Title: Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 || Alt. Title: Tokyo Magnitude 8
Genre: Drama, Disaster, Tragedy, Contemporary, Suspense || Writer: Takahashi Natsuko
Director: Masaki Tachibana || Producer: Ozaki Noriko, Matsuka Yuichiro
Original Run: July 9, 2009 – September 17, 2009 || Episode Count: 11 Episodes
Plot –
After a massive earthquake in Tokyo 25 km under the sea at a magnitude of 8.0, siblings Mirai and Yuuki, who were visiting a robot exhibition at Odaiba at the beginning of their summer vacation, struggle to reach their parents in their house in Setagaya, assisted by a female motorcycle courier named Mari, who is striving to reach her own daughter and mother in Sangenjaya. Together, the three brave the ruined city and try their best to make it home safely.
Characterization and Voice Acting –
The series has a young girl named Mirai Onozawa as the leading character whose life and struggles have been pictured in the whole story, to be precise. The other two main characters apart from the lead protagonist are Kusakabe Mari – the lady who helps her and her younger brother – Yuuki Onozawa – to get back to their home safely. The character development in the whole series is praiseworthy. The transitions brought about by the circumstances in the human behavior as a whole has been pictured in a very authentic manner. The voice acting undoubtedly is one of the best. To be more specific, the voice casting of Yuuki is something you should emphasize more on. It is done in a very distinct manner. The innocence and the mental maturity have been reflected very proficiently through the voice casting itself.
The side characters – Parents of the Protagonist and others – have been presented in a fair and noteworthy manner as well, although their roles in the series may have been comparatively shorter but still the director managed to give a crystal clear image of the whole case scenario with efficiency.
Onozawa, Mirai – Voiced by Hanamura, Satomi (Jap.) and Christian, Luci (Eng.)
Onozawa, Yuuki – Voiced by Kobayashi, Yumiko (Jap.) and Grant, Tiffany (Eng.)
Kusakabe, Mari – Voiced by Kaida, Yuko (Jap.) and Calene-Black, Shelly (Eng.)
Parents of the Protagonist:
Onozawa, Senji – Voiced by Naka, Hiroshi (Jap.) and Matranga, David (Eng.)
Onozawa, Masami – Voiced by Inoue, Kikuko (Jap.) and Flecknoe, Maggie (Eng.)
Artwork –
The artwork as a whole resembles that of Ghibli’s Spirited Away. It is done in the simplest way possible and hence is able to grab the attention of the watcher. The expressions of the characters under different circumstances are very vividly reflected, apart from the dialogues, mainly through the artwork. Not much detailing, yet very well managed.
The importance shall be laid more on the designs and artwork of the buildings and architecture of the towns/cities as a whole. It is very common to present normal townscape scenario anywhere but what is most challenging is to make it look as real as possible after the disaster effect. The damage and the property loss as a whole have been presented in a very efficient manner, too undoubtedly.
Ratings –
Plot: Gets a rating of 7.5/10 from me as it is nothing extraordinary in nature. It is a work of fiction based on a random character’s life during the time of a disaster which really took place in Tokyo in recent times. Still, it deserves a rating of 7.5+.
Character Design and Voice Acting: On this ground in particular, I rate the series as 8/10 – wrt to the Character Design, Animation and Voice Casting
Artwork: For artwork, the series gets an 8.5/10
Average Rating: 8/10
MyAnimeList Rating: 8.2/10 || IMDB Rating: 8.1/10
