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Zipang, Episode 03: Drifters

Review of Episode 2: Here.




As with the last episode this one jumps seamlessly in where the one before left us, giving the whole narrative a very organic overall feel. Having come across a downed Japanese floatplane hovering in the waters of the Pacific the JDS Mirai has stopped to look for survivors. Our main POV character, Commander Yosuke, leads a small search and rescue party in the destroyer's dinghy to check on the wreck while it looks as if Lt. Commander Masayuki can just keep himself from having a panic attack at the sight of someone actually doing something for a change. He looks almost relieved when the plane starts going underwater, but Yosuke jumps into the water and pulls the unconscious passenger - a man in the white parade dress of an IJN Lt. Commander - from it just in time. Once rescued, the man's put into isolation - he's still unconscious - on the behest of Masayuki at a command crew meeting.




Despite being supposed to be "out" for quite some time due to his injuries and the pain killers he's been set on the ship's doctor soon finds her patient to be conscious again. Since apparently nobody thought to enforce the "isolation" with a guard - or something as novel as a locked door - the IJN officer slips out of sickbay and ... stands on deck outside. Determined to finish his mission - supposedly something to do with the sealed briefcase found with him - he quickly realizes he's in no position to leave the ship. He comes face to face with his savior, Yosuke, and poses the so simple but also so hard question: on whose side are you guys?




And Yosuke can't tell. Because he genuinly doesn't know. 

Allthewhile the Mirai's crew is keeping their fingers crossed. They've returned to the spot where they first traveled through time, hoping to go back the same way. But none of the signs that appeared the last time happen. In fact, nothing at all happens. 




Which doesn't really surprise me. In Wolf Hunt the protagonists are facing very much the same problem of having been thrown back in time. How likely is it to travel through time in the first place? I think we can all agree that the likelihood is pretty much zero, or, going with these fictional examples pretending to happen in the real world, extremely close to zero. Now tell me, how high is the probability of something as unlikely as that happening to the same people in the same manner again? Winning the superjackpot twice in a row is outright easy stuff compared to that!




But I suppose they've got to go through the motions. Psychologically, clinging to that hope has the advantage for them of not having to cope with the loss of what's basically there lives up to this point, including friends, loved ones and families. On the practical side, believing they can go back comes with the up of not having to face the reality they've plunged into.




And in the meantime apparently nobody's manning CIC's sonar station since a U.S. WW2 Gato class submarine can sneak up on them, which speaks neither exactly well of JSDF discipline, training or equipment capacity. Just to emphasize this, the difference in sonar quality and detection measures compared to a WW2 submarine's noise output makes this akin to you not noticing the guy three feet away who is clanging pots together with all his might!




Lt. Commander Kusaka, the rescued IJN officer, finds out that he's on a ship from the 21st century and takes it pretty much in one stride. In fact, he takes it alltogether a lot better than pretty much everybody else on the Mirai! I already like this guy. Leaving aside Yosuke's good intentions, Kusaka's the one-eyed man in the kingdom of the blind right now. Or maybe that's just my dislike for Lt. Commander Masayuki clouding my judgement.




Zipang, Episode 03: Drifters. What's there more to say except that I'm getting the impression of a thoroughly incompetent JSDF crew? I'm not asking for an all-time initiative-taking motley crew of heroes, or even a bunch of gung-ho whackos. But so far their performance has been more than lacking. Yosuke is acting pretty much by what his gut tells him. Masayuki isn't acting at all, like a rabbit in front of the snake. Yanagi probably would have acted if he had the authority to do so. The captain is more of a negotiator between his command crew than a truly commanding officer taking lead of the situation. Everybody else in the course of one episode went from 'What do I care?' to 'Oh my gawd, what shall we do?' without the outer circumstances having changed.



Also, never put me into Mirai's sickbay. Going by the reliability of the doctor's prognosis I'll be dead from a wrongly diagnosed cough.



Highlight of the episode: the clear-thinking Lt. Commander Kusaka. 



Next episode stands to get interesting since Mirai will be attacked by the U.S. submarine!