Dystopian anime 'Japan Sinks: 2020' will shake you to the core

Warning: Minor spoilers ahead.

It should be a bit of a mental overkill to binge on an apocalyptic anime when life as we know it is already serving up some real horrors. Masaaki Yuasa’s latest Netflix offering, "Japan Sinks: 2020," is engrossing though, despite all the destruction that comes with its bleak story that was based off Sakyo Komatsu’s 1973 novel of the same name.

The anime starts off with a sense of normalcy. The protagonist, Ayumu Mutoh, just finished with track practice while her kid brother, Go, is at home playing mobile games. Their mom, Mari, is on a plane bound for Japan and their dad, Koichiro, is at work in a construction site. Then, the ground starts shaking.

Because Japan is often struck by earthquakes, the citizens deal with this latest one calmly. No one is panicking, although they do worry since the earthquake that passed was stronger than usual. Then, the ground rumbles again.

And nothing about this one is normal.

What follows is 10 episodes of "What in the world is going on?"

The Mutoh family does reunite. But that seems to be the last happy thing to happen to them here on out. Along with a few friends, the Mutohs must make their way across this fictional Japan, which will soon be rendered as an Atlantis of sorts is it begins to sink.

The journey to safety is perilous and filled with in-your-face gore. The realist style of animation does not help soften the blow of seeing dead bodies falling from the sky or corpses being devoured by animals. It’s also a bit unnerving that all this morbidity is scored with simple and atmospheric instrumentals. It’s tonally uneven, but somehow it works. You will want to keep watching to find out what will become of the Mutohs.

And if you insist on going past the pilot, another thing that might unsettle you is how some characters respond to the catastrophe. Mari, for example, even has the time and energy to take group photos with her fellow survivors amid all the destruction. It might make you scratch your head and wonder why she does it. Is it to immortalize the last moments of happiness in a dying world?

Ayumu seems to be the only one who is responding to everything "normally." She cries and she rages as dead bodies pile up. She even questions why her mom appears to be unfazed after a major death. What ensues is one of the best parts of the series.

How these characters will respond to the calamity is what makes "Japan Sinks: 2020" worth trudging through the "Game of Thrones" style of shock and awe. Will they let fear and desperation cloud their judgment? Or will they make a case for why humans must be saved from sinking?

There are those like the Mutoh family who, despite all the trauma, still choose to soldier on and be kind. While, some characters will choose to shoot you with an arrow (yes, long-range weapons are somehow involved) or refuse to help you because you’re not a pure Japanese (discrimination against non-Japanese folks like the Filipina Mari is portrayed here too).

Verdict: Calming music played over gory images aside, "Japan Sinks: 2020" is worth a play. Masaaki Yuasa showcases here a strange but mesmerizing take on the nature of resilience and grief in the middle of a catastrophe. You just need to have the stomach for the gore. After all, when Mother Nature acts up, it's often a messy and devastating affair.

—JCB, GMA News