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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Related Anime

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

Jul 9, 2020

HenriqueNeves

Recommended

Japan Sinks 2020 - An anime about "earthquakes" that start to happen in an uncontrolled way, and can sink Japan, in this dangerous scenario, we accompany a family that so much finds a way to survive in the face of all this chaos.

The first thing worth mentioning about "Japan Sinks 2020" is how earthquakes are not the main focus of the anime. The notable presence is in the huge variety of subjects discussed all the time about JAPAN. If you came expecting an anime "about natural disasters" you were probably disappointed, but this is not the anime's fault, it's about the expectation created about the ... genre. Yes, it is an anime about natural disasters, and the events have consequences, but they serve more as an ornament for the central events of the anime, so much so that the first earthquake happens very quickly (of course, with your degree of concern, put it’s still an earthquake), but throughout the series, what’s really worth noting is how the main characters fit into the allegory that the anime builds.

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.

Masaaki Yuasa's direction, as always incredible, decides to give a greater brightness to the space where his events occur, and not so much in his characters. Here, different from other of his animations, he focuses more on the amplitude of his scenarios, which besides being very beautiful and detailed, are also frightening and distressing due to the representation of disaster so well achieved. The way the anime is framed reminds me a little "Tokyo Magnitude 8.0", that we also have its simplest characters and maybe less animated than it should, but it also focuses on the immensity of the destruction, it creates this real feeling very well that we are in that medium, and tries as hard as possible to represent the situation passed by the characters. But like everything else I said, about anime creating its own reality to talk about its main subject, which is not natural disasters, this is also reflected in scenarios and animation. The scenarios are real, but it is a reality within Japan Sinks 2020, it is not meant to be a situation of almost 100% real destruction as in Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, the goal is to help further illustrate events and decisions made by the characters, and the consequences of their acts that are often extreme.

This would be the year of the Olympics if it weren't for the pandemic problem, and the anime was originally scheduled to be released in October, even closer to the event. We know that an Olympics brings together different people from all over the world, people of different skin, religions, beliefs and everything that our world can provide with differences. Usually, people who do not live in their country of origin tend to create very vague judgments about that place that does not live together, and a lot of anime may reinforce this stereotype, but "Japan Sinks 2020" does it differently. Firstly, showing problems that are not widely discussed in other countries, but that actually exist anywhere in the world, as generous actions that are also not very expected, sometimes even cause distrust, showing foreigners in a strange and sometimes strange way. different, but reliable, friendly and heroic too. At all times we can see the anime breaking some stereotypes and using them in its allegory.

The goal is to try to generate a concept very close to: "we are not just what the media shows, or how our image is sold, we have the same problems and quality as you and yet we have our culture". The anime shows a little resistance all the time of the older and more conservative there are people from other countries. The whole world would meet in the country this year, so this is perhaps an anime more aimed at the "Japanese" audience, both foreign characters and other naturalized Japanese but of mixed races tend to be generous with others, and sometimes the opposite too. (Spoiler) The old man at the convenience store who hates foreigners, spectacular scene from Episode 9 where they rhyme and the last minutes of the Final Episode are almost like a "summary" that kind of helps to understand a little of this problematic created by anime in a genius way. That's why I said at the beginning of the review that the earthquake is not the main focus of the series, but what it does between the lines that is so great.

"Japan Sinks 2020" is an anime with such important moral importance, and above all, making total sense within the world established by itself where it manages to reach its social criticism very well.

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Jul 14, 2020

Okazaki16

Mixed Feelings

You won't get bored with this anime, but the arguments, the lack of emotions in some crucial points of the story, the unreal behavior of the people makes you think "Why am I watching this?"

The characters are really bad constructed, and as I said before, they do not react as a human being when for example dies someone close to them. It is really painful to watch that moments.

I liked the art, not my style, but it's good to get out of the routine sometimes. The sound is normal, nothing amazing. And at least the story is crap, I didn't like it at all.

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Jul 9, 2020

cateypillar

Not Recommended

It’s fitting how this show is called “Japan Sinks”, as my expectations for Japan’s animation industry seemed to sink lower and lower with each passing minute that I viewed this train-wreck.

Japan Sinks is undeniably a poor work, but what truly prompted me to fully mull over this cesspool of incompetence and juvenility was how fascinatingly abysmal it truly was. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill Netflix-commissioned anime schlock, this is a show created under the eyes of the renowned Masaaki Yuasa. Science SARU (Masaaki’s own studio), was at the helm here, and while they’ve been fairly hit-or-miss over the past year or so, they also created Devilman: ... Crybaby back in 2018, a show that shook the earth (pun intended) with its experimental flare and masterful use of controlled chaos. Many -- including myself -- had high hopes for a similar situation in which culture would be completely shocked, hopefully creating a work as impactful and year-defining as that was. Everything has been lining up to its release, I mean, 2020 is the year of endless possibilities for controlled chaos -- just look out your window. A show as dark in tone as Devilman coupled with a more realistic edge released in a year of actual disasters was clearly a recipe for true success. It would be foolish to wonder “what could go wrong?” in a year that continually proves to be the antithesis of that philosophy, but the answer to that sadly lined up with the established pattern of our beloved 2020.

In Japan Sinks, we follow a family throughout a period of seemingly-endless suffering, all triggered by a few gargantuan earthquakes. There’s not much to say about this family, because they’re more so based off of the archetypal roles of a modern family, rather than being real people with genuine motivations and personality traits. This issue is also extended to the numerous friends they meet along the way. Because of this, none of the characters in this character-based show feel real. In a story in which Japan literally sinks, it’s unsurprising that there’s going to be loads of death and destruction, but the way the characters handle all of these incidents proves to be frustratingly alien. Nobody seems to care all that much when a man is blown to bits by a bomb or when a child is brutally crushed by a falling building: they instead tend to grieve for a few minutes, then move on with their comedic-hijinks directly after to lighten the mood. The pace isn’t so rapid and dizzying to send a suffocatingly-bleak message along the lines of: “this is your new reality, people perish like that!, and after that it’s time to move on.” No, far from it. It feels more like the creators were too apprehensive around the idea of fully committing to a despairing atmosphere, so they instead opted for the most extreme version of tonal-whiplash possible. After the first few episodes, we’re clearly shown that these non-characters will be killed off out of nowhere for the sake of creating a dramatic cliffhanger at the end of each episode, so why should the viewer care? They have no unique identities to assume outside of their most basic character descriptors, (Mom. Daughter. E-boy.) and their passings aren’t convincingly grieved over by the rest of the cast, so why should we care?

The characters are already bad enough, but even worse are the situations that they’re thrust into. Japan Sinks has to be one of the only one-cour (actually, even less!) shows I’ve seen in which multiple episodes felt like complete filler. It’s hard to understand what the show was going for in the middle portion in which the cast find themselves entangled in a cult, but these episodes completely eradicated any suspension-of-disbelief I attempted to latch onto at first. The show transforms from what seems to be an intimate family drama to a total cluster of tonally-conflicting concepts, truly making you wonder what the show wanted to say. The fact that the most famous YouTuber in all of Japan decides to ride around with this random family after a chance encounter is inadvertently hilarious in and of itself, but are we truly supposed to take that seriously? How much in this show is supposed to be taken seriously at all? The realistic edge I presumed it would have seemed to be absent following the first few episodes, as fantastical elements such as spiritual mediums who can speak to the dead as well as a travel YouTuber a la Logan Paul having a kind heart began to ruin any sense of thematic consistency it started with.

Visually, it’s a nightmare. It hurts to say that seeing as Yuasa is one of the most visually-inventive directors in the medium, but it’s the sad truth here. The character designs are fairly basic, yet they rarely seemed to stay on-model, and this was increasingly apparent within the middle segment of the show. It’s clear that a large part of it was outsourced to places it shouldn’t have been, but keyframes are constantly missing nonetheless, which leads to scenes that should be able to deliver some kind of impact falling flat and often airing on the side of hilarity. There’s moments where Yuasa clearly did have his influence with his strange use of color and anatomical fluidity, but they’re few and far between. The messy transitions from these visual peaks back down to the horrific rest of the show harshly broke immersion, and had me promptly recall, “oh, I’m watching Pyeon-Gang again,” every single time. The bitter feeling of squandered potential truly stung in those moments.

There’s an awful, awful choice made regarding the voice-acting throughout the entirety of this catastrophe that made this one of the most unintentionally hilarious shows I’ve seen in a long time. In a moment of pure genius during production, someone realized in order to truly immerse the viewer in the cultural-diversity of the cast, (seeing as it follows the aftermath of the 2020 Olympics), characters should shout out miscellaneous phrases in English...usually at the worst possible times. At least this aspect made this train-wreck somewhat entertaining. The son who’s not a fan of Japan and its culture compensates for his disdain by often randomly blurting out Engrish jumbles of words in the middle of horrific moments, like “What the! That is cwazy! No!” anytime anything that could be considered “shocking” occurred. The absolute peak of the show was when he unironically said “live, love, laugh!” like a 50 year old white woman in the midst of what should’ve been a scene of pure emotional catharsis. After that, I was simply waiting for him to screech “bazinga!” after stumbling upon a mutilated corpse. There’s also a stereotypical caricature of an American man who claims to be British despite there being no indication of such being the case, (Well, I mean, I wouldn’t be opposed to distancing myself from America in 2020 either, so I don’t necessarily don’t blame him), and he also speaks in this way, but at least it fits his identity? Ok, well that’s actually no excuse, because he cried out “hasta la vista baby!” during what the show wanted to be a dramatic climax, and I think I lost a solid number of brain cells upon hearing that. Really, what am I supposed to feel throughout all of this? All of these choices are constantly at odds with a story that should’ve fully embraced its tragic circumstances.

These are all separate pieces of a puzzle that simply don’t fit together. The vision of the creators is present, but what message does this show actually want to deliver to its audience? During its conclusion, it takes a pseudo-nationalist stance, campaigning for the idea of loving your country no matter what and endlessly supporting them in times of need. Ok. Interesting message (if not somewhat tone-deaf to reality), but where was it for the first eight episodes? Not to mention this message feels shoehorned-in in the most banal, trite way imaginable. The characters are too one-note to get attached to, the timing of both the comedic and disastrous moments are both so poor that they blend in together eventually, and the “inspirational story” backing it all up that should have mitigated a number of these glaring flaws is too flawed in and of itself to take seriously. The fascination that captivated me around this show wasn’t from a source of awe like when pondering Devilman, but instead came from seeing something that had so many things going for it disregard all of that and fail in such a calamitous way. If I, a highly-sensitive crybaby found myself laughing at what should’ve been devilishly disturbing, then you know they messed up on this one. Honestly, the real 2020 disaster was this show's existence itself.

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Nihon Chinbotsu 2020

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Mutou, Mari

Mutou, Ayumu

Mutou, Gou

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Koga, Haruo

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Nihon Chinbotsu 2020

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Information

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Available At

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Streaming Platforms

Synopsis

Background

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Characters & Voice Actors

Staff

Opening Theme

Ending Theme

Reviews

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