Tokyo Magnitude 8.0: Complete Collection [Blu-ray]

Product description Tokyo Magnitude 8(Br) Amazon.com The broadcast series Tokyo Magnitude 8.0, which depicts the destruction of much of the Japanese capital, feels eerily prescient, as it was released two years before the Great East Japan Earthquake of 2011--a 9.0 magnitude quake--triggered the disasters at Fukushima. Sulky 7th grader Mirai Onozawa is not happy when her mother makes her spend the first day of summer vacation taking her little brother Yuuki to a robot exhibit in Odaiba, a reclaimed island in Tokyo Bay. While they're at the show, disaster strikes, razing big sections of Tokyo. Mari Kusakabe, a young widow, joins up with the children and helps them find the way back to their Setagaya neighborhood in Western Tokyo. Although its depictions of the destruction of such landmarks as Tokyo Tower and Rainbow Bridge are often chillingly effective, Tokyo Magnitude suffers from two major problems. As there simply isn't enough story to fill 11 episodes, director Masaki Tachibana and his crew add too many similar flashbacks, dreams, and aftershocks. And the tearjerker ending belies most of the story the viewer has just watched. Tokyo Magnitude plays better in the 52-minute recut "Digest Version" included in the extras, but the ending doesn't play at either length. (Rated TV 14: mature themes, grotesque imagery) --Charles Solomon (1. Odaiba Sinks, 2. The World Is Broken, 3. The Bridge Burns, 4. The Promise Between the Three of Them, 5. The School Is Wailing, 6. Choice to Abandon, 7. Summer Evening Twilight, 8. Pure White Morning, 9. Goodbye to Today, 10. Hey, Big Sister, 11. To Yuuki…)