Japan is sinking

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Japan is sinking. Scientific and fantastic novel , also known as When Japan Sinks (Original title: Nippon Chimbotsu ) is a science fiction novel by the Japanese author Sakyō Komatsu . In the novel, first published in 1973 and still read in Japan today, Komatsu describes as an authoritative narrator how the Japanese islands are sinking into the Pacific Ocean through a series of devastating earthquakes , volcanic eruptions and tsunamis .

The novel was first published in German in 1979 by Volk und Welt in Berlin, GDR , and achieved several editions. In 1985 it was published in West Germany by Moewig Verlag in Rastatt.

action

In the near future, based on the date of publication around the end of the 1970s, a small island will sink into the sea off the east coast of Japan. A team of scientists is investigating the matter. In their investigations, they make a terrible prognosis: Changes in the interior of the earth will cause the main Japanese islands to sink into the sea sooner or later. The government is initially not taking the researchers' warnings seriously. Only when the Japanese capital Tokyo was shaken by a huge earthquake and shortly afterwards devastating volcanic eruptions and tsunamis hit the island kingdom, the Japanese government realized the gravity of the situation. Plans are being drawn up immediately to evacuate the Japanese population and relocate them to other countries. But then the big catastrophe comes faster than the scientists expected: One island after another sinks into the sea. The Japanese flee in all directions and disperse. Your future remains uncertain.

Film adaptations

In 1973 a film adaptation of the novel was made under its original title. Roger Corman cut it into an English version, which was released in cinemas under the title Tidal Wave . The German title was Der Untergang Japans . In 2006 the second film adaptation followed under the title Sinking of Japan . Both films were very successful in Japan.

In July 2020, an anime adaptation titled Japan Sinking: 2020 was released and released worldwide on Netflix .

reception

Sakyo Komatsu won the 1974 Seiun Prize for Japan Falls .

Minoru Kawasaki made a 2006 parody called Nihon Igai Zembu Chimbotsu ("All but Japan Sink").

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans Joachim Alpers , Werner Fuchs , Ronald M. Hahn (eds.): Reclam's Science Fiction Guide . Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 1982, ISBN 3-15-010312-6 , Komatsu Sakyo, p. 235 .
  2. ↑ DEVILMAN crybaby's Masaaki Yuasa Helms Japan Sinks Novel's 1st Anime for Netflix. Retrieved February 20, 2020 .

Web links