The first thing I loved about the story was how the main character was developed. I loved her transformation from this detached and disenfranchised individual into someone that deeply cared for those around her. The way that that she grows more attached to her younger brother throughout the course of the narrative was beautifully executed in achieving this effect. What helps particularly is the strong chemistry between them. They managed to make the younger brother from someone that could’ve easily been an annoying/forgettable character into someone that I deeply cared for. And when it turns out that he actually passed away, it hit me like a thunderbolt. And the pain that the protagonist feels and how she learns to move past it was quite beautiful to say the least. And I loved how the story found ways to teach the protagonist the merits of having a positive attitude, thus forcing her to develop as she slowly discards her pessimistic worldview. She sees that despite how bad things get during this crisis, there are many people still striving to do good for those around them despite how much they’ve suffered. I think the two grieving grandparent characters taking in refugees at the midpoint in the series really illustrated this idea quite well. I also thought Hina’s commitment to protecting our two main characters was also really helpful in this regard since she served as a strong role model for them to mold themselves after. Now many people might be quick to point out that the main character is insufferable due to how negative she is at the start of the series. Personally, I think that this is actually a good thing since it gives her an excellent starting point for her development. And given that her initial frustration at her relatively boring existence is something that we can all relate to at some point or another, makes her development even more powerful since her becoming more endearing is now part of her character arc.
The second thing I really enjoyed about the show was the chemistry between Mirai, Yuuki, and Mari. It’s kind of hard to explain, but the show did an excellent job of endearing me to these three characters. I think that the humorous banter between them was extremely enjoyable, and the more serious dramatic moments fed into these enough that they actually felt substantive in nature. You can really get the sense that despite their horrendous situation, they do form a sort of tight-knit family by the end of it. I think what really solidified the sentiment was the scene where our two main heroes try to get a bike for Mari so she could rescue her own family despite the risks involved. I also liked the scene earlier on in the series where Mari gives away her own daughter’s birthday cake to our protagonist so she can ensure they don’t go hungry under the bridge. It scenes like this that convinced me that these three were friends and that the journey that they were going on would feel real.
The other thing I really enjoyed what is the show’s art direction. In fact, as shallow as it is for me to say, I think what drew me to watching the TV show in the first place was how good it looked. When I saw the cover for the show, I was amazed as it almost looks like a high budget anime movie made a few years ago. When I realize that it was actually a TV show that was made all the way back in 2009, that only peaked my curiosity even further. And I will say that the animation is for the most part pretty good. I think the shot that I point to was when Mirai hugs Mari during her moment of grief. The lighting was done rather well given how old the show is, and the animation in general did a great job of expressing the emotional shock that that scene would entail. And this is generally true across the entire series. However I will say that it does have its flaws visually. I think that some of the CGI used in this program was glaringly obvious… but even then most of it was done decently enough that it didn’t actively ruin the experience. If it wasn’t for that though, it say that the show is almost perfect visually.
I also praise the tonal maturity of this series. They could’ve easily had this program be an incredibly edgy hentai fest that lacked any sort of subtle as action scenes are water-boarded into our eyes. Instead, “Tokyo Magnitude 8.0,” chose instead to have a much more grounded experience. Given the times that we live in, I’m actually happy that the show chose instead to give us a more optimistic view of what would happen during such a tragedy. The setting of the series didn’t just devolve into an apocalypse where people get molested and murdered on a whim. And that would make sense… Since I imagine Tokyo gets earthquakes quite often so it would make sense that it would have the infrastructure to withstand something like this. Yeah it would still suck for them to have an earthquake, but the country of Japan wouldn’t just devolve into “The Walking Dead” levels of chaos. And seeing how the show chose to skip past the whole “the real enemy is us“ cliche put a huge smile on my face since this idea has been drastically overdone. In general, I would like to think that most people are holistically good and that it’s only a very small portion of people that go around wanting society to burn. That doesn’t mean absolutely “everybody” is a good person, but I refuse to believe that most people would become homicidal maniacs in the midst of a crisis big or small. Sure in such a situation, some people might become more hostile -as we see even early on in the series- but they wouldn’t suddenly turn to cannibalism or anything.
Another aspect of this show that I love is how short it is. I think the biggest problem with a lot of anime is that they extend the runtime for far too long. Being concise is really important. Obviously I’m not proposing that every anime be a measly five minutes long… But I think that there should be a focus on having the story be as long or as short as it needs to be in order for it to be effective. This was a big problem with “Monster”, which admittedly had only about two hours of actual plot despite being a whopping 74 episodes! Meaning that the story basically experienced no development for agonizing periods of time. My point is that “Tokyo magnitude 8.0“ could’ve done something similar. Specifically, the show could’ve introduced a morally depraved villain at the end of season one, and then spend all of that hypothetical season to defeating that villain… only for the writers to introduce another super evil bad guy at the end. Rinse and repeat. Thankfully, the show doesn’t do that. It has a strong character arc for its main cast, let’s it reaches inevitable conclusion without any sort of ridiculous plot contrivance, and then lets the show end on a high note. And I applaud to show for its brevity!
And now I wanna get to probably the biggest reason why I love the show: the execution of Yuuki-Kun. To put it bluntly, I was emotionally destroyed by that scene. And I think that the biggest reason why was because the show did an excellent job of making me care for the little guy. And he only wanted to make his family happy. He was sort of the beacon of hope for the rest of the team so seeing him get denied of the rest of his life was devastating. What makes it even more painful is that Yuuki still tries to give his big sister the moral support to keep going rather than despairing his own disposition. And to be honest, I honestly didn’t see it coming. There is a cliché with a lot of these disaster movie type stories is that almost everybody that matters lives. For example, none of the core family members in “2012” or “Day After Tomorrow” perish. Yet in the show, they actually had the guts to pull the trigger without coming off as shallow or insincere. It did the smart thing of getting us to care about the characters and then rip the mat under us in the most profound way in a way that actually makes sense. And the fact that Mirai was in denial about all of this made things even more heartbreaking. What makes it even more beautiful is that the show doesn’t try to bring Yuuki back to life like “Pokémon Adventures: Ruby and Sapphire” and “Clannad” did with their characters. And on that front, I am proud of the show!
Negatives:
Not much to say on this front. The only thing I could say they didn’t like about the show was that some of the CGI did stand out. It wasn’t a big issue, but it did somewhat ruin the otherwise excellent visuals.
Final Verdict:
Overall, I absolutely love the show. For one thing it has excellent character development. For another, it has very strong chemistry amongst its cast. Furthermore, it has strong visuals and a surprising level of maturity in its execution of its narrative. Some out of place and dated CGI aside, this show was a must watch. I give it 4.56/5.00 – a triumph.
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