Japan Sinks: 2020 is director Masaaki Yuasa’s second Netflix original, after 2018’s Devilman Crybaby. The only similarity the two share is that there are a lot of deaths involved, but Japan Sinks: 2020 is more focused on the struggles of the Mutoh family and how a country reacts to a catastrophic disaster.
As a series of earthquakes and tsunamis start to devastate Japan, the Mutoh family, consisting of 14 year old Ayumu, her younger brother Go and her parents Mari and Koichiro, travel across the country to escape the swath of destruction. Along the way, they meet a variety of other characters, such as the reclusive track star Haruki Koga, a cool Estonian youtuber called KITE and a paralysed scientist Onodera who holds the key to understanding what’s happening to Japan.
The show treats character deaths in a brutal, almost nihilistic way. Some of the deaths, such as when a man gets blown up by a buried explosive and his hand (with wedding ring and all) lands right next to his wife, feel like they are cruel for the sake of being cruel. Others, which involve characters trying to save others and giving their lives in the process, are more poignant. By the end of the series, the shock of the deaths starts to wear off.
It’s not quite disaster porn on the level of something like 2012, but it’s close.
Japan Sinks: 2020 starts out as a disaster story, but it soon veers off into other territory. At various points, it becomes a coming of age story for Ayumu and Go, and then takes a detour at a mysterious city where people farm weed en masse and worship a woman who can communicate with the dead. One of the Mutoh’s companions, an elderly man with a penchant for bows, hallucinates that the woman’s adopted son is his grandson and tries to rescue him.
Although the story was adapted from a 1973 novel, it’s clear that Yuasa intended for the anime adaptation to be a tribute to the tragedy of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. At times, it’s hard to take in the level of destruction shown on screen. While the show does touch on grief, it’s not the kind of grief you would expect when a loved one passes away. It’s a numbed experience, where the loss of life is on such a scale that it barely registers, and you have no choice but to keep moving. Thankfully, the series ends on a hopeful note that emphasizes Japan’s resilient spirit, while also paying respects to everyone that died.
While the show is ambitious, it doesn’t quite get everything right.
Some characters are too distant and cold, while others become emotional at random times. The pacing is off for the middle sections, and it feels like the show would have benefitted from either a tighter focus or more episodes. It’s definitely not Yuasa’s finest work, which is a shame, because the foundations for a gripping narrative were there at the beginning.
As it stands, Japan Sinks: 2020 feels like a grim reminder of how, despite everything the world is going through with the coronavirus, things can always get worse. It’s unlikely that the show will stand the test of time, but at ten twenty-minute episodes, it’s a decent option for binging through the night.