Forum - View topicZipang.
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lazybastard
Posts: 22 |
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Zipang
Alright, searched through and didn't find any topic on this in the discussion pile. So here goes: This show is about a Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force (their Navy) ship that gets thrown back in time to the battle of Midway. And the crews' attempts to not change history. For me, this show's biggest 3 selling points were: 1. The nail-biting action. No shortage of that in here. I really liked how the show captured the tension onboard the Mirai during combat. With the vast distances involved in modern ship combat, the time it takes from a missile being launched to its impact is sometimes measured in minutes. The show really captures the suspense during that time. 2. The historical what-ifs. Unlike that other 1980s movie whose name I don't recall; in which the whole Enterprise Battle Group gets time-warped back to WWII. In Zipang, there's only a single Aegis destroyer with a limited number of missiles and ZERO hope of replenishment. So there's little chance that the ship could physically change the outcome of the war. What are far more dangerous are the history books stored in the ship's library. 3. The cultural differences between the JMSDF and the IJN. What makes this so interesting is that Japan, unlike Germany, have not fully come face-to-face with their role in WWII. Very interesting to look at the subject matter from a Japanese perspective. Um, Mods. One of you guys please toss this in the right place. Thanks. [EDIT: While this is an older thread with little attention, I've decided to fix the Encyc. link and add this to the "All Discussions" thread anyway. I'll probably end up taking the thread over with plot summaries and screencaps one of these days, despite the show possibly going out of print forever now, but oh well. Great series nonetheless. -TK] |
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7995 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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I'd really like to see this one myself, I've been eying the DVDs at my Best Buy for a while, although it'll have to wait. I'm following too much on DVD as it is and it's getting expensive, most of it going to Geneon already and they're taking enough of my cash as it is.
I'll pick it up when they come out with a collection though. |
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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You can check out the individual DVD reviews in the Talkback section. The fourth DVD was recently reviewed and was highly praised. I love the 3D animation and how well it integrates with the 2D animation. I also love the conflicts between the generations since postwar Japan is so different from Imperial Japan.
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lazybastard
Posts: 22 |
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I actually thought that this toned down quite a bit, especially how spirited, brutal and fanatical the Japanese soldiers in WWII were. Then again, this show was intended mainly for domestic Japanese consumption. Most of the conflict there is institutional rather than generation based. When the JSDF were formed, it cut off all traditions linking back to the IJN and IJA - Things such as the bushido spirit, samurai swords for officers etc. were all dropped. The JSDF are trained to think in very different ways compared to their counterparts in the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy. The cultural difference here is far greater than if you took a random sample of the civilian population from 1942 and from 2000 and compared those. |
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TheVok
Posts: 613 Location: North York, Ontario, Canada |
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Just got through the 'final' DVD release ... and is that the end of the story? I imagine the manga's plot goes further?
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Randall Miyashiro
Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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I just finished the series last week as well. It is odd how it does feel as though there is a nice pause in the story, but it definitely doesn't resolve much. spoiler[The next season could very well shift the focus from the Mirai as the plot shifts to China.]
I loved the alternate ED credits which gave it a little bit of closure. IT does feel more like an end of a chapter than a series ending though. |
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18567 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I just (finally) got the last volume in the mail over the weekend and hope to be getting to it sometime this week, so a review (which will also be a series overview) will soon be forthcoming.
Through volume 6 I consider it one of the year's best series. It's a shame that its subject matter isn't popular enough for it to get wider attention, but it is oriented towards older adult males, which is not the normal target audience for anime coming to the States. Edit: Finally got around to watching it. A review is now in the system, so hopefully it will come up sometime this coming week. The short version? The inconclusive way it ends is going to knock it out of my consideration for the #1 position for this year, but I'll still probably include it on my annual Top 5 list. (And really, even that's up for debate, since the arrival of Death Note on the scene has now left me with nine series that I think legitimately deserve to be considered for Top 5 positions this year.) Last edited by Key on Sun Nov 04, 2007 12:58 am; edited 1 time in total |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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Can anyone tell me if the anime series has addressed the spoiler[jet fuel] dilemma? spoiler[Mirai's LM2500 gas turbine engine requires JP-4, JP-5, or JP-8, yet Japan does not have jet fuel available for its troops until the very end of war (for Nakajima J9Y Kikka).]
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TheVok
Posts: 613 Location: North York, Ontario, Canada |
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Really? I thought it was mainly popular in Japan with teenage history students .... |
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angel_lover
 Posts: 645 Location: UK |
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Is there really a dilemma? I'm not an expert on gas turbine engines by any means, but I believe spoiler[the LM2500 can run on straight kerosene, which surely was (and still is) the staple of domestic winter heating in Japan.] |
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Jedi General
 Posts: 2485 Location: Tucson, AZ |
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I had completely forgotten that the final DVD would be out before Geneon's cut-off date. Thanks, Key. Now I can go out and watch the last three episodes (finally!). Save for the terrible dub, I do agree that this is one of this year's best series. A shame that it isn't talked about much (although given it's target audience, that isn't surprising). |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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True, but I don't think spoiler[any IJN tanker carried kerosene in its cargo bay, yet in manga Mirai received refueling from one.] 
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abunai
Old Regular
 Posts: 5463 Location: 露命 |
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It's the U.S.S. Nimitz, not the Enterprise, and it's only the single carrier, not the entire carrier group. The name of the film was The Final Countdown (1980).
I have to disagree. The basic concept of both Zipang and The Final Countdown is that the ships are taken back to turning points in history, key events where a single powerful modern ship would have made a difference. In the case of the Nimitz, it's spoiler[Pearl Harbor]. In the case of the Mirai, it's spoiler[Midway], among others. Of course, this does require that one is philosophically convinced that history is amenable to massive change through decisive action applied at key events. That remains a hotly debated issue in history, especially in the (maverick) field of contrafactual history.
Quite so, and the technical reference works as well. Imagine being able to retroengineer technology that's half a century ahead of you, and implement it in your military and industry. And of course, the many false starts and blind alleys on the way to developing nuclear weapons could be completely bypassed with the knowledge of how it was actually done. It would still take a long time to produce fissible material, but it would kick-start the process. - abunai |
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angel_lover
Posts: 645 Location: UK |
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After a little Googling, it seems that spoiler[the IJN used kerosene-fuelled torpedos, so could that make it more likely that tankers would carry it? That said, I guess it wouldn't take a lot of kerosene to replenish a warship's entire stock of torpedos, compared to the amount taken to refuel a modern warship.] |
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heen
Posts: 29 |
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Wow so I finished this anime today and I was very interested.
The whole series was great BUT the last two episodes or so really killed it for me. I would have to say it's one of the worse anime endings, I dont even know how it ended. Can someone please explain what happens? Will there be a season 2? spoiler[ What happens to the Mirai and the crew? Are they going to blow it up with their explosives? So they cant go back to their 21st century? AND WHAT HAPPENS TO Kusaka ?!??!] |
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