Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Japan Sinks: 2020’ on Netflix, an Anime Series Updating a Classic Disaster-Story Franchise

Netflix anime series Japan Sinks: 2020 is the latest iteration of a Japanese franchise of sorts, stemming from Sakyo Komatsu’s popular 1973 novel Japan Sinks. That same year, the book became a film, Tidal Wave, later recut for American audiences; an inconsequential remake debuted in 2006; and now, a 10-episode series from acclaimed Japanese animator Masaaki Yuasa (Devilman Crybaby and Ride Your Wave) updates the disaster saga for a global streaming audience.

JAPAN SINKS: 2020: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A passenger jet cuts through the sky high above the clouds.

The Gist: Mari Muto (voice of Grace Lynn Kung) peers out an airplane window as the captain announces an arrival in Tokyo in 15 minutes. It’s a gorgeous day in the city. People walk through the park, children cavort through playgrounds, birds flutter above the trees. At track practice, Mari’s daughter Ayumu (Faye Mata) concentrates, sets her feet in the blocks and streaks down the lane. At home by himself, her younger brother Go (Ryan Bartley) sits beneath a table, headphones on, playing a handheld video game. At a construction site, their father Koichiro (Keith Silverstein) works high up on scaffolding, tied to a safety harness.

An earthquake rumbles. It’s long in duration, but seems mild — a small lunchbox falls off the table near Go, and Ayumu and her teammates chat about the disturbance as they adjourn to the locker room. The girls’ smartphones ray emergency tones, and a second shock hits. It’s devastating: Furniture topples around Go, whose head is bloodied. Walls fall atop Ayumu’s friends. Koichiro dangles from his harness above rubble. Mari’s plane makes an emergency landing in Tokyo Bay.

Ayuma escapes the devastation of the locker room and scampers toward home. She remembers how her beloved house had a large window in her bedroom, but her dad’s “tacky” colored lights in the trees sometimes bothered her. She sees similar colored lights strung through the foliage leading to a park, and makes her way up the stone steps. People are gathered there, struggling to contact friends and family, as cell phone service is down. Soon, Koichiro turns up, and a friend of the family arrives with Go, whose eyes are bandaged. Koichiro finds a first aid kit and staples together a cut on Go’s brow. Mari is the last to arrive, and the Muto family is joyfully reunited; Mari makes them pose for a picture.

But the moment of relative peace is soon disrupted as a body falls from the sky. Blood drips from the trees. Another body crashes to the ground. Not far from the park, a person dangles from a helicopter, and it crashes. The hell of this tragedy has just begun.

Our Take: Fascinatingly, Yuasa renders the tragic details of catastrophe with as much realism as one can muster with animation. There’s a strong argument to be made that animation is the most visually consistent medium, and therefore offers the potential for more potent storytelling — no matter how convincing the blend of CGI and live action, we’re always looking for the seams or comparing digital images to the reality inside our heads, aren’t we? That we should take animation seriously as an art form in 2020 should be a given; such is Yuasa’s modest gamble.

So he doesn’t shy too much from harsh, disturbing imagery (the series is so very TV-MA). The opening episode of Japan Sinks: 2020 opens with immersive, lyrical scenes of peace and idyll backed by a simple solo-piano score, and Yuasa reprises musical cues over scenes of fiery destruction. As visually strong as the episode is, the director’s most curious choice is to employ an upbeat, almost happy-go-lucky tone as the Muto family reunites in the final moments, perhaps to combat and balance moments of colossal devastation. Parents surely want to shield their children from the bleakest depths of despair, but Mari and Koichiro’s overly chirpy spirit rings false.

Most importantly, Japan Sinks: 2020 so far aims to be a significant update of the story. The 1973 film, popular as it was, is very much a product of its time, when disaster extravaganzas such as Airport, The Towering Inferno and The Poseidon Adventure lured the masses to theaters. Although Japan’s cataclysmic submersion into the Pacific stretches conceptual boundaries of plausibility somewhat, this series at least treats mass death as the great horror it is, and doesn’t frame it as exploitative entertainment.

Sex and Skin: None in the first episode, but the TV-MA rating warns of some to come.

Parting Shot: Mari hides Go’s eyes from the episode’s final, brutal scene.

Sleeper Star: Let’s go meta and say Yuasa is the true star here — he makes bold artistic choices in his pursuit of a powerful story.

Most Pilot-y Line: “All right, time for a group photo!” Mari says cheerfully, ever the optimist, as Japan quite literally burns behind them.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Despite its occasional tonal inconsistency, Japan Sinks: 2020 is a frequent visual wonder.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.

Stream Japan Sinks 2020 on Netflix