Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 (BONES) [Archive]

aardvark

2009-03-18, 04:52

I think this will probably be similar to Chiko, in that the character designs, planning etc, is done by Bones itself and then the animation will be done with Cinema Citrus (with maybe Bones doing the OP and ED themselves)

Anyone know anything about this Kinema Circus group?
Cinema Citrus. A very new animation studio I believe that just recently formed. They began by working with Bones on the E7 movie, and Bones helped them with recruitment about a year ago.

They've done production support on a few episodes here and there in the past year too, like on Ryoko's Case Files.

There was some misunderstanding that they were actually a new Bones studio that was founded to work on E7 (like Gainax and Khara), but its pretty obvious its a seperate studio, though obviously with some sort of connection to Bones I would guess, as they helped them with recruiting and have been working with them since...

_gallo_

2009-03-18, 04:57

Looks like Kamichu meets A spirit of th Sun (or maybe Dragon Head).

Solace

2009-03-18, 05:35

I doubt it will be nearly as dark and gritty as Dragon Head, but it looks interesting to say the least.

Daniel E.

2009-03-18, 05:52

Oh, I also feel like watching it! :)

the.Merines

2009-03-18, 06:39

Oho, now this interests me. Been a while since I've indulged in a series that isn't mecha or overdramatic romance... ^^;

miss-deep

2009-03-18, 06:50

This really does look interesting, both in a visual and thematic sense.

manuloz

2009-03-18, 07:27

I think this will probably be similar to Chiko, in that the character designs, planning etc, is done by Bones itself and then the animation will be done with Cinema Citrus (with maybe Bones doing the OP and ED themselves)

Cinema Citrus. A very new animation studio I believe that just recently formed. They began by working with Bones on the E7 movie, and Bones helped them with recruitment about a year ago.

They've done production support on a few episodes here and there in the past year too, like on Ryoko's Case Files.

There was some misunderstanding that they were actually a new Bones studio that was founded to work on E7 (like Gainax and Khara), but its pretty obvious its a seperate studio, though obviously with some sort of connection to Bones I would guess, as they helped them with recruiting and have been working with them since...

Actually, studio Dogakobo ( Ryoko's Case Files) also shared the recruit announcement on its webpage, maybe there another connection here ?
Kinema Citrus has also is own show on the plate like Hige Piyo comming on april :
http://www.higepiyo-tv.com/

duckroll

2009-03-18, 07:44

Actually, studio Dogakobo ( Ryoko's Case Files) also shared the recruit announcement on its webpage, maybe there another connection here ?
Kinema Citrus has also is own show on the plate like Hige Piyo comming on april :
http://www.higepiyo-tv.com/

BONES was helping with recruitment because they needed to recruit staff to facilitate their production of the animation for the E7 movie. Doga Kobo was helping with recruitment because they needed to recruit staff to facilitate their production of the animation for 1 or 2 episodes of Ryoko Case Files. I think the connection is simply that they're a small new upstart studio, and with no website or portfolio of their own, they rely on the established studios to help them get off their feet. It's a small industry and I'm sure everyone involved have probably worked with each other in the past before. Not too surprising imo.

The real question is *who* Kinema Citrus really is in terms of staff. We don't have any idea at the moment but maybe it'll become more apparent when the animation staff credits show up for the E7 movie and for Tokyo M8 in a few months.

stormy001_M1A2

2009-03-18, 08:16

Awesome. Not the usual harem moe shit. There is still some hope left for anime.

7Th

2009-03-18, 09:50

Looks like Kamichu meets A spirit of th Sun (or maybe Dragon Head).

The design is certainly very reminicent of Kamichu, with the round faces and clean line-art.

spaced

2009-03-18, 11:11

So if Kinema Citrus is involved with this, I'm assuming BONES' B Studio should still be working on a seperate project? I'm really, really impressed with how BONES are coping with these projects on such a large scale too.

AtomicoX

2009-03-18, 12:24

This is certainly going up on my To-Watch list. Something different.

stormy001_M1A2

2009-03-18, 12:26

Count me in.

ginrai1984

2009-03-18, 13:09

Original work it seems.

actually no it isn't!the manga has currently 5 volumes and is licenced in the france by panini!

unfortunately i don't speak french so otherwise this would have been on my reading list!

Sheba

2009-03-18, 13:14

actually no it isn't!the manga has currently 5 volumes and is licenced in the france by panini!

unfortunately i don't speak french so otherwise this would have been on my reading list!

Damn, I need to patch my mangafu.

spaced

2009-03-18, 13:47

Vexx

2009-03-19, 04:36

qmeister

2009-03-19, 05:11

It's an original series, according to ANN (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-03-17/tokyo-magnitude-8.0-anime-to-air-in-japan-in-july).

ZODDGUTS

2009-03-19, 07:56

Maybe he thought it was this manga that this series was based on:

http://www.mangaupdates.com/series.html?id=13106

It deals with the same thing. Would have liked that were true though it's quite good it deals with alot of aspects when it comes to humanity when there's a disaster both the good and bad... don't think that this series though will go to deeply into that bad aspect of humanity unless there willing to do scenes of rape and people getting killed/murdered/suicide.

duckroll

2009-03-19, 08:51

don't think that this series though will go to deeply into that bad aspect of humanity unless there willing to do scenes of rape and people getting killed/murdered/suicide.

Are you the same guy that posted the article on ANN? :(

Slice of Life

2009-03-19, 09:59

I'm still angry at Bones for teasing us with pseudo-mysteries in Darker Than Black without delivering in the end and I dropped Xam'd early because it seemed to repeat DTB's faults.

Now this here looks like an extreme but realistic setting. Which means the anime can't make the same mistakes by construction and Bones can play out their strengths this time. Plus, I always liked desaster movies but hated their Hollywood morale. An anime might handle the topic better.

All in all, this seems to have a lot of potential. I'm looking forward to this.

TinyRedLeaf

2009-03-19, 10:20

Am I the only one to be immediately reminded of The Sinking of Japan (2006) (http://www.beyondhollywood.com/the-sinking-of-japan-2006-movie-review/)? :D

cNQNFsE_iJc

NeJ6Cftc-E8

In the aftermath of a major earthquake, global scientists predict that Japan will sink within 40 years due to a collision of tectonic plates. The Prime Minister puts into place a massive plan for the exodus of the nation’s entire population. However, Dr Tadokoro, the head of a Japanese scientific team, finds out the truth: Japan will not sink in the next 40 years, but in the next 339 days! As the cataclysmic events unfold, Dr Tadokoro assembles a team of scientists to attempt the impossible – save the nation before it’s too late.

monir

2009-03-19, 12:02

While considering a Bones' original has been anything but original in the recent years, this latest attempt at original seems kind of original. :) The poster that is featured in the website and the trailer looks very interesting. The possibility of an earthquake measuring 8.0 in the Richter Scale doesn't seem too far off considering the location is Tokyo.

edit: The poster is added in the opening post. Thanks for the thread Duckroll!

wao

2009-03-19, 12:17

This I am so going to remember to watch. Even if it's just 1 or 2 episodes. When do you see an anime about an earthquake in a non-fantastic world?... I don't mind if the production is sub-par, even (and Bones' sub-par isn't that bad anyway) Sounds more interesting than Higashi no Eden - something more unusual.

Also, I have absolutely no clue whatsoever about Kinema Citrus (didn't even realise they existed), but it probably doesn't get its name from Masaki Tachibana... right? Of course not.

And if this was based on a manga I'm pretty sure they'd have mentioned it on the official site :/ Now why does the trailer not work for me...

orion

2009-03-20, 04:20

Slice of Life

2009-03-20, 05:51

Proudleaf

2009-03-21, 02:38

Not original? It's the only anime I can think of that deals with an earthquake and its aftermath next to Chikyuu ga Ugoita Hi (http://anidb.net/perl-bin/animedb.pl?show=anime&aid=2532). Suspiciously few! Can we settle with "unusual" or "out of the ordinary" then?

The problem with originality is that when you define it strict enough nothing is original anymore - and we can as well delete the word from the dictionary. Before I declare this to be unoriginal I'd like to have a list of anime from the current season with more original themes. It's not long if you ask me.

OK, maybe I'm giving the anime too much credit. After all, the information is still sketchy. Maybe the earthquake is only to deliver the apocalyptic background for the fight of special teenagers charged with ALLCAPS energy against the genetic demons coming from the chiral dimension through holes in space-time opened by the tremors.

In that case the scenario wouldn't be so very original, yes. :p

From ANN:

The premise of the project is the 70% or higher possibility that a magnitude 7.0 earthquake will occur in Tokyo in the next 30 years. The anime will depict what would happen if an 8.0 earthquake took place. BONES will attempt to realistically portray the consequences of such a tremor after collecting data on actual earthquakes and interviewing people.

The story will center on Mirai, a middle school freshman girl who goes to Tokyo's artificial Odaiba Island for a robot exhibition with her brother Yutaka at the start of summer vacation. A powerful tremor emanates from an ocean trench, the famed Tokyo Tower and Rainbow Bridge crumble and fall, and the landscape of Tokyo changes in an instant. With the help of a motorcycle delivery woman named Mari who they meet on Odaiba, Mirai and Yutaka strive to head back to their Setagaya home in western Tokyo.

I think we can safely say that this story is nowhere near involving any Genetic Demons. :heh:

I'm going to trust Bones with this brief premise of the show -- and that it's a truly original piece of work.

Vexx

2009-03-21, 02:53

Of course, I *am* having tiny little whispers of "Grave of the Fireflies" in the back of my mind.... hopefully this work won't send me into a likewise funk.

Sheba

2009-03-21, 04:12

Plus, I always liked desaster movies but hated their Hollywood morale.

1. Shit happens.
2. wtf lol!
3. Moar shit happens.
4. "Mister President. Something is happening".
5. Council with with every militaries and scientists. Excepted that oddball scientist they banned because he said something about an impending disaster. Council happens with people talking out of their ass.
6. Lots moar shit happens.
7. "Oh shit, we may have been wrong! Let's call the banned scientist played by Jeff Goldblum/Sam Neil/Dennis Quaid!"
8. Jeff Goldblum.Sam Neil/Dennis Quaid plays the "I have told you but you did not listen!"
9. Paris/Berlin/Tokyo/Moskow/London get destroyed.
10. Profit.

At least, we won't have this in an anime. I HOPE =P

Craymel

2009-03-21, 10:53

From ANN:

The premise of the project is the 70% or higher possibility that a magnitude 7.0 earthquake will occur in Tokyo in the next 30 years. The anime will depict what would happen if an 8.0 earthquake took place. BONES will attempt to realistically portray the consequences of such a tremor after collecting data on actual earthquakes and interviewing people.

The story will center on Mirai, a middle school freshman girl who goes to Tokyo's artificial Odaiba Island for a robot exhibition with her brother Yutaka at the start of summer vacation. A powerful tremor emanates from an ocean trench, the famed Tokyo Tower and Rainbow Bridge crumble and fall, and the landscape of Tokyo changes in an instant. With the help of a motorcycle delivery woman named Mari who they meet on Odaiba, Mirai and Yutaka strive to head back to their Setagaya home in western Tokyo.

I think we can safely say that this story is nowhere near involving any Genetic Demons. :heh:

I'm going to trust Bones with this brief premise of the show -- and that it's a truly original piece of work.

Wow! That just makes it so much more scary and real. I actually like that approach. this is a must see for me.

Slice of Life

2009-03-22, 07:12

I think we can safely say that this story is nowhere near involving any Genetic Demons. :heh:
I agree that the danger is small. :)

1. Shit happens.
2. wtf lol!
3. Moar shit happens.
4. "Mister President. Something is happening".
5. Council with with every militaries and scientists. Excepted that oddball scientist they banned because he said something about an impending disaster. Council happens with people talking out of their ass.
6. Lots moar shit happens.
7. "Oh shit, we may have been wrong! Let's call the banned scientist played by Jeff Goldblum/Sam Neil/Dennis Quaid!"
8. Jeff Goldblum.Sam Neil/Dennis Quaid plays the "I have told you but you did not listen!"
9. Paris/Berlin/Tokyo/Moskow/London get destroyed.
10. Profit.

At least, we won't have this in an anime. I HOPE =P

You forgot the teenage couple making out that gets killed within the first 10 minutes of the movie. :rolleyes:

monir

2009-03-22, 07:25

You forgot the teenage couple making out that gets killed within the first 10 minutes of the movie. :rolleyes:
:heh:

And you write, "the danger is small." The danger isn't going to remain small if Bones is encouraged with new ideas for originality. :D

As for the premises of this story, out of the ordinary it is, considering this is a Bones original.

Sheba

2009-03-22, 07:37

You forgot the teenage couple making out that gets killed within the first 10 minutes of the movie. :rolleyes:

And the golden rule: Never kill the dog. Confirmed trope in "Armageddon" and "Daylight".

solomon

2009-03-22, 13:57

:heh:

And you write, "the danger is small." The danger isn't going to remain small if Bones is encouraged with new ideas for originality. :D

As for the premises of this story, out of the ordinary it is, considering this is a Bones original.

I see you rightfully have high standards monir. However, I think BONES earns credit really just for doing original stuff with good animation in an industry that cranks out insipid manga/dating sim/light novel related trash in an assembly line like way every year.

I admit staying on with BONES shows that I even don't like for the animation (Im an animation nut), but these seems totally unlike what they normally do. Should be very interestingly written.

duckroll

2009-03-22, 15:48

Also, I have absolutely no clue whatsoever about Kinema Citrus (didn't even realise they existed), but it probably doesn't get its name from Masaki Tachibana... right? Of course not.

You know, you actually made me go back and check the credits for Ryoko's Case Files. Sure enough, the single episode which Kinema Citrus assisted in (episode 9), is not only storyboarded by Masaki Tachibana, but he also worked on keyframes for that episode. For now I think it's safe to assume that Tachibana is behind the studio.

He must have some pretty close friends at BONES though, considering it's not normal at all where a new anime studio starts up and immediately works on the animation production for not just a new movie for another studio's IP, but also a brand new series in collaboration with said studio.

gundam rider

2009-03-23, 03:10

a studio bones disaster movie eh?, with a realistic setting?

well at least it doesn't involve rescue vehicles that can transform into robots..oppss now where the heck did i get that idea? :heh:

Shiroth

2009-03-23, 08:24

well at least it doesn't involve rescue vehicles that can transform into robots..oppss now where the heck did i get that idea? :heh:
You say it like the concept is in every BONES show, where in fact it's only in one.

Craymel

2009-03-23, 08:32

You say it like the concept is in every BONES show, where in fact it's only in one.

I thought GR was talking about power rangers :twitch: You know rescue force and all... Oh power rangers why do you keep churning out the same old crap?! I doubt that there are any giant transforming robots in this anime. They wouldn't fit with the setting.

Shiroth

2009-03-23, 08:36

I thought GR was talking about power rangers :twitch: You know rescue force and all... Oh power rangers why do you keep churning out the same old crap?! I doubt that there are any giant transforming robots in this anime. They wouldn't fit with the setting.
He/She was talking about a past BONES show, Eureka Seven.

Craymel

2009-03-23, 08:51

He/She was talking about a past BONES show, Eureka Seven.

OHH! Ok. I really need to see what other series bones have done. They have really nice animation in their shows.

EDIT: Well I've actually seen and heard of a lot of stuff they've worked... I'M IN LOVE WITH THEM NOW! They have worked on other Mecha stuff besides Eureka Seven but again I highly doubt they'll put giant robots in here because it doesn't go with the setting.

monir

2009-03-23, 16:21

I see you rightfully have high standards monir. However, I think BONES earns credit really just for doing original stuff with good animation in an industry that cranks out insipid manga/dating sim/light novel related trash in an assembly line like way every year.

I admit staying on with BONES shows that I even don't like for the animation (Im an animation nut), but these seems totally unlike what they normally do. Should be very interestingly written.
Can't argue there because you are right! Bones is indeed one of the few better studios which can attract audience who looks for something different. While the idea behind the show isn't anything new, there aren't that many animated titles which had put together a natural disaster and its aftermath. A lot of show began from the aftermath and continued from there on.

Do we have an episode-count for the series yet? Hopefully it won't be anything more than a one-cour series.

AtomicoX

2009-03-23, 16:37

duckroll

2009-03-23, 18:27

Why oh why, do I feel it will only be 5 or 6 eps? It seems most anime that's non-mainstream and usually holds good quality (I hope it's good anyhow, until we see one ep) gets that :uhoh:

I am so hoping I'm wrong.

It's a TV series. Considering the timeslot it's running in, I would say it's almost certainly 11 episodes.

[Sakuretsu]

2009-03-23, 19:13

I hope BONES will not put any supernatural events here.

Just realistic depiction of Japan in more awesome way.

AtomicoX

2009-03-24, 04:07

It's a TV series. Considering the timeslot it's running in, I would say it's almost certainly 11 episodes.
Ah right. Didn't think of that.
;2293078']I hope BONES will not put any supernatural events here.

Just realistic depiction of Japan in more awesome way.
Agreed. Sometimes a series looks promising, goes promising, until it's something supernatural or w/e. Really hope that isn't the case here.

duckroll

2009-04-07, 11:46

More staff news from Newtype:

Series Editor: Natsuko Takahashi
Character Designer: Atsuko Nozaki
Composer: Koh Otani

There are various other credits but they're not really important and I don't really feel like typing out all the JP names. ^^;

spaced

2009-04-08, 07:53

For one reason or another I thought Yoshida would be handling the character designs. :S

Jarmel

2009-04-08, 08:26

Looks good, I'll check it out. Not many anime's I've seen in a realistic setting. Only problem I can think of is a possible slow pacing.

stormy001_M1A2

2009-04-08, 18:55

My fear is this series could be anime version of public safety campaign, means a lot of preaching and less on story.

Rescue Wing turns to be like that, exactly. I wonder if history will repeats itself again here.

Vexx

2009-04-08, 20:21

If it just shows them doing what they're *supposed* to be doing as a background to the personal drama and such -- I'm fine with that. But yeah there's a fine line away from the awful "Wheel of Morality" BS that some series push.

Jan-Poo

2009-04-08, 21:21

kyouray

2009-04-10, 19:31

Some pictures of the chara-design are available on the blog : http://tokyo-m8.com/blog/2009/04/post-1.html

Craymel

2009-04-23, 11:47

Uhm it appears that this manga in France is named exactly as the Bones new series. If that's a coincidence, it's quite funny...

http://www.manga-sanctuary.com/bdd/manga/6267-tokyo-magnitude-8/

I think it was a coincidence that happened when they localized it. I don't think the original japanese title is the same... Correct me if I'm wrong cuase I don't really know. I'm looking forward to it either way. Any one know when it's slated to air?

Jan-Poo

2009-04-23, 14:17

The original title is completely different, it can be translated as: "51 ways to protect my girlfriend".

I can only think of a few possibilities:

1) The original manga often mentions the magnitude 8, or "Tokyo magnitude 8" is a secondary title or chapter title.

2) There is another work (movie, book, etc) with a similar title and both the french and studio bones payed that an homage.

3) Someone at studio Bones somehow saw the french version of this manga an decided to take the idea for the title of the anime.

4) just a mere funny coincidence

Craymel

2009-04-23, 16:39

duckroll

2009-04-23, 16:42

Kid Ying

2009-04-23, 22:11

I'm on. If it's bones, it's good... Sort of.

Jan-Poo

2009-04-24, 00:01

Well to be fair, the manga's foreign title is Tokyo Magnitude 8, and this anime's full title is Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. I know, it's just schematics, but there's definitely a difference, so it's not exactly the same. It's very likely the title just sounds compelling enough that two different people decided to use it.

I would agree if "8" was the top of the scale but it's not. "magnitude 9" is not even that rare, it happens once every 20 year somewhere in the world (according to wiki) so it is well possible to be used as the key event of a story. So why "8"? The only possible explanation is that in the manga it is stated that the earthquake magnitude was 8.

Vexx

2009-04-24, 01:42

Jan-Poo

2009-04-24, 01:53

Well yeah, but that's not the point ^^;;; The point is in both cases they used the same value, even if it's written differently (8 and 8.0) it is still the same thing, and there is no real need to use "8".

Anyway if you prefer there's the Mercalli intensity scale: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercalli_intensity_scale

WanderingKnight

2009-04-24, 05:06

Bones and disasters?

Boo. I love Bones, but I hate disaster thematics :(. It's like the easiest way out of (crappy) character development.

At least don't make it like The Day After Tomorrow... please. Pretty please?

orion

2009-04-26, 10:26

Yeah, they could have used another value like 9. But 2 titles with a value of 8 is suspicious.

Daniel E.

2009-04-26, 10:34

Yeah, they could have used another value like 9. But 2 titles with a value of 8 is suspicious.

Maybe they just liked the sound/looks of it. :p

Tokyo Magnitude 9.0 doesn't look and sound too different, but what do we know? :meh:

duckroll

2009-04-26, 13:01

Yeah, they could have used another value like 9. But 2 titles with a value of 8 is suspicious.

Tokyo Magnitude 9 wouldn't be about survivors in an earthquake, it would be about a mass grave. :P

yura`

2009-06-13, 10:28

Lol. In any case, I'm definitely intrigued by this, and am hopping onboard too! Bones never disappoint too much, and the premise of this anime is a refreshing change from the norm.

aohige

2009-06-13, 11:00

The reason for using magnitude 8.0 is probably because the Great Kanto Earthquake that rocked Tokyo in 1923 was 7.9.
I assume the premise is what if the same Earthquake happened again.

Bananawaffles

2009-06-13, 20:57

The preview felt more like it was going to be a movie than just a show. I'm so excited for this!!!

E_I

2009-06-15, 12:42

http://www.tokyo-m8.com/

PV up, but it has Eden of the East before it. Weird.

Kaoru Chujo

2009-06-16, 15:45

http://www.tokyo-m8.com/

PV up, but it has Eden of the East before it. Weird.The embedded PV is like that, but click the "PV" banner at the lower right for a fuller PV. Or go to the same thing on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvCRjJc1B7Y).

Reckoner

2009-07-07, 23:16

I'm on board for this show and I have set very mild expectations, which is surprising considering that I think very highly of BONES as a studio.

If this was Hollywood making a disaster movie or the likes, I'd just shake my head. However, the animated medium of Japan may be able to show another limelight to this topic. Instead of getting things like The Day After Tomorrow, perhaps it will have real substance.

But, I am not going to be getting too ahead of myself here. I hope to hear soon from this show... Does anyone know when it is airing?

Guardian Enzo

2009-07-08, 00:04

aroduc

2009-07-08, 00:12

Thursday morning at 12:45, Tokyo time.

Curious way to say Friday morning at 1:00 am. Or Thursday night I suppose.
http://cal.syoboi.jp/tid/1688

Fuze

2009-07-08, 05:14

This is the title I am looking forward to the most this season, just because I'm a sucker for shows that are part of the Noitamina programming block. Well, that's not the only reason.. Bones along with this concept just seem to standout in my eyes. My expectation is pretty high for this title and I'm pretty confident that I won't be let down. I'll be anxiously waiting for the first episode tomorrow(?).

klare

2009-07-08, 06:40

this looks like a serious and realistic show, looking forward for it

felix

2009-07-08, 07:19

Promising or not I'm prepared for disappointment. These sort of series are always hit or miss.

Guardian Enzo

2009-07-08, 08:40

Curious way to say Friday morning at 1:00 am. Or Thursday night I suppose.
http://cal.syoboi.jp/tid/1688

I thought it was Thursday morning - it's listed as 12:45 AM 7/9.

Katapan

2009-07-09, 15:27

Wow, I really enjoyed this. I'm glad I had no expectations at all, the surprise is all the more pleasant.

Actually, I just really didn't know what to expect, apart from... an earthquake... but this episode properly took the time to show us great characters. Yuuki is the most adorable little brother you could want, and I loved the way Mirai was presented, with her few issues. I must say I was waiting for the earthquake to happen throughout the whole episode, and it made seeing Mirai and Yuuki go separate ways all the more bothersome... I was really kept on the edge of my seat for 20 minutes. As for actually seeing the disaster animated - would it really be that impressive? Damn.

Now the upcoming direction should be fairly different (and not overly dramatic, I hope) - but as long as the characters still shine like I thought they did, Noitamina should deliver once again this season.

Guardian Enzo

2009-07-09, 15:58

I guess I was right about the broadcast time after all...

_gallo_

2009-07-09, 16:04

Just saw the first episode. I thought it was a good start, not so charming as Aoi Hana or so impressive as Canaan, but I was pleased with the show. I had some fears about production values, but the animation was solid, with some Kamichu vibes (but it wasn't as nuanced as Kamichu). The rest was ok for me. Somehow I think that the chara could have been better though I don't know what's my problem with the way characters are drawn... maybe it's something about their nose and how faces look rather “flat”.
Personally I wouldn't call it an home run, but I 'm definitely going to follow this.

duckroll

2009-07-09, 16:21

I guess I was right about the broadcast time after all...

Erm, it's Friday now. :P

As for the show, all I can say is.... wow that is the cheapest OP and cheaptest ED I have ever seen from a BONES series. :P

solomon

2009-07-09, 19:36

Less is more, dude.

Great illustrations, I can only imagine how much more impact it would have on the japanese audience or those who have lived through big quakes.

great opening. Good pilot ep, should prove to be good drama.

Fuze

2009-07-09, 20:52

The details of the black & white still shots for the OP is absolutely stunning. The OP may not be fancy but I think it adds a documentary type vibe to the series. It sort of reminded me a bit of Flag, impact wise, at least.

Nice proper episode which introduced a day in the life of a ordinary Japanese family. Small things like purikura of Mirai's friends and the fake(?) Ribon Mascot Comics looking manga on her bed made me feel like I was in Japan. The animated tour of Odaiba - Rainbow Bridge, Miraikan, replica of Statue of Liberty - was a treat.

Mirai obviously has a bit of a problem with human interaction. Well, she got her wish at the end of the episode when she wished that everything should just fall apart. :heh: I wonder how that motorcycle lady with some sort of Tiger logo will come into play. I also wonder if we will get to see those Tachikoma rescue robots in action in the near future.

If they are making this realistic as possible, I can only expect nothing but chaos. Hopefully, a good chaos.

Kaoru Chujo

2009-07-10, 00:55

Highly promising start. Real people acting real -- but not boring. I especially liked her easily sharing her ice cream with her brother without having to worry about the "indirect kiss" nonsense. And I liked how her brother liked her so much despite her bad temper -- and how she liked him, too. I found her very easy to sympathize with, despite her having attitudes that make things harder for herself and everyone around her. I could feel what she felt, I think.The OP drawings were stunning. But I liked the ED song a lot better: M/elody, written and performed by Tsuji Shion. That animation was a bit more complex than it seemed to me at first, with the frame and the background related but not the same, and everything moving.

Just for clarity, the show is on at 12:45 midnight on Thursday nights on FujiTV. This week it was delayed 15 minutes. It starts on other stations in other parts of Japan next week and the week after. Shoboi and some other Japanese TV listings treat the few hours after midnight as part of the previous day, so 1 am Friday is listed as 25:00 Thursday. That makes a lot of sense to me, since that really is late-night rather than early morning programming.

Guardian Enzo

2009-07-10, 01:18

Slow download on the sub, but the raw looked great - terrific BONES animation and I love the character designs. High, high hopes for this one.

Ascaloth

2009-07-10, 03:49

...why does the character designs of this remind me of Mahou Tsukai ~Natsu no Sora~? At least the backgrounds are not so photo-realistic that it looks jarring....

Anyway, to mirror what a few others are saying, this first episode was really good. Emo teenage philosophizing, relationship strains in a dual-income middle-class family, sibling interactions, the works, all very realistic. This kind of thing couldn't go wrong if it just took a slice-of-life bent and went on like this forever....

....of course, now I want to see even more how BONES is going to show how all of this goes to hell in one split second. :D

Just a few things I'm wondering about though. Being earthquake-prone as it is, isn't Japan supposed to have some sort of early detection system? Also, aren't Japanese trained to dive under the tables at the slightest hint of an earthquake?

Chase

2009-07-10, 04:08

lol the main girl is a little on the side of annoyance, never full blown but the interactions between the family feel real. Im definitely hooked like i thought i would be. The OP is ok and i like the ED. The very end where the anchorwoman announce Tokyo had been destroyed gave me the chills a little:)

felix

2009-07-10, 04:09

Just a few things I'm wondering about though. Being earthquake-prone as it is, isn't Japan supposed to have some sort of early detection system? Also, aren't Japanese trained to dive under the tables at the slightest hint of an earthquake?There were no tables nearby, it was the middle of some balcony or street.
And as with the weather there is no perfect system.

Anyway, personally I found the episode boring. If this is just turns into some "how miserable I was after big bad earthquake" tv news drama clone I'm just going to drop it on the spot.

Ascaloth

2009-07-10, 04:11

There were no tables nearby, it was the middle of some balcony or street.
And as with the weather there is no perfect system.

I was referring to the shot of the people in the restaurant. Granted, the tables there are a little on the small side, but still.

And I'm just bringing up the earthquake detection system thing because frankly, I have no clue how well those work. :heh:

Shiroth

2009-07-10, 04:42

It's a decent set-up episode done right. Also good to hear a Ko Otani score, he hasn't done anything in a while.

Will be interesting to see where this one will go now that everything bad has started.

duckroll

2009-07-10, 04:45

I think that BONES B Studio might actually be working on this one alongside Kinema Citrus... The credits for the upcoming episodes have a few familiar names, including the assistant director of Xam'd storyboarding a few eps.... hmmm....

fleng

2009-07-10, 04:56

With this season's awesome anime, Tokyo Magnitude adds another great one on the line. I love the whole setup, animation and story. Everything is well done.

Definitely gonna be continuing this. Awesome work yet again Bones. Man those Cityscape were done beautifully.

Blaat

2009-07-10, 05:16

This is the first time I've seen BONES using 3D cell shaded animation for the background 'characters'.

Anyway I really liked the episode, I couldn't help but feel sorry for the main character I kind of understand her position. My favourite scene was, of course, the earthquake at the end I loved seeing the details.

TCman

2009-07-10, 06:22

Wow, this one is very good. The pace at first is a bit slow at first (just little), but I like the short build-up of the relationship between the sister (Mirai) and little brother (Yuuki); I think the little brother admires his Oneesan very much. Furthermore, I think it's kind of ironic that the sister's name is Mirai, since she's totally clueless about her own future and "mirai" means future; well, she's also quite pessimistic about everything.

On the other hand, it's admirable to see that Mirai immediately thinks about her younger brother Yuuki when the earthquake happens, while she is not quite safe there on somekind of platform which is crumbing because the heavy earthquake outside the robot exhibition. This shows how much Mirai actually cares about her younger brother, despite she's constantly whining about having to take her younger brother to the robot exhibition at the beginning. Another nice touch is the moment when Mirai sends out her sms with the message of "the world just should be gone (?)", while it's followed up by the earthquake of magnitude 8.0; it looks/feels like that her wish is fullfilled (although it's clearly just a coincidence); I hope she's not blaming herself too much for this, since she is a quite pessimistic teenager girl.

Overall, "Tokyo Magnitude 8.0" is very good anime series; despite it's not a live-action series, Bones has succeeded to give the anime a very realistic feel, in terms how people interacts with each other and how people reacts.

Sylphic

2009-07-10, 07:27

Just a few things I'm wondering about though. Being earthquake-prone as it is, isn't Japan supposed to have some sort of early detection system? Also, aren't Japanese trained to dive under the tables at the slightest hint of an earthquake?

It is astronomically to accurately predict a major earthquake. You'd probably win the next Nobel prize if you came up with a way that accurately predicted an earthquake and gave people several hours of early warning.

I live in Japan so I can say this much, Japan does have an early warning system. When it does work every TV or cellphone will have earthquake info displayed on it. However, it doesn't always work, and when it does work you usually only have maybe 10 seconds of warning. Though 10 seconds could mean the difference between you turning off your stove or it flipping over and burning house down with you inside it.

In this case they didn't get a warning, and... I doubt it would be possible to even stand let alone move to a safe location during a 8.0 magnitude earthquake.

Anyhow, the anime made me feel a little queezy. They've gotten Tokyo spot on. Everything about Odaiba is rendered in detail, even the retarded tourists who take pictures of themselves in front of the mini statue of liberty. I've been to Odaiba, and I've stood where the girl stands in the show as the earthquake occurs. Odaiba is also where the huge plastic Gundam stands... Is Gundam > Earthquake?

bbee

2009-07-10, 08:13

At the risk of joining the choir; this show is epic slice-of-life and it's one of the best first episodes I've ever seen.
The wonderful "show, don't tell" way of introducing us to all the characters.. The slightly disfunctional family, the troubled but caring little girl protagonist, the optimistic little brother, and the cool yet warm of heart biker chick.. Astonishing storytelling, and now we get to see them all change, grow and come together as they overcome adversity. I hope the plot keeps focus on them and doesn't try to exploit the apocalyptic setting.

Absolutely amazing, and a welcome surprise, since noitaminA has been up-and-down for me and I don't like BONES, to put it mildly.
This + Aoi Hana = shows of the season.

Goofus Maximus

2009-07-10, 08:54

. . . Just a few things I'm wondering about though. Being earthquake-prone as it is, isn't Japan supposed to have some sort of early detection system? . . .

There really isn't any such thing as an early detection system for earthquakes, unlike for volcanic eruptions or tsunamis. People are still trying to find reliable precursors to predict them, and still failing as of the moment.

Speaking of tsunamis, I wonder if we'll be seeing one in episode 2?

Vexx

2009-07-10, 09:12

Wow.......... (edit: first episode was even better than advertised. some amazing attention to detail. nice set up and exposition of the characters before everything hits the fan)

cf18

2009-07-10, 11:07

My only complain is the strange OP - it paints the three characters enjoying some relaxed trip of sight seeing in a disaster zone.

Traece

2009-07-10, 11:20

Wow..........

<_< Don't be alarmed. It's just Traece. I know, I know... My presence brings much splendor, but no harm will come to you or anyone else. :cool:

I read the description for this one, and here was my immediate thought:
Disaster Report: The Game: The Anime
:heh: Anyone else sort of get that impression? But no, despite that it should prove to be interesting and I'll have to pick it up and see what it's like. :D

Also, as far as an Earthquake Detection System goes, although there are stations for monitoring tremors and such all over the globe those sorts of readings aren't even close to being well in advance. Think of it like predicting the weather, except the weather is underground. Yeah, pretty freaky eh? :P We can barely predict what the weather will be like, even if we can see it.
Now earthquake protection is a different story entirely, and quite a fascinating one. As far as small building go, to my knowledge protection from earthquakes generally relies on how sturdy the structure is, since it's so small. Skyscrapers however, are actually made with systems to allow it to move during an earthquake. So if you're ever in the vicinity of an earthquake and you see skyscrapers moving from side to side, it's because they are moving on their own with the earthquake to prevent collapse or tipping.

felix

2009-07-10, 12:26

My favourite scene was, of course, the earthquake at the end I loved seeing the details.Awesome work yet again Bones. Man those Cityscape were done beautifully.Wow.......... (edit: first episode was even better than advertised. some amazing attention to detail. nice set up and exposition of the characters before everything hits the fan)

13:50 - 13:56 static with some 3D
13:59 - 14:10 repeat of above exact same animation
14:10 - 14:18 3D bridge; no textures? looks like modeling in Google SketchUp (http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/search?q=odaiba&btnG=Search&styp=m&start=0)
14:20 - 14:25 fish-eye pan on a static
14:32 - 14:34 pan on simple repetitive shape
14:49 - 14:52 pan on static: round robo expo building
19:38 - 19:44 pan on static: mini statue of liberty and bridge
20:10 - 20:15 reverse pan of the above zoomed, less the statue
20:18 - 20:19 copy/paste cloned birds flying (foot of statue)
20:19 - 20:20 copy/paste cloned birds flying (top of statue)
20:21 - 20:23 pan/shake on static
20:34 - 20:37 restaurant collapse
20:37 - 20:39 sidewalk shaking (2 overlapping statics)
20:39 - 20:41 classic 3D windows braking; top/down pan on round building
20:41 - 20:45 repeat of 20:37 with different character animation
20:45 - 20:48 3D bridge (se above) distortion/morph
20:51 - 20:54
static background partially textured blocks for buildings in background
pasted in unbleanded animated breaking sidewalk and bridge
pasted over sidewalks are cracking animation
sidewalk is in its own layer and composed of a top and bottom; both are distorted slightly to simulate the falling down movement
all but the background have aplied a shaking motion
yes only the animated bits break around 85% of the picture don't even nudge; these include tiles, other similar visible structures etc.
20:54 - 20:59 similar to 20:37
20:59 - 21:04
rain of debris (lineart with or with out a fill to represent glass and rocks? have to wonder what those buildings are made of)
animation on debris is jerky and short; repeats 4 times
two statics, one is moving side to side and shaking, on is of the building and simply moving down
glass break animation; its 1 frame, overlap of some lineart glass break and some white fill
short smoke animation at the end of the sequence
21:04 - 21:10
static smoke (ya rly!) moving right to left
shaking of static with character animation;
character animation consists of a few frames with very long pause between the key frames
zoom of entire frame

Total time spent on eye candy: 83s or 1minute 23seconds. Out of this, 65s of pans, 19s of things with animation and 34s of scenes with 3D fun.

The point is that the disaster scenes and city scape scenes are zero compared to the production value of the indoor scenes and character animation in the in-house scenes so stop hyping up and going with the flow since there's nothing praise worthy there unless you enjoy sideshows.

aulzon

2009-07-10, 13:03

Great buildup towards the end. Ahh, can't wait til the next episode.

Kaoru Chujo

2009-07-10, 13:43

...[wonderful detailed list of outdoor backgrounds].... The point is that the disaster scenes and city scape scenes are zero compared to the production value of the indoor scenes and character animation in the in-house scenes so stop hyping up and going with the flow since there's nothing praise worthy there unless you enjoy sideshows.Thanks very much for the detailed look at this. It really helped me to see. However, technical difficulty does not equal artistic excellence. In fact, if they are able to work this magic without breaking the bank, they deserve even more credit.

Mistypearl

2009-07-10, 13:53

Wow, I'm really pleasantly suprised. I like how they allowed us to have a feel for the characters before everything happened, and there's something about the girl, I forget her name, but I feel like I can relate to her, her mannerisms and thoughts are realistic, but it makes her a sympathetic character. Not in the feel sorry for sense, but in a more relateable way. Her cell phone use, mocking of her mom (which was hilarious imo), and her mannerisms feel real to me. And I'm in her age group (or was recently in middle school, well...maybe not sooo recently), so I think I would know what I'm talking about here. I'm definately looking forward to the next episode. And on Cat's oh so cheerful response, I feel that the characterization is good enough to overlook whatever animation flaws it has, because usually if the conversation is mundane, I'll notice the pan and scan shots easily, but I was too drawn into the story and the characters to notice it. Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 may not be heaven's godsend anime of the century, but I feel it has a lot of potential, and is worth giving a try.

felix

2009-07-10, 13:53

Kaoru Chujo, I'm inclined to say they gave the midas touch to the first few scenes which are likely from the next episode. So really, the good stuff is yet to come, no need to blow hot air.

Flyvedelta

2009-07-10, 14:10

I must say I'm impressed with this. My friend got angry because the main character acts so impudent. But after I watched it, I realized that it must be a built up for the next few episodes.

I hope her brother survived though...

typhonsentra

2009-07-10, 14:18

I'm definitely enjoying the show so far, but it's not what I was expecting it to be (I was expecting a large ensemble show but instead it's about a single young girl). I also dislike how she keeps repeating her thoughts for the audience over and over. We'd get the idea that she's bored and disappointed with her life and future prospects even without her constant reminders. Besides that though, I enjoyed that they took their time to introduce us to her and her world before the impact to give depth to how it's going to change her life from here on out, good restraint on the director's part.

kaevne

2009-07-10, 14:55

I'm very surprised at how enjoyable the first episode was. Did a really good job of realistically portraying normal/slightly dysfunctional family life.

Skyfall

2009-07-10, 15:23

Flyvedelta

2009-07-10, 15:25

Boring huh. . well, this one surely representated that. But at least, it can conveys well at how the main character was feeling (boredom) at the time the episode airs. Then makes us as the watcher to feel exactly the same feeling as her, lol.

Skyfall

2009-07-10, 15:31

bbee

2009-07-10, 16:02

Ofcourse you need characters for the stage. What false advertising? Because the show is called Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, you expected all the episodes to show buildings shaking and falling apart? What did you expect to see from a movie called "American Pie"?
And the girl is not just a "bratty teenager". There is depth to her character; sure she rebels a little but the way she cares for her brother and how she is ashamed of the biker girl, is very telling. There is depth there, you just don't see it. What type of character would you have wanted to focus on, who would not have been "tedious"?

If you're not into the slice-of-life thing that's fine, but arguing that a show should not have characters.. That's absurd. Well, the next episodes will probably have a different tone due to the catastrophe, but I for one hope they manage to keep the familiarity of the slice-of-life feel between the characters. They have pulled it off perfectly, the animation is great and adds to the feel, and the whole thing is very enjoyable.

felix

2009-07-10, 16:14

You don't get it, its not that it should not have characters but as Sky pointed out this intro was too tedious and all explaining. We don't really need it to be this detailed as it spoils future "remember when..." moments. What would you rather have: a) re-runs of scenes you saw b) flashbacks to scenes you did not know. With so much depth even if they don't show scenes we've seen, as far as her family life and such not a lot can be put forth to surprise us with; I'd rather they rushed it and we got b) instead.

For a show promising tension and exciting scenes, it sure was very slow with its first episode.

Skyfall

2009-07-10, 16:19

I would prefer for yo to not put words in my mouth, thank you. First of, on her being a bratty teenager - she is one, that is not debatable. This doesn't exclude depth like you seem to be assuming, and i never once implied she doesn't have it. I said i find her tedious to follow, and that has nothing to do with depth or lack of it, but me simply not caring about what her character is about. (Which is a bratty teenager).

Once again, i never stated the show shouldn't have characters - i said the ones we have presented i find uninspiring and they fail to raise my appreciation of the show, nor do i get excited about the prospects of her being the characters whose viewpoint the show will revolve around. This has nothing to do with slice of life or not (which is a genre i have nothing against and gladly watch shows of), but a simple issue of characterization i don't find appealing. This is potentially liable to change with time, nor are my preferences speaking for other people as there is nothing wrong with finding such a character or the mood that comes with her interesting, but for me personally this was about as flat out boring as possible.

This sentence of Cats summed up my feelings on the episode quite well:

For a show promising tension and exciting scenes, it sure was very slow with its first episode.

felix

2009-07-10, 16:24

You did say,While there is obviously the need to introduce some characters through whom the catastrophe will be explored, but i really couldn't stomach just how flat out tedious the atmosphere felt.Also I said "pointed out", do not perceive it as me reiterating what you said, since I would not do something as pointless as that. That sentence was the only thing I was referring to.

Reckoner

2009-07-10, 16:38

I never disputed the realism of it, as it did a fairly credible portrayal of a rebellious child her age, and a "out of touch" family. Just that ...this was not what i really expected (nor wanted, after seeing it) from the show - for a show about an earthquake there was a distinct lack of said earthquake, and an overdose of a tedious teenage girl, and i can't say the later aspect is going to make me appreciate the former any more when it actually hits. (I was lured in by false advertising!). Yes, you probably need a character to place on the stage, but for me personally there was nothing about the episode that would make me want to see more of her. Or of the show, for that matter, but heh - i suppose the next episode will make or break the show for me ... if i actually summon the will to watch it that is :)

I totally disagree.

The show came up with exactly what I expected to see. I don't know what you were expecting... Care to explain in detail?

I think when you get something that is supposed to be about an earthquake, it is the people in it that matters, not the earthquake itself. We are trying to explore the minds of the distressed victims. I think that a person going to see this should ask themselves how they would feel and react in such a situation. Here we are given a VERY realistic depiction of an andolescent girl's life, and there already was an incredible about of character development in just one episode. This way, the viewer can somehow relate to her or the family's situation in life and say "Hey, I had thoughts like this at that age." The only difference is that many or most of us haven't had our lives just flip upside down like we are about to see in the future episodes.

I was actually worried coming into this episode that they'd just jump into the earthquake scene without any lead up or development. I found it anything but boring...

You don't get it, its not that it should not have characters but as Sky pointed out this intro was too tedious and all explaining. We don't really need it to be this detailed as it spoils future "remember when..." moments. What would you rather have: a) re-runs of scenes you saw b) flashbacks to scenes you did not know. With so much depth even if they don't show scenes we've seen, as far as her family life and such not a lot can be put forth to surprise us with; I'd rather they rushed it and we got b) instead.

How does it spoil future flashbacks? The flashbacks would probably not be about this episode... It would most likely further detail the life she had before the earthquake. It doesn't ruin the development at all, because there are so many things they haven't even touched on in her life. Also, we haven't even met all the characters and have had them developed at all in this show...

=====

Anyway, I really enjoyed this first episode. Honestly, I'm willing to say that this was defintely the best first episode of any anime this season. Only real negative criticisms I have are that the OP and ED are not very good (And feel out of place).

I thoroughly enjoyed the more serious nature of this anime. It's a shame that not more anime are serious in nature. They are far too few in number.

The animation wasn't anything special, but it wasn't bad by any means. I expect a lot better visuals in future episodes.

And man, a show with actual well done character development... It's been awhile! No thanks to the anime studios churning out pure moe and girls with guns.

This is defintely a keeper for the season.

bbee

2009-07-10, 16:38

Okay, it's a matter of personal preference.
I never dismiss any character that I feel has depth, nor do I find any such character tedious. The show could have just as well been about a butcher with a corner shop in the area, or about a callgirl working that corner; if they had been introduced with the same amount of subtlety and displayed the same range of emotion as our current protagonists, I would have been just as pleased. Being kids, there will be opportunity for them to mature through the ordeal. As an introduction to the characters (which is what every first episode needs to do), whatever you may think of them, I hardly see how they could have done better.

You just don't like angsty teenagers for some reason ;)

Deathkillz

2009-07-10, 16:40

Well some character introductions were needed, which they did portray very realistically but I personally got little enjoyment from watching a brat on screen who is currently at the start of her rebellious age. Granted it was done correctly and realistically I didn't expect the whole ordeal to last the entire length of the episode with the earthquake coming at the end in a "half hearted" sort of way. If anything it was more of an anti climax than imagined since it was predictable that they tried to put the earthquake shocker in the end...well it could have been more exciting if the title of the series didn't give away the thought behind it in the first place or that so little of the earthquake had been shown. It was a pretty average start all around and probably not something I was expecting (in a negative way).

Lostdreams

2009-07-10, 16:45

Well, what can i say ... not much i suppose, because the episode nearly bored me to tears :heh: While there is obviously the need to introduce some characters through whom the catastrophe will be explored, but i really couldn't stomach just how flat out tedious the atmosphere felt. I suppose they wanted a reflection of the life as felt by our female protagonist, but i honestly can't think of a more boring way at the moment than to spend 20 minutes following around a bratty teenager and her dissatisfaction with everything around her. I mean ... i came for the earthquake, but ended up with a disgruntled teenager. Realistic as it might be for her age, it lasted for way too long to keep my interest going.

Animation and design wise this series has very little to brag about either - it looks unimpressive for the most part, save for some specific moments. Character designs are very minimalistic and generally gives gives off a "low key" vibe. That is to say, this show was not much to look at either - there were scenes that looked genuinely nice (like the bridge), but generally very little to write home about. It gets the job done for the mood of the show, but nothing really impressive.

Overall ...i dunno, if asked to summarize my thoughts on the episode in one word, i would say "boring". I guess i was expecting something else for the show that was supposed to be about an earthquake. I mean, yes - we are getting there, but i can't say these 20 minutes did anything to raise my interest in the premise. I was waiting for an earthquake before the first episode, and i still am. Lets see what the next episode does once we actually get there, but this one did very little for me personally.

I have to agree with starfall here. Not my preference, watching some teenager going through puberty. This breaks from the traditional weeeh all fun and happy anime type genre, and it's boring. There's a reason I believe that there aren't that many "serious" animes out there. They're boring, and they don't attract many people to watch the anime. This anime is for older people who are interested in serious things, and treat animes like movies.

Okay, it's a matter of personal preference.
I never dismiss any character that I feel has depth, nor do I find any such character tedious. The show could have just as well been about a butcher with a corner shop in the area, or about a callgirl working that corner; if they had been introduced with the same amount of subtlety and displayed the same range of emotion as our current protagonists, I would have been just as pleased. Being kids, there will be opportunity for them to mature through the ordeal. As an introduction to the characters (which is what every first episode needs to do), whatever you may think of them, I hardly see how they could have done better.

You just don't like angsty teenagers for some reason ;)

Do you find angsty teenagers fun?

Kaoru Chujo

2009-07-10, 17:41

Well, what can i say ... not much i suppose, because the episode nearly bored me to tears....I know what you mean. When I saw the first couple of minutes, I was ready to run: I have seen shows before with this look and pacing that I thought were boring.

But I didn't think so here. I thought they nailed the characters in a way that actually reached me. The brat's antics didn't alienate me, they sucked me in, so that I can feel her complex dissatisfaction. Good stuff so far, for me.

Ashlotte

2009-07-10, 18:23

Disaster movies in my anime?!? :heh:

Ah well once I got past that rather large stigma I enjoyed the episode quite abit...Now lets see where they can go with this setup eh. ;)

DeadlySoldier37

2009-07-10, 19:04

I was interested in watching this anime because I have lived through an earthquake and I have to say that it was one of the scariest things that I have ever lived through. The episode it self was not bad since you get to see the girls problem, but what I'm looking forward is how she will deal with the aftermath since that is the toughest part at least in my opinion.

Daniel E.

2009-07-10, 19:29

For a show promising tension and exciting scenes, it sure was very slow with its first episode.

I was expecting quite the contrary actually. Outside the earthquake, I am expecting a heavy focus on drama and character development. Won't mind if they decide to include tension and exciting scenes, though. ;)

And yeah, I do enjoyed this first episode. :)

Rawr:3

2009-07-10, 19:54

I very much enjoyed the first episode. But it's a bit too early to really judge the content of the whole anime. In terms of the progression, I believe it's just slow in the first episode, it did at least show us a flashback of the aftermath from the earthquake. I wouldn't expect the first scene to come up and BAM, an earthquake smacks into the screen.

The characters, I have a feeling it's supposed to relate to a typical Japanese family? I don't know anything about Japanese family so I won't know. But I'm guessing its supposed to show the distress of a certain girl in her adolescent years. Mirai is actually a very well-rounded character. She's a bit rebellious, but she has her own way of thinking. As for her depressing nature, I'm sure she will grow out of it. Even though she seems to dislike everything around her, I can't help but actually feel her depression. They really grasp that aspect in a person really well. Again, you can't expect to know the whole anime OR an anime character from just watching one episode. I will be waiting for a personality growth spurt :P

I was actually impressed by the animation, it wasn't the best, but I can tell that they tried to really use a simulator and draw the scenes from it. Overall, I expect great things from this series :3 Now if they made a subforum for it...

Edit: Ahh...seems like theres going to be alot of controversies with this anime, then again which anime doesn't have? ^^;;

wOoOzZy

2009-07-10, 20:27

Wow. There seems to be a lot of mixed reviews on this one which I didn't expect at all while watching the 1st episode. I thought the first episode was awesome. Much better than the first episode of anything that I've seen this season (Canaan/Bakemonogatari). I liked Mirai and her brother despite the fact that I normally don't like the angsty teen character.

Now that I think about it, the pacing of the first episode reminds me a lot of Saikano. Big slice of life (with 'different' character designs) for most of the episode and then BAM! They hit you with what the shows really about at the last second. I like.

I really can't think of any complaints that I had while watching the episode. I hope that they keep it up in the following episodes and it be a shame to have a big drop off after such a good first episode.

Sorrow-K

2009-07-10, 20:37

Ep 1

I liked what I saw from this ep.

The portrayal of the family was one of the most fascinating and realistic I've seen in anime for a long time. There was this thick tension that you could almost cut with a knife, and the interactions were filled with it, with the characters often behaving in an almost passive-aggressive way. It really made the point clear, that this is a family that's pretty much loveless and dead on the inside and on the cusp of breaking up, and the only reason they're still together at this point is probably because it's more convenient to stay together and keep the current equilibrium than it is to break up. Everyone pretty much takes everyone else for granted. (It's kinda like the anti-Clannad :p).

I think, given the set up, there's a bit of an inevitability about where this is going, character-wise, but the set up strongly suggests that they're not going to skimp on the character development between all the destruction and tsunamis and sickness and whatever other consequences of a massive earthquake they can think up. If "realism" is what they're aiming for, then so far I'd say they're on track. (Although, I guess one has to suspend their disbelief just enough to accept that all these bad things are going to happen one after another, but that's hardly implausible).

This anime is for older people who are interested in serious things, and treat animes like movies.
Awesome. Sounds good.

SeijiSensei

2009-07-10, 20:54

I have to agree with [Skyfall] here. Not my preference, watching some teenager going through puberty. This breaks from the traditional weeeh all fun and happy anime type genre, and it's boring. There's a reason I believe that there aren't that many "serious" animes out there. They're boring, and they don't attract many people to watch the anime. This anime is for older people who are interested in serious things, and treat animes like movies.

Well I guess if anyone here qualifies as an "older person who is interested in serious things," it's me, though I don't think serious need mean boring at all. As an example, I can't think of more than one episode of Monster that came even close to inducing boredom. Rather I was so drawn into the story that I watched all 74 episodes in just a few sittings.

That said, I lean toward the camp that found this episode boring. Mirai's persistent negativity quickly became tedious. My favorite character in the show so far is Yuuki, though the biker lady holds some promise.
In the ED they show frames from what is presumably next week's episode. It appears that the biker lady is going to become the childrens' guardian. I was puzzled not to see more destruction in the backgrounds of those shots since they must be after the quake.I pretty much hated the generic models used for the children from the outset; the adults display more character, even the father who appears on screen for only a few moments.

I hope this show doesn't just trudge down a rather obvious road where the three main characters simply become a warm surrogate family as they face survivial after the quake. That would be boring because of its predictability and lack of drama. I do think it's worth watching a few more episodes to see whether Bones can avoid this trap.

Bonta Kun

2009-07-10, 20:55

ehhh quite meh I guess, it actually follows disaster 101 by the book by showing the very casual life of a character before the big time. Then afterwards something stupid should follow;)

2 things about disaster stuff

1. There needs to a old man of sorts, that just somehow knows how to deal with the aftermath of such a disaster.

2. The "do" and "do not" scenes. Scenes that show up where you think "OMG why the hell didn't you do <what your suposed to do>" or "OMG please no, don't tell me he is gonna do that?!"

2nd one is something you have to hate but it wouldn't feel like a disaster story without them:heh:

wao

2009-07-10, 21:04

I personally enjoyed this episode - lots of characters can get on my nerves for being overly negative, but I found Mirai's version to be quite believable and not particularly grating. Even Yuuki didn't seem particularly artificial to me, either. Perhaps because I don't interact with kids that much, I dunno. I'm fine with it.

As an episode on it's own I think it was pretty good enough; that's how I'd like slice of life to be done. But the biggest question mark would be how the rest of the show goes, really. I don't actually mind if they go down the rehashed old route of the three becoming a surrogate family - I can't particularly think of many other realistic alternatives - as long as they do it in a watchable way.

I think if they keep it up it could be a pretty decent anime; something pleasant and good to watch on the weekend. It kind of brings me back to watching Saturday morning cartoons, where you don't give a damn about trying to pre-guess everything but enjoy watching the characters interact.
Perhaps I merely did myself a favour by coming in with fewer preconceptions, that's it...

Guardian Enzo

2009-07-10, 22:50

Wow. 11/10 for me - that was a first episode that was perfect in every way.

I thought the decision to start with the post-apocalyptic scene was brilliant, as it created an intense aura of foreboding as the mundane family drama played out. I could almost forget about what was about to happen as you got sucked into the character's lives, but then it would come back to me in a flash. I really enjoyed the dialogue here - the family dynamics were spot-on, and quickly drew me to the characters. Also big kudos for the OP and especially the ED, both of which were innovative and brilliantly presented. For me, there was nothing not to like here.

On a side note, having visited Big Sight this year on my first trip to Tokyo, I can sympathize with Yuuki - that walk is long, and even in March it felt hot. Everything on Odaiba seems to be about ten times farther away than you think it is.

Jarmel

2009-07-10, 22:51

I really enjoyed this episode and I thought it was a very good character introduction. Can't wait till shit hits the fan next week. Scourging for food and medical supplies. Chaos on the loose. Good times ahead.

germanturkey

2009-07-10, 22:57

meh, the girl annoyed me. i know there's a stage in life where everyone wants something to happen to them, but when it actually happens, they have no clue what to do. people don't get how important things are in life until they're not there any more.

Guardian Enzo

2009-07-10, 23:07

Wow, I intentionally limited my views on this thread before I'd seen the episode, and I'm surprised to see almost as many bad reviews as stellar ones. Obviously I thought this was great - the best first ep of the entire year for me, never mind the season. I can't help but be reminded of Seirei no Moribito (the series I exalt above all others) in that in both cases the reasons I loved them are the very same reasons many are citing for why they found them boring.

I've already seen this compared to Eden of the East (directed by Kenji Kamiyama of Moribito fame, to bring this full circle) which is quite natural - both series released by big-time quality-oriented studios, both featuring gorgeous Tokyo cityscapes and similar character designs. But where I always found Eden to be emotionally false, right from the beginning - if never less than intriguing - this one rang completely true to me. They absolutely nailed the character dynamics AFAIC. My hope is that this will develop into the love affair for me that I'd hoped Eden would be, although I suspect it won't be nearly as popular for the reasons the negative reviewers have already cited. That's fine - I'm used to disagreeing with majority opinion when it comes to anime so no reason this time should be any different...

TinyRedLeaf

2009-07-10, 23:09

There's a reason I believe that there aren't that many "serious" animes out there. They're boring, and they don't attract many people to watch the anime. This anime is for older people who are interested in serious things, and treat animes like movies.

And kids tie themselves into such knots whenever someone tells them "anime is for kids". :rolleyes:

I love that quote so much that I'm definitely going to repeat it the next time some petulant anime fan decides to complain (again) about how adults aren't treating anime "seriously".

When the disclaimer said that a lot of research had been done for the show, I had not expected some of it to also go into exploring the relationships within a normal family with two working parents. As quite a few people have already mentioned, Mirai's feelings and behaviour are surprisingly realistic for an anime, or even live-action drama for that matter. At a time when popular anime fall back on familiar and overused tropes to appeal to its main audience (petulant otakus with short attention spans), it's refreshing to see an anime attempting to be "real".

And, no, I don't think Mirai's family is "dysfunctional" either. It's just a normal family going through the normal stress that normal families go through, especially when both parents are working. It's curious: I would have expected a predominantly younger audience to relate easily with the angst a teenager goes through but, judging by some of the posts here, it seems generally the opposite.

Hello, kids, we were all teenagers once. If you feel Mirai is "unlikeable", imagine what others were thinking about you at her age.

So, yes, count me in as part of the minority that prefers serious anime for serious adults. This show seems very promising, although I wonder why they made it an animation when it could have been more effective as a live drama. The only reason I can think of at the moment is the lack of budget to create the Hollywood-quality of special effects to make the disaster work on screen (and, which, in any case, has already been done to death in recent disaster movies, both made in the United States and Japan).

Guardian Enzo

2009-07-10, 23:14

Zippicus

2009-07-10, 23:23

This has a pretty promising start for me. I didn't find myself bored or wanting to fast forward the video or anything. I'm looking forward to all the craziness that's sure to follow.

Ninjacat

2009-07-11, 01:01

Well said, TRL. This series has real written all over it - some of the best dialogue and most authentic characters since Moribito (again, boring to many because it was too "serious"). It's only one ep and it could all fall apart quickly, but I see potential for true greatness - the force is strong with this one.

Indeed, I really loved the characterisation in this show. The familly dynamics, and the understated nature of it all.

No melodramatic music, no screaming at the top of their lungs while their pastel colored hair blew in the wind. Just a very well portrayed young teenager going through difficult stage of her life with a somewhat broken familly. I really like the fact that no one is portrayed as the bad guy. The father is good natured but lazy, the mother seems like a good person but she's too busy with work. The little brother is adorable, but you can tell there are moments when he finds it hard.

I'm a bit depressed to find I'm apparently the only one who finds the woman to be incredibly hot for some reason. :p

solomon

2009-07-11, 01:07

agree with above and especially tinyredleaf's feelings. Remember Noitamina was explicitly made for an audience who doesn't normally watch anime, so I would EXPECT them to do something different.

In regards to Mirai, yea I think she is a malcontent, but that is completely normal, hense making it more realistic.

As fer what Ninjacat said, I think the lady is nice looking (not quite hot, the design doesn't speak to me like that).

Also Am I the only one surprised by how straitlaced the announcer is when she gives the word that Tokyo was DESTROYED by an earthquake?!

Daniel E.

2009-07-11, 01:30

Also Am I the only one surprised by how straitlaced the announcer is when she gives the word that Tokyo was DESTROYED by an earthquake?!

The following is Lourdes Guerrero, as she appears on Tv, right when the 1985 Mexico earthquake was just starting:

Ug8y8DE1xgo&feature=related

The camera and the building begin to shake, but she always tries to keep a cool head regardless. One could say that, in a way, she was trying to avoid causing even more panic in front of the camera.

solomon

2009-07-11, 01:39

Televisa, si?

This is a good point, still I would expect some sort of measured evidence of agitation in the voice or face of an announcer, (along the lines of most professional casters do in an event of SUCH extreme crisis) given the severity of the situation.

Daniel E.

2009-07-11, 01:48

Televisa, si?

Yep, that's a Televisa broadcast.

There's a longer better quality version, but it's all in spanish, so I decided to go with this one instead.

Reckoner

2009-07-11, 01:52

My mom was in a hospital in Mexico City, having just given birth to my older brother, when that earthquake happened. It's possible that I may not have been here right now posting :upset:.

yura`

2009-07-11, 02:22

felix

2009-07-11, 03:03

still I would expect some sort of measured evidence of agitation in the voice or face of an announcer, (along the lines of most professional casters do in an event of SUCH extreme crisis) given the severity of the situation.Your job is to present the news not to induce panic, a professional caster would keep his cool; if you want to panic that's your job as a crazed citizen =P Also, its not excluded the person in question may not even have been in the city at the time.

solomon

2009-07-11, 03:28

I dunno man, I just remember looking at the restrained yet still noticibley "bothered" tones and faces of casters during 9/11, so maybe it's just me.

Anyways back to the show, bring on next weeks episode!

duckroll

2009-07-11, 04:03

I really like the writing in the show. I can see how some people feel annoyed watching Mirai whine about her life, but she's a really well written character. Her dissatisfaction with her life is natural for someone her age, and it doesn't reflect any malice in her. She obviously loves her family, it's just that she feels unable to express how what she wants out of life at that moment and just dragged along by things everyone else wants or needs.

Shiroth

2009-07-11, 04:14

I wasn't too impressed with Mirai - I really disliked her behaviour at first, especially the way she treated her younger brother (I'm an older sister of two brothers myself who I dote on now), and I really felt like throwing something at her (lol), but then halfway through, I realized - wait, that was ME once upon a time. That was a sobering thought and I stopped feeling so much animosity towards her. I think it's easy to forget that we went through that angst-filled teenage stage once we get out of it; maybe we're just ashamed that we were even like that in the first place so we just automatically dislike portrayals of that sort of character! Lol. I'm sure as the series progress, we'll get a lot more backstory and character development.
That is basically why we were shown her life style and behavior in the first episode, for her growth that is bound to happen in the next 10 episodes, leading upto the ending. I'm sure at the start she'll still be the same, probably worse considering what's going on around her.

Do wonder how this bike lady will play part in the story. I quite like her.

baioslaio

2009-07-11, 05:58

Very disappointed in the animation.
Bones animes use to have top notch animation but this anime dont.
It has plenty of CG animation too :(

SuperKnuckles

2009-07-11, 06:10

I actually like the bratty girl idea, because frankly, who hasn't been pampered and taken life for granted when they were young? I know I do and I can actually understand how she feels with the broken/dysfunctional parent-life. It's easier to sometimes be the brat and zone out from it than take it head on.

But of course, she's forced to face against all that thanks to a real disaster.

Also, I wonder in such a 'realistic' portrayal of such a quake, would anyone crucial to the story actually DIE? That'd be a total killer in a show that aims for realism like this.

SeijiSensei

2009-07-11, 07:21

Also, I wonder in such a 'realistic' portrayal of such a quake, would anyone crucial to the story actually DIE? That'd be a total killer in a show that aims for realism like this.

I think the parents may be dead. Perhaps we'll discover them alive near the end, but it looks more like the kids will spend the show with biker lady.

ZODDGUTS

2009-07-11, 08:23

Very disappointed in the animation.
Bones animes use to have top notch animation but this anime dont.
It has plenty of CG animation too :(

Isn't this series Kinema Citrus work and not Bones? The same guys that work on some of the new animation on Eureka 7 movie, which wasn't exactly all that great...

baioslaio

2009-07-11, 09:04

Isn't this series Kinema Citrus work and not Bones? The same guys that work on some of the new animation on Eureka 7 movie, which wasn't exactly all that great...

If this is the case it totally makes sense, because ive never seen a work from bones that has been bad animated.

duckroll

2009-07-11, 09:29

Isn't this series Kinema Citrus work and not Bones? The same guys that work on some of the new animation on Eureka 7 movie, which wasn't exactly all that great...

It's a collaboration. They're both working on it, and assistant director of Xam'd is storyboarding and directing a few upcoming episodes as well.

Riful

2009-07-11, 09:40

This is a good point, still I would expect some sort of measured evidence of agitation in the voice or face of an announcer, (along the lines of most professional casters do in an event of SUCH extreme crisis) given the severity of the situation.

The newscaster in the series is by the way a real one. Christel Takigawa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christel_Takigawa)

http://mainichi.jp/enta/photo/news/20090618mog00m200025000c.html

If this earthquake happens one day (and chances are high that it will), she will be reporting it in real life ^^; They are really going for the "realism". Might even be a bit scary for a Japanese person who's used to hearing her voice announcing the real news oO;

jonli

2009-07-11, 10:05

Great start, I'm really happy to see how real they portray the characters. After watching Eden of East, an anime in a realistic setting with characters that do not behave logically and rationally, I was really worried about this one.

They impressed me with the conflict of the parents, as well as the child complex that the main character displayed.

Now depending on the next few episodes, I'd hope that this stays as real as possible, where the giant earth quake is explained in a realistic and not farfetched retarded reason like aliens crash-landing or psychic beings or w/e.

Sackett

2009-07-11, 10:13

Interesting.

2 things I noticed.

1: The development seems to hark back to the old disaster movies. You know, the good ones, like Towering Inferno. You follow someone along their normal life, meeting different people at random- and then the crisis hits. I expect that several of those people we randomly ran into will reappear in the following episodes.

2: This is the second anime I've seen that has apathetic characters wishing for something along the lines of "I want the world to break" (Eden of the East had it too)

Notice that this is not daydreaming about some crisis that allows you to be a hero. (Where the emphasis is on being a Hero, and saving other people, and being admired- that is pretty common.) No this is a sort of careless wishing that the current system and world is destroyed because you don't like the system.

I think this implies some great dissatisfaction among the Japanese people, particularly the young. Furthermore they can't actually identify why they are so dissatisfied- as the heroine puts it- "Everything just makes me so angry".

Of course so far Eden of the East and Tokyo 8.0, seem to be coming down pretty hard on the idea. "Be careful what you wish for" kind of Aesop.

Kaoru Chujo

2009-07-11, 10:52

...I think this implies some great dissatisfaction among the Japanese people, particularly the young. Furthermore they can't actually identify why they are so dissatisfied- as the heroine puts it- "Everything just makes me so angry"....Excellent point, connecting this with Eden of the East. I think this is true. Japan is a pressure-cooker of suppressed emotion and hierarchical limitations at the best of times. And these are not the best of times.

Ashlotte

2009-07-11, 11:04

Your job is to present the news not to induce panic, a professional caster would keep his cool; if you want to panic that's your job as a crazed citizen =P Also, its not excluded the person in question may not even have been in the city at the time.

Man Cats I wish you could go help some of the 24/7 news stations who seem to think its their job or perhaps only way to drive viewership ratings by inducing panic (*cough* swineflu *cough*). :heh:

I never once really found Mirai annoying..The second they through out that disclaimer about realism and I saw what they were doing with her character it pretty much clicked, especially when they started delving more into her family life.

I'm taking from the summaries and the way things were presented the parent's will only come in later again maybe and we'll mostly have biker lady as the "adult" voice in the story for now?

Guardian Enzo

2009-07-11, 11:22

I really have to agree with TinyRedLeaf, Guardian Enzo and Ninjacat... this episode was absolutely stellar; it may have been more slice-of-life than action/drama-filled, but I think it was a necessary first episode to set up the plot and setting for the audience.

I wasn't too impressed with Mirai - I really disliked her behaviour at first, especially the way she treated her younger brother (I'm an older sister of two brothers myself who I dote on now), and I really felt like throwing something at her (lol), but then halfway through, I realized - wait, that was ME once upon a time. That was a sobering thought and I stopped feeling so much animosity towards her. I think it's easy to forget that we went through that angst-filled teenage stage once we get out of it; maybe we're just ashamed that we were even like that in the first place so we just automatically dislike portrayals of that sort of character! Lol. I'm sure as the series progress, we'll get a lot more backstory and character development.

Like many others have said, very realistic portrayal. Little brother, on the other hand, displayed a maturity to his character that really touched me at times. He's still very innocent and young for his age, but I really like the contrast in character between sister and brother.

Beautiful episode. I'm already anticipating the next one.

I think maybe some of us are being a little too hard on Mirai, and indeed on the family in general. The key line of the ep for Mirai was, "Why does everything make me so angry?" I mean, honestly - what could express being 13 more than that? I never got the sense that she didn't love her parents or (especially) her brother - more that she was starting to realize that the parents were fallible people who she couldn't depend on for everything in her life. I actually liked each of the family members - they all seemed quite realistic and normal - exhausted, distracted, ultimately taking each other for granted - but I think that was the point. Only Yuuki hadn't reached that stage yet, but that's the difference between a child and an adolescent, and I think it irritated Mirai that Yuuki was able to keep this idealized view of the family that she knew she'd never see again.

wao

2009-07-11, 11:49

Excellent point, connecting this with Eden of the East. I think this is true. Japan is a pressure-cooker of suppressed emotion and hierarchical limitations at the best of times. And these are not the best of times.

Ah, so that's who she's been sending texts to... and that's the 800th time the joke was repeated, I guess.

I like the point made that Mirai's family isn't actually all that dysfunctional. A lot of dual-income families probably have scenes like that, it probably seems dysfunctional if we're used to some kind of idealised notion of what families should be... It's only natural to get dissatisfied when you're stuck with the same people day in day out, especially if you've got a stressful job or you're having some entirely natural emotional turmoil.

Come to think of it I'm a little amused that something like this is on Noitamina... it doesn't seem as clearly targeted as certain predecessors. I'm interested in the upcoming female lead too, seems like the archetype I've been longing to see in a new anime.

Kazu-kun

2009-07-11, 12:17

Come to think of it I'm a little amused that something like this is on Noitamina... it doesn't seem as clearly targeted as certain predecessors. I'm interested in the upcoming female lead too, seems like the archetype I've been longing to see in a new anime.

Not so much the target audience, but this is definitely a new approach for Noitamina. It seems to me that in the quest to find the most suitable product for a non-otaku adult audience, they are now trying to portray a sort of Miyazaki-like feeling (minus the fantasy, of course). From the designs and the characterization in this first episode, it really felt like I was watching something by Miyazaki. And thinking about it, Ghibli's works, even if primarily targeted to kids, are of the few animated works that are extremely successful with a non-otaku mainstream audience in general (everyone loves Ghibli's works in Japan). That must be the reason Noitamina is trying with something similar, since they too want to succeed with that kind of audience.

I can see Noitamina will keep experimenting till they find their place in the anime industry, specially since they don't want to give in to the Otaku market just yet (and here's hoping they'll never do).

Daniel E.

2009-07-11, 12:40

I think the parents may be dead. Perhaps we'll discover them alive near the end, but it looks more like the kids will spend the show with biker lady.

You know, I think I would have prefered if they had skipped both the opening and the ending for this episode at the very least.

Drawing this conclusion after watching the episode makes perfect sense, yet, we got it rubbed in our faces by the opening before the show even starts. Same for the ending, that pretty much kills the tension on wether or not the boy is Ok. >_<

solomon

2009-07-11, 14:04

Not so much the target audience, but this is definitely a new approach for Noitamina. It seems to me that in the quest to find the most suitable product for a non-otaku adult audience, they are now trying to portray a sort of Miyazaki-like feeling (minus the fantasy, of course). From the designs and the characterization in this first episode, it really felt like I was watching something by Miyazaki. And thinking about it, Ghibli's works, even if primarily targeted to kids, are of the few animated works that are extremely successful with a non-otaku mainstream audience in general (everyone loves Ghibli's works in Japan). That must be the reason Noitamina is trying with something similar, since they too want to succeed with that kind of audience.

I can see Noitamina will keep experimenting till they find their place in the anime industry, specially since they don't want to give in to the Otaku market just yet (and here's hoping they'll never do).

Regarding that, remember that previous shows such as Ayakashi, it's Mononoke spinoff, Moyashimon and Hakabe Kitaro all were outside the realm of strictly college age female audience and all did well. It's been much more versatile than orignally envisioned.

orion

2009-07-11, 15:27

You know, I think I would have prefered if they had skipped both the opening and the ending for this episode at the very least.

Drawing this conclusion after watching the episode makes perfect sense, yet, we got it rubbed in our faces by the opening before the show even starts. Same for the ending, that pretty much kills the tension on wether or not the boy is Ok. >_<

Maybe it's the journey and not the destination that matters. Mirai has to grow up fast and make better choices than the Grave of the Fireflies sibs did.

I loved this ep. Grave of the Fireflies and Barefoot Gen also started out with the slice of life intro before the disaster hit. Then went on to survival slice of life afterwards. I was expecting this kind of format.

Mirai is pretty much a normal teen. Parents are overworked to the point of neglecting family things including their own birthdays and putting their responsibilites on Mirai. It's understandable that Mirai would be pissed. What is suppose to be "normal" (family vacation together, family having a real birthday cake, not thinking too much about being an adult, enjoying your summer) is now considered a fantasy or outside of her reach.

Yes, Mirai had the summer off. But instead of forcing her to take Yuki to the exhibition, Mirai's mother should have asked Mirai if she had anything planned first.

Also. mom and dad also seem distant from each other. It's prob more than being overworked I bet. Mom was late and yet dad couldn't get his a** off the couch and cook dinner or pick the clothes up that were on the floor. (That was a nice touch to the family scene by the way.)

Mirai is a bit spoiled and emo but her parents also need to get their acts together imo.

achirist

2009-07-11, 16:58

Personally, I felt sympathy for Murai, and I wasn't bored or annoyed by her. At least this isn't the usual teenage anime girl that is replicated in a thousand shows this season. I agree with what someone said, about this being a family at a total dead-end, barely even 'together' at all. I think it is poignant that the mother doesn't even buy a cake--just three different slices of three different cakes, leaving them on the counter and walk away--there is thus no chance to share, to celebrate as a family. Murai, of course, should not be left alone, or expected to raise her younger brother--that is an imposition on both children. And, you know, some dual-income families manage to be much warmer and closer than this, so it isn't really such a wide-reaching excuse.

I do share the hope, however, that once the earthquake happens there is not going to be some petty 'moral' tacked onto it--that the story doesn't try to shame these children into idealizing their former circumstances and lying to themselves that things really were good in their loveless family. I hope this can go somewhere interesting, somewhat like Eden Of The East; though I kind of doubt Murai as being the main character to take us through it all.

bbee

2009-07-11, 19:02

I think it is poignant that the mother doesn't even buy a cake--just three different slices of three different cakes, leaving them on the counter and walk away--there is thus no chance to share, to celebrate as a family.Well spotted. It's one of the many subtle messages in the episode, hidden in the slice-of-life context. I also spotted that all the photos in Mirai's bunk are of friends, and none of her family; and the little brother only has family pictures on his desk. Or the way that the girls that laugh at Mirai in the beginning hide behind their makeup kits, just like she hides behind her cellphone all the time; and yet she says that she never wants to be like them.
Fifty bucks says that the people that found the ep tedious noticed none of these subtleties.
The key line of the ep for Mirai was, "Why does everything make me so angry?" I mean, honestly - what could express being 13 more than that? I never got the sense that she didn't love her parents or (especially) her brother - more that she was starting to realize that the parents were fallible people who she couldn't depend on for everything in her life. I actually liked each of the family members - they all seemed quite realistic and normal - exhausted, distracted, ultimately taking each other for granted - but I think that was the point. Only Yuuki hadn't reached that stage yet, but that's the difference between a child and an adolescent, and I think it irritated Mirai that Yuuki was able to keep this idealized view of the family that she knew she'd never see again.Well put, that is definately the core message of the episode. Can't wait to see if any of them will get to see any view of their family again, or if they will form a new one.
Haven't been this excited about an anime since.. Well, since Seirei no Moribito atleast. Someone find a way to make a week pass faster!

4Tran

2009-07-11, 23:01

Well, now that was a pretty good first episode. It really does hearken back to the good old disaster movie (at least before Hollywood started mangling 'em ;)), and I expect most of the rest of the show to play out in that fashion. One difference between 8.0 and most other disaster films is that the immediate crisis should be over fairly quickly, and most of the rest will deal with how both Mirai and Tokyo will function in the aftermath, and how they will both rebuild. Having said that, the way the show is laid out does make it rather obvious what the next few sequences of events will be, but the fun should lie in the journey rather than in any great secret over what the destination is.

The other nifty goal of the show is of course to show the familiar landmarks of Tokyo getting ruined, and how the emergency systems will operate to first let the people survive and then to show how they recover from such a disaster. This would probably work a lot better if the viewer has visited Tokyo. I feel that one of the advantages that BONES has over Hollywood about this kind of storytelling is that Hollywood has too much money to pour into the special effects, thus rendering a lot of the emphasis on the immediate spectacle rather than making the destruction sequences more restrained, and thus both more realistic and easier to relate to. As long as BONES can pull it off properly (and the evidence indicates that they can), their rendition should deliver a lot more punch as a consequence.

I think maybe some of us are being a little too hard on Mirai, and indeed on the family in general. The key line of the ep for Mirai was, "Why does everything make me so angry?" I mean, honestly - what could express being 13 more than that? I never got the sense that she didn't love her parents or (especially) her brother - more that she was starting to realize that the parents were fallible people who she couldn't depend on for everything in her life. I actually liked each of the family members - they all seemed quite realistic and normal - exhausted, distracted, ultimately taking each other for granted - but I think that was the point. Only Yuuki hadn't reached that stage yet, but that's the difference between a child and an adolescent, and I think it irritated Mirai that Yuuki was able to keep this idealized view of the family that she knew she'd never see again.
Mirai's family and her circumstance are supposed to be exceedingly normal. A large part of the theme for 8.0 is that she finds "normal" to be extremely aggravating without really knowing why. Mirai herself basically symbolizes Japan - a place that's unsure of what the future holds, how to build to that future, and even what the future even means to them. That's why the show brought up all her angsting over the 10 years in the future assignment. Moreover, her name is "Mirai" - future. And so it'll be about her finding her way into the future while simultaneously representing Japan rebuilding its future. All that is building up to a journey of rediscovering the value inherent in everyday life. That's partially why the show is going to be so obvious: reuniting with her parents is going to be the end goal: a convenient way to tie off a story that otherwise wouldn't have much of an ending.

On the other side of things, I can definitely see why some people aren't all that enthused about 8.0. The point of the show is that Mirai's life isn't exciting - and it's easy to find the exploration of that life to be relatively unexciting as well.

Oh, and I'm calling it right now - there will be a character who is a survivor of the Great Kanto Earthquake who will impart wisdom and a sense of perspective to our protagonists.

kirapika

2009-07-12, 00:24

Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 has a good premise even though I'm not a fan of earthquakes myself, I found the first episode entertaining. I'm totally watching more of this.

However, I being a critique, was irritated by Mirai a bit. I mean, don't just keep on complaining and complaining about things! But yeah, we can understand what she's going through.

The whole episode felt like a prologue(as it should be) for the whole series.. I give it a 8/10 at least. :P

Daniel E.

2009-07-12, 00:35

One difference between 8.0 and most other disaster films is that the immediate crisis should be over fairly quickly, and most of the rest will deal with how both Mirai and Tokyo will function in the aftermath

Well, the anime can always play the aftershocks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftershock) card. These can occur days after the initial earthquake, and I actually think the show could use them as a sort of "WTF!? this ain't over yet" element.

Of course, I am just guessing here. :p

4Tran

2009-07-12, 00:54

Well, the anime can always play the aftershocks (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftershock) card. These can occur days after the initial earthquake, and I actually think the show could use them as a sort of "WTF!? this ain't over yet" element.
The word to use isn't "can", it's "will" :). I expect that there will be some subsequent scenes of emergency, whether it'll come in the form of aftershocks, or a building crumbling, or human panic. But the parallel I'm trying to draw is that 8.0 will play out differently than more immediate disaster movies like the Poseidon Adventure, where's it's scene of crisis to scene of crisis. The key theme to those kinds of works is the concept of desperation, but that shouldn't be the case for 8.0.

Daniel E.

2009-07-12, 01:01

The word to use isn't "can", it's "will" :). I expect that there will be some subsequent scenes of emergency, whether it'll come in the form of aftershocks, or a building crumbling, or human panic. But the parallel I'm trying to draw is that 8.0 will play out differently than more immediate disaster movies like the Poseidon Adventure, where's it's scene of crisis to scene of crisis. The key theme to those kinds of works is the concept of desperation, but that shouldn't be the case for 8.0.

Oh yes, now I see what you meant earlier. :)

Solace

2009-07-12, 01:16

The key theme to 8.0 will probably be something like hope and optimism towards the future. The first episode shows a character who has neither. It's just too bad that it's beaten over the audiences heads for 25 minutes before there's an actual disaster.

Personally I found the first episode boring and uninteresting. It seems there are many who will enjoy the character growth over the journey but I'll pass. I've seen this all done before, and I don't need reminding of the fragile nature of our boring and tiny existences.

Social relevance and armchair philosophies aside, the actual plot of the series seems to be predictable and generic. I think that is the biggest reason why I found this to be so tedious. Honestly, I actually breathed a sigh of relief after the credits.

Kazu-kun

2009-07-12, 02:32

Regarding that, remember that previous shows such as Ayakashi, it's Mononoke spinoff, Moyashimon and Hakabe Kitaro all were outside the realm of strictly college age female audience and all did well. It's been much more versatile than orignally envisioned.

I didn't said female, I just said non-otaku audience, and my point stands.

TCman

2009-07-12, 05:00

I think the anime creators purposely show/make Mirai a pessimistic teen girl who doesn't care about anything and whine about the smallest thing; for example no full round birthday cake, but only some slices of cakes of different tastes/sorts, although I fully understand her, being a teenager thinking this way is quite normal. And the dad doesn't even show any interest, even it's his wife's birthday, although it's the same with the mom, who only bought her slices of "birthday" cakes - maybe some symbolic thing here: the family is just like the slices of cake, seperated, i.e. no family love (?). While Yuuki (the younger brother) is the youngest in the family, he is maybe the most thoughtful character (in the family) in the anime, since he tried to take (via a trick to make his mom asking his sister to go with Yuuki) his sister Mirai back to the Robot Exhibition where they have make a family photo (with mom, dad and the children) where the entire family is still happy and where they care about each other; Yuuki wants her sister to remember this, when the family are still happy.

My own prediction of how the anime would evolve is:
that after the earthquake (maybe also after the aftershocks) Mirai would finally realise that family and life is the most important thing in the world; you never know when it's your last day; actually she's already starting to realise that, since she's thinking about her younger brother instead of herself when the earthquake happens. And not only Mirai but also her mom and dad would realise this, money is important, but your children are the most important in life for a parent. Ironically, it's the earthquake that brings the survivors of the earthquake closer to each other, with the message in the head/mind, life is beautiful, care about your family/children as much as you can, since life (of your family/children) is short and invaluable/priceless (especially when you live in a place where heavy earthquakes "frequently" occur). The anime creators obviously want to make and show this contrast from not "caring"/"no family love" to "caring" / "family love".

MeoTwister5

2009-07-12, 09:39

Tried the first episode and I'm not too sure why, but I don't see myself sticking with this show.

It's the same issue with Solace. I've seen the premises before (Grave, Now and Then Here and There) but the episode sort of bored me with it's concentration on slice-of-life (and I enjoy the genre to death even). It's just that by watching the opening episode I end up making comparisons to rpevious shows I've seen, and it doesn't seem to hold up much. It didn't take Now and Then 25 minutes to get on with the main premise as Shu and Lalaru get transported into the biggest shithole of a parallel world. Grave needs no introduction to the scale of tragedy, but even then 25 minutes on you were already in the middle of the hell on earth brought about by nuclear holocaust (though it may not be a fair assumption since Grave was a movie).

It might be because of the characters. Not that I hate Mirai mind you. I understand where she's coming from since, you know, I was 13 once too back in the 90's (which is ancient history to some of you:p), but I don't need an entire episode of her brooding over it. That and remembering her comments in the opener just made me have some second thoughts on the show.

Granted shows like this are predictable in their core, but I can't see myself liking her or perhaps anyone in the cast so far for some reason. I don't know, I'll probably try it out when the run finishes, but so far it doesn't seem like it'll be on my to-watch list for this season.

RedWing

2009-07-12, 10:01

I felt it was a relatively strong first episode. I don't like the artstyle, but there is an obvious sense of effort put into the characters and their designs (e.g Mirai when she wakes up). I felt the slice of life start was done well because we are looking at it with the knowledge that it is short lived. I don't think people are giving it enough chance to show how the show will be taken. Disaster impacts people in many different ways, so it'll be interesting to see if it can take an different route than what most of us are expecting.

However, my Spidey-sense tells me next episode wont be very good. Too much to pack in and too many emotions to flesh out in the characters.

orion

2009-07-12, 11:08

My own prediction of how the anime would evolve is:
that after the earthquake (maybe also after the aftershocks) Mirai would finally realise that family and life is the most important thing in the world; you never know when it's your last day; actually she's already starting to realise that, since she's thinking about her younger brother instead of herself when the earthquake happens. And not only Mirai but also her mom and dad would realise this, money is important, but your children are the most important in life for a parent. Ironically, it's the earthquake that brings the survivors of the earthquake closer to each other, with the message in the head/mind, life is beautiful, care about your family/children as much as you can, since life (of your family/children) is short and invaluable/priceless (especially when you live in a place where heavy earthquakes "frequently" occur). The anime creators obviously want to make and show this contrast from not "caring"/"no family love" to "caring" / "family love".

But tragedies also bring out the worse in people as seen in Grave of the Fireflies. We need to see how low things will get. If both parents survived, I think that the series will definitely not be realistic. Both parents should die imo.

ZODDGUTS

2009-07-12, 11:26

Yeah somewhere in lines of Kanojo wo Mamoru 51 no Houhou manga did. It showed both the good and bad sides of humans can do after a disaster has happen.

Guardian Enzo

2009-07-12, 11:33

Based on absolutely nothing but guesswork, I'm going to say it's a split with the parents - Mom makes it but Dad doesn't. There's a lot of foreshadowing of future closure with her but not with him. And I think it's a bit early to start making blanket predictions about the life lessons the show is going to expound over the next 10 episodes - I don't think it's going to be the cliche many seem to think it will. Rather than just "appreciating what you have", I think a major theme is going to be childhood and the loss of innocence. We saw a deliberate contrast being drawn between Mirai and Yuuki in the opener - her situation has been discussed ad nauseum, but his deserves some consideration too - he proved himself to be quite clever and self-aware, actually. Where he differed from his sister is that while she'd given up on her family and life in general, he hadn't lost the belief that he could make things better. In spite of these issues you could see that the siblings were actually quite close, and their relationship - and the contrast between them - is going to be as or more important going forward as Mirai's with their parents.

I may need to stop reading this topic so much, because if there's this much criticism of a brilliant first episode I don't want to imagine what it'll be like if there's a more ordinary ep...

Jazzrat

2009-07-12, 13:19

It really made the point clear, that this is a family that's pretty much loveless and dead on the inside and on the cusp of breaking up, and the only reason they're still together at this point is probably because it's more convenient to stay together and keep the current equilibrium than it is to break up. Everyone pretty much takes everyone else for granted. (It's kinda like the anti-Clannad :p).

I think it's quite a good potrayal of a normal family. Seems more normal to have bickering parents these days than not.

Excellent point, connecting this with Eden of the East. I think this is true. Japan is a pressure-cooker of suppressed emotion and hierarchical limitations at the best of times. And these are not the best of times.

Eh, the girl is going through her emo, rebel and angsty period. Nothing to do with Japan. I was like that at one point in my teenage life and many of my friends as well.

But tragedies also bring out the worse in people as seen in Grave of the Fireflies. We need to see how low things will get. If both parents survived, I think that the series will definitely not be realistic. Both parents should die imo.

But tragedy also brings out the best in human sometimes and teaches many appreciate the little things in life. I think it's best to have a look on both side of a disaster aftermath.

It's a bit early for speculation how things will play out.

My 2 cent, this show is worth tracking. Good production quality ( very life like animation ) and an unique premise for anime and good characterization won me over.

Reckoner

2009-07-12, 13:36

Tried the first episode and I'm not too sure why, but I don't see myself sticking with this show.

It's the same issue with Solace. I've seen the premises before (Grave, Now and Then Here and There) but the episode sort of bored me with it's concentration on slice-of-life (and I enjoy the genre to death even). It's just that by watching the opening episode I end up making comparisons to rpevious shows I've seen, and it doesn't seem to hold up much. It didn't take Now and Then 25 minutes to get on with the main premise as Shu and Lalaru get transported into the biggest shithole of a parallel world. Grave needs no introduction to the scale of tragedy, but even then 25 minutes on you were already in the middle of the hell on earth brought about by nuclear holocaust (though it may not be a fair assumption since Grave was a movie).

Just curious... What slice of life shows do you like (I ask this because the term is sometimes broadly used or just misused)?

I thought Now and Then was a poorly done anime myself, so we'll have to disagree there.

Grave of the Fireflies is a movie, and making comparisons between shows and movies in terms of time alotted for certain things doesn't quite work out.

If they jumped straight into the earthquake, I feel that there would have been a lack of development for the characters involved. Is this what you wanted? 10 minutes for them to do whatever they wanted, then another 12 just for the earthquake in the very first episode? This is a bit rushed in my opinion.

Ninjacat

2009-07-12, 16:45

But tragedies also bring out the worse in people as seen in Grave of the Fireflies. We need to see how low things will get. If both parents survived, I think that the series will definitely not be realistic. Both parents should die imo.

Nah, both parents dying would be just a bunch of forced, melodramatic pathos.

Let's say that this earthquake is the most murderous in history and kills over 300 000 people. That's one massive pile of corpses... out of a population of nearly 13 millions. That's one person out of roughly 43. Why excatly both parents shoul be dead instead if they both have over 97% chances of being alive?

Note that there's a big difference between "alive" and "fine".

We're talking about a realsitic disaster here. The drama isn't going to be about piles of corpses and narrowly escaping falling debris, it's gonna be about surviving in an area where twelve millions survivors are suddenly finding themselves without shelter, water and infrastructure.

Theowne

2009-07-12, 19:59

Wow. Didn't expect this split response. After watching this episode I expected uniform praise. Needless to say, I loved it. I'd call it the second best thing airing besides Cross Game. Since I love slice-of-life, the setup in this episode didn't bother me at all. I think they introduced the main character's typical teenage mindset well, as well as her family. No doubt necessary for the kind of character development that will surely follow. I liked how the father responded to Mirai's request for a vacation by discussing how busy the mother was, but then selfishly complains about her being late with food. Felt very real. It did remind me a bit of Grave of the Fireflies. Except that the genders have been reversed. I liked the relationship between the siblings. Heck I liked everything. Also I found the pacing and general direction to be perfect.

Anyways, very much looking forward to next week. And so far out of the new summer shows, this is the only one that's made me feel that way.

I especially liked her easily sharing her ice cream with her brother without having to worry about the "indirect kiss" nonsense

...with her little brother? I thought young siblings did that all the time.

MeoTwister5

2009-07-12, 23:37

Just curious... What slice of life shows do you like (I ask this because the term is sometimes broadly used or just misused)?

I thought Now and Then was a poorly done anime myself, so we'll have to disagree there.

Grave of the Fireflies is a movie, and making comparisons between shows and movies in terms of time alotted for certain things doesn't quite work out.

If they jumped straight into the earthquake, I feel that there would have been a lack of development for the characters involved. Is this what you wanted? 10 minutes for them to do whatever they wanted, then another 12 just for the earthquake in the very first episode? This is a bit rushed in my opinion.

Well Mannabi Straight, Spice and Wolf, Yokohama Shopping Trip, Kino no Tabi (well maybe it's not as SoL as I think it is) to name a few.

Pacing isn't too much of my issue with the first episode. It just doesn't grip me as I thought it would. Granted many of my favorite shows never dragged me in until a few episodes in, but I just don't feel connected with any of the characters to make me thoroughly concerned with the plight they have to face in a city of chaos and catastrophe. I have yet to feel a sense of urgency or scale even when they showed scenes of chaos and desolation in the starting minutes.

Then again it's the first episode so I could be wrong. I'll probably try 1-2 more after this, but I given the format I do think it won't exceed 11-13 episodes, because frankly I don't know how they'll extend story beyond that.

Reckoner

2009-07-13, 01:50

Well Mannabi Straight, Spice and Wolf, Yokohama Shopping Trip, Kino no Tabi (well maybe it's not as SoL as I think it is) to name a few.

Pacing isn't too much of my issue with the first episode. It just doesn't grip me as I thought it would. Granted many of my favorite shows never dragged me in until a few episodes in, but I just don't feel connected with any of the characters to make me thoroughly concerned with the plight they have to face in a city of chaos and catastrophe. I have yet to feel a sense of urgency or scale even when they showed scenes of chaos and desolation in the starting minutes.

Then again it's the first episode so I could be wrong. I'll probably try 1-2 more after this, but I given the format I do think it won't exceed 11-13 episodes, because frankly I don't know how they'll extend story beyond that.

Fair enough. I can empathize with that sort of stance. It is hard to like a show when the characters don't necessarily grab you. I guess the big difference between you and I is that I was grabbed by the main character and her family due to many similarities in my family.

MeoTwister5

2009-07-13, 01:56

Characters tend to be the biggest deal maker or breaker for a show to me. Shows with potentially generic and cliched stories can come out stellar with the perfect cast (Cross Game, Spice and Wolf). Likewise a series with a potentially excellent premise can shoo me away with characters I'd like to cut open alive on a dissecting table (Eva). This show is bordering on the latter. There's at least one scene where her apathy is borderline irritating.

solomon

2009-07-15, 12:46

There is nothing really noteworthy about characters (probably deliberate) but if you bail now, you miss out on the meat of the series: Seeing the kids and the city/country as a whole deal with such a catastrophic incident that may or may not happen in real life...Patience.

Either way, the Japanese audience seems to like it as the first episode got ratings approaching that of Nodame! (seriously wasn't expecting that).

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-07-15/japan-animation-tv-ranking-july-6-12

Kazu-kun

2009-07-15, 13:00

Either way, the Japanese audience seems to like it as the first episode got ratings approaching that of Nodame! (seriously wasn't expecting that).

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2009-07-15/japan-animation-tv-ranking-july-6-12
Well, Noitamina is usually the only late-night anime slot getting ratings comparable to prime-time shows, a perk of having a non-otaku audience, but 5.8... that's extremely well.

In any case, kudos to the guys from Fuji TV. Here's hoping they can keep it up.

Mistypearl

2009-07-15, 13:11

By the way, do we have a set episode count for this? I heard someone mention around 13 episodes, but could we verify that somewhere?

4Tran

2009-07-15, 13:22

Well, Noitamina is usually the only late-night anime slot getting ratings comparable to prime-time shows, a perk of having a non-otaku audience, but 5.8... that's extremely well.

In any case, kudos to the guys from Fuji TV. Here's hoping they can keep it up.
That's pretty darn impressive; I wouldn't be surprised if a big portion of that audience is due to 8.0 being much more like a live-action show. I'd imagine that the topic would be very near and dear to the hearts of the Japanese people.

Shiroth

2009-07-15, 13:23

By the way, do we have a set episode count for this? I heard someone mention around 13 episodes, but could we verify that somewhere?
11 episodes in total.

Mistypearl

2009-07-15, 16:04

Ok thanks for the info!

(I feel like I should type something else here, but I can't think of anything else.)

FireChick

2009-07-15, 16:55

Wow! Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 got THAT HIGH in ratings JUST with the first episode!? I never saw that coming. I didn't really think it was gonna be popular (even though I watched the first episode nearly 3 times this week), but if this keeps up, maybe it'll be licensed for the US market!:D

Kaoru Chujo

2009-07-15, 17:32

Well, Noitamina is usually the only late-night anime slot getting ratings comparable to prime-time shows, a perk of having a non-otaku audience, but 5.8... that's extremely well. In any case, kudos to the guys from Fuji TV. Here's hoping they can keep it up.Wow. Great ratings. But I did think it might happen. Living in an earthquake zone as I do, I can imagine how intriguing the title would be to Tokyoites. People who never watch anime might even give it a look. That's just about as high as I have ever seen a late-night anime rate. I think NANA or Nodame Cantabile got one 6.0.

The complexion of this show is going to change radically in ep2. Maybe seeing the actual results of the quake will jack the ratings even higher.

Guardian Enzo

2009-07-15, 18:44

Theowne

2009-07-16, 01:31

One of two things will happen - either the show's ratings will drop dramatically or the show itself will change in such a way that I'll stop loving it. Given my anime track record, it seems there's no other option.

Ah, sadly you might be right....but I'll keep hoping. It would be great to just have a great, well-made anime that brings in more of the general audience and shows them the potential of the medium.

TinyRedLeaf

2009-07-16, 04:49

I would agree if "8" was the top of the scale but it's not. "magnitude 9" is not even that rare, it happens once every 20 year somewhere in the world (according to wiki) so it is well possible to be used as the key event of a story. So why "8"? The only possible explanation is that in the manga it is stated that the earthquake magnitude was 8.
The problem with the Richter scale is that it fails to account for duration. An extended 8.0 can do more damage than a quick 8.5, for example. A mere 5.0 in a earthquake codeless district or a neighborhood sitting on a thousand feet of sand (think marina district) can utterly destroy the buildings on it.
Well yeah, but that's not the point ^^;;; The point is in both cases they used the same value, even if it's written differently (8 and 8.0) it is still the same thing, and there is no real need to use "8".

Anyway if you prefer there's the Mercalli intensity scale: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercalli_intensity_scale

Hmm... it appears that the intensity measurement used in this show is not derived from either the Richter nor Mercalli scale. Instead, it's based on the Japan Meteorological Agency seismic intensity scale (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Meteorological_Agency_seismic_intensity_scal e) (the JMA scale, for short; also, apparently known as the Shindo scale in Japan).

Apparently, the JMA scale is used to "describe the degree of shaking at a point on the Earth's surface", that is, measurements are taken at different places affected by a given earthquake. In other words, based on the JMA scale, it's possible to have a magnitude 8.0 earthquake in Tokyo, while Yokohama experiences only magnitude 4.0 tremors.

More importantly, the JMA scale ranges from 0 to 7.0. In other words, the intensity of the earthquake depicted in the first episode is off the charts. :twitch:

The full reference chart can be found in the above link I've provided, and also here: JMA Seismic Intensity Scale (http://www.hp1039.jishin.go.jp/eqchreng/at2-2.htm) (1996), as well as an older reference table (1978) here (http://www.hp1039.jishin.go.jp/eqchreng/at2-3.htm).

The charts describe the effects that an earthquake of a given magnitude would have on people and buildings. For example, a 7.0 earthquake would:

People would be thrown to the ground by the shaking. They would find it impossible to move at will.
Indoors, most furniture would move to a large extent and some will jump up.
Outdoors, the wall tiles and window panes of most buildings would break and fall off. In some cases, even reinforced concrete-block walls would collapse.
Basic infrastructure such as electrical, gas service and water services is interrupted over a large area.
Physical terrain would be considerably distorted by large cracks and fissures, and slope failures and landslides would take place, occasionally changing local topographic features.

WanderingKnight

2009-07-16, 11:18

GuidoHunter_Toki

2009-07-16, 11:22

This show was a pleasant surprise. Thank you for not doing this stupid FMA thing again, Bones!

I really liked the main character even if she comes off as a spoiled brat. She seemed way more real than 90% of anime characters out there.

I think thats a big part of the lure of the show. It feels "real" in a sense, at least to me. This show overall, with the characters and situation, feels more like a live action show than an anime.

orion

2009-07-16, 13:45

Nah, both parents dying would be just a bunch of forced, melodramatic pathos.

Let's say that this earthquake is the most murderous in history and kills over 300 000 people. That's one massive pile of corpses... out of a population of nearly 13 millions. That's one person out of roughly 43. Why excatly both parents shoul be dead instead if they both have over 97% chances of being alive?

Note that there's a big difference between "alive" and "fine".

We're talking about a realsitic disaster here. The drama isn't going to be about piles of corpses and narrowly escaping falling debris, it's gonna be about surviving in an area where twelve millions survivors are suddenly finding themselves without shelter, water and infrastructure.

It makes for better drama to have them both dead imo. That way those kids are really in a bad situation. 1 dead is not so bad. They have the support of the other parent. Both dead makes it a new scenario for those kids to deal with.

4Tran

2009-07-16, 14:27

It makes for better drama to have them both dead imo. That way those kids are really in a bad situation. 1 dead is not so bad. They have the support of the other parent. Both dead makes it a new scenario for those kids to deal with.
Ninjacat's right. The only thing that killing off both parents will accomplish is to introduce a lot of extra pathos into the story. It'll also kill off the main theme that the creators have been carefully injecting into the show. Realistically, even with both parents still alive, the entire family probably won't reunite until the final episode or two.

SuperKnuckles

2009-07-16, 14:29

I don't know.. if they do something dramatic like killing off relatives, then I think they can take the story in pretty interesting, untreaded territories. I wouldn't really put it past the anime studios before watching it. I just want mayhem and craziness (in a realistic way). Pathos or no pathos.

4Tran

2009-07-16, 14:37

It would depend on the scope of the story they're trying to tell. I get a very strong impression that it's much like other disaster stories where it details the events in the very immediate aftermath of the earthquake, and that any longer-term fallout will be dealt with in the epilogue (or not at all). If the story is to take place over a few weeks or months, then there would be more credence to your idea. However, even this plays strongly against the point of Mirai's character, so I don't expect it.

Kaoru Chujo

2009-07-16, 14:37

Episode 2 cements this (pun intended) as one of the top shows of the season for me. Not your normal anime. More like a drama, indeed. Great acting from the lead, in my opinion. I'd be surprised if this episode didn't get a high viewer rating, too. If I lived in Tokyo I'd be madly figuring how to get home from Odaiba on foot. Bring on the pathos and heroism, lol. And the glimpses of how Tokyoites might react in the situation.

_gallo_

2009-07-16, 15:14

Wow, really good second episode. If they can keep up like the first two episodes, this is easily going to become my favorite show of the season (and maybe of the year). I'm surprised at how much realistic is everything. It's very rare to find a series like this nowadays. It's more like a serial or a film than an anime. The characters behavior was totally believable in this episode, more believable than 90% of the other shows currently airing if I have to say. I liked especially Mirai in her desperate attempt to find Yuuki.

Guardian Enzo

2009-07-16, 16:43

Woland

2009-07-16, 18:03

What is the best place to be after a terrible earthquake in Odaiba?

Of course it has to be Fuji TV :D
http://img441.imageshack.us/img441/8513/snapshot20090717005609.th.jpg (http://img441.imageshack.us/i/snapshot20090717005609.jpg/) (well I hope I'm not wrong on this).

Guardian Enzo

2009-07-16, 18:12

In reading all of the comments about this show and being struck by how similar they are to what people were saying about Moribito ("Feels like a live-action drama", "More like a drama with great acting", "More like a film", etc.) I'm almost beside myself with excitement about this show. It's been a long wait for the next true masterpiece - I want so badly for this to be it. And if it could do that and be hugely popular to boot, well - wow.

solomon

2009-07-16, 20:20

I try not to look for masterpieces, better to let them find you. Moribito seemed good, just not for me, but this seems right up my ally with the whole "movie" feel.

TinyRedLeaf

2009-07-16, 22:12

I liked especially Mirai in her desperate attempt to find Yuuki.

Indeed. It should be more than apparent now that she loves her brother dearly and that her previous tantrums were just that — teenage tantrums. As they say, disaster brings out the best in people, even grouchy older sisters like Mirai.

Major kudos also to Kusakabe, the biker chick from the previous episode, who selflessly helped Mirai when everyone else was trying to get out of the building. To be sure, though, while the build-up to Yuuki's rescue was pretty good, I'm a little miffed that they found him almost totally by chance. It was a bit anti-climactic, I felt, because for a moment there, I really thought they'd killed off the poor boy.

Kusakabe, meanwhile, reminds me of Balsa. :heh: She's calm, cool and collected, just what the children needed at the time. It seems that she's a single mother too, so she's probably going to want to reunite with her family just like the kids.

I hope it's just me, though, but I get a feeling that Kusakabe may not get a good ending. :( Going by the norms of disaster movies, the heroic lead characters tend to get themselves killed, like the priest (played by Gene Hackman) in the original Poseidon Adventure (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069113/). I hope I'm wrong. *fingers crossed*

Kaoru Chujo

2009-07-16, 22:21

I was afraid that Yuki was already outside, so I was actually happy that they had to find him -- and it wasn't totally by chance, since Mirai saw the grocery store and realized she had asked him to get her a drink. Which he still had in his hand.

I liked the fact that Mirai's negativity didn't end after the rescue. When "biker chick" went to get her bike, Mirai told Yuki she wouldn't come back. And yes, her calm strength did remind me of Balsa.

solomon

2009-07-16, 22:50

Touching, as predicted. Hit home for me seeing as how I have a younger bro meself (although we are much older than the protagonists here).

Good stuff, keep it coming!

Guardian Enzo

2009-07-16, 23:02

I've only skimmed the raw, but I certainly wasn't surprised by Mirai's reaction when she found Yuuki - it was very plain to me in episode 1 that she loved him dearly in spite of her irritation at his sunny demeanor.

Jarmel

2009-07-16, 23:25

Main problem with this is why isn't Mari not absolutely freaking out about finding her own kid. I know most parents would either drag those kids along and go search for their own kids. However the earthquake itself wasn't really impressive. I expected more death and carnage, maybe it should have been magnitude 9 earthquake but oh well.

Kaoru Chujo

2009-07-16, 23:37

First indication on 2channel is that this ep dropped to a 3.3% rating (from 5.8% for episode one). That's still decent, but nothing special. That was my observation, too. But her kid is supposedly safe at home with a caregiver, so perhaps she hasn't thought there might be any problems. And perhaps she's just an extreeeemely calm and rational person. She can't do much at the moment.

TinyRedLeaf

2009-07-16, 23:46

However the earthquake itself wasn't really impressive. I expected more death and carnage, maybe it should have been magnitude 9 earthquake but oh well.

See my above post about the Shindo scale (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?p=2518236#post2518236) that Japan uses to measure the intensity of an earthquake. A magnitude 8.0 earthquake is already off the charts as far as Japan is concerned — its scale ranges from 0 to only 7.0.

As for expectations of more carnage, I think we've all been somewhat spoilt by Hollywood disaster movies. Modern cities like Tokyo are substantially well-protected against most earthquakes, so the tremors would have to be very powerful for there to be any damage in the first place. The kind of devastation depicted in this show already exceeds the reference descriptions listed in the Shindo scale. Anything more would be overkill and unrealistic actually, entering the realm of fantasy as depicted in, say, The Sinking of Japan (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?p=2282894#post2282894).

Jarmel

2009-07-17, 00:32

See my above post about the Shindo scale (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?p=2518236#post2518236) that Japan uses to measure the intensity of an earthquake. A magnitude 8.0 earthquake is already off the charts as far as Japan is concerned — its scale ranges from 0 to only 7.0.

As for expectations of more carnage, I think we've all been somewhat spoilt by Hollywood disaster movies. Modern cities like Tokyo are substantially well-protected against most earthquakes, so the tremors would have to be very powerful for there to be any damage in the first place. The kind of devastation depicted in this show already exceeds the reference descriptions listed in the Shindo scale. Anything more would be overkill and unrealistic actually, entering the realm of fantasy as depicted in, say, The Sinking of Japan (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?p=2282894#post2282894).

Ok maybe not that much. Nonetheless it doesn't look that bad and the infrastructure looks for the most part intact. I see no reason why they couldn't have a quick response team providing food and supplies for the refugees in a few days. Look how quickly basic stuff was up and running after Hiroshima. As I mentioned it really wasn't that impressive but I guess sometimes reality isn't that impressive. I would be more interested in a 9.0 earthquake just to get some sort of idea of the tragedy and chaos of what happened in 2004.

Well then again we would be dealing with a tsunami factor which would change things immensely.

Theowne

2009-07-17, 01:28

Re: Episode 2. Captivated. Utterly captivated from beginning to end. This one is going places. And bravo to the voice actors here. Mirai's in particular was utterly believable in her desperate search for her younger brother. I don't know what else to say other than that this was a great episode.

By the way, the subtitles had the newswoman saying 8.0 on the Richter scale. I didn't hear the word "Richter" so unless Japan has it's own word for the Richter scale, that might just be the fansubbers interpreting on their own.

klare

2009-07-17, 03:04

i woke up only at the end of eps 1... jokin :)

the whole eps introduce the good little bro and the always angry sis, i feel it was done nicely

look forward to eps 2

Shiroth

2009-07-17, 04:40

Surprised we haven't heard any Godzilla jokes yet!

Sylphic

2009-07-17, 06:23

Episode 1 was pretty good, but not amazing.

Episode 2... was in a totally different ballpark. The time spent building up the characters in Ep 1 really shows here, I don't think I've been this emotionally involved in an anime ever :O. Here's to hoping they keep that up. Ima fill in my Blu-ray preorder at my nearest Animate right now!

Ha... and if there's an earthquake while I'm in Tokyo, where's the best place to go? Why Fuji TV HQ of course! :P.

FireChick

2009-07-17, 06:37

OMP...oh my pizza...I can't even find any words to describe the sheer awesomeness of the second episode! If this series gets better, it may very well catch up to Shounen Onmyouji in my list of favorite anime!:D

MeoTwister5

2009-07-17, 06:59

Well due to peer pressure I'm gonna give this another shot. Downloading now and gonna see if it changes my opinion.

Edit - I guess I'm gonna have to eat my words again, 3rd time this month lol.

I think one of the reasons the first episode didn't hit home with me very well, and that I didn't think this episode was as fantastic as everone says it was is... well mostly because of the characters and more importantly, the way they respond to the distaster.

I've seen the way people respond to these things because... well I've been in an actual earthquake myself. If anyone of you happen to know the Baguio earthquake of 1991 (I forget the year, I was 7 then I think), me and my family had just left the city when the earthquake struck and were in a hotel just down the mountain at the start of the road climb (McKinley I think I forget which one). We felt the earthquake there but thankfully nothing really happened where we were, which is more than I can say for Baguio itself. Massive flattened buildings and the like. Disaster infrastructure was poor back then, hell even now, so you could see the streets flooding with disaster response teams, ambulances and fire trucks from nearby areas trying to climb the damn mountain to get to the city. Lots of rockslides too so it took a while before people even got there.

That was a far cry from what I'm seeing here. People screaming, ambulances blaring, police and firemen everywhere. People were even airlifted and driven down the mountain to the hospitals I was told because they couldn't handle the amount of injured and dead up there. It was almost horrifying.

Then about 7 years later I was in Toronto in our hotel when the fire alarm hit. We were like past the 20th floor and I can say running down the emergency stairs that high up isn't damn easy in the slightest. Granted it was a false alarm, but seeing the chaos that ensued was ridiculous.

Yes I'm off tangent but this is precisely my point: I'm not seeing just how big a disaster this is. I mean, barely any amount of people were shown even the slightest of ways hurt, maimed or worse. At the most we've seen 2 people dead. There's barely even any sirens blaring, any firemen around or and rescue teams by the end of the episode. There's only a bunch of policemen around. Given that Japan is smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ring of Fire just like the Philippines, you'd think they'd have better disaster response than this 3rd world country I live in.

What I'm getting at is that it's kinda hard to connect with the plight of the characters when you can't even see or feel the scale of the problem they're facing. I'm not seeing just how big of a disaster this is at all. I mean c'mon, some of the buildings look like they haven't suffered any structural damage at all, heck the last building at the end looks like it's still perfectly standing like nothing happened at all!

In contrast, what I did like about this episode is the showcasing of human altruism. Rather than run away sreaming in terror, a lot of the people are actually helping each other. A little gem would be that girl who helped Yuuki when they were trapped under the display cases, and how he tried to hold her hand when they were trying to find a safer place. Goes to show how people will easily bond in times of crisis.

Still, damn I don't find any connection to Mirai. Her freaking out at the start was perfectly understandable, but her comments near the end just irritated me.

My take? I'll probably start following this now. Episode 2 took a turn for the interesting so I think I can stick with it now, for a while at least.

aulzon

2009-07-17, 08:29

Well 2 episodes in and this could be my favourite summer series.

Everything is well done so far. The pacing, the dramatic build up and suspense, some of the backgrounds of the animation look pretty nice and Mirai herself is really interesting. We can probably expect some character development from her as she hangs around more with Mari and the earthquake reminds her of the important things in life.

The sad scenes weren't overly sentimental as well.

4Tran

2009-07-17, 09:09

I liked episode 2 quite a bit. Just about everything in the episode works for me except for two bits: I'd have preferred it if there wasn't any cellphone service at all - just like it was on September 11, 2001 in New York City; and I was hoping that the characters would stock up on food and water when they rescued Yuuki. Both are forgivable though given the way the narrative works. I really liked the sequence with the stairs - it's a bit cliche, but it worked fairly nicely, and it's nicely underplayed. Sheltering under the Fuji building is a bit of a nice touch as well - while it does cater to the broadcaster, it's still a good idea, and it's yet another nice way to reinforce the fact that they're in Odaiba.

Main problem with this is why isn't Mari not absolutely freaking out about finding her own kid. I know most parents would either drag those kids along and go search for their own kids.
Her home is in Western Tokyo, and she's in Odaiba, which is about 20km away. Not only that, but the trains aren't running any more and the bridge heading northwest is probably too unsafe to use, so they'll have to go the long way round (swinging northeast into central Tokyo before heading west through Shibuya) to get there. It's obvious that Mari wouldn't be able to get there that day, so there wasn't any point in panicking.

However the earthquake itself wasn't really impressive. I expected more death and carnage, maybe it should have been magnitude 9 earthquake but oh well.
The point wasn't really to impress; rather it was to show a realistic depiction of what would happen in the Great Kanto Earthquake v.2.

See my above post about the Shindo scale (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?p=2518236#post2518236) that Japan uses to measure the intensity of an earthquake. A magnitude 8.0 earthquake is already off the charts as far as Japan is concerned — its scale ranges from 0 to only 7.0.
They were using the Richter scale in the broadcast. Since the scale only goes up to 7, they would never use a larger number than that (just as nobody would use any Richter reading greater than 10.0).

As for expectations of more carnage, I think we've all been somewhat spoilt by Hollywood disaster movies. Modern cities like Tokyo are substantially well-protected against most earthquakes, so the tremors would have to be very powerful for there to be any damage in the first place. The kind of devastation depicted in this show already exceeds the reference descriptions listed in the Shindo scale. Anything more would be overkill and unrealistic actually, entering the realm of fantasy as depicted in, say, The Sinking of Japan (http://forums.animesuki.com/showthread.php?p=2282894#post2282894).
Personally, I think that the restrained visuals are more effective for the kind of story the creators are trying to tell. The overblown special effects in some films may be good eye-candy, but they are also less realistic, and hence remove the viewer from the immediacy of the characters' situation.

Yes I'm off tangent but this is precisely my point: I'm not seeing just how big a disaster this is. I mean, barely any amount of people were shown even the slightest of ways hurt, maimed or worse. At the most we've seen 2 people dead. There's barely even any sirens blaring, any firemen around or and rescue teams by the end of the episode. There's only a bunch of policemen around. Given that Japan is smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ring of Fire just like the Philippines, you'd think they'd have better disaster response than this 3rd world country I live in.
Actually, Tokyo got hit even worse than what you're describing. The reason that there aren't all those emergency response vehicles and why there haven't been lots of bodies gathered is because the city has been totally overwhelmed. Right now, we haven't seen much of that because the characters themselves are in shock and don't realize what a total disaster it is yet. All they have to go on is a number - 8.0; and without any way to relating to that number, it's hard to figure out what the effect is. Moreover, Tokyo is one of the most earthquake-prepared cities in the world: everyone is waiting for Kanto #2, and the buildings are build accordingly. The so many of the big buildings have been shattered like that, and that much of the city center is on fire gives an inkling to just how much damage has been done.

It's a message from the creators, "We don't want to go into hyperbole, but the magnitude of the disaster can be absolutely mind-boggling."

Sylphic

2009-07-17, 09:23

I've seen the way people respond to these things because... well I've been in an actual earthquake myself. If anyone of you happen to know the Baguio earthquake of 1991 (I forget the year, I was 7 then I think), me and my family had just left the city when the earthquake struck and were in a hotel just down the mountain at the start of the road climb (McKinley I think I forget which one). We felt the earthquake there but thankfully nothing really happened where we were, which is more than I can say for Baguio itself. Massive flattened buildings and the like. Disaster infrastructure was poor back then, hell even now, so you could see the streets flooding with disaster response teams, ambulances and fire trucks from nearby areas trying to climb the damn mountain to get to the city. Lots of rockslides too so it took a while before people even got there.

That was a far cry from what I'm seeing here. People screaming, ambulances blaring, police and firemen everywhere. People were even airlifted and driven down the mountain to the hospitals I was told because they couldn't handle the amount of injured and dead up there. It was almost horrifying.

Then about 7 years later I was in Toronto in our hotel when the fire alarm hit. We were like past the 20th floor and I can say running down the emergency stairs that high up isn't damn easy in the slightest. Granted it was a false alarm, but seeing the chaos that ensued was ridiculous.

Yes I'm off tangent but this is precisely my point: I'm not seeing just how big a disaster this is. I mean, barely any amount of people were shown even the slightest of ways hurt, maimed or worse. At the most we've seen 2 people dead. There's barely even any sirens blaring, any firemen around or and rescue teams by the end of the episode. There's only a bunch of policemen around. Given that Japan is smack dab in the middle of the Pacific Ring of Fire just like the Philippines, you'd think they'd have better disaster response than this 3rd world country I live in.

I'd like to add one more thing to 4tran's comment.

I'd kindly like to remind you that Odaiba (where they are atm) is an ISLAND in the middle of the Tokyo harbour. It is only accessible by the rainbow bridge (which is ruined) and by ferry (which is clearly not running). The island itself only has minimal emergency facilities which include like 1 fire station. So the reason why you're not seeing emergency services swarm the place is most likely because all the routes they can use to get there are not functional.

And I'll reiterate, Japan has very stringent earthquake regulations for large buildings, as such Tokyo is one of the most earthquake proof cities in the world. Tokyo shrugs off smaller earthquakes and the city moves on as if nothing has happened. They learnt a serious lesson after the massive Kanto earthquake in the 20th century. It's because Japan is not a 3rd world country like yours that none of the buildings have fallen over! :D.

Guardian Enzo

2009-07-17, 10:26

Will not get hopes up. Will not get hopes up. Will not get hopes up...

Jarmel

2009-07-17, 10:38

@4tran
When has logic ever stopped someone from worrying. It just seems so unrealistic for a mother to eat cake when she doesn't even know if her daughter is alive or dead. I mean she is sitting around eating cake(which suprised me as I thought for sure some stranger would go ask them for a slice) while her daughter could be in a burning building. There is a stark difference between not panicking and trying to come up with a solution or atleast start heading there. The first thing people do major crisis like this is try and establish some form of communication, perfect example being 9/11 and people overloading the cell towers with phone calls. Obviously cell towers being down means trying to find some sort of transportation.

Again reality isn't that impressive however it seems that the OP gave a sense of much larger damage and chaos. The way it stands in the anime, I see no reason why emergency services can't be established in a couple of days(barring the fires are somewhat contained). I mean look at the emergency response in the 1985 earthquake in Mexico City. It's usually the loss of service after a major disaster that results in loss of life, like the fire after the San Francisco earthquake or New Orleans after the flood. Really it just sort of meh but I'll hold off till I see the rest of Tokyo.

Mistypearl

2009-07-17, 10:47

Another solid episode, I even teared up when she finally found Yuuki. I agree the point was to show a depiction of the Great Kanto one if it had happened again, and I feel if everyone was screaming and it was chaos then it would just be another bad Hollywood film, seriously. Plus, all the confusion and chaos might be on the other side of the town where it was the worst. The lack of bodies lying everywhere and only showing a few wounded was still impacting, and made the shot of the legs underneath the rubble all the more potent and meaningful. I'm really looking forward to the rest of this show, I think it has a lot of potential.

GuidoHunter_Toki

2009-07-17, 10:52

Another good episode. Good voice acting and my interest was never lost.

I'm very curious about the direction this show will take. Disasters always have a knack of showing a different side of people, good and bad. Perhaps as they travel across the city, they'll run into different people with different stories and such and that'll help play out the character development for Mirai and the others.

@4tran
When has logic ever stopped someone from worrying. It just seems so unrealistic for a mother to eat cake when she doesn't even know if her daughter is alive or dead. I mean she is sitting around eating cake(which suprised me as I thought for sure some stranger would go ask them for a slice) while her daughter could be in a burning building. There is a stark difference between not panicking and trying to come up with a solution or atleast start heading there. The first thing people do major crisis like this is try and establish some form of communication, perfect example being 9/11 and people overloading the cell towers with phone calls.

While I do find Mari's reactions a little odd, I wouldn't say she isn't worried. When Mirai mentions about her own mother, Mari naturally talks about her daughter (as if she was thinking about her all along) and you just see Mari staring at the picture of her daughter on her phone. That in of itself is representation of a mother worrying for her child I think.

TinyRedLeaf

2009-07-17, 10:55

When has logic ever stopped someone from worrying. It just seems so unrealistic for a mother to eat cake when she doesn't even know if her daughter is alive or dead. I mean she is sitting around eating cake(which suprised me as I thought for sure some stranger would go ask them for a slice) while her daughter could be in a burning building.

If her daughter was indeed trapped in a burning building, what could Kusakabe do about it? She's in Odaiba while her daughter is in West Tokyo. Based on how she behaved while helping Mirai look for Yuuki, we can tell that Kusakabe is not prone to panic. Rather than worrying over something she has no control over, she prefers to focus on what she can do at the moment, such as looking after the two kids now under her care.

The cake was available and they were stuck at the Fuji building. It makes sense to me for her to share what's left of the cake — after all, it's not as though she was going to get home in time to celebrate her daughter's birthday.

The first thing people do major crisis like this is try and establish some form of communication, perfect example being 9/11 and people overloading the cell towers with phone calls. Obviously cell towers being down means trying to find some sort of transportation.

And I think it's clear the first thing everyone did was try to call out, but to no avail. As for transport, I think it's already been explained that all land links had been cut off. Granted, helicopters should be available, but how are we to know that the people at Fuji building are the main priority at the moment? For all we know, there may be more casualties elsewhere that need to be tended to.

Meaning to say, I'm willing to let this little detail slide for now.

Again reality isn't that impressive however it seems that the OP gave a sense of much larger damage and chaos. The way it stands in the anime, I see no reason why emergency services can't be established in a couple of days(barring the fires are somewhat contained). I mean look at the emergency response in the 1985 earthquake in Mexico City. It's usually the loss of service after a major disaster that results in loss of life, like the fire after the San Francisco earthquake or New Orleans after the flood. Really it just sort of meh but I'll hold off till I see the rest of Tokyo.

It's an 11-episode series. I don't even know how they are going to stretch a single disaster over 5+ hours of airtime. Pushing it all into the first two episodes would leave hardly anything left for the rest of the show, no?

Theowne

2009-07-17, 11:03

I mean she is sitting around eating cake(which suprised me as I thought for sure some stranger would go ask them for a slice) while her daughter could be in a burning building.

She is sitting around sharing the cake with two children that are alone. Helping these other children may help her cope with her worry for her own child.

Jarmel

2009-07-17, 11:32

My point about the cake is she is relaxing and eating and not being proactive about her problem. Once again it's priorities. It seems for any mother, their first priority is making sure their own kids are safe and sound. Again her reaction seems the least realistic but w/e, she might be going through some form of shock. There also should be some emergency services shuffling people off the island. The thing about the cell towers is that people try to establish any sort of communication with their family and if the cell towers aren't working then the next step would be to go in person. Obviously since all land connections have been cut off, the most likely would be through some sort of emergency ferry service. However I'm sure future episodes will delve into this so I'll hold off. Are there any mothers here who have lived through some disaster and would like to give an opinion?

I'll hold off on my assesment of damage until a few episode in but again it didn't really strike me as all hell as broken loose. Got to hand it to the engineers though for making Tokyo one of the more earthquake resistant cities. I guess I had my hopes up to high when I was thinking about New Orleans, Sri Lanka, or even 9/11 with the chaos those events caused:confused:.

Yushi

2009-07-17, 11:42

The way I see it, Mari helping the two kids may be a way of reassuring/convincing herself that someone may help her child just like this. It's like, "there are still good helpful people in the world, so she will be okay".
But yes, the episode wasn't as dramatic as I thought it would be, but this is probably more "real" than explosions and people screaming and dying. The silence really tells you how confused and scared people are. I wonder what lies ahead for them?

Kaoru Chujo

2009-07-17, 12:59

1. I credit the comparative calmness to these people being Japanese, and well drilled in how to respond to an earthquake. They'd be ashamed to get too excited. And anyway, they're probably a bit in shock still.

2. Mari is a calm person anyway, but there is literally nothing she can do besides keep trying her phone. Odaiba is cut off from the mainland, the mainland is in chaos anyway, and her home is a long way away. We'll probably see them set out on a grand journey next week.

3. As others have said, all buildings there have been built to comparatively high earthquake-resistance standards. Odaiba is not an old area. So the damage is not at all like other places where construction is less earthquake-proof. It's still devastating. It looks to me as if they are going to have to tear all those buildings down before they rebuild them.

4. The one thing that does make me wonder is drinking water: that would be the thing everyone needs soon, but there has been no mention of it. I can understand them not stocking up in the ruined store, since they wanted to get out fast and probably hadn't thought of it.

5. I was wondering why they could get TV but no phone connection. Maybe antennas on the FujiTV building are working, but those elsewhere are not?

SwiftStrike

2009-07-17, 13:17

realistic eh....They didn't panic that badly as I thought

chrno

2009-07-17, 13:53

Just finished watching the "raw" of ep. 2. Eventually I will have to catch it now that it's subbed. That was pretty fast.

Really enjoyed ep. 2. I'm digging the designs, especially 'Mari'. And yes she does remind you of 'Balsa'. Of course my impression was 'Saya', (Terada's Saya) but then again who did 'Balsa' look like at first glance? So either way she reminded me of both. Much more 'Balsa'.

Lot's of good arguments on show and why they believe they believe. Of course some I agree with and has made me think more of things. Like why 'Mari' isn't panicking or the cake deal. Of course most of the arguments never crossed my mind because the responses were on par of what I felt made sense. I also look at this as "sacrificing one thing for another". And will the reward be greater in the end. The OP may hold clues to the ending. I'll leave it at that and leave any speculations for later. As it's too early to start thinking about what the end may hold. We're only at ep. 2. So because my mind is churning it means I'm enjoying what I see.

Oh if this hasn't been mentioned already, 'Tokyo Magnitude 8.0' airs on late nite Thursdays at 12:45-1:15. Or 0:45-1.15.

Blaat

2009-07-17, 14:30

I thought the second episode was excellent. I do find it amusing that Mai Nakahara, a veteran seiyuu, was doing such a minor role. :p

5. I was wondering why they could get TV but no phone connection. Maybe antennas on the FujiTV building are working, but those elsewhere are not?Mobile TV goes via satellite unlike phoning which uses antennas.
I'm guessing Fuji TV has a backup generator, and a working dish.

4Tran

2009-07-17, 14:34

I'd kindly like to remind you that Odaiba (where they are atm) is an ISLAND in the middle of the Tokyo harbour. It is only accessible by the rainbow bridge (which is ruined) and by ferry (which is clearly not running).
The people in Odaiba should be able to leave via the bridges to the east. They're probably impassable to motor traffic, but people on foot should be able to use them.

My point about the cake is she is relaxing and eating and not being proactive about her problem. Once again it's priorities.
Mari did act according to her priorities. There's no transportation off Odaiba, and the electricity will be cut off in most of the city, so there's nothing that can be done until daybreak. I'm not sure what you expected her to do beyond that since she's not the sort of person who panics.

I'll hold off on my assesment of damage until a few episode in but again it didn't really strike me as all hell as broken loose. Got to hand it to the engineers though for making Tokyo one of the more earthquake resistant cities. I guess I had my hopes up to high when I was thinking about New Orleans, Sri Lanka, or even 9/11 with the chaos those events caused:confused:.
Tokyo is a much much larger city than any of those other places, and so the chaos and damage should be correspondingly larger as well. It's something that we should see more of as populace start to understand the sheer intensity of the devastation.

5. I was wondering why they could get TV but no phone connection. Maybe antennas on the FujiTV building are working, but those elsewhere are not?
This is more a storytelling conceit than anything else. The viewers have to find out what's happening, and so we get this convenient news snippet.

Oh if this hasn't been mentioned already, 'Tokyo Magnitude 8.0' airs on late nite Thursdays at 12:45-1:15. Or 0:45-1.15.
Yup. It's in the now famous noitaminA timeslot, broadcast (not by coincidence) by Fuji TV.

Celestial Kitsune

2009-07-17, 15:51

Episode 2 Screenshots (http://celestialkitsune.wordpress.com/2009/07/17/tokyo-magnitude-8-0-episode-2/)

Kaoru Chujo

2009-07-17, 16:07

The seiyuu have been doing such a great job that I made a blog post with pics (http://hashihime.blogspot.com/2009/07/tokyo-magnitude-80-who-are-those-great.html) of them and their characters, and info about each seiyuu and some of her past roles.

Guardian Enzo

2009-07-17, 16:21

Bl*ck st*r! I knew I recognized that voice.

Noe

2009-07-17, 18:17

Well episode 2 was traumatic.

bbee

2009-07-17, 19:00

Great second episode. Thankfully they're not taking the disaster tourism route and showcasing the earthquake; they are still focusing on the characters and that part was again excellently done, although I liked episode 1 more. Definately the best show of the season, probably of the year, but like Guardian Enzo I've learned not to get my hopes up.
However.. The calm. The inexplicable calm..
1. I credit the comparative calmness to these people being Japanese, and well drilled in how to respond to an earthquake. They'd be ashamed to get too excited. And anyway, they're probably a bit in shock still.
That's one hell of a stretch. The Japanese are not all saints. Where's the looting, the screaming for a lost loved one, the mass panic and despair, people carrying dead relatives? Instead we get people calmly holding a conversation inside a half collapsed bulding amidst aftershocks, and a mass of people sitting silently while sheltering from the rain.
For a show that starts with a decaration that effort was put into realism, it's a let-down. Ep 1 was much better in that respect. Then again, it was slice-of-life and it's easy to make that realistic.
2. Mari is a calm person anyway, but there is literally nothing she can do besides keep trying her phone. Odaiba is cut off from the mainland, the mainland is in chaos anyway, and her home is a long way away. We'll probably see them set out on a grand journey next week.
A stretch of water is not an impassable barrier. You can swim it. She could have covered the 20KM in 5-6 hours on foot, and grabbed a flashlight somewhere if needed. Been there by nightfall.
It's not like Mirai or Yuuki were in any immediate danger after they got out, since everyone is friends and incredibly calm.
4. The one thing that does make me wonder is drinking water: that would be the thing everyone needs soon, but there has been no mention of it. I can understand them not stocking up in the ruined store, since they wanted to get out fast and probably hadn't thought of it.
Not an issue since it's raining. For the longer term there are likely to be facilities.

Great ep, but for lack of a hint of panic. It would have worked to explain why Mari had to stay with the children, too.