Zipang (manga)

Plot

In the 2000s, the newest helicopter destroyer in the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force, the JDS Mirai, sails from Japan for a naval exercise with the United States Navy off Ecuador. En route, a strange meteorological anomaly causes the Mirai to lose contact with its sister ships. The crew detects an approaching fleet and is shocked to see the Japanese battleship Yamato, a vessel sunk in 1945. When more Imperial Japanese Navy vessels appear, the crew realizes they have undergone a time slip to June 4, 1942, the first day of the Battle of Midway.

Knowing an American attack will soon devastate four aircraft carriers of the 1st Air Fleet, some crew members believe they should intervene to save the carriers and 3,000 Japanese lives. With the Mirai's advanced technology and weaponry far superior to anything possessed by any nation in this era, the crew could alter the course of the Pacific War. However, they agree their top priority is to return home and ensure they have a home to return to, so they opt to do nothing that will change history.

Despite their initial intentions, the crew is gradually drawn into the war while refusing to choose one side over another. 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 learning Kusaka is traveling to Manchuria to secure oil supplies, Kadomatsu leaves the Mirai to stop him.

In Manchukuo, Kadomatsu links up with a lieutenant of Mitsumasa Yonai at a military parade in Changchun, where Emperor Puyi is appearing. Kusaka and his subordinates 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 orders one of his doctors to treat Kadomatsu and the lieutenant's injuries.

JDS Mirai

The fictional JDS Mirai (DDH-182) is a helicopter defense destroyer operated by the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force in the manga. This vessel is sent back in time sixty years, arriving in 1942 just before the Battle of Midway. Its weaponry alone could alter the outcome of World War II, but the advanced technology and foreknowledge of future events aboard the ship are equally powerful.

The ship's name, Mirai, is a homophone for the Japanese word meaning "future," leading to frequent double entendres in the anime. The repeated phrase "みらいの日本人" can be interpreted as either "Japanese people of the ship Mirai" or "Japanese people of the future." The Mirai is part of a fictional Yukinami-class of helicopter defense destroyers, which are essentially upgraded versions of the real JMSDF Kongō-class. All ships in this class carry the Aegis Combat System, giving them the ability to locate, track, and engage numerous enemy vessels, aircraft, and missiles with a range and precision that would have been unthinkable during World War II.

Class description

The Mirai is occasionally called a cruiser rather than a destroyer because a modern guided missile destroyer is comparable in size to a World War II light cruiser; in fact, the Mirai is longer than the Mogami and broader than the Takao-class heavy cruisers. Characters from the World War II era mistakenly identify it as a cruiser, and some sources have repeated this error as fact. The MV/SA-32J Umidori, meaning "Seagull" in English, is a fictional aircraft in the series. It is a twin turboshaft, multi-mission VTOL tilt-wing armed reconnaissance plane deployed from the Mirai.

MV/SA-32J Umidori

Its two large five-bladed propellers are mounted in wing nacelles. The wings tilt for vertical take-off and landing and fold for hangar storage. The engines are not in the wing nacelles, which lack air intakes; instead, air intakes and exhausts on the lower fuselage suggest the engines are housed there, likely linked to the propellers through a complex mechanical system.

Characters

Yōsuke Kadomatsu is the Executive Officer and second in command aboard the JDS Mirai. He always respects human life, and saving Kusaka's life took priority over the implications for history. He feels responsibility for how history may have been changed because of Kusaka and attempts to stop Kusaka's actions. Takumi Kusaka is 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 history for the better from his perspective. He rejects both the militarism of the Japanese Empire and the shame of defeat he attributes to postwar Japan, seeking to create a new undefeated Japan he calls 'Zipang.' While he admires Kadomatsu's humanism, he dismisses it as a luxury unsuited for wartime and is willing to shed blood for his ideals. Masayuki Kikuchi is the Gunnery Officer and third in command aboard the Mirai.

He has been best friends with Kadomatsu and Oguri since their time at the Japan Maritime Academy. He has a strong sense of justice and does not like taking lives, usually remaining calm in extreme situations. In early volumes, Kikuchi proposed the crew avoid changing the past as much as possible. After the battle with the USS Wasp, he changes his stance on attacking enemy targets, reasoning that the Mirai is put in danger and they are acting in self-defense.

Media

Kaiji Kawaguchi created the manga Zipang, which ran in Kodansha's Weekly Morning from July 2000 to November 2009. The series was compiled into 43 volumes between January 23, 2001, and December 22, 2009. Studio Deen produced an anime adaptation directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi, which aired on TBS from October 7, 2004, to March 31, 2005.

Because an active-duty Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force officer worked on the production, certain unrealistic scenes were removed from the anime. Scholar Takayoshi Yamamura observed in 2017 that the anime was made in partnership with the JMSDF. Bandai released a PlayStation 2 video game adaptation in Japan on May 26, 2005.