Tokyo Magnitude 8.0

I remember seeing Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 in 2009, right as it came out. I loved it. But this was before I started writing reviews, so I couldn't put my thoughts down on it. But it definitely cemented itself on the number four spot on my top favorite anime of all time, and it's definitely NOT easy for an anime to leave an impact on me like that. But then I wondered if this great show would ever get licensed or even dubbed. I figured, since it was so underrated and underappreciated at the time, it'd either go unlicensed forever or just get a subbed release. But then, in 2013, it was announced the show was getting an English dub! You won't believe how hard I cheered when I read that piece of news on Anime News Network. Yay! I convinced my dad to order the DVD set for me for my birthday, but even though I had rewatched the series, I still had trouble putting my thoughts on it into words. It says a lot that I attempted to review this in 2013, but only managed to finish it in 2022, a full nine years later. Man, can you believe Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 is 13 years old? I remember when it was new! Though rewatching it again years later, as an adult, I still think it holds up extremely well, and it's still one of my favorite anime ever.

13-year-old Mirai Onozawa really isn't having a good time. Summer break has just started, and while all her friends are going to fun places, some even going overseas, she's stuck at home with her little brother and her mother is always working. When her mother wants her to take her brother Yuuki to a robot exhibit in Odaiba, she's not looking forward to it. But that decision winds up being a fateful one, as after they get there, an earthquake strikes Tokyo, leaving mass destruction in its wake. Thankfully, Mirai and Yuuki receive help from a good samaritan named Mari Kusakabe, who decides to take the kids under her wing and make sure they get back home safely. But the journey back is going to be a hard one. With roads and bridges destroyed, people dying all around them, and the added pain of not even knowing if their friends and families are okay, or even alive at that, Mirai, Yuuki, and Mari have to work together and face unspeakable hardships to make it back home in once piece.

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 is one of many anime made for the Noitamina timeslot, which is known for tackling premises that aren't always aimed at the mainstream anime audience. TM8.0 as a show was made on the prediction that within 30 years, there would be a 70% chance that an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 or higher would strike Japan, illustrating what would happen if an 8.0 earthquake were to hit based on research and studies on previous earthquakes. Japan wasn't quite off the mark, but TM8.0 was made two years before the tragic 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami, with said earthquake having a 9.0-9.1 magnitude, even worse than what was originally predicted, making the series a bit harder to watch for some in light of that. But how does TM8.0 fare as a standalone anime, outside of that background? From an animation standpoint, for 2009, the show looks pretty good. Not exactly the most polished, but it does what it needs to do, and since the series is aiming for a more realistic tone, the character designs reflect this, so you won't see any chibis or googly eyes here. Though I will say that the CGI is fine for some backgrounds and machines, but background characters being rendered in CGI just look...off. Even back in 2009, those looked really clunky and weird.

On the upside, the music fares much better, composed by veteran composer Kou Otani, who you'll know for his work on anime such as Haibane Renmei, Shakugan no Shana, Gundam Wing, Outlaw Star, and the currently airing Digimon Ghost Game, so he's still around making music for anime. Your mileage may vary on both the soundtrack and the actual opening and ending themes, but I found all three to be pretty good. Again, like the animation, it does what it needs to do and does its job nicely. I kind of wish I had more to say about it. That being said, the characters are what make TM8.0. The main trio are the backbone of the show and manage to carry it wonderfully. TM8.0 is a character study at heart, showing how a tragedy would affect ordinary people, and Mirai, Yuuki, and Mari are just that: ordinary people, with their own sets of strengths, weaknesses, idiosyncrasies, and nuances that make them feel like actual people with actual depth to them. All three of them are forced to grow up and face their own flaws in order to move forward, and in that process, they're not always going to make the best decisions in doing so. Some people may find the main trio annoying because of their flaws—Mirai being a whiny teenage girl going through her angsty phase, Yuuki being a nice little brother, and so on—but if executed well, personality flaws make characters more interesting and well-rounded, and I found the trio to be wonderfully engaging and three-dimensional because the series isn't afraid to have them be messy, face actual hardship, and force them to come to terms with their flaws, especially if said flaws make sense in the context of the narrative, something that's unfortunately missing in a lot of modern anime these days. Mirai, Yuuki, and Mari aren't OP isekai protags with special powers who can do whatever they want.

Basically, what makes Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 stand out among other series, or even movies that tackle the same subject matter, is that it doesn't try to sensationalize what it's depicting. Most movies, be it based on true stories or just fictional, or even documentaries that National Geographic sometimes puts out, tend to either focus more on the most spectacular cases or have special effects do most of the work, making them seem more epic and fantastical than they actually are, like they're saying "Look how awesome we made this disaster look with our special effects! Aren't you amazed?!" To quote one of my favorite former bloggers, what makes more impact? An atom bomb dropped onto some sort of major city that wipes out millions of people, or a section of a highway that crushes some people who were worrying about their loved ones and tried to get home, dying right before the protagonist’s eyes? Adding onto this, TM8.0 is careful to focus on the small details that people who have experienced a disaster like this would go through, like getting blisters on your feet from both wearing sandals and walking long distances, and since the series takes place during the summer, where temperatures are likely to be extremely hot, people are bound to wear shoes that aren't fit for long walks, and through rugged terrain, no less. Even things like food shortages, cell phones not working (Adding to the worries people have about whether their families are alive or not), or trying to find a working bathroom are given focus here in the context of the narrative, and it works here they're problems people would experience if a natural disaster were to happen. TM8.0 takes nothing for granted and puts as much detail into the setting as possible, and in my opinion, BONES and Kinema Citrus did an absolutely fantastic job.

Of course, while TM8.0 does strive for realism, and for the most part does a fantastic job, there are some times when it's sacrificed for some plot contrivances, and that can be jarring considering how great the rest of the series is. Episodes 6 and 7 are the biggest offenders, leaning into some tired anime tropes, like Mari randomly getting sick and somehow getting better the next day after taking some pills, which is absolutely not how colds work, and episode 7 coming across as a bit too...anime, if you catch my meaning. Now, these two episodes aren't necessarily bad, per se, and do serve as breathers before the series goes back into heartbreaking territory. Furthermore, I know for a fact that a certain twist near the end of the series isn't going to sit well with everyone. I personally liked how it was executed and thought it was a nice way to close off Mirai's character development, but many didn't feel the same and had their own reservations about it, which is totally valid. But none of these things took away from my enjoyment of TM8.0 in any way, and I cared enough about all the characters that the twist didn't put me off much. Plus, let's be honest, there's tons of stuff that tackled similar premises and subject matter, with similar twists, and did far worse. Looking at you, Japan Sinks 2020.

After years of being away from this series, I think I can say that Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 still holds up extremely well for me and still sits pretty as one of my favorite anime ever. It's series like this that remind me of why I love anime so much. I admittedly haven't seen every series in the Noitamina timeslot, but I'm gonna make a bold statement here: Out of the few I've seen, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 is without a doubt the absolute best one out of them. It's a show that's depressing and heartbreaking, but also uplifting, fresh, and inspired. I loved it when it first came out, and after all these years, I still love it now, and I'll probably still love it in the future.