There’s a distinct component of masochism is deciding to watch Nihon Chinbotsu 2020, I suspect.  Even after two episodes it seemed an inescapable fact that everyone you come to care about is going to die, perhaps (probably) horribly.  Certainly, it’s better to just assume that and be pleasantly surprised otherwise.  Yet it’s really, really good TV.  And the fact is, I’ve never seen an anime season like this one – it could literally be an almost complete whiff for me.  So it’s not like I can skip this show and spare myself the heartbreak.

But boy, this is already incredibly depressing.  This is not your garden variety earthquake disaster.  The whole country seems to be sinking, and – suspiciously – the Japanese government is clamming up about it.  That’s what happens here when it’s really bad, you just don’t talk about it.  But information has a way of getting through in the information age – like foreign news reports of insight from Gou’s gaming friend in Estonia.  Nihon seems to be pretty much screwed here, and there’s no plot armor thick enough to stop that bullet.

What’s interesting about this is watching how people deal with this grim reality.  Some squabble, some curl up and wait to die, some put on a brave face.  The Mutoh family picks up an extra in Koga (Yoshino Hiroyuki), a hikikomori and ex-sempai who Ayumu seems to have a crush on.  In an odd sort of way this is probably less of an upheaval for him than it would be for most, since he was no part of the social order that’s breaking down.  With the waters rising the group decides to leave the hilltop shrine before being stranded, but there’s a split about where to go (which is a staple of disaster flicks).  Most follow the convenience store owner who says go east, but the Mutoh clan decides to go West after buying into the outside news about what’s happening – and Koga follows.

What do you do when you’re probably doomed, you know it, and you have two children depending on you?  Kouichirou and Mari (who seems to be from the Philippines) are troopers.  They project optimism as best they can – she takes commemorative photos and he does his best to make this into an adventure.  But it’s as close to literally whistling through the graveyard as you can get.  What’s right and wrong in this situation?  Should Ayumu have given the family’s last water bottle to an elderly couple waiting for the end (hint: no)?  The old rules don’t apply here, and I suppose the only thing to do – especially if you’re a parent – is try and survive as long as you can and hope for some sort of miracle.

At this point I can see Nihon Chinbotsu 2020 teetering on the brink between two possibilities.  There’s plenty of fuel here for a fascinating (if depressing) reflection on what sane, rational people will do when presented with a situation like this one.  But there’s a distinct risk of tragedy porn, too – and the series does seem almost gleeful in the way it’s picking off its characters one by one.  There’s something of value in the first scenario, grim as it may be, but for me at least not in the second.  Ruthlessness for its own sake proves nothing – it’s just creative masturbation.  And Yuasa clearly is, based on his track record, capable of that.

With Dad’s death at the end of the second episode, any illusion of narrative normalcy is blown up right along with him (which is not in itself a bad thing, to be clear).  Again, the best and most interesting thing here is seeing how the others react to it.  Ayumu behaves like the surly, aggrieved teenager she is.  Mom tries to keep a brave face up for the kids’ sake because, well – what else can she do?  But soon enough we’re back in darkness mode, as the trucker who picks up the family decides he’s going to rape Nanami at the first gas stop.  Maybe not totally unrealistic – when people think the end is close, what’s to stop them from doing whatever their impulses tell them?

Soon enough the death parade continues as Nanami succumbs to poison gas on a potty break.  Ayumu would have died too, except for the intervention of Kaitou (Ono Kenshou).  He’s the famous Youtuber (Gou is a huge fan) who took the film of Okinawa sinking, and he’s flying around on his one-man powerglider (or whatever you call it) filming nearby Mount Fuji.  He warns Ayumu of the danger, and she survives – but blames herself (again) as she was feeling surly about Nanami seemingly getting close to Koga.

Eventually Kaitou decides to guide the family to what he says is safety, and the first stop is a rural supermarket.  Maybe he was being truthful about having money to pay, but the owner (Ohtsuka Houchu) is in shoot first, ask questions later mode.  It would be pretty lame to die of an arrow fired by a crazy old coot in the midst of the greatest natural disaster in recorded history, but that seems to be what happens to Gou (who one can’t help but notice is shot right in his pack).  Is a death – or tease of one – going to be a staple at the end of every episode?  That would be a bad sign that we’re headed down the wrong fork in the road – no small irony, that.