Shichigahama de Mitsuketa

This was, at the time of the review, available on a Youtube account going by the same name as the series. As the synopsis states, it is a short ONA released by a town with a population of almost 19.000 which commemorates the 10-year anniversary of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Now, I have no idea what those people went through back then as I live in a rather safe from those calamities area, but I'd say it did a pretty good job at portraying both the context and the message even to the likes of me.

Production 1.5/3 (5)
I won't lie. The production wasn't ... stellar. It was mediocre at best, considering the background of how this came into existence. It has this rough art style, which I like for some reason. It looks like those sketches you usually do 2-3 years in, but at least they are easy to animate (and I suppose this did not have the budget of the latest Fate movies vOv). So yeah.. I'll cut it some slack. It would be more appropriate to compare it to an animation school project instead. In other words, if you don't mind the rather indie look, go for it.

Story 1.4/2 (7)
The story was pretty straight-forward. It was not innovative, but, unlike Nihon Chinbotsu 2020 (which I found truly horrendous), this didn't try to capitalize on the shock factor. Instead it chose the 'I have no idea what's happening -> it doesn't look that bad -> ok, maybe our city's destroyed' route.

It didn't even spend that much time on how atrocious the earthquake and tsunami have been. The message wasn't 'earthquake bad, the world is ending' and that was great. We've got through it, we've rebuilt our small haven and we moved on. Now that's a much more respectable take on the ordeal. Imho, this mentality is what managed to bounce Japan back from what happened and I found this series to be a pretty good portrayal of it, even thought it didn't go in-depth on the aforementioned aspects.

Characters 0.5/1 (5)
How much can you see in such a short time? To be honest, the characters were average Joes and that's perfect. The glasses girl was pretty much a self-insert for the audience. Look how far we've managed to get in those 10 years.

Sound 0.6/1 (6)
Nothing peculiar in this regard either, but the voice acting was rather good. Unexpectedly good considering the overall production and the fact that it has been done by a small town.

Enjoyment 1.8/3 (6)
I am not the target audience, but, despite that and the fact that I cannot fully comprehend the fear of calamities, I found the message and the path this took in order to convey it to be rather beautiful. 'It doesn't matter what happens in your daily life, what's important is getting over it' - Costel, compactor roller operator.

Total = 5.8 (fine)
Rating a commemorative series such as this on a normal scale is unfair, but I consider it good for its kind. It made me think about what happened and that was its purpose. Unlike Nihon Chinbotsu, this is not so stupid you can't take it seriously and it also has a meaningful message.