Story:
This anime is the japanese counterpart of The Final Countdown movie, instead of an American battleship sent into WWII, this time a Japanese ultra modern cruiser, the Mirai, is transported to the battle of Midway.
The 1st turning point is the decision of the crew is to save the life of a Japanese officer, the Lt Kusaka who had drowned in the actual timeline.
The anime then focus on the survival of the crew of the ship, since the crew obviously need supply and quickly begun to rise a crucial question: what do the crew of the Mirai should do?
Should it avoid to alter the time line of this universe? Should it stay fidel to the Japan?Should it save as many live as possible, and how, should it fasten the end of the war or prevent any more casualties?
And what Kusaka will do after discovering the fate of the Japan?
We have at first a lot of question raised, and the anime seemed gave us a very encouraging start
However the anime just seemed to delay the answer and only partially skimmed over those questions during the whole time, much to my regret. The second part of the anime especially seemed lackluster whereas there is no proper ending given to the anime, since the manga is much longer than the anime.
Also one of my regret is that "Zipang" skipped the crimes of war committed by the Japanese imperial army whereas it was a major aspect of WWII and it definitely could have been interesting to confront the current Japanese identity and its' past one.
Art: the art was rather OK, especially considering the time this anime was released, the style of the character is rather serious which fit with the tone of the anime through they somewhat look similar, the sea and the imperial navy are really well depicted. The animation was also a good point of the anime and the people passionated by the war of the pacific will enjoy the battle scenes.
Soundtrack: I admit i don't have clear memory of the OST since i've watched this anime quite a long time ago, but the Mirai battle theme is among my favorite anime OST and definitely fit with a particular scene making it really epic.
Characters: The weak point of the story, just like the story they have a rather superficial development which could have been much better. The crew of the Mirai always seems to be without strong personality and their decisions are often childish and lacks proper reflexion from the beginning to the end. Some historical characters are introduced, Isoroku Yamamoto especially which is by far the most interesting character with the lt Kusaka.
To conclude, as a friend of mine said, this anime could really have been a masterpiece, but actually failed to be one primarily because the lack of depth of the anime. While not a bad anime it is just a rather average one and could deserve the curiosity of the watcher since the topic is quite an original one.
