Twelve Thingies: The magnitude of the situation
Part of the 12 Moments in Anime 2009, which walks like a duck and talks like a duck, and thus must be CCY’s fault.
In terms of quality — animation, writing, characters — as well as that pure glued-to-the-screen factor, Tokyo Magnitude 8.0 stands out in a (mostly) unimpressive field of competitors this year.
But I think what will stand out in most people’s minds is the moment when they realized… it.
When exactly it happened is something that some viewers had to go back and establish. But for many, this handy infographic sums it up.
Legend:
A: Oh my. This is bad. I wonder if…
B: Oh, it’s really true. And the denial… it’s so heart-wrenching.
C: How, uh… how long are they gonna keep this up?
D: argaaargrgrgashflakjsdasdfklhja
Now the question is, did that slight overemphasis lessen the impact? I suppose it did, but the feeling of disappointment passed. That’s partially due to the strong final episode, which I know left my household all dewey-eyed, and partially due to the simple fact that the series as a whole was great. I haven’t seen that level of emotional intensity, whether it be the very real sense of fear and danger early on or the tragedy of later episodes, in a long time. So regardless of how you feel about “the thing” and its corresponding moment, at least there’s a strong series to go with it.
I marathoned this series in a single night and I didn’t feel any distinguished feeling between episode like in the diagram. Anyway, the ‘C-D’ for me is like ‘…Maybe he’s okay afterall’ (I might be the only one who fell for it x_x)
I think I would probably feel differently about it if I’d watched in a single night as well. Episode 11 was a strong ending that really got the eyes wet, and brought the average back up. I think TM8 is going to be a very watchable show the second time around, possibly for the same reasons that it had problems for me the first time.
I actually enjoyed the show on a meta level: i.e. the shitstorm among viewers who suddenly hated it, or saw an opportunity in the controversy to ‘distinguish’ themselves from the ‘herd’ of viewers who have run out of excuses to hate Mirai.
Let them all eat cake, I say; and never the round ones.
Yeah it was fun observing that. I think people get too used to the “anime” style of characters, and Mirai threw them off. But of course you know my opinion on that subject. She’s a good kid!