Zipang (ジパング) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Kaiji Kawaguchi.It was serialized in Kodansha's manga magazine Morning from 2000 to 2009, with its chapters collected in forty-three volumes.It follows a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Forcedestroyer and its crew being transported back in time more than 60 years to the Pacific theatre of World War II.The struggle of the crew from a peaceful future Japan to resist the nationalistic appeal of altering history and defending their country, knowing that in this time it is ruled by totalitarianmilitarists, is the central theme of Zipang.
A twenty-six episode anime television series by Studio Deen and directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi was broadcast on TBS from 2004 to 2005.It was licensed for English release in North America by Geneon Entertainment.
Plot
In the 2000s, the newest, most advanced helicopter destroyer in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, the JDS Mirai, sets sail from Japan on a naval exercise with the
United States Navy
off
Ecuador
.
En route, they encounter a strange meteorological anomaly, causing the Mirai to lose contact with her sister ships.
Soon, the crew detects a fleet approaching, and are shocked to see it includes the JAPANESE BATTLESHIP Yamato, a battleship that was sunk in 1945.
When more naval vessels, including a Nagato-classbattleship, are sighted, the crew realizes these are Imperial Japanese Navy vessels and that they have somehow gone through a time slip to June 4, 1942, the first day of the Battle of Midway.
Knowing that an American attack will soon devastate the four aircraft carriers of the 1st Air Fleet, some Mirai crew members believe that they should intervene to save the carriers and the 3,000 Japanese lives that will be lost.
With the Mirai's advanced technology and weaponry, which is far superior to anything possessed by the United States (or any other nation) in this era, the crew realizes that they could potentially alter the course of the Pacific War.
However, they agree that their top priority is to return home, and to ensure that they have a home to which to return, they opt to do nothing that will change history.
However, despite their initial intentions not to alter history, the Mirai 's crew soon finds themselves gradually drawn into the war, though they continue to refuse to choose one side over another. These actions, alongside the Mirai 's rescue of IJN Lt. Commander Kusaka, a staunch militarist seeking to create a stronger Japan named "Zipang", who would have perished in the normal timeline, causes major changes in history. Among the changes in history, Executive Officer Yōsuke Kadomatsu's father is killed in a car accident as a child, turning Kadomatsu into a man who does not exist in the future. After obtaining information that Kusaka is traveling to Manchuria to secure oil supplies, Kadomatsu leaves the Mirai to try and stop Kusaka.Kadomatsu arrives in Manchukuo and links up with a lieutenant of Mitsumasa Yonai at a military parade in Changchun, where Emperor Puyi is making an appearance; Kusaka and his subordinates, who are taking part in the parade, plan to assassinate Puyi to spark chaos and claim Manchuria as part of Zipang. Kadomatsu saves Puyi from an assassin fighter pilot, but Kusaka shoots Kadomatsu and Yonai's lieutenant and kills Puyi; Kusaka, not intending for the former two to die, orders one of his doctors to treat Kadomatsu and the lieutenant's injuries. From then on, Kadomatsu enacts a plan to use the Mirai and whatever information he possesses to save as many lives as possible that would otherwise have been lost during the war.
While Mirai is at Yokosuka Naval Arsenal for repairs, Gunnery Officer Masayuki Kikuchi begins to wonder if changing the past is inevitable and whether Zipang is the superior future. Kadomatsu returns to Japan and returns to Mirai, which sets off from Yokosuka during a nighttime blackout drill. While trying to escort a transport ship evacuating 4,000 Imperial Japanese Army soldiers from Kiska during the Aleutian Islands campaign, the Mirai is met by and forced to engage and sink the battleship USS North Carolina, and fights off Atlanta-classcruiser light cruisers, but successfully saves the transport ship, which the IJN formally celebrates when they return to Japan.Meanwhile, Kusaka sends Tsuda on a secret mission to meet and assassinate Adolf Hitler; in reality, the assassination plot (which fails at the last second, resulting in Tsuda's death) is used by Kusaka as a distraction for him to steal uranium from the Nazi nuclear program.As the Mirai fares with a hunt by American submarines and helps evacuate New Guinea, during which VTOL pilot Mamoru Satake is killed defending the withdrawal, Kikuchi launches a mutiny and seizes control of Mirai to take part in the South-East Asian theatre and attack India. Kadomatsu boards the ship to retake it from Kikuchi and is aided by Kōhei Oguri, Sachiko Momoi, and Kisaragi. Kikuchi is injured during the Japanese withdrawal at the Battle of Tarawa and takes refuge in Palau with Momoi and Kisaragi.Captain Saburō Umezu, hospitalized in Yokosuka, learns that Kusaka plans to build the atomic bomb and travels to Nanjing to stop him, but fails and is killed.
In 1944, the Yamato, fighting for Kusaka with him on board, is sunk by the Mirai, killing Kusaka in a vortex, but a nuclear explosion from the Yamato reveals it had an atomic bomb on board; while the explosion causes no significant damage, the Americans are alerted to the apparent success of the Japanese nuclear weapons program. The Mirai is ultimately sunk with all hands after a single stray hit by a shell fired from the American ships, with the entire crew lost at sea and deliberately not rescued by either the Japanese or Americans, except a crippled Kadomatsu, who is picked up by the Americans. Aware he is unable to return to his own time due to the altered history killing his father, and having been convinced by Kusaka to create "Zipang" on his behalf before he died, Kadomatsu offers his knowledge of the European theatre to the Allies and is flown to Washington, D.C..
From there, the lasting alterations to history due to the actions of the Mirai begin to occur. In 1944, the U.S. and Japan sign a peace treaty, and in 1945, the militarist factions in the Japanese government and military are ousted in a coup d'état, allowing the country to democratize. In 1947, the Pan-Pacific Treaty Organization is formed, and Japan sheds its imperial-era colonial holdings. By 1957, postwar Japan is economically prosperous, having been spared from severe attacks on the mainland.Kadomatsu, now a wealthy man in Nantucket after having advised the U.S. government during and after the war, moves back to Japan in 1970. When the 2000s arrive again, Kadomatsu attends the christening of a more advanced brand-new JDS Mirai and has his staff gather information about the crew members of the new Mirai, who all happen to be almost the same people from the old Mirai, except for himself. Kadomatsu finally realizes why only he survived from the original Mirai: it is impossible to have two of the same person existing at the same time; his father died as a child and his "original" self was not born in this alternate timeline, meaning he was allowed to live on, while the rest of the "original" Mirai crew died during the war so they could be born again later as history intended. Though the new Mirai crew members have never known Kadomatsu, they all feel the odd sensation they are missing someone among them. The Mirai departs for its scheduled naval exercise with the U.S. Navy, but this time it does not suffer any mishaps and reaches Ecuador—only Kadomatsu knows how things could have turned out.
JDS Mirai
JDS Mirai (DDH-182)[2] is the fictional helicopter defense destroyer of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF), created for the manga.Mirai is transported back sixty years through time to 1942 on the eve of the Battle of Midway.The ship's weapons alone are enough to change the course of World War II, but equally potent are the advanced technology and knowledge of future events on board.The name of the ship is a homophone for the Japanese word meaning "future" and is often the basis of double entendres in the anime. The phrase, often repeated in the anime, for example, can mean "Japanese people of the ship Mirai" or "Japanese people of the future."
Class description
The Mirai is a ship of a fictional Yukinami-class of helicopter defense destroyer, which was created specifically for the story. The fictional ships are essentially an improved version of the actual Japan Maritime Self-Defense ForceKongo-classdestroyer.All these ships are equipped with the Aegis Combat System that provides the vessels possessing it the capability to locate, track and target a large number of enemy vessels, aircraft and even missiles at ranges and with accuracy that was unimaginable in World War II.
The JDS Mirai is sometimes described as a cruiser rather than a destroyer.This is because a modern guided missile destroyer is about the size of a World War II light cruiser (the Mirai is actually longer than the Kuma-classcruiser and broader than the Takao-classheavy cruisers) and, in the context of the story, the WW II era characters misidentify the Mirai as a cruiser.Some sources have picked up this misidentification and reported it as factual.[3][4][5]
MV/SA-32J Umidori
The MV/SA-32J Umidori (English: Seagull) is a fictional aircraft created for the series.In it, it is a twin turboshaft engine, multi-mission Japan Maritime Self-Defense ForceVTOL tilt-wing armed reconnaissance aircraft deployed aboard the destroyer Mirai.
The MV/SA-32J has two large, five-bladed propellers mounted on nacelles in its wings. The wings both tilt, for vertical take-off and landing (VTOL), and fold, for storage within the Mirai’s hangar. It appears that its engines are not in the wing nacelles, which are too small and do not have any air intakes. Air intakes and engine exhausts in the lower part of the fuselage indicate that the engines are located there, presumably connected to the propellers by some complicated mechanical linkage.
The design of the Umidori appears to be influenced by the Canadair CL-84 Dynavert Tiltwing, which was intended for projected Sea Control Ships of the 1970s[6] The modern design of the Umidori incorporates features of the Bell XV-15 in terms of aerodynamic form and size, and in turn of the later, larger V-22 Osprey.
Characters
Fictional
Yōsuke Kadomatsu (角松 洋介)
Executive Officer (X.O.) and second in command aboard the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force escort vessel JDS Mirai (DDG-182). He always respects human life, and the action of saving Kusaka's life took priority over the implications this would have on the course of history. He feels responsibility for however history may have been changed because of Kusaka, and attempts to stop Kusaka's actions.
Takumi Kusaka (草加 拓海)
An IJN Lt. Commander whose courier plane was shot down during the Battle of Midway and rescued by Kadomatsu. He considers the encounter with the Mirai as an opportunity to change the history for the "better" (from his perspective, at least.) He rejects both the militarism of the Japanese Empire and shame of defeat that he attributes to the postwar Japan. Instead, he seeks to create a new undefeated Japan that he calls "Zipang". While he admires the humanism of Kadomatsu, he dismisses it as a luxury unsuited for wartime and is willing to shed a great deal of blood in pursuit of his ideals.
Masayuki Kikuchi (菊池 雅行)
Gunnery Officer and third in command aboard the JMSDF vessel JDS Mirai (DDG-182). Kikuchi has been best friends with Kadomatsu and Oguri ever since they were in the same batch during their time at the Japan Maritime Academy. He has a strong sense of justice and does not like taking lives. Kikuchi is usually calm in making decisions, rarely breaking out a sweat when he faces extreme situations. During early volumes of the manga, Kikuchi proposed the Mirai crew to avoid changing the past as much as possible. After events of the battle with the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier, USS Wasp, Kikuchi changes his stance on attacking enemy targets, putting the reason that Mirai is put in danger and they are doing it for self-defense.
Kōhei Oguri (尾栗 康平)
Navigation Officer aboard the JDS Mirai (DDG-182). Oguri is best friends with Kadomatsu and Kikuchi during their time in the Maritime Academy. He is joint third in command alongside Kikuchi aboard Mirai. Oguri is the most outspoken of the three of them, but he is also impulsive when making decisions. In contrast, his personality is opposite to Kikuchi. When Kusaka was initially rescued, Oguri proposes that they should release information to him, without thinking of the consequences. He often goes into debate with Kikuchi on whether it's right to attack their own people from the past out of self-defense, or taking innocent lives even though Mirai is being attacked by enemy forces, changing the past as a result. When Kadomatsu goes after Kusaka in Manchuria, Oguri and the rest of the crew set up C4 explosives around Mirai in any case the ship is about to be captured.
Saburō Umezu (梅津 三郎)
Captain and first in command of the JDS Mirai (DDG-182). Umezu takes care of his crew and puts the safety of his men as first priority. Over the years, he is given the nickname "Hiruandon" (昼行灯), which means "a night lamp during the day" or "one who does not stand out", by people who worked with him, as he is a modest person who does not get too much attention around himself. When Mirai was confirmed to be mysteriously brought into the past, Umezu proposes the crew not to get involved with events during the 2nd World War so as not to change history. Umezu is wise in making reasonable decisions whenever Mirai is under attack or whether the crew should join in battle with the old Japanese army.
Sachiko Momoi (桃井 佐知子)
Rank of Lieutenant and medic aboard the JDS Mirai (DDG-182). Momoi is the only female crew member on the ship. She is responsible for the first aid and care of the crew on board Mirai. She is much more neutral to viewpoints and does not go into debate over changing events in history, as she holds her top priority over first aid.
Mamoru Satake (佐竹 守)
Rank of Lieutenant and pilot of the MVSA-32J VTOL aircraft Umidori (Seagull) aboard the JDS Mirai (DDG-182). Satake is at times serious and sometimes fail to abide regulations. When Mirai appeared in the past just days only, Satake and his gunner, Mori, were assigned by Kadomatsu on a reconnaissance mission around Ogasawara. Satake made the mistake of flying the Umidori only 500 ft above the islands, getting the attention of 2 Type 2 Floatplane fighters. During the ensuing battle, Mori was killed, and Satake blames himself for making unsafe decisions.
Mori (森)
Rank of 3rd Ensign and gunner of the MVSA-32J VTOL aircraft Umidori (Seagull) aboard the JDS Mirai (DDG-182). Mori is an enthusiastic and energetic young man at age twenty. He was assigned along with Satake on a reconnaissance mission by Kadomatsu to Ogasawara. Mori displayed doubts when Satake made the decision to fly the Umidori 500 ft above the islands, but trusts in the man to keep both the gyrocopter and them safe. When Type 2 Floatplane fighters discovered their presence, he is killed by shots sprayed into the cockpit of the Umidori by the enemy fighters; he is the first crew member of Mirai to die following their arrival in the past.
Historical
Other historical characters depicted include Gunichi Mikawa, Kiyonao Ichiki, Kanji Ishiwara, Matome Ugaki, Leigh Noyes, and Mitsumasa Yonai.
Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto: He is the one that summons Tsuda to investigate the Mirai, and later works to develop the uneasy partnership with the crew of the JMSDF Mirai.
Alexander Vandegrift: Commander of the U.S. Navy task force.
Media
Manga
Written and illustrated by Kaiji Kawaguchi, Zipang was serialized in Kodansha's manga magazine Weekly Morning from July 2000 to November 2009.[7][8] Kodansha collected its chapters in forty-three volumes, released from January 23, 2001,[9] to December 22, 2009.[10]
Anime
An anime adaptation of Zipang was produced by Studio Deen and directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi.Tokyo Broadcasting System Television broadcast the anime series in Japan from October 7, 2004, to March 31, 2005.Since a Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force official on active service was involved in the production, some unrealistic scenes were cut from the anime version.In 2017, scholar Takayoshi Yamamura noted that anime was produced in the collaboration with the JMSDF.[11]
At the 2006 Anime Expo, the company Geneon announced that it has licensed Zipang for distribution in North America. The first DVD was released in September of that year.
Episodes
DVD release
Zipang was licensed for release in North America by Geneon Entertainment with DVD release starting in September 2006.
Screen Ratio: Widescreen 1.85:1 Color (Anamorphic)
Layers: Single Side, Single Layer
Release Date: September 5, 2006
Subtitles: English
Packaging: Keep case
Audio Tracks: ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Stereo and JAPANESE: Dolby Digital Stereo
Episodes
DVD release
Zipang was licensed for release in North America by Geneon Entertainment with DVD release starting in September 2006.
Screen Ratio: Widescreen 1.85:1 Color (Anamorphic)
Layers: Single Side, Single Layer
Release Date: September 5, 2006
Subtitles: English
Packaging: Keep case
Audio Tracks: ENGLISH: Dolby Digital Stereo and JAPANESE: Dolby Digital Stereo
Video game
A video game version of Zipang for PlayStation 2 was released by Bandai in Japan on May 26, 2005.[12]
Reception
Zipang won the 26th Kodansha Manga Award for general manga category in 2002.[13][14]
Some foreign readers and viewers were uncomfortable with the storyline. There were many arguments among the South Korean critics that the series was promoting Imperial Japan.[15]
See also
The Final Countdown, a 1980 American film similar in premise to Zipang, in which the USS Nimitz is brought back in time to before the attack on Pearl Harbor
11.Takayoshi Yamamura. Cooperation Between Anime Producers and the Japan Self-Defense Force: Creating Fantasy and/or Propaganda? Journal of War & Culture Studies, 2017^
12.ジパング Bandai Game Site, Bandai, n.d., retrieved April 21, 2018^
