"Zipang" (2004) TV series 2004-2005

User Rating:

7.3/10   

Director:

Kazuhiro Furuhashi

Writer:

Yuichiro Takeda (writer)

Release Date:

5 September 2006 (USA)

Genre:

Animation | Drama | History | Sci-Fi | War

Plot:

The story of Zipang is basically the same as that of the movie The Final Countdown, only with a few twists...

Cast

Takanori Hoshino	...	Masayuki Kikuchi
Tetsu Inada	...	Yosuke Kadomatsu
Yoshiko Iseki	...	Momoi, Sachiko
Yûji Ueda	...	Kouhei Oguri
Yûsaku Yara	...	Umezu, Saburo

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Color:

Color

Certification:

South Korea:15

Wow....

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

(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 ;)