Anime has easily become the best destination to find some of the most groundbreaking and ambitious visuals in animation. There are many visionary names in the medium, but Masaaki Yuasa has slowly proven himself to be one of the most ambitious and impressive talents that is working today. He’s even been poached to do work in American series like Adventure Time, all to great effect.
Japan Sinks: 2020 is Yuasa’s newest piece of work and it’s a departure for the director in a lot of ways. Accordingly, here are 5 ways that Japan Sinks: 2020 is Masaaki Yuasa’s best anime and 5 better alternatives.
10 Best Anime: Its Emphasis On Family
Part of what makes Japan Sinks: 2020 such a powerful story is that during the destruction of Japan, it focuses its narrative on a small family’s struggles to stay together and survive.
This is a powerful way to explore such a big idea and it’s an angle that gives Japan Sinks: 2020 such an emotional core. All of Yuasa’s works are deeply emotional, but they don’t dig into families and sibling bonding in the same way as Japan Sinks does. It’s one of the priorities of this story.
9 Better Alternative: Devilman: CRYBABY
The Devilman franchise has been around decades and gone through various revisions and updates over the years. Each series looks at the war over an individual's soul as they slowly succumb to a demonic infection. Yuasa doesn't dig into horror that often, but the success of Devilman: CRYBABY is proof that he should.
The director's unpredictable use of color and animation perfectly lends itself to the inhuman transformations and carnage that dominate the anime. Yuasa deepens the Devilman franchise and is able to elevate the gory franchise to the deeper level of the rest of his work.
8 Best Anime: Its Brutal Nature
Japan Sinks: 2020 tells a devastating story about a nation in trouble where everyone is in doubt and death surrounds everyone. This anime doesn’t shy away from how destructive massive earthquakes can be and it prominently displays families that have been separated due to this natural tragedy. However, there are still lots of bleak events that strike in addition to this bigger loss. Death strikes the Muto family in brutal ways and Ayumu’s future is tinged in loss, but there’s a specific scene with a shark that’s especially graphic.
7 Better Alternative: Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!
Yuasa is a master that's able to expertly tackle any genre, but a lot of the time he leans towards epic stories that transcend reality. Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken! is a big story, but it comes from such a personal place that stems from Yuasa's love for animation. Eizouken! is all about a group of young kids' passion for manga and anime. It beautifully explores the process of creation, adaptation, and what it means for art to awaken someone's true self. It's a magical story that's hard to not be moved by, but is still a visual assault.
6 Best Anime: Its Alternate Look At The Real World
Japan Sinks: 2020 is set in the not-too-distant future in a world that’s incredibly similar to reality. However, when disaster strikes and takes out Japan, it’s fascinating to see how the world responds and the changes that take place. Japan Sinks: 2020 is incredible for how it's simultaneously grounded and exaggerated with how people cope during these uncertain times. However, the last episode of the anime flashes to the future and gives glimpses of how the world has been able to heal and change society. It’s not the anime’s focus, but it paints such a touching picture of the world.
5 Better Alternative: Lu Over The Wall
Each of Masaaki Yuasa’s films tell heartwarming stories that not only connect individuals but are able to heal the world in a much larger way. Lu Over the Wall centers around a mermaid with vampiric tendencies who just wants to sing in a band and spread joy. This simple story spirals out of control in a way that feels reminiscent of classic coming of age stories like E.T., but with an infinitely more creative perspective. Yuasa never slacks when it comes to animation, but the final act of Lu Over the Wall is an out of control and dazzling masterpiece.
4 Best Anime: Its Restrained Animation
One of the biggest things that Masaaki Yuasa is known for is how his animation doesn’t subscribe to any rules and that it truly does its own thing. It’s incredible to see how Yuasa inverts color palettes, gets elastic with his character models, and just throws insane visuals at the audience. Japan Sinks: 2020 still looks incredible, but it holds back from many of Yuasa’s usual tricks and is much more restrained. This works well for the stark story that’s being told. A crazier style would undercut the mature message that’s at hand.
3 Better Alternative: The Tatami Galaxy
Yuasa’s stories do an excellent job of dissecting the feelings in individuals that make them feel human. The Tatami Galaxy looks at the lack of identity that people can feel when they enter college, but it explores this idea in a trippy and surreal way that gets into headier ideas like destiny. It’s one Yuasa’s very best character studies. Admittedly, Yuasa’s film, The Night is Short, Walk on Girl may be more impressive than The Tatami Galaxy, but that movie is an extension of this anime’s ideas and characters. It’s easier to include them together as one incredible package.
2 Best Anime: Its Global Message
Japan Sinks: 2020 is a giant story that centers around Ayumu Muto as she tries to keep her family together during this unprecedented disaster, but it’s an anime that really talks about society as a whole. During these frightening times the anime highlights how people rise to the occasion or fail to be decent humans. Despite the smaller focus that the anime series adopts, its larger message is all about building towards a better future and that destruction can sometimes lead to rebirth and joy. It’s a mature and heady idea for a Yuasa work to tackle.
1 Better Alternative: Ping Pong The Animation
Anime has a tendency to make an anime out of every possible sport on the planet, but Yuasa’s Ping Pong the Animation is such an incredible feat because it takes something as mundane as table tennis and turns it into a visual spectacle that’s more exciting than superheroes throwing energy blasts at each other. The series’ exhaustive opening credits demonstrate just how intense and creative the visuals in this anime become. There’s the standard tension that comes out of any competitive sports anime, but Ping Pong Animation is a series where every frame is pure bliss.