Zipang

Ovyda★ 9

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 confusedso 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.

oOoOoOo★ 7

If you were the captain of a highly advanced Japanese warship sent back in time to the Second World War, would you change history to bring victory to your people, or would you do everything to preserve the way of life you knew in the 21st century? The crew of the Mirai are torn, as they grapple with this very question, watching the legendary Yamato slink by them in the fog. "Zipang" is less about time travel and altering history, than it is about accepting the reality around you. While many hold out hope for a return to the "present", many othersdecide that they have no choice but to make the best of their situation, even if that means serving an emperor-worshiping dictatorship. The true drama comes from those characters who try to straddle the line between those extremes, finding that neutrality is a difficult position in history's most devastating total war. In-between well executed naval battles (who doesn't want to see a modern Japanese warship take out several waves of American fighter planes, followed by their aircraft carrier?) you'll be entertained by the machinations of the Imperial army and navy, as they try to figure out what the Mirai is, and what its mandate is. Is it a secret project of a rival country? Something from another branch of the Imperial military? Seeing 1940s-era warriors (many of them historical figures) grapple with such concepts as guided missles is both amusing and moving. Indeed, these weapons seem like godlike miracles from a fantasy world, and I'm sure we'd be similarly baffled by future technology from the year 2100. While I can tolerate the merely adequate art, I ultimately found the story the most disappointing, specifically towards the end of the series. I felt a lot of questions were left unanswered (in a rather typical "life goes on" sort of way). There was little hint left as to what would happen, leaving the feeling that the series simply ran out of money and just opted to roll credits and pack up. Ultimately, this is an anime designed for war geeks, although anyone with an appreciation for history will be intrigued by the moral issues dealt with by the cast, a group of characters who are interesting in their own right, but largely serve to fill the roles made by the historical debate. It is a solid concept that carries this series, though I imagine in more capable hands, this could have been a masterpiece.