John Blade
Member
Just finish watching this show in two days back to back. Have to say, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 is a very easy show to watch and manage to grab me into the story without those flashy stuff you tend to see in most anime at that time and even now. It also do something which is hard to do in most anime which spark an emotional connection.
You follow a girl name Mirai and her little brother Yuuki in this story. Mirai have this downbeat attitude who feel like people are picking at her and always have a negative attitude in life while her brother, Yuuki, have an optimist at heart who believes everything has to turn out alright at the end. As you continue with the show, they introduce another female character, Mari, who is a motorcycling delivery woman. She serves as a guide and guardian to the children during the trouble event of the story (aka: earthquake in Japan).
The plot of the show mostly focus the trio and their mission to go back to their families during the earthquake events. Along the way, those trio have to go through stress and struggle of the events of how to deal with the issue their see during their journey from death and disaster after the major earth quake (aka: aftershock, fire, building collapse, etc). I actually like the story and tone of the show quite a bit. At the beginning the show start slow and uneventful but this grow slowly as you continue to watch to a very powerful and touching ending which end strongly. Also, the character development between those three characters grow to the point it affect them very emotionally. The big one is coming from Mirai who like I say before have a negative attitude at the begging of the show. She change very dramatically at the end of the show as she have witness quite a bit of emotional stuff which make her realize how life is very fragile and that you tend to forget it too much until something hit you hard and how easy it can be lost like what happen in this earthquake.
The animation for the show is mix and inconsistent. Background animation from the scene are very detail and the damage you see in the earthquake do look nice to see. Unfortunately, character animation isn't much to talk about. It's simple in design with few detail look. It does look odd a bit when you see it for the 1st time but you kinda accept it as you continue watching. They're also CG animation in the show but you see it spread here and there. You notice it when it's been use but it isn't a big eye sore and do get the job done for the most part.
For the music, it's nothing special to talk about to tell the truth. It get the job done for the tone of the scene but it's very unforgettable for the most part. Also, the intro and ending music theme didn't catch my attention after listen it for the 1st time and basically skip it when I am watching.
Overall, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 is worth the watch if you never watch it yet. The big part of the show charm is come down to how it tell a human story told through the naked eyes of the three characters and how it affect them during this earth quake incident. The human realism and overcoming the hopelessness from those three characters in this story is what make me like the show much more then I expected.
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