Nihon Chinbotsu 2020 (Japan Sinks: 2020)

The Mutou family leads a peaceful life: Kouichirou works at a construction site and his wife Mari is returning from an overseas trip. Their daughter Ayumu has just finished her track practice while their son Gou is playing video games at home. However, life as they know it is flipped upside down when a calamitous earthquake strikes the entire Japanese archipelago—obliterating the face of the country in an instant.

With society crumbling around them and their nation gradually sinking into the ocean, the Mutou family must band together to survive the catastrophe. Treading the near-apocalyptic setting, they struggle not only to stay alive, but also to learn the difficulty of coping with loss.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

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Background

Nihon Chinbotsu 2020 is an original net animation and one of many works based on Sakyo Komatsu's award-winning 1973 disaster novel of the same name. The ten episodes were released exclusively on Netflix in July 2020.

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Adaptation:	Nihon Chinbotsu, Nihon Chinbotsu
Alternative version:	Nihon Chinbotsu 2020 Gekijou Henshuuban: Shizumanu Kibou

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Mutou, Mari

Main

Sasaki, Yuuko
Japanese

Mutou, Ayumu

Main

Ueda, Reina
Japanese

Mutou, Gou

Main

Muranaka, Tomo
Japanese

Kite

Supporting

Ono, Kensho
Japanese

Koga, Haruo

Supporting

Yoshino, Hiroyuki
Japanese

Hikita, Kunio

Supporting

Sasaki, Umeji
Japanese

Daniel

Supporting

Cockle, George
Japanese

Mutou, Kouichirou

Supporting

Terasoma, Masaki
Japanese

Miura, Nanami

Supporting

Mori, Nanako
Japanese

Murota, Kanae

Supporting

Shiota, Tomoko
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Choi, Eun-Young

Producer

Yuasa, Masaaki

Director, Storyboard

Heo, Pyeonggang

Director

Kimura, Eriko

Sound Director

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Opening Theme

"a life" by Taeko Oonuki & Ryuichi Sakamoto

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Ending Theme

"Keshiki (景色)" by KAF (花譜) (eps 10)

Reviews

Feb 6, 2024

lrdalucard

Recommended

Good anime, quite well adapted to the today's time. My guess for the low reviews is due to the audience being to young and not fare well with "loss" and very adult themes in general. Which is something you will be experience a lot in this anime, sometimes it will be very brutal... and gory hence why I think the artistic direction for this anime fits... here's why:

Artistic direction, although is not your tipical bright Anime show, it actually fits the Anime mood very well. Has the show isn't exactly your happy go lucky show and things don't go the way you expect most ...

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Apr 1, 2024

ImNotAnOtaku1

Mixed Feelings

An anime that behaves like a regular TV show for an adult audience. This is the best way that "Japan Sinks 2020" could be described, it is an anime that just does not aim to be one. While arguably over 90% of all anime shows out there tend towards fantasy, the supernatural, futuristic sci-fi, or just have characters with some superhuman capabilities, the show we've got at hand is one of the rare ones that remains entirely realistic at all times and never really breaks into over-the-top action or any other clichés commonly associated with this sort of media.

Nihon Chinbotsu 2020 parts from a very ... interesting concept: Japan sinking into the ocean due to a mass-scale natural catastrophe. Now, while the premise is indeed interesting, it's merely adapted from the novel "Japan Sinks", published in 1973, and it is one that's been adapted to other type of media: movies, manga, TV shows, etc. This, of course, adapts this story to anime and sets it in the modern day... and it doesn't really work too well, due to a myriad of factors. It is worth nothing that Nihon Chinbotsu 2020 is not a direct adaptation of the original novel, and instead takes a lot of creative liberties with the source material while still working with its core, so much of what you will see in this anime is an original experience.

Now, where shall we begin? Perhaps the most notorious thing about this ONA is that it entirely breaks out of the regular topics that this sort of media normally deals with, by touching into MANY taboos that anime has always avoided; while most series tend to focus on plots set in alternative worlds, or have a really partial, idealized or superficial vision of Japan and its society, Japan Sinks 2020 jumps straight into the mud by portraying topics very few anime touch on, in a considerably realistic manner: drug use, addiction, rape, mental illness, sociopolitical issues, and the actual impact of death and destruction on people's lives and psyches. Throughout the 10 episodes this animation provides, there's no shortage of controversial things to be found, many of which might just be rather shocking due to their portrayal being gruesomely realistic for what pretty much is a bunch of drawings with motion. Many characters will sometimes die in sudden, and at times brutal manners, leaving the viewer little time to even process what's going on. The absolute breakdown of society as a result of the catastrophe illustrated by this show demonstrates how many individuals can and will let their moral values go down the drain. Everything to be seen here comes off as bleak and depressing, like a bucket of cold water to the average anime viewer who might usually be used to more lighthearted stories, or at least ones that draw a noticeable line between reality and fiction.

Reality, and fiction. Yes, a line is drawn somewhere, but in the case of Nihon Chinbotsu 2020, said line is considerably blurred. Regardless of how we may look at things, this is definitely a sci-fi show, because it's simply not geologically feasible for Japan to completely sink into the ocean, so the events to be found here remain entirely as a theoretical concept, but within said theoretical concept, we get a very real and very gruesome depiction of what an event like this one could (and likely would) be like. One great thing this anime manages to do is keep you on the edge of your seat, because the plot develops itself in a coherent manner and carries a constant tension, never truly allowing the viewer to feel calm as they expect the unexpected. However, while the story provided to us is rather great and captivating, it is also considerably rushed, and that brings me back to the very first sentence in this review, which points out the main issue with Japan Sinks 2020: this is not a plot designed for an anime.

TV shows normally have episodes that last 40–50 minutes. That's double the runtime of the average anime's episode. In this time, a single arc or event can be developed in a lot more detail than in the roughly 20 minutes of content anime tends to provide per episode. Considering this anime has 10 episodes, the plot is just bound to have a quick pace; that's a bit over 3 hours of actual content, excluding OP and ED; it will likely take you longer to read the novel this is based (or more like inspired) on, which has some 300 or 400 pages. The speed at which the plot develops leaves little space for reflection or for some better character development; some heavily shocking events will sometimes happen, such as someone's sudden death, and the characters won't even really stop to mourn or at least mentally process what just happened, because that would take minutes away from the short timespan in which the plot develops. The end result of this is that every single event here lacks any more impact than perhaps an initial shock, and it then hardly seems to carry over to the rest of the plot.

On top of the plot not really working for an anime format, the animation is... bad, honestly. The art style aims towards a certain type of realism; it's not flashy nor colorful, instead it uses muted, more realistic color palettes and reduces all the eye candy to create a much grittier image that is much more compatible with what's being portrayed. While the animators did a great job with that, the animation still is rather uncomfortable to watch at times: the lines are rough, the different camera angles make the animation look awkward at times, the art style tends towards being realistic, but looks too rough, while the animation often times falls short in terms of detail, and at times attempts at being realistic and instead just creates some rather ugly frames. At times, this feels like an anime from the early or mid 2000s, and it breaks immersion. However, one highlight that must be mentioned is that whenever it comes to portraying the misery of such a disaster or death, the art and animation goes out of its way to be detailed and gruesome: the death of some characters is portrayed in brutal manners, some of the scenes to be seen are way too gory even for the average anime, and the depictions of the ruins of a Japan is very good.

The character design is very realistic, but also feels plain and uninspired in its visual aspects. The voice acting isn't exaggerated, it feels considerably casual and make all the characters feel much more human than in other similar media. However, one big issue to be mentioned here is that the characters' personalities are just BAD, and their development is BAD. This show, being a Netflix original, naturally goes out of its way to be uncommonly multicultural, as we see that many of the main characters are not Japanese, or are just half-Japanese. While this is in no way an issue, and if anything, it is a breath of fresh air for the usually-copious anime character design, it does feel rather forced. The ethnicity and origin of the characters does play a role in the plot, but it feels like it does so only for sociopolitical commentary, as it never actually takes any major incidence. One thing that is often just annoying about Nihon Chinbotsu 2020 is how its characters feel completely disconnected from the events happening around them; they'll start speaking English randomly, for seemingly no reason, or they will do something odd that feels completely unnecessary, such as taking some 5 minutes of an episode to rap about how they feel, and while this might work to show a sense of normalcy in the face of disaster, it just doesn't feel natural, and that's in huge part due to how rushed the plot is, not really allowing for events to take any impact or for the viewer to properly notice any shift in a character's personality or mood.

Now, lastly, there is one more issue with Nihon Chinbotsu 2020, and it is probably the one that can be the most annoying: it is many times absurd. How so? Well, perhaps in the way it portrays society's breakdown, tending towards something that's more similar to The Last of Us' scenario rather than what many might consider to be a more realistic outcome in which a lot of people don't just become completely uncivilized criminals. Perhaps it is in the way that seemingly all characters die in very unlikely manners. Or perhaps it is in the way one can predict which character will die next, and how. Or perhaps on how it would seem like the protagonists manage to survive almost all situations by the skin of their teeth. As the plot advances, it gets rather annoying and tedious, and all the shock from the events seen in the earlier episodes fails to replicate in the later ones due to it becoming somewhat formulaic.

After all of this, though, a question remains: is Japan Sinks 2020 a worthwhile anime? In more than one way, no. Should I watch it? Yes, it is worth watching. This is an anime that was not meant to be an anime, but it is also a story that wouldn't have been easy or even good if done as a regular live action TV show. It nevertheless is an interesting experiment in an industry that has perhaps become known for repeating the same concepts to boredom, it is certainly a breath of fresh air and makes for an entertaining experience, albeit a somewhat quality-lacking one. This ONA tries to be more than it can possibly be, and maybe it even falls short on what it can actually be, but it's still sometime worth experiencing. Yes, I give this a 7, and a "Mixed Feelings" review, because even if it's an engrossing anime, it is a bad one in a lot of practical aspects. You should go ahead and give this a try, though, because good or bad, it's undeniably a highlight in a massive sea of copious media.

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Sep 8, 2023

VonDemus

Not Recommended

The first episode is quite good, but after that, the series turns into quite a mess, like a totally different show. The characters often act so illogically that it's almost an insult to the viewer's intelligence. It's as if the characters lack normal human emotions. Just a few minutes after a highly traumatic moment, such as a brutal death of an important character, the characters might appear to have completely forgotten that anything even happened. The promising first episode gave me false hope that the series would improve as it progressed, but unfortunately, it didn't. It's rare for me to feel that a show I've ...

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Poll: Nihon Chinbotsu 2020 Episode 6 Discussion FMmatron - Jul 9, 2020	46 replies	by ImNotAnOtaku1 »» Mar 30, 10:25 PM
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Nihon Chinbotsu 2020

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Mutou, Mari

Mutou, Ayumu

Mutou, Gou

Kite

Koga, Haruo

Hikita, Kunio

Daniel

Mutou, Kouichirou

Miura, Nanami

Murota, Kanae

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Nihon Chinbotsu 2020

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Available At

Resources

Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

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Staff

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Ending Theme

Reviews

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