5 Things Wrong With Japan Sinks: 2020
I’ve seen my fair share of the good, the bad, and (mostly) the ugly when it comes to disaster themed shows/films, so I was excited to dig into this one. Japan Sinks: 2020 (adapted from the novel by Sakyo Komatsu) is an anime about a series of earthquakes that devastate Japan. It’s a decent anime with lots of twists, surprises, and heartwarming moments, but there are definitely some scenes that made me shout “what?” at my tv. So, in good fun of course, let’s take a look at some things that made absolutely no sense in Japan Sinks: 2020! *Careful! Spoilers ahead*
Mari must think it’s opposite day
The parents of the main character Ayumu are very chill during what’s probably the most devastating moment of their lives. The FIRST thing her mother Mari does when she finds her family is pull out her digital camera and take a photo. I’m sorry, the last thing I’d be doing after an earthquake of that magnitude is taking pictures! She does this several times throughout the anime. I get that she wanted to have the memories for her family to hold on to, but come on. Do we have to do this now?
To make matters worse, after Ayumu’s dad dies (I’m still not over it) Mari gets mad at her for being upset about it. The two of them have a yelling match in the middle of the road about Mari not caring that her husband is gone and how Ayumu’s sulking won’t bring him back. So, we can take a family photo like we’re at a backyard BBQ but we can’t let Ayumu be upset about her dad passing away? Make it make sense.
Later, the main characters head into a grocery store. They think its empty only to find the cranky old man who owns it is still there as he starts shooting at them with arrows. He aims and shoots at Ayumu’s little brother Go and the arrow looks like it struck his chest. Luckily it only hit his portable game system that was in his crossbody bag. After a moment of panic, the old man comes out and apologizes saying he didn’t mean to hit him. First of all, he did. The entire audience saw him follow the boy with his bow and arrow before shooting him. Second, he offers to fix the game system and lets them stay in the store because a storm is coming. They end up staying, after Mari barely scolds him, and go on like everything is fine. We would have been throwing hands, my guy.
Oh, she can swim, swim
In the first episode, Mari is on her way back to Japan when the earthquake happens and causes her plane to land in a river. It kind of just sat on the water so people were able to evacuate safely. Then this man yells “It’s a tsunami!” and we all see a surge of water heading their way. Mari jumps into the water to outswim it AND rescues a drowning child on the way. In her heyday, she was a swimmer but even the best swimmers can’t outswim tsunamis. Not unless they’re Aquaman or something.
Jaws is actually a gentle giant
After a boat the survivors get on starts to sink, they enter lifeboats to escape. Siblings Ayumu and Go end up in this floating tent looking lifeboat with the captain. The next day Ayumu finds his dead body hanging halfway out of the boat before Jaws himself swims along and ever so gently pulls him into the ocean. After the initial shock, I was like, “really?”. That shark would have dragged that entire thing underwater and ripped it to shreds, kids and all.
4. “I was born lucky!”
In episode nine, Kite (a YouTuber from Estonia they befriended along the way) is on a makeshift raft with Ayumu, Go, and Mr. Onodera (former geologist that predicted this whole fiasco). Kite attributes being “born lucky” to conveniently finding one of his hot air balloons in the middle of absolutely nowhere. He proceeds to use an oxygen tank that isn’t even all the way full to fill this huge balloon up before flying so high into the atmosphere that, in any other circumstance, would have killed him instantly. Ok *side-eye*. I guess they had to get rescued somehow.
5. Shan City: Home of the illogical
The Shan City community is where the main characters end up about midway through the show. The whole point of this place is that there’s a mother and son pair that use themselves as vessels for the dead to communicate with the living. The old man from the store I mentioned earlier wanted to go there looking for his grandchild that vanished years ago. He goes berserk while trying to get to find her, and later on when everyone is leaving because of another earthquake, he finds the parents of the child, and admits he knew he wasn’t his grandchild! Sir? Why were you spinning around in an electric cart shooting arrows at people like it was a carnival game if you knew that wasn’t your grandkid? Goodbye.
When another huge earthquake hits and everyone is running around like crazy, some of the community members go into a safe and try to escape with money and gold bars. Where did that even come from? One minute people are running for their lives and the next there are folks with guns and katanas fighting over gold.
In the end, Japan Sinks: 2020 is an entertaining anime that kept my eyes glued to the screen, even if it was because I was shocked by some of it. I suggest everyone watch it at least once and see what you think about it!