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Yonago Gainax, Princess Maker Creator Takami Akai Reveals Nihon Chinbotsu desu yo Visual Novel for PC, Switch in 2025

Yonago Gainax and Gainax co-founder and Princess Maker game series creator Takami Akai announced on Tuesday a new visual novel based on Sakyō Komatsu's Japan Sinks (Nihon Chinbotsu) science-fiction novel, titled Nihon Chinbotsu desu yo (Hey, Japan is Sinking). The visual novel will launch in Japan digitally, and in a limited physical edition for PC in summer 2025, and then for the Nintendo Switch in fall 2025. Visuals of the French submarine Kermadec and Japanese submarine Wadatsumi transformed into female characters, were also released along with the announcement.

The visual novel's story is set in an alternate Japan, where fiction is forsaken and otaku are persecuted. A mysterious substance called MOE, which generates on the upper layer of the Mohorovicic discontinuity — the boundary between the Earth's crust and mantle — activates the fiction function in the human brain. With fiction suppressed, a large quantity of MOE is released due to the Earth's crust movement, which triggered the outbreak of Personification Phenomenon (P.P) in Japan, where MOE is used as a medium to transform anything into a character.

Dr. Tadokoro, who was one of the first to discover the existence of MOE, and the person who holds the key to resolving P.P suddenly disappears. Deep-sea submarine pilot Onodera, who transformed into a female character, and assistant professor Yukinaga, along with the help of the similarly transformed submarine Wadatsumi, embark on a journey across chaos-stricken Japan to look for Dr. Tadokoro.

Komatsu debuted the original Japan Sinks novel in 1973, and the novel has inspired two live-action films — one that also debuted in 1973, and another in 2006 by Gainax co-founder and Shin Godzilla director Shinji Higuchi. It also inspired a 1975 live-action series, as well as two manga adaptations: the first by Golgo 13 author Takao Saitō, and a 2006-2009 manga by Tokihiko Ishiki. Masaaki Yuasa directed the 10-episode anime series adaptation of the novel titled Japan Sinks: 2020, which premiered on Netflix in 2020. The novel is regarded as a science-fiction classic in Japan and around the world.

Sources: 4Gamer.net (Chihiro), Gematsu (Sal Romano)