Zipang

A Ripple in Time Turns the Crucial Tide of WWII.

Scheduled for routine military exercises, Commander Kadomatsu and the crew of Japan's newest and most modern Battlecruiser, The Mirai, are ready to test out the ship's state-of-the-art Aegis System. Instead, they find themselves transported back to June 4th, 1942—date of the crucial Battle of Midway, where the Japanese fleet was dealt a crippling blow. When an overzealous Kadomatsu rescues one of the battle's victims, Kusaka, from a sinking zero fighter, the Mirai's fate is sealed. The crew pledges not to do anything to alter the past further. However, they're now forced to fight a U.S. submarine in a battle that should never have occurred. Thus setting off a chain of events that may forever change the flow of history!

(Source: Geneon Entertainment USA, edited)

Kusaka, Takumi Main

Touchi, Hiroki Japanese

Kadomatsu, Yosuke Main

Inada, Tetsu Japanese

Umezu, Sabure Main

Yara, Yuusaku Japanese

Yamamoto, Isoroku Supporting

Tobayama, Bunmei Japanese

Kikuchi, Masayuki Supporting

Hoshino, Takanori Japanese

Ishiwara, Kanji Supporting

Tatsuta, Naoki Japanese

Tsuda, Kazuma Supporting

Nojima, Kenji Japanese

Taki, Eiichirou Supporting

Ishizuka, Unshou Japanese

Momoi, Sachiko Supporting

Iseki, Yoshiko Japanese

Oguri, Kouhei Supporting

Ueda, Yuuji Japanese

Naruke, Yoshinori Producer

Iijima, Kouji Producer

Furuhashi, Kazuhiro Director, Script, Storyboard, Series Composition

Hiramitsu, Takuya Sound Director

Reviews

Jun 11, 2013

Ovyda

Recommended

I would have never watched this if my internet hadn't had some connection issues. To my huge surprise from the very first episode it already caught my interest and I ended up watching 7 episodes without a break.

I personally want to give title "Cliffhanger" to this anime. Like 90% of the episodes ended up with a cliffhanger... Don't get me wrong, I actually loved this. I kind of regret it aired before I started watching anime, because this anime had enormously huge variety of topics to discuss. Every episode was very different from the previous one and many turnarounds happened. I was sometimes even confused ... so who's right and who's wrong, who's the ally and who's the enemy... Great mind games (not as great as Code Geass and Death note tho) were played during the episodes and it was almost impossible to predict what will be their next move.

Basically this anime starts with 21st century's battle ship leaving the port for some training exercises and encountering some sort of anomaly that sends them back in time to 1942 year (60 years ago). This was the time when Japan were in a war against USA. The next 26 episodes of this anime is how the whole crew struggles to avoid any contact with the people from those years so that they wouldn't change the history.

However, can you actually avoid everyone when you are in the middle of a war? Obviously not...you need food, fuel and other things to survive... and this is were the fun begins... The battle ship from 21st century has such advanced weapons that are enough to destroy the whole USA army (it's realistic, in 60 years weapons do advance that much). Moreover, they know the whole history of this war. In other words they know every movement of both Japan's and USA's armies and what were the turning points of war and just basically they were overpowered. However, they didn't want to participate in this war at all, this was not their war, so this what makes the anime so great... Just how they try to avoid any minimal contact with anyone and what happens when they finally get spotted by both Americans and Japanese people...

The realism of this show was incredible if you don't think about this "time travelling thing". Zipang did a good job portraying the moral issues and how they were dealt with within the crew and their opponents/allies. However, those 26 episodes weren't enough to finish the series. They ended up on another big cliffhanger. Of course, there is manga, but... the disappointment of not having a sequel is huge.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jul 31, 2015

Illyasviel

Mixed Feelings

This review will include some spoilers about the 1st few episodes in order to make a constructive criticism of the story and the characters. I precise that i have not read the manga.

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.

Reviewer’s Rating: 6

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Aug 22, 2022

weeb_me_daddy

Not Recommended

Funny

Basically the movie Final Countdown but in anime and worse. Just like final countdown it's just bullshit propaganda. The anime talks about a 21st century's JSDF destroyer leaving the port for training exercises and encountering some sort of anomaly that sends them back in time to 1942 year (Yes it's a copy of the final countdown but the author didn't give the movie any credits). This was when WW2 is still on the way. when Japan were in a war against USA. Some people start saying some bullshit that the single destroyer could change the course of the war which is dumb. Only idiots ... that know jack shit about military strategy and logistics will say that. If you want to know more check out this vid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=474RR1ETgyk (and if a supercarrier group struggles to do so, you could imagine what kind of weed this author is smoking thinking that the single aegis destroyer could do much impact).

Reviewer’s Rating: 4

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