Zipang Online

This is an astonishing series. The Mirai, the latest AEGIS destroyer of the Japanese Maritime Self-Defense force, en route to a joint exercise with the U.S. Navy at Hawaii encounters a weather anomaly near Midway Island. When it clears, the Mirai suddenly finds itself surrounded by the Imperial Japanese Navy's Combined Fleet just before the Battle of Midway.

Unlike other alternate World War II histories (such as the Final Countdown), the characters in Zipang face a far more ambiguous moral choice. Whereas Kirk Douglas' character in the Final Countdown has no qualms about joining the World War II US forces to change history (and is prevented from doing so by the temporal anomaly taking the ship back to its own time), the crew of Mirai doesn't consider it obvious that they should join the Japanese side. They are aware that it is a country run by militarists with a mindset very different from theirs. As the Japanese from the present era, they are not at war with the United States. They know that the present day Japan has been built on the defeat of the imperialistic Japan of World War II era. Yet, they are conflicted over their sentiment as Japanese, knowing that millions of their countrymen would die in course of the war. They also question their lack of direction, not knowing what their purpose is in an era long ago. Finally, they have to deal with the fact that they need supplies to keep themselves going, regardless of what they are to do.

The rescue of Lt. Commander Kusaka, a naval intelligence officer whose courier plane was shot down during the Battle of Midway complicates things. Kusaka is not a typical militarist--he thinks the Pacific War was a mistake and should be ended as soon as possible. However, he is also a Japanese of 1940s who thinks how the war actually ended is intolerable. Once he learns the events of the future while on board the Mirai, he immediately goes about with a plan to remake the future according to his vision--to bring about what he terms "Zipang," a new Japan that is neither the defeated Japan of Mirai's future or the military dictatorship of his present. However, it is no less of an empire--it would still rule over Japan's pre-War empire, especially Manchuria and its resources. Worse still, Kusaka is willing to ruthlessly sacrifice lives of thousands in order to achieve his vision. The crew of Mirai has to deal with not only the mundane task of survival, but also with the threat to their future posed by Kusaka.

(This comment might contain minor spoilers!)

Does anyone remember the movie The Final Countdown with Kirk Douglas and Martin Sheen? Well, Zipang definitely compares with that movie. A modern day warship is en route to Pearl Harbor when it's suddenly attacked by an electrical storm and transported back in time. Only this time, it's not a powerful US aircraft carrier, but a Japanese AEGIS cruiser, appropriately named Mirai (which means "Future"). The Mirai ends up in 1942, just before the battle of Midway broke out. Their entrance is quite a shock, as they almost crash into a fleet led by the Imperial Japanese Navy's flagship, the Yamato.

I saw this series in the original Japanese version with English subtitles (There is company distributing dubbed over Zipang DVD's in America, but as I live in Holland, that's not much use to me) The power of Zipang is that it's a very atypical anime series. The main focus is on three friends who served together in the Naval Academy and are now stationed on Mira. Kadomatsu is the ships XO, Kikuchi is weapons officer and Oguri is navigations officer. There's not so much action or comedy going on, the focus is more on drama. The Mirai's crew is faced with a very big dilemma. Their appearance in WW2 will affect history, so should they keep to themselves and stay out of the fighting? When Kadomatsu makes the decision to save Kusaku, an IJN officer, from a plane wreck, things take a turn for the worse. Through him the IJN learns of this mysterious ship that is quicker than any destroyer, is able to take on a small fleet with it's weaponry and will only fight to defend themselves. In the end Kusaku, knowing that history is going to chance since he is still alive, plays a difficult game of smoke and mirrors to avert the mistakes Japan is going to make in the war. But as expected, not everyone shares Kusaku's vision, which puts the Mirai between the lines. The Allies are on one side, prepared to execute their policy "The only good Jap is a dead one" while the IJN gets more and more frustrated with Mirai's adamant attitude. The only who really understand Mirai's predicament is Kusaku, and he is only trying to turn things to his own good. The only thing left I have to say is this: GO.. SEE.. ZIPANG.. ASAP!! You'll see why ;)

I think I got through the first 10 or 12 episodes of this series, and I finally had to turn it off. Little action, heavy predictable drama, over the top typical Japanese voice acting (even for the American roles), I just had a hard time coming to terms with what I was seeing.

An aegis cruiser (an American design) of the Japanese SDF navy is whisked back to the Second World War where she does absolutely nothing. Or, if she did, then it was after the first dozen or so episodes that I saw, which were filled with tension, but little else.

I'm not really sure who the target audience is for this thing. Probably teenage Japanese boys with a bit of nationalism running through their veins because of familial ties to the conflict. But, even so, I'm wondering how the plot and story reflect anything significant.

On the upside it's respectably animated. It has good production values, if nothing else. But I wouldn't bother.

Watch at your own risk.