out of nowhere.What is even more wild is that sometimes, the characters literally go through conflicts that are just pointless and other times they end up in conflicts just to kill people off and that's it. It does this final destination thing where every-time a group photo is taken, people in the photo die, but you dont know who. What I do like is just how the anime does not hold your hand, some major characters do die in this,and pretty brutally i might add. But the down side is that the deaths are mostly for shock value, and you dont have the time to feel emotion because just how INSANE the story is. And when it is emotional, it feels kinda dumb, out of all the times a person died, i can count on one finger a death that i felt for, but then again it was because of some bull-crap that was not foreshadowed at all. Also this show does not have anything to take away from it, instead it has all of these weird smaller themes that are hinted, it feels like Japanese propaganda sometimes and other times there are just themes of passive aggressive racism that honestly made things more complex than it needed to be. For example, one of the conflicts is that the group need to get on the boat, but the people would only accept pureblooded Japanese people, but some of the main characters in the group are Filipino, so they decide to take one child because the children are mixed , but then the children get mad, so the guy kicks all of them off the boat, but honestly why wasn't the conflict more simple such as there was only room for the children, but didn't want to separate from the group so they stay together? The racism did not need to be there, its fine to have themes like that as long as you commit to it, but this show is literally went so many places, that it basically showed me the world like Aladdin. There is this scene were the characters are just rapping about how you should be proud to be Japanese. Maybe this theme of nationalism was apparent in the original novel from the 70's but i doubt in that novel they talk about Youtube, Amazon or Starbucks. This anime was one that made me question if i was actually sane or not. AND IT FELT LIKE IT WOULD NEVER END. It keeps going and going and then it literally ends with a montage of Japan and a long ass monologue. And i was floored on how beautifully messy this anime was. The ending of the anime tries to trick you into thinking it had a theme about how people get you through tough times, which is not true in this show, because in the tough times, the main characters are usually saved by some deus ex machina or by other characters. Speaking of which, the characters are pretty shockingly written. The main character Ayumu in this anime is one of the dumbest characters i have seen in a long time. Her good morality cause her to do some dumb shit, such as giving the last of all the group's water to some random people, contradicting herself on multiple occasions, and just doing dumb things without thinking at all.On one occasion she comes across a guy who can predict when earthquakes happens and he is right all of the time, and then after one pointless conflict, she thinks he wrong, and then the earthquake happens right after that and they basically wasted their time dealing with her and need to escape. You cannot make this shit up.As for the other characters, they basically either die before you get attached to them or are just bland, the kid is fine and all but as child characters go, the cuteness wears off when he starts to whine. Just like any believable story, the group comes across Japan's most popular Youtuber in the country, but just like any typical Youtuber he just turns out to be an asshole with a phone to look smart and no personality. There is also this gag comedian guy from England, who feels like if a child read the novel this was based off of, made an OC for comic relief,and then showed it to his father,and the father was like, "you know what, ill put him in the show why not". All he does in the anime is make childish jokes and i wanted him to die on multiple occasions. Two characters that i kinda liked a lot were the mother,Mari,and this other dude, who has glasses, these two actually for supporting character got a lot of development and in the long run their development really paid off. But the cast in this show is huge, and people are dying left and right. To prove how messy this show is, the father character,Kouichirou Mutou and even Mari are labeled as main characters when that is just not true because the story does not revolve around them, it revolves around their dumb ass child Ayumu. not to mention she probably got more screen time than the two of them COMBINED. I didn't even mention the morphine addict, the cult members, or that fortune telling child, its just wow. I think the problem when having these Netflix anime ONA's are that sure they may look better than other anime on television, but the downside to that is just how quality assurance is almost nonexistent. I know it's an original net animation, but i dont think that should be an excuse of how incoherent and ironically hilarious the direction is. I will never forget the scene where the old guy is suffering from morphine withdrawal in a truck and then it just quick pans to the others like it was a punchline in a sit-com. Also the characters are off model most of the time, and the facial expressions are ironically funny. Then everything became clear when I realized that this shit was directed by Maasaki Yuassa,(NOTE after some research it turns out yuasa just supervised for this show and thats about it so i know for a fact where most of this style came from.) As for the animation, like in devilman crbrbr, There are times where the immersion of the show is completely broken when things look awkward.Now the first episode looked the most professional looking and there are other times here and there where the animators flex their talent,but i felt like the rest of the time, the show felt like it was going to just break apart at any minute, and other times i still couldnt help but compare it to, yes "Ninja Slayer:the animation" This is the first time i can say for an anime that the sound is genuinely bad, so bad that the dub was the best part about it, yes the "DUB". Not only is it bad, but it is unfitting as hell.Most of the music is like this royalty free ambient music that you would listen to while studying, but it happens for so long at times that it bleeds into the tone shifts of the show at makes it feel awkward. If there was a happy moment or even a sad moment, the music would stay the same. There is even a scene at a nightclub, yes there is a scene where the characters go to a nightclub and smoke weed and the main girl almost gets raped, but any way, this guy plays some music but the music does not sound like nightclub music at all, it sounds like music you would hear at like a school fitness festival or a children's hospital office. it was so laughable. The dub is basically the most okay dub ever, it wasn't the best, the script was trash, but the actors did a good job. "just like devilman crybaby" I dont know why even bothered watching this dub while i work on something else, because most of the time, i couldn't look away from my tv, Credit where credit is due, there isn't a single time where i got bored in the anime, there was something always to gasp at, to laugh at, and make you question your meaning in life. Never will i see an anime that has old guys shooting gunman with an arrow in an electric wheelchair, people feeding curry with weed in it to small children, people who shower with their clothes on, and SO MUCH MORE. And these things that I mentioned do not contribute to the story at all.This anime was just so messily written, put together, and the dumbass characters really sealed the deal on making it so bad that it is almost good.
Masaaki Yuasa is an anime director and animator who became pretty famous in recent years, though fans are divided on whether his works are actually good. I myself only just got introduced to his work. I didn't like _Devilman Crybaby_, I thought _Kaiba_ was really confusing, I absolutely LOVE _Ride Your Wave_, and one of his more recent anime, _Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken_, turned out to be pretty amazing as well, but I haven't seen it yet. So when I heard that Yuasa was making an anime called _Japan Sinks_, based on the popular 1973 sci-fi novel by Sakyo Komatsu, I was psyched, because the premise reminded me of _Tokyo Magnitude 8.0_, one of my favorite anime of all time. Since the pandemic has kind of been screwing over the entire world, I thought it'd be nice to check this out to see if it's any good. But then it came out and people began noticing things about it that were just...wrong, not just from a narrative standpoint, but a lot of the decisions the show seemed to make really detrimented its overall quality. Seeing as I already decided to watch it, I decided to give it a fair chance. Needless to say, they were absolutely right. I wouldn't call this the worst anime I've seen, but I'm not gonna lie, _Japan Sinks_ _2020_ is a hot mess. Yuasa, what the hell?! So at first, you think the premise is gonna be kind of cool, focusing on a family and some of their friends dealing with a massive earthquake that decimates everything around them, realizing that Japan is going to sink into the ocean, and doing all they can to help each other and survive. People love stories about people trying their best and dealing with bad situations, and considering that disaster shows/movies tend to overdramatize or exaggerate them to the point of not being accurate to real life, _Japan Sinks 2020_ promising a realistic drama seemed like a breath of fresh air, and people went into it with those expectations in mind. I know I did, having seen and loved Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 myself. Japan Sinks does start off that way at first, but after a couple episodes, it quickly turns into a complete mess with weird story decisions, bad animation, random irrelevant characters and subplots thrown in that don't fit or don't add anything to the narrative, badly executed themes, and is completely inconsistent in every way. And coming from Yuasa, who actually can write a good story when he wants to, you'd think he'd have known better! For one, the animation. Again, Yuasa is well known for being a great animator, with his works always displaying surrealist or fluid animation that really brings out the best in what he's working on. With simplistic character designs that stay away from the typical anime style, low shading, and realistic backgrounds, you'd think this would be great. Hell, the opening is fantastically animated, opting for a slow moving, watercolor look to it that absolutely encapsulates the peaceful life the Mutous lived before everything went to shit, with the song being just as good. Sadly, the animation is just one of many, many problems that plague the show. Many times the characters look plain wonky, with body parts looking out of place or have weirdly angled faces. Or other times you'll get shots like [this](https://i2.wp.com/starcrossedanime.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Japan-Sinks-5.2.png?ssl=1), where they look like they were drawn by back-alley artists who can't seem to get perspective down in any way whatsoever, resulting it hilariously bad anatomy. Character motion is oddly jerky and stiltied, and facial expressions always look more derpy and cross eyed, failing at conveying any kind of emotion whatsoever. In stark contrast, the backgrounds completely avoid such problems. All of the backgrounds are wonderfully drawn, from multicolored lights illuminating the forest around a shrine, to tumultuous waters during a stormy sea, , to collapsed buildings and landscapes that convey just how desolate Japan is after the earthquakes that hit it, from a visual standpoint, those stand out in the best ways. Sadly, because of the lackluster character animation, this makes the overall art direction in the show very inconsistent. Also, some of the character designs are flat out strange. Go, the little boy, has a big head of hair that makes him look like he has a big mud ball on his head, one that's too big for his head at that, and the thick eyebrows just don't work. Ayumu, our lead character, is said to be in middle school, but she looks like she could be in high school at the oldest. The music fares much better, all of it being either well performed or well sung, with the opening song being the best out of them all. But it's the usage of the music that doesn't work. It's no question that Kensuke Ushio is a great musician who makes great music. However, for some reason, the creators of this had the bright idea to place ill-fitting music in ill-fitting scenes, such as upbeat piano tunes during a disastrous earthquake, or a peppy beat when a character is brutally killed, or a sad, somber melody when cooking dinner. Great music won't work if you continually misuse it, and again, Ushio's work is scattered all over the place and used inappropriately. It really says something when the English _Digimon_ soundtrack, as flawed as it is, manages to make better use of its music than this does, and considering many people hate the _Digimon_ dub's soundtrack for a variety of reasons, that's saying a lot! Speaking of somber and ill-fitting, the show seems to think that if it shoves in as many mature elements, kills people off every episode, and becomes darker and darker as it goes on, that that will make the show good. This is not the case. As shows such as _Magical Girl Site, Cross Ange_, and _Afro Samurai_ can attest, continual drama, angst, darkness, violence, and mature subject matter do not automatically make something good. Again, it all comes down to execution, and frankly, _Japan Sinks_ fails at making use of its themes, setting, and pretty much everything else. The absolute nadir of this is the random cult arc that takes up episodes 4-6, where the characters take shelter at a camp that turns out to be a cult that worships a woman who can supposedly speak to the dead. I know that in some circumstances, people tend to fall back on religion when disasters happen, but the whole cut thing just felt tacked on and pointless, along with various other scenes within it, such as a random sex scene between the cult leader and her husband (Though, to the show's very little credit, the sex scene is MUCH more tasteful than anything in _Devilman Crybaby_), various cultists trying to shoot said cult leader and steal her gold for no clear dumbass reason, the cult leader's child being mute, and so on. Basically, the whole arc doesn't do anything to further the story other than introduce the scientist who would later join them, and the writers could have easily written a much more organic, sensible reason for having him join them. It's just overall pointless and needlessly padded out. You could cut the whole arc out and nothing to be lost. Also, what the hell was the point of having TWO scenes were some creep attempts to rape two of the female characters?! It'd be one thing if those scenes actually furthered the narrative, but they don't, and throwing in random rapists in an attempt to cause conflict is just tasteless because they're just there to be creeps and nothing else, so they're totally vapid and one-note, serving no purpose other than trying to force drama when there doesn't need to be any. And speaking of vapid and one-note, the characters. All of them are pretty much stereotypes with little to no real personality to them other than being eccentric in some way, and many of them get killed off without even so much as a real character arc. Not only that, their characterization is wildly inconsistent at times. Take for example Ayumu, the main girl. At one point, she disses some guy's footage of Okinawa sinking as fake news with no basis, and later on, she suddenly soapboxes about how stealing is wrong. The biggest offender is the old man with the drug problem, who isn't even named in the show (He's called Kunio in the credits, but if the show itself doesn't care to give him a name, why should we?) who wildly flips between being violent to caring to drug-addled to crazy, often within the same scene. Hell, Kite, the white haired YouTuber, isn't really so much a character as he is a plot device whose sole purpose is to replace the dad and make things more convenient for the characters. He's somehow this super awesome dude who can get anything done, and everything he does is conveniently beneficial to the characters, from flying on balloons to somehow acquiring a SEAFARING MILITARY TANK OUT OF FREAKING NOWHERE. Plus, any development the characters do get isn't even on their own, but due to some outside source. Haruo, the shut-in who doesn't talk much, and arguably the best character in this series IMHO, gradually talks more and becomes more proactive, but is it because he willingly decides to come out of his shell and help people rather than wallow in his own issues and problems? Nope! It's all because he got hooked on weed! So the development he winds up getting doesn't feel earned and is just the result of the writers having someone else force him to become more assertive because they couldn't be bothered to, y'know, write him more naturally. Furthermore, several one-off characters, such as xenophobic racists, are only thrown in there just to be a one-off adversary the main cast can soapbox about being Japanese too without actually trying to write them being more subtle and three-dimensional. Oh, and all of the issues the show tries to tackle, such as national identity, racism, xenophobia, and drugs, are all written with as much subtlety as an elephant in a china shop or a nihilistic 14-year-old emo kid thinking cramming mature subjects in will automatically make something good. Uh, no. That's not how this stuff works! Yuasa, you should know this by now! Building off of this, I'm going to paraphrase something [a fellow reviewer](https://starcrossedanime.com/japan-sinks-2020-anime-review-22-100/) said about the show and why its characters and characterizations are so haphazard: Lots of anime have characters that are little more than archetypes, but here's the thing: When you promote your show as being something, such as a realistic character drama, you're giving your audience expectations for that show and its characters. Nobody goes into shows like _Princess Connect: ReDive_ or _Love Live_ to have realistic, grounded characterization for its cast, because those shows rely on a certain gimmick, like moe cuteness or idols. But when you bill your series as a realistic character drama, the viewers are going to expect that, so _Japan Sinks_ throwing in all of these random archetypes, stupid subplots that either detract from the narrative or don't go anywhere, and ridiculously overblown darkness and melodrama goes against the expectations the audience has for it, which further begs the question of why the writers even decided to go this direction in the first place. Seriously, if you want a disaster anime that's actually a realistic character drama and doesn't get off on trying to be as dark and shove in as many "mature" elements as possible, just go watch _Tokyo Magnitude 8.0_! It may be years since I saw that show, but I can guarantee you that it has much better writing, characters, and themes than Japan Sinks could hope to achieve, and it didn't try to be something that it wasn't! Which begs the main question: What the hell, Yuasa?! How could you go from writing awesome anime such as _Ride Your Wave_ and _Keep Your Hands off Eizouken_ to this?! You're good at writing well-rounded characters, stories, and know how to get a handle on your themes when you're not trying to go all out in your weirdness! You should know better! And considering this is his last TV project, as Yuasa announced that he was retiring as president of Science Saru, you'd think he would want to end his animation career on a high note! Well, there is _Inu-Oh_ coming up, so that could change. Now, the only reason I didn't rate this lower than 40 is because it didn't make me angry or offend me like other genuinely bad stuff I've seen did, and it does have very, VERY few genuinely good things about it, so I'm going to give it what little credit it does deserve. _Japan Sinks_ honestly isn't the worst thing I've seen, but it's just not worth it. Seriously. Don't waste your breath on this one. Just watch _Tokyo Magnitude 8.0_, which IMHO tackles this premise much better.