Why I love Zipang

Who doesn't love a good historical drama disguised as a science fiction piece?  

Zipang is a tense, thrilling, moving action-drama about a Japanese Navy Self-Defense Force ship that suddenly finds itself 60 years in the past the day before the Battle of Midway.   Oh, yeah!  

It's really a bit of a niche piece because it helps to have a decent understanding of the JSDF mentality and the nonfiction sensibilities of the Japanese regarding war.   (That might sound dead-boring, but it's so not.)  It's done well enough that you can pick things up as you go if you're sensitive to context.   It would also help to have some understanding of military history, specifically of Japan's place in WWII, but I think a lot of that is also provided through context.   Anyway, the interactions between the past and the present are intriguing and fascinating, and I really want to hit this one guy . . .  

. . .   But I'll never get the chance because it just stops at the end of the first story arc from the manga which is untranslated and shall remain so forever.   Argggghhh!  

But it's a great ride up until then.   The show really goes into some great territory about how to live in a time when no one else shares your values.   They're committed to saving lives, and they know when and where lives will be lost, but they can't risk changing history, or something bad might happen (such as Japan winning) . . .   Thought-provoking and really well done.