Zipang: If a Butterfly’s Wings Can Cause a Tornado... What Can a Japanese Guided-Missile Destroyer Do?!

If you're familiar with the name Kaiji Kawaguchi, then you've likely heard him referred to as "the Tom Clancy of Japan". I bring this up not because it's 100% true, but it's also not an absolute misnomer. Unlike the late Clancy, who pretty much exclusively wrote political & military-related fiction novels, Kawaguchi has made plenty of manga not involving those two types of genres, like Boku wa Beatles, Actor, or Seizon -Life- (the last with Nobuyuki Fukumoto). However, when you look at his longest & most notable manga, they're almost exclusively about politics or the military; Actor's the only real outlier, unless you include titles he only drew for, like Osamu Eya's Kuubo Ibuki. 1997's Eagle: The Making of an Asian-American President (11 volumes) is about how a man of Japanese heritage runs & becomes President of the United States, and has been deemed rather prescient ever since Barack Obama became the 44th President. 1988's The Silent Service (32 volumes) is about a Japanese submarine captain who takes claim of a brand new submarine & declares it an independent state; not quite the Japanese equivalent to The Hunt for Red October, but I'd imagine Kawaguchi was inspired by it, somewhat. 2003's A Spirit of the Sun (17 volumes) is about Japan being physically ravaged by a series of natural disasters, and how its citizens have to emigrate to refugee camps on the Asian mainland, while also dealing with the political side of things in how Japan itself can rebuild; it even saw a 9-volume sequel, subtitled Foundation Chapter, in 2008. This also applies to the single longest series Kaiji Kawaguchi has ever done, Zipang.

Fiction detailing some sort of alternate history or timeline has been around since at least 1490 with Valencian novel Tirant lo Blanch, and Japan has been no stranger to it, either. One of the most well known would be Sengoku Jieitai, a 1974 novel by Ryo Hanmura that's best known internationally for its 1979 live-action movie adaptation starring Sonny Chiba; it's also known abroad as Time Slip, G.I. Samurai, or Samurai Commando: Mission 1549. Another would be Konpeki no Kantai/Deep Blue Fleet, a 20-volume novel series by Yoshio Aramaki from the 90s most notorious for starring Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, who time warps back to his younger self in 1905 after dying in Operation Vengeance in 1943 & proceeds to change the course of World War II... Starting by absolutely destroying Pearl Harbor & occupying Hawaii; Japan eventually joins to Allies the fight the Nazis, though, & gives America back its independence. Kawaguchi decided to dip his toes into the genre with 2000's Zipang, which ran in Kodansha's Morning magazine until 2009, totaling 43 volumes! It also received a "follow-up" with 2012's Zipang: Shinsou Kairyu/Flow of the Deep Blue Ocean, which details the Genpei War & has absolutely no relation to the original series, whatsoever; "Zipang" was likely used simply because it's a semi-equally ancient spelling for the country's name. In late 2004, a 26-episode TV anime adaptation by Studio Deen aired in late-night, adapting partway into Volume 7, & Geneon Entertainment would then license & release it across seven dual-audio DVDs in North America from 2006 to 2007, with the last DVD coming out mere weeks before Geneon's closure. So, as the second of a three-part look at how World War II was reflected in anime, let's take a look at the anime adaptation of Zipang.

Executive Officer Yosuke Kadomatsu, Weapons Officer Masayuki Kikuchi, & Navigation Officer Kohei Oguri are all part of the crew of the JDS Mirai, a Yukinami-class helicopter defense destroyer for the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force lead by Captain Saburo Umezu. The Mirai & its crew of 241 officers (+ one civilian) set off with other ships to meet with the US Navy for drills at Pearl Harbor, only for the Mirai to wind up getting lost from the rest during a bizarre magnetic storm that somehow accompanies the sight of an aurora, which should be impossible where they are. Once the storm subsides, the Mirai's radar shows tons of battleships around them... Including the Yamato itself. It doesn't take long for Kadomatsu & the others to realize that they've somehow traveled back in time to June 4, 1942, during the Battle of Midway. Not wanting to alter history by getting involved, the Mirai reverses course & leaves the battle behind, only to later come across a Zero crashed in the ocean, with a survivor on board. Kadomatsu decides to save the man, Lt. Commander Takumi Kusaka of the Imperial Japanese Navy's Intelligence Division, knowing that doing so could irrevocably alter the course of history. Neither an ally to the Allies nor Imperial Japan, the Mirai is a "nation" all its own to the people on it, having to deal with being in an era that it was never meant to be a part of.

If Zipang's concept sounds any bit familiar to you, then it's likely that you've already seen or heard of The Final Countdown (no, not that one!), the 1980 movie directed by the late Don Taylor. In that film, the USS Nimitz gets time warped to the day before the Pearl Harbor bombing, and the crew on board have to decide if they will interfere with history by defending the base against the Japanese. Zipang essentially has the same exact basic concept, except that it replaces the US ship & crew for Japanese ones (& from a further 20 years into the future), & the Pearl Harbor bombing is substituted with the Battle of Midway, replacing the event that brought America into the war with the event that changed the tides of the Pacific Front; in both stories, though, the historical battles go on without alteration. Both stories even involve their respective crews saving fictional people who were meant to have died, Senator Samuel Chapman in The Final Countdown & Lt. Cm. Takumi Kusaka in Zipang. The main difference between the two here, though, is that The Final Countdown's theatrical length results in said actions not really affecting much, as Chapman does still die (showing that history will try to course correct on its own), while Zipang's longer & serialized nature allows for more investigation into how saving a man from his own death starts unraveling the tapestry of time.

For example, Kadomatsu outright tells Kusaka who they all are in the same episode he's rescued, while at the same time an American submarine finds the Mirai & launches torpedoes at it. This immediately complicates things & instantly prevents the crew from interfering with history. We'll get to Kusaka in a bit, but with the sub everyone's kind of screwed over either way. They could easily destroy the submarine, preventing word of the Mirai's existence & power from reaching the American military... But then they risk destroying a submarine that was never meant to be destroyed, killing an entire crew of American sailors who were never meant to die in the war. However, escaping the submarine & letting the sailors live, though preserving their historical lives, will obviously result in that crew heading back to Pearl Harbor & informing their military about this miraculous battleship that can outmaneuver anything that currently exists... And will look like it belongs to Imperial Japan, since the Mirai is flying the Japanese flag. In the end, while a crewman does launch a guided missile at the sub in a fit of panic, & Captain Umezu considers letting it hit, Kadomatsu eventually does order it to self-destruct, just barely keeping the American sailors alive, but now word will go out of the Mirai's existence, changing history.

But unlike The Final Countdown, which manages to prevent things from getting altered, Zipang allows the butterfly effect to actually happen, resulting in a slow escalation of altered history before resulting in the crew of the Mirai having absolutely no choice but to actively engage with both sides of the war. When Kadomatsu & Kusaka embark on a mission to resupply the Mirai in Singapore, an Imperial Navy officer, Lt. Tsuda, is revealed to also be there, when the history books said that he'd be elsewhere. This is because Isoroku Yamamoto himself saw the Mirai when he was on the Yamato, which resulted in him sending Tsuda to Singapore to search for it, as they surmised that'd be the place it'd go to resupply. Meanwhile, Kusaka himself sees all of this as an opportunity to change history for the "better", as Kadomatsu allowed him to read everything that was in the Mirai's small library, letting him know all about what happens to Japan over the course of the next 60 years. Though Kadomatsu did this as a way to endear Kusaka to the crew of the Mirai & their plight, Kusaka instead decides that this new information he learned should instead be used to drive Japan towards a new path, that of "Zipang": A Japan that's neither the brash & egotistical Imperial Era nor the complacent & surrendered Modern Era. By the half way point, the Mirai is left no other choice than to change the course of history directly, interfering with the Guadalcanal campaign by destroying the supplies General Alexander Vandegrift of the US Marines left for his soldiers that made landfall, in an attempt to force the US to leave the island, so as to prevent the 20,000-30,000 deaths that historically happened, across both sides.

Of course, the idea of altering history doesn't mean a thing if the people doing the alterations aren't interesting, and that's where Zipang truly shines, showcasing Kaiji Kawaguchi's penchant for intense character drama. Kadomatsu is the lead character & a good example of an "XO", often showing his ability to figure a possible way out of a situation, even when things look grim, but also taking into consideration the repercussions of his actions, especially in the bizarre situation he & his crew find themselves in. Kikuchi is the most logical one of the cast (he's the first to bring up the time slip idea, since the Moon's phase changed too much in just one night), always taking all possible scenarios into consideration before making a choice, though he does tend to trust in his superior's decisions. Oguri, in comparison, is much more emotional & ready to act, both in good & potentially bad. For example, Oguri was the one who brought up having the Mirai interfere with the Battle of Midway at the beginning, showing that he was ready act ASAP, even if it completely ruins history. However, when the Mirai gets a new supply of fuel & food, which itself becomes complicated with Tsuda's involvement, Oguri is the one who brings a bottle of liquor to the period-accurate supply boat & offers to share with the Imperial sailors on board, showing his well intentioned nature & friendly demeanor. While none of these three are exactly paragons of originality, Kadomatsu, Kikuchi, & Oguri make for a well-balanced trio of main characters that help show the various ways to handle a situation like this, respectively: Moving forward, knowing the risks; hesitant, fearful of your own existence being compromised; & plowing forward, risks be damned, if need be.

Meanwhile there's Lt. Kusaka, who slowly shows his true hand as a sort of master manipulator with his own overall goals. While he means no ill will towards the Mirai's crew, & especially Kadomatsu, you eventually understand that he is simply using their presence, & his newfound knowledge of the future, in order to make things happen the way he wishes for it to be, and while the Mirai's crew are hesitant to reveal themselves directly, Kusaka has no such hesitation. When Tsuda sneaks onto the supply boat, Kusaka tells all, & when returning to Isoroku Yamamoto himself to change the course of Guadalcanal, he not only requests for the autogyro he's on to land on the Yamato itself, but he downright tells Yamamoto & his other superior officers that Japan WILL unconditionally surrender the war in three years time; he neglects to mention the atomic bombs, however, but states the number of lives lost. At the same time, though, the Mirai & its crew are just pawns to Kusaka, as shown with Guadalcanal, because while a four-man squad (including Kadomatsu & Oguri) do land as part of a back-up plan, they were hoping for Kusaka to convince the Imperial Navy to leave the island without attacking... Which they don't. With his goal of creating "Zipang", Kusaka is obviously the antagonistic counterpart to Kadomatsu, but Kaiji Kawaguchi is smart enough to not villainize anyone outright, focusing more on a battle of understandable & relatable ideologies instead. Really, the main conflict is between the Mirai's crew, who wish to follow through on the SDF's mission of saving as many lives as possible (regardless of nationality), & Kusaka's goal of creating "Zipang", which he fully acknowledges will require some sacrifices in order to achieve. Essentially, can the Mirai end the war peacefully by preventing as many historical losses as possible, or is Kusaka right in that deaths are a necessary thing for the greater good of a more ideal post-war Japan? Also, how will SDF troops, who were not meant for combative purposes, react to killing other people, when the time comes? Remember, it wasn't until Japan sent SDF forces to Iraq in 2004 that the country engaged in actual combat, on a major scale, for the first time since World War II.

As for the supporting cast, while there are a crap ton of named characters, both fictional & historical, there are only a small few of note. Captain Umezu is your calm, cool & collected leader, never showing any cracks in his outward facade, no matter how wild & dangerous the current situation is. At the same time, though, you can still tell that he knows full well what each action he & his crew will mean in the grand scheme of things, so he's not generically stoic. Then there's recurring Mirai sailors Yanagi & Satake, with both contributing in small ways that help add to the mood of the story. Yanagi is a WWII history fanatic who helps in explaining things like how powerful a battleship like the Yamato truly is, or how exactly certain events are supposed to play out, so as to give the crew of the Mirai an idea as to how to (hopefully) change things for the better. Meanwhile, Satake is an autogyro pilot who hits a slump of low morale early on when his co-pilot becomes the Mirai's first casualty, when an aerial recon mission in Ogasawara goes wrong. It's not until Oguri brings him along for the drinking party on the supply boat that Satake starts feeling better, but that feeling that he's responsible for the death of a man who wasn't even born yet in 1942 always haunts over him. Then there's Momoi, the Mirai's on-board doctor & sole female officer, a "big girl" who only wants to make sure everyone she helps is given fair treatment & vehemently refuses to let someone die in front of her. For example, when Tsuda attempts seppuku when he feels that the Mirai is an enemy of the Yamato, but finds himself afraid of dying & being "pathetic" as an Imperial soldier, Momoi's the one who comforts Tsuda, telling him that he's lucky to be the first in his era to realize that choosing to live, instead of dying for your country, isn't something to be ashamed of.

As for the actual historical figures, they're generally portrayed respectfully, across both sides, & by that I mean that no one's portrayed "out of character", at least from what I can tell. Naturally, the Imperial officers get a larger share of screen time, but someone like Admiral Yamamoto is shown to be the calm & rational kind of strategic thinker that he was known as, while someone like Masanobu Tsuji, who was infamous for his war crimes, is portrayed as more of an antagonist who'll interfere with things so that they go towards Imperial Japan's way. Meanwhile, a person like Gen. Vandegrift isn't simply portrayed as a hot-headed American, but rather tries to find logic in actions that make no sense to him. There's a very fine line to be tread when dealing with actual people from history, and Zipang is filled with them, but I'd say that this series walks that line very well, and it helps showcase a side of some people that you likely would never know of, especially if you aren't Japanese; this obviously isn't a replacement for a proper history lesson, but it also doesn't feel disrespectful. In regards to just how "alternate" the history in Zipang winds up getting, at least for what the anime adapts, you kind of come across something interesting: The more history you know or research, the more you realize how history still manages to wind its way around the Mirai's existence. For example, the climactic battle for the anime sees the Mirai having to fend off a fleet of 40 American Dauntlesses, before eventually having to fight back at the carrier that launched them... The USS Wasp, which historically sank in the Pacific Ocean on September 15, 1942, which wouldn't be too far off from when Zipang's battle takes place, when you consider how much time has gone by since the end of Episode 1. However, the circumstances of these events are totally different, as the Wasp was historically sunk by the Japanese I-19 submarine 150 nautical miles southeast of San Cristobal Island, whereas the battle it has with the Mirai is off the coast of Saipan, nearly 2,100 miles northwest; also, the Mirai is accompanied by the I-21, not the I-19. Combine that with some of the events that happen at Guadalcanal, and you start to see that while the Mirai's existence in WWII is altering some aspects of history, others still manage to find their way through, even if in different circumstances.

Moving on to the production side of things, we once again see the name "Studio Deen" for an anime here on the blog, a studio known not known for resplendent animation. However, I'd argue that Zipang is a show that honestly works just fine for Studio Deen, as there are very few action scenes to be found here, and what is shown here really doesn't require tons of fluid animation, in general. Also, there is mid-00s CG to be found here, but it's solely reserved for military vehicles, like boats & planes, and with a light cel-shading applied to all of the CG it actually blends in rather well & holds up pretty nicely, to be honest. Leading the staff here is Kazuhiro Furuhashi (Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn, Dororo 2019) as both director & head writer, with the end result being a show that, while nothing truly remarkable in terms of "sakuga", is still solidly produced & never really looks terrible; there's like one moment where Tsuji is given some weird eyes, but that's all I could notice. Likewise, with a manga written by Kaiji Kawaguchi to work off of, the writing by Furuhashi & co-writer Yuichiro Takeda (Banner of the Stars II) is intensely excellent & filled with all manner of contemplative elements, layers, & plenty of spinning gears to keep you entranced. That being said, the fact that the manga was still going when the anime aired results in Zipang not really having a proper "ending", but rather a stopping point, specifically one which not only splits up Kadomatsu from the Mirai, but also features a major reveal in the last episode, showing that he & his crew aren't quite as connected with this timeline as they thought. Considering how long the manga wound up being (the anime doesn't even cover 1/5 of it!), I am fine with this decision, because there's really no way for an original ending to even be done that wouldn't feel like a cop out; things are really only getting started, in the grand scheme of alternate history.

In terms of the character designs, Yoshihiko Umakoshi (My Hero Academia, Berserk 1997) stays intensely close to Kawaguchi's easily identifiable style, complete with characters like Oguri & Umezu only having pupils for their eyes, with the whites being replaced by skin tone; it sounds really awkward, but works perfectly fine. Meanwhile, Toshihiko Sahashi (The Big O, Gundam Seed) was brought in for the music, and it's simply outstanding. A heavily orchestral sound accompanies the anime throughout all of its major moments, accentuating each & every one of them perfectly. If you want instant proof of this, just listen to "Battle 'Mirai'", the main theme that plays whenever some sort of wartime action is done by the Mirai & its crew. With a mix of orchestral, some synth, & a simply sweet sax, it shows the perfect kind of action to expect from Zipang: One that focuses more on proper planning & ending things decisively with a single move, instead of focusing repetitive or drawn out action. It's no surprise that someone's upload of the song from back in 2009 has since received over 1.17 million views, because it's just that damn amazing. Speaking of great music, we also have the opening theme, "Rashinban" by Audio Rulez, a rock/orchestral mix that starts slow & semi-acoustic, before building into a great chorus that, while not exactly sounding 100% appropriate for a series about simply trying to survive World War II (though, really, what kind of song would that be?), is still just a great song, in general; it's been a personal favorite anime theme of mine for a long time. As for the ending theme, "Kimi wo Miteiru" by Begin, it's a slow ballad that works well as an ED, but otherwise is kind of unremarkable, especially in comparison to the rest of the music in this show.

As for the Japanese voice cast, this is actually kind of tricky to write about compared to other anime I've reviewed. After all, this is meant to be a realistic story, time slipping aside, one in which the seiyuu don't really get opportunities to embellish or play up their vocal roles, like they would in most anime; though tricky due to environments, Zipang could have been adapted into live-action perfectly fine. So in that regard, seiyuu like Tetsu Inada, Yuji Ueda, & Takanori Hoshino deliver excellent performances for Kadomatsu, Oguri, & Kikuchi, respectively, but feature only the occasional bit of major "ACTING!" that most would expect from other anime; they do exist, but mainly just for the most emotional of moments. The same can be said for Yusaku Yara as Umezu, Takashi Matsuyama as Satake, Yoshiko Iseki as Momoi, or Eiji Takemoto at Yanagi, though Matsuyama & Takemoto probably get the most times to embellish more, either due to Satake's depression or Yanagi's nerdgasms over history. However, the only real exception to this would be Hiroki Touchi, who does get to play things up a bit more as Kusaka. Being more of an antagonistic manipulator, Touchi gives Kusaka a growing feel of assuredness behind the man saved from history, and by the end seemingly every line Touchi delivers feels confident & manipulating in a way that no one else really gets to have. As for the rest of the cast, we have the likes of Bunmei Tobuyama (Adm. Yamamoto), Hidekatsu Shibata (Gen. Vandegrift), Kenji Nojima (Lt. Tsuda), & the late Sukekiyo Kameyama (Masanobu Tsuji). Overall, while you don't get much in terms of "traditional" anime voice acting, Zipang's cast is fully believable, and only bolsters an already outstanding story.

It ain't pretty... But, then again, neither is war.

Finally, Geneon Entertainment actually did pay for an English dub to be made for Zipang! However, this is one of those dubs that Geneon outsourced to Odex Private over in Singapore, specifically the studio Voiceovers Unlimited, the same place that handled the dubs for Fantastic Children, the Super Yo-Yo dub of Chosoku Spinner, & Clockwork Fighters: Hiwou's War, all of which were either only decent (at the very best) or downright terrible. Taking that into consideration, I will admit that Zipang is actually the best Odex dub that I've ever heard, and one that I can actually see people enjoy the anime through. Maybe it's because the cast is entirely made up of adults, whereas the others I mentioned all starred children, but all of the characters sound believable & fairly realistic, and the dub even makes sure that it maintains accurate military lingo, like using "XO" to describe Kadomatsu's title succinctly or saying numbers individually while on the Mirai, so as to make sure there's no misunderstanding. Admittedly, though, there is a bit of awkwardness with the dub, partially because of the sheer idea of listening to such a definitively "Japanese" story with English voices, but also due to some of the accents used. For example, some of the Imperial officers have almost British-sounding voices, while the crew of the Mirai often sound like American southerners. I mean, Jamie Meldrum's Oguri even sounds like Gomer Pyle at numerous points, and while I understand the why, the two aren't really all that similar. On the one hand, I can understand why Odex went with those accents, but at the same time it feels both a little too on the nose & a bit off, simultaneously. Also, for some reason, the English voice actor for Kadomatsu, Mark R. Kaufman, is replaced with George N. Cahill III for the last DVD, which sounds completely inane & must have been a last-minute thing, like Kaufman becoming really ill or something; Cahill doesn't even bother to sound anything like Kaufman. Anyway, while it's certainly not some lost gem of an English dub from the 00s, Zipang's dub is honestly (& surprisingly) the best I've heard from the infamous Odex lot, and one well worth giving a try, at the very least.

Yes, Volume 6's cover is indeed missing the anime's logo.
Considering that it was two months before Geneon's death, it's oddly prescient.

As I mentioned, the Zipang anime eventually wound up being a situation where it kind of only really scratches the surface of the manga it adapted, barely getting into Volume 7 of 43. Quickly checking some volumes synopses on Amazon Japan, the manga does go into some wild alternate history stuff, like Kusaka leading a small crew in order to assassinate the leaders of the Axis Powers & eventually having Japan make the first atomic bomb & storing it deep inside the Yamato, resulting in everyone trying to take command of the legendary battleship! Still, the anime that we wound up getting remains absolutely excellent, telling a story that's gripping from the first episode & never really lets go, while also pacing itself in a way that lets every single moment linger just enough to allow all of the raw emotion to come through. While the lack of any definitive ending does suck, I'm just glad this anime even received an English release in the first place, because the chances of the manga ever being given an official English release are in the negatives (there is a scanlation effort, but even that's currently only at Volume 12/13). Kodansha Japan did do a bilingual release in the 00s, but only for the first four volumes, a.k.a. the anime's midpoint.

Unfortunately, since this wound up being one of the last anime Geneon ever fully released, it's effectively now impossible to get a hold of completely, with only the first three DVD singles still available for reasonable prices; the last two DVDs are essentially holy grails, like those Hajime no Ippo boxsets. At the same time, though, I highly doubt Zipang will ever really get license rescued, as it's just not the type of anime that any company could logically reason would be a good investment that they can make their money back on; Geneon was a company filled with utterly insane licensing choices, even if the content itself was stellar.

So, what will finish up the "World War II in anime" trilogy? Check back on August 6, 2020, as we pay our respects to those lost 75 years ago... By looking at the first time a "Barefoot" survivor let his feelings out publicly via manga.

Anime © Kaiji Kawaguchi/Kodansha・Zipang Partnership