Summary
Episode 3 raises the danger for the group as every time there’s hope, there’s also a risk to life.
This recap of Netflix anime series Japan Sinks: 2020 season 1, episode 3, “A New Hope” contains significant spoilers.
Access all the episode recaps.
How does Japan Sinks: 2020 season 1, episode 3, “A New Hope” open?
After the tragedy of Koichiro’s sudden death, the group walks with solemn body language. Ayumu is struggling to process what’s just happened. She asks her mother Mari if she’s upset but her mother says tailing behind won’t bring him back. Ayumu is angry and upset and argues with her mother. There’s so much frustration and grief between the mother and daughter that the group do not know how to handle it. Episode 3 shows how the anime series is good at dealing the perceptions of grief in desperate times.
A bloody fight
A man joins the group and they drive a truck to head eastwards. As they stop off, the man threatens to hurt Nanami with a stun gun but Mari hits him over the head. Both women fight him. Mari uses his stun gun on him to knock him out.
The group then head back on foot. They reach Mount Fuji and admire it. Suddenly Nanami collapses and a man parachutes down and tells them to stop walking as there is poisonous gas below them. Nanami is dead — yet another tragedy in the group; the story is making it unbearable for the characters who are desperate to survive.
How does Japan Sinks: 2020 season 1, episode 3, “A New Hope” end?
The man turns out to be the YouTuber Kite and he offers to take one of them to safety with his mechanical parachute. Ayumu accuses Kite of being scum and stealing food from people’s houses. Mari asks Kite to take her son Go to a safe place. Kite puts down his parachute and offers to guide the whole group instead. Ayumu looks behind and briefly looks at Nanami’s dead body and then follows the group.
The group reaches a store and they browse. A robot approaches Koga, Ayumu, and Go and threatens to hurt the group for stealing from their store. The group has to take cover as the store owner fires arrows from a hiding place. One of the arrows hits Go in the chest. Surely not another death? Episode 3 raises the danger for the group as every time there’s hope, there’s also a risk of life.
