(L) Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 (BONES)

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by aroduc

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]

Spoiler for ep1:

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]

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

[_gallo_]

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]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

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]

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]

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.

Spoiler for episode 1:

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. 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]

Highly promising start. Real people acting real -- but not boring.

Spoiler for ep1:

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]

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]

...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.

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]

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]

Originally Posted by Ascaloth

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]

Originally Posted by Cats

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.

[Shiroth]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

Originally Posted by Ascaloth

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]

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.