is a disaster novel by Japanese writer

Sakyo Komatsu was a Japanese science fiction writer and screenwriter. He was one of the most well known and highly regarded science fiction writers in Japan. Early life Born Minoru "Sakyo" Komatsu in Osaka, he was a graduate of Kyoto University where he stud ...

, published in 1973. Komatsu took nine years to complete the work. It was published in two volumes, both released at the same time. The novel received the 27th

Mystery Writers of Japan Award The are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of Japan. They honor the best in crime fiction and critical/biographical work published in the previous year. MWJ Award for Best Novel winners (1948–1951, 1976–present) MWJ Award for Best ...

and the

Seiun Award The is a Japanese speculative fiction award given each year for the best science fiction works and achievements during the previous calendar year. Organized and overseen by , the awards are given at the annual Nihon SF Taikai, Japan Science Fict ...

for a Japanese novel-length work. The English translation was first published in 1975. In 1995, after the Osaka-Kobe earthquake, a second English edition () was published. The English translation is heavily abridged . In 2006, a sequel to the novel, co-authored with

Kōshū Tani is a Japanese science fiction writer. He graduated from the Osaka Institute of Technology, and worked as a volunteer in Nepal and the Philippines. He made his professional debut with the story ''137th Mobile Brigade'' in 1979 while still in Ne ...

, was published. The novel has led to works in other media as well as a sequel: a film based on the novel made in the same year directed by

Shirō Moritani was a film director and screenwriter from Japan. Born in Tokyo, he debuted as an assistant director in Akira Kurosawa's 1961 film ''Yojimbo''. His film '' Mount Hakkoda'' won Mainichi Film Award for Excellence Film in 1978. Filmography As ...

, a television drama by TBS and

Toho is a Japanese film, theatre production and distribution company. It has its headquarters in Chiyoda, Tokyo, and is one of the core companies of the Osaka-based Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group. Outside of Japan, it is best known as the producer an ...

broadcast in 1974–75, a film remake in 2006 by

Shinji Higuchi is a Japanese filmmaker and storyboard artist. He is one of the most successful Japanese filmmakers and the top ''tokusatsu'' film director. Higuchi became known for his work on '' Gamera: Guardian of the Universe'', for which he won the Specia ...

, a parody created in 2011 that features reverse disaster, an original net

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

series released on

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

Science Saru Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence for ...

in July 2020, and a reboot drama, '' Japan Sinks: People of Hope'', broadcast in October 2021 on TBS.

Geophysical background

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

is on a destructive plate boundary, where the

Philippine Sea Plate The Philippine Sea Plate or the Philippine Plate is a tectonic plate comprising oceanic lithosphere that lies beneath the Philippine Sea, to the east of the Philippines. Most segments of the Philippines, including northern Luzon, are part of ...

subducts the

Eurasian Plate The Eurasian Plate is a tectonic plate that includes most of the continent of Eurasia (a landmass consisting of the traditional continents of Europe and Asia), with the notable exceptions of the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian subcontinent and ...

. It is a

triple junction A triple junction is the point where the boundaries of three tectonic plates meet. At the triple junction each of the three boundaries will be one of three types – a ridge (R), trench (T) or transform fault (F) – and triple junctions can b ...

and three subduction zones are involved. After the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami The occurred at 14:46 JST (05:46 UTC) on 11 March. The magnitude 9.0–9.1 (M) undersea megathrust earthquake had an epicenter in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region, and lasted approximately six minutes ...

, towns like

Ishinomaki is a city located in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. , the city has an estimated population of 138,538, and a population density of 250 persons per km2 in 61,919 households. The total area of the city is . Geography Ishinomaki is in northeastern Miya ...

subsided.

Political background

This novel is now seen as an important look into the cultural context of 1970s Japan, particularly due to its level of popularity.

Anime adaptation

original net animation An original net animation (ONA), known in Japan as , is an anime that is directly released onto the Internet. ONAs may also have been aired on television if they were first directly released on the Internet. The name mirrors original video animati ...

(ONA)

series adaptation of the novel was announced on October 9, 2019. The series, titled ''Japan Sinks: 2020'', was animated by

, with Ho Pyeon-gang and

Masaaki Yuasa is a Japanese director, screenwriter, and animator affiliated with Science SARU, a Japanese animation studio which he co-founded with producer Eunyoung Choi in 2013. Yuasa previously served as president of Science SARU, but stepped down from th ...

served as directors. Toshio Yoshitaka handled series

composition Composition or Compositions may refer to: Arts and literature *Composition (dance), practice and teaching of choreography *Composition (language), in literature and rhetoric, producing a work in spoken tradition and written discourse, to include v ...

Naoya Wada is a Japanese composer and arranger. Biography Born on June 6, 1986, in Kitakyushu, Fukuoka, Japan. A self-taught pianist, he began composing music at age 11 and completed his first band composition at age 15. In 2009, he earned a degree ...

designed the characters, and

Kensuke Ushio is a Japanese composer, rock and EBM musician who performs under the moniker ''Agraph''. He is a member of Japanese rock band Lama. Together with Lama, he released two full-length studio records: ''New!'' in 2011 and ''Modanica'' a year later. ...

composed the series' music. Yuko Sasaki,

Reina Ueda is a Japanese voice actress and singer from Toyama Prefecture. She is affiliated with 81 Produce. Beginning her career as a voice actress in 2012, her first main role was Naru Sekiya, the protagonist of the 2014 anime series '' Hanayamata''. She ...

and

Tomo Muranaka is a Japanese voice actress from Ibaraki Prefecture. She is affiliated with Haikyō. Filmography Television animation ;2010 * ''Robin-kun to 100-nin Otomodachi Series 2'' as Phillip ;2012 * '' From the New World'' as Child (eps 1-2) * ''Kurom ...

are credited with starring roles. It was released worldwide by

on July 9, 2020. A film compilation version of the series was subsequently released in Japanese theaters on November 13, 2020.

Summary

Shortly after the

2020 Tokyo Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the 1 ...

, a major earthquake hits Japan. Amidst the chaos, the Mutou siblings Ayumu (a 3rd year junior high school student and

track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of the jumping events ...

athlete) and her younger brother Gou (a 5th grader and video game enthusiast) attempt to escape the city with their family and friends. However, the sinking Japanese archipelago complicates their escape. Plunged into extreme conditions, the Mutou siblings believe in the future and acquire the strength to survive with utmost effort.

Voice cast

Episode list

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the series holds a 72% approval rating based on 18 reviews, with an average rating of 6.54/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "''Japan Sinks: 2020''s swell of tension and frenetic pace leave little room to breathe, but bursts of hope and interesting insights into humanity may help brave viewers weather its apocalyptic story." The series attracted criticism within Japan for its condemnation of

Japanese nationalism is a form of nationalism that asserts the belief that the Japanese are a monolithic nation with a single immutable culture, and promotes the cultural unity of the Japanese. Over the last two centuries, it has encompassed a broad range of ideas a ...

, but also received positive attention in the West for its multiculturalism and inclusiveness, and was named as one of the best anime series of 2020. The first episode of ''Japan Sinks: 2020'' was awarded the 2021

Annecy Annecy ( , ; frp, Èneci or ) is the prefecture and largest city of the Haute-Savoie department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region of Southeastern France. It lies on the northern tip of Lake Annecy, south of Geneva, Switzerland. Nicknamed ...

Jury Prize for a Television Series, and the series as a whole received two nominations at the 2021

Crunchyroll Anime Awards The Crunchyroll Anime Awards, also known simply as The Anime Awards, are awards given annually by the anime streaming service Crunchyroll to recognize the best anime of the previous year. Announced in December 2016, the awards were first prese ...

. The compilation film version of the series was awarded a Jury Selection Prize at the 2021

Japan Media Arts Festival The Japan Media Arts Festival is an annual festival held since 1997 by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs. The festival begins with an open competition and culminates with the awarding of several prizes and an exhibition. Based on judging by ...

Parodies

A parody short story by

Yasutaka Tsutsui is a Japanese novelist, science fiction author, and actor. His ''Yumenokizaka bunkiten'' won the Tanizaki Prize in 1987. He has also won the 1981 Izumi Kyoka award, the 1989 Kawabata Yasunari award, and the 1992 Nihon SF Taisho Award. Writing ...

, titled ''Nihon Igai Zenbu Chinbotsu'' (''The Whole World Sinks Except Japan'') was also released in 1973, and adapted into a film of the same name in 2006.

References

External links

* (anime) at

*
Entry
in ''

The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction ''The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction'' (SFE) is an English language reference work on science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and f ...

'' {{Authority control 1973 novels 1973 science fiction novels Avex Group Japanese-language Netflix original programming Japanese novels adapted into films Netflix original anime Japanese science fiction novels Novels about disasters Novels by Sakyo Komatsu Novels set in Japan Science fiction novels adapted into films Science Saru Works about earthquakes