Zipang

Zipang (ジパング, Jipangu) is a 2004 anime television series based on Japanese manga series of the same name written and illustrated by Kaiji Kawaguchi. It was serialized and published in Kodansha's Morning magazine from July 2000 to November 2009, with a total of 43 volumes.

The series was produced by Studio Deen, directed by Kazuhiro Furuhashi, series composition by both Kazuhiro Furuhashi & Yuichiro Takeda, composed by Toshihiko Sahashi, and it aired in Japan on TBS from October 7, 2004 to March 31, 2005, consisting of 26 episodes. It was licensed for English release in North America by Geneon Entertainment, with dubbing being done at Voiceovers Unlimited in Singapore.

It tells the story of the members of the Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force who are transported back in time more than 60 years to 1942.

Synopsis

Mirai, an improved Kongou-class Aegis guided missile destroyer, is one of the newest and most advanced ships in the entire Japanese Self Defense Force (SDF). Her crew, also one of the newest, is lead by Capt. Umezu Saburo and Executive Officer Kadomatsu Yosuke. While running scheduled training exercises one day, Mirai encounters a fierce storm that throws their navigation systems into temporary disarray. After a few minutes of recovery, the crew is shocked to discover that they've been transported back in time to June 4, 1942—The Battle of Midway, during World War II. Letting history take its course for this battle, they manage to avoid the conflict firsthand and make a vow to remain annonymous, changing history as little as possible. However, when the crew comes across the dying Lt. Commander Kusaka Takumi, XO. Kadomatsu's instincts to save lives takes over, changing the course of history more than he could've imagined.

Cast[]

Image	Character	Seiyū	Dub Actor
Main Characters
	Yōsuke Kadomatsu	Tetsu Inada	Mark R. Kaufmann (eps. 1-23)
		Tetsu Inada	Curran Shane Mardjuki (eps. 24-26)
		Miyu Irino (young)	¿?
		Yūto Uemura (child)	¿?
	Takumi Kusaka	Hiroki Tōchi	Edward Choy Keng Choong
	Kohei Oguri	Yūji Ueda	Jamie Meldrum
	Captain Saburo Umezu	Yūsaku Yara	Joseph Murray
	Masayuki Kikuchi	Takanori Hoshino	Paul J. Pistore
Secondary Characters
	Sachiko Momoi	Yoshiko Iseki	Chio Su-Ping
	Takashi Oume	Masami Iwasaki	¿?
	Hideyuki Kashiwabara	Ryō Naitō	Jeremy Craig
	Yasushi Asou	Kazunari Kojima	¿?
	Kazunobu Yanagi	Eiji Takemoto	Darryl Ervin
	Katagiri	Naru Kawamoto	¿?
	Kazuma Tsuda	Kenji Nojima	Paul J. Pistore
Recurring Characters
	Mamoru Satake	Takashi Matsuyama	Terry Lee
	Hitoshi Enomoto	Makoto Ueki	¿?
	Naoto Sugimoto	Kōji Ishii	¿?
	Katsutoshi Hayashibara	Mamoru Miyano	¿?
	Kawamoto	Yoshikazu Nagano	William Gary Ladick
	Shimamoto	Tsuyoshi Koyama	¿?
	Isoroku Yamamoto	Bunmei Tobayama	¿?
	Mitsumasa Yanai	Bin Sasaki	¿?
	Kameto Kuroshima	Shōichirō Akaboshi	Jamie Meldrum
	Matome Ugaki	Naoki Bandō	¿?
	Gunichi Mikawa	Akimitsu Takase	¿?
	Tokunaga Okamura	Katashi Ishizuka	¿?
	Masanobu Tsuji	Sukekiyo Kameyama	¿?
	Yōkichi Kadomatsu	Kenji Nomura	¿?
	Yōichirō Kadomatsu (Yōsuke's Father)	Tetsu Inada	¿?
	Kanji Ishiwara	Naoki Tatsuta	Joseph Murray
	Samuel D. Hatton	Masashi Hirose	¿?
	Gray	Jūrōta Kosugi	¿?
	Leigh Noyes	Bon Ishihara	Jerry Szombathy
	Alexander Vandegrift	Hidekatsu Shibata	Joseph Murray
	Yoh Bun Gen	¿?	William Gary Ladick

Episodic Characters[]

Character	Seiyū	Dub Actor	Ep(s).
Chris Evans	Kenyū Horiuchi	¿?	3-4
Kaoru Yonekura	Hiroshi Shimozaki	Joseph Murray	4
Mori	Makoto Tomita	William A.H. Reid	5
Teruko	Azusa Nakao	Marian Elizabeth Spencer	7
Bungen You	Yoshiaki Matsumoto	¿?

Additional Voices[]

James Lawrence Andrews
Robert Murrow BenBow
Sean David Nerney

Video Releases[]

Distributor	Year	Format	Contents	Region	Country
	2006-2007		The Complete Series	1 NTSC	United States
	2006-2007		7 Volumes	1 NTSC	United States

External Links[]

Zipang on the Internet Movie Database.
Zipang (anime) on the Anime News Network's encyclopedia.