(L) Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 (BONES)

[Jarmel]

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

See my above post about the Shindo scale 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.

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]

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]

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]

Surprised we haven't heard any Godzilla jokes yet!

[Sylphic]

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]

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!

[MeoTwister5]

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]

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]

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.

Originally Posted by Jarmel

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.

Originally Posted by Jarmel

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.

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

See my above post about the Shindo scale 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).

Originally Posted by TinyRedLeaf

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.

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.

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

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]

Originally Posted by MeoTwister5

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! .

[Guardian Enzo]

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

[Jarmel]

@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]

Spoiler for episode 2:

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]

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.

Originally Posted by Jarmel

@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]

Originally Posted by Jarmel

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.

Originally Posted by Jarmel

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.

Originally Posted by Jarmel

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]

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]

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.

[Yushi]

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]

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]

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