Blue Submarine No. 6

Blue Submarine No. 6 (青の6号) is a post-apocalyptic manga series by Japanese mangaka Satoru Ozawa, first published in 1967, which was subsequently developed into a four episode OVA series by Gonzo.

Recently, Shouji Murahama of GONZO stated with NewWords Magazine that a live-action Blue Submarine No. 6 movie will be produced for approximately 10 billion yen (US$84 Million). Masahiko Ohkura will direct the movie. This is to be G.D.H.'s first live-action project with 30 more live-action projects under consideration.

Anime
The anime adaptation was released in the United States on April 4, 2000. It uses a hybrid approach, combining 3D computer graphics with traditional animation, and is a pioneering example of this technique.

It aired in the United States on Cartoon Network's Toonami block on November 6, 2000 at 6:00 PM. The jazzy and atmospheric score was provided by rock n' roll big band THE THRILL.

Summary


The story begins in the near future, when the Earth's oceans have risen and flooded most of the sea-lying land on Earth. The rogue scientist Zorndyke caused the flooding, which killed billions, and most of humanity's remaining cities have been attacked or destroyed by Zorndyke's army of half-animal "hybrids". The remaining humans begin to wage war against Zorndyke's seagoing creations for simple survival. Humanity's best hope for a resolution to the conflict lies with its submarine forces, among which is the focus of the story, Blue Submarine #6.

It is revealed that Zorndyke is attempting to decisively end the conflict in the favor of his hybrid children by artificially inducing a polar switch using geothermal energy at the South Pole.

Blues
The OVA starts out with patrol planes dropping sonar buoys into the ocean, searching for an enemy vessel, the Ghost Ship, commanded by Verg, a shark-type hybrid. A nearby patrolling submarine named the Narushio (an SSGN type submarine) receives messages citing that a potential threat has been spotted, and goes to battle stations.

In a nearby city decimated by the rising tides, a young female officer named Mayumi Kino and a fellow sailor named Mouse have been sent on a mission to re-recruit Tetsu Hayami, an elite cadet at the Naval Academy who was involved in the development of the Grampus (a small, two person crew submarine capable of short and long range combat) during his years at the academy. He refuses to rejoin Blue Fleet, and Mayumi radios in their failure. Meanwhile, the creature that was spotted earlier in the episode (later identified as a Musuca) shielded in a large white tube-like shield, prowls the sunken city streets. The Musaca launches several Umigumo, large crab-like robots with large pincer-claws holstering cannons and many hundreds of anti-aircraft rounds. While they conduct their attack—starting with the destruction of two destroyers—they broadcast a message from Zorndyke which states that "resistance is futile". Kino attempts to get aboard a cutter to return to Blue 6's port, but unfortunately they were blown out of the water. She and her fellow sailor spot an elderly woman who is stranded. Mouse shoulders her, and they become surrounded by Umigumo. Hayami reappears with his own speed boat and guns down the two Umigumo, rescuing Kino and the other two.

Blue 6 departs its berth, and sets out to sea. Kino, Hayami, Mouse, and the old woman all board the sub, and the fight begins. The Musuca's bubbling white shield is shattered, and the creature is revealed to be a large, sentient, deformed creature, apparently engineered from the genes of a sperm whale. It releases more Umigumo, and Kino and Hayami depart in a Grampus, an underwater robot that converts into a submarine speeder, to fight the Umigumo.

A daring undersea battle commences, with Blue Six destroying the Musuca with the help of an older JMSDF submarine, the Narushio, whose CO is revealed to be a personal friend of Blue Six's captain.

Hayami destroys nearly all of the Umigumo, with the final one emerging from the water and landing on a beach. Hayami pursues it with a small detachable robot, and sprays it with bullets. He dismounts, and approaches the device, which opens up to reveal a female humanoid creature. After arguing with Kino over what to do with her, Hayami returns her to the water, but not before being bitten once she regains consciousness

The episode concludes with Kino and Hayami discussing what they have witnessed in the past day. Out at sea, Verg, a shark-like young man in command of the Ghost, or "Phantom Ship" (a submersible battleship mounted on a colossal whale shark-like entity) shells the city from afar.

Pilots
The Phantom Ship has succeeded in destroying the port city, but the Shang and Blue Six have escaped. The Shang pursues and engages the Phantom with its cruise missiles, but is destroyed by the Phantom's counterattack. During the battle, a part of Blue Six comes in contact with a strange, bubbly, greenish substance that slowly comes off the sub, but no one notices. Six escapes to the depths of the ocean, and sets sail for its headquarters.

Aboard the Phantom, Verg delivers a message to Zorndyke about his military success. Zorndyke tells him to "be safe, come back soon." Believing his "papa" didn't like how he won, Verg throws a fit, tries to shove his large blue tongue down one of the sea-girls' throats, and then slams the sheath of his sword onto the ground.

Verg then confronts the girl from inside the Umigumo and punishes her for touching a human. We only see him putting his arms around her shoulders, but the camera angles upward and they are out of the picture before we can witness what he does. We hear the girl struggle and scream. In the Uncut version, we see him holding her shoulders and sucking her right ear.

Six travel to the Blue Dome, an underwater, shell-shaped superfortress that serves as Blue Fleet's main berthing facility. Character development ensues during the trip. Hayami, who had seen the plans for Blue Dome, smiles as he sees the entire Blue Fleet for the first time. The Blue Fleet consists of many state-of-the-art submarines, each built by its respective country (#1 is the United States, #2 is United Kingdom, #3 is France, #4 is Germany, #5 is Russia, #6 is Japan, #7 is Australia, #8 is China, #9 is Singapore, and #10 is India).

A conference is called, hosted by a scientist responsible for Blue Fleet's operations. All of the members of the Blue Fleet are in attendance. Atlantic Fleet's commander states the nature of the conflict in full: the mad scientist Zorndyke has exterminated much of the human population through an extreme yet elegant method - he has used an unknown technology to trigger a pole shift, altering the Earth's electromagnetic field and enabling the crust to move freely. Much of both polar ice caps has melted, flooding much of the world to the point that only the rooftops of many coastal cities remain above water. The expanded oceans have enabled his forces to attack what few settlements remain with his genetically modified sea creatures. Also, the shift is destroying the Van Allen radiation belt, which protects the planet from the solar winds. Without it, the planet will be cooked as if placed in a microwave oven. The Blue Fleet has been gathered for a desperate all-out assault against Zorndyke's base of operations at the South Pole, in the hopes of destroying the machines causing the pole shift.

At this point, Zorndyke hijacks the teleconference and makes a speech of his own. He appears not to be a murderous monster, as described, but a calm, collected, even philosophical old man (this side of Zorndyke is shown as he spends some time teaching one of his animal-like followers poems of the Man'yōshū; she recites the ironically-appropriate poem during his funeral), which may be considered even more disturbing, especially with his proclamation that "Humanity has grown too large".

Hayami leaves, and is waylaid in a corridor by a military escort that is wheeling along a casket filled with water. Hayami learns that a former friend and comrade is inside, suffering a mutation into a hideous monster. Originally Hayami and he attempted to infiltrate Zorndyke's base in Antarctica, to try to conduct a peace meeting. Their Grampus was shot down, and Hayami's friend was captured. He is the only one ever to escape from Zorndyke's stronghold.

Meanwhile, the Phantom Ship, following the trail of green bubbles that have fallen off of Six during its return to Fleet HQ, manages to locate Blue Dome and proceeds to attack the facility. With the majority of Blue Fleet's submarine corps still inside, Blue Fleet desperately tries to deploy as many of their subs as possible. Hayami takes a training Grampus to attack the Phantom ship in an effort to buy some time, but fails when a human hand hits his windshield, distracting him long enough for a turret to target him. Hayami is shot down, but manages to eject to the surface. In the end, all Blues manage to escape the Dome except for the Shinha, which is knocked out of its berth, but two are heavily damaged and one is moderately damaged; since only five subs are seen in the last episode (#1, 3, 6, 7 and 8), it is assumed these subs are left behind.

Hearts
Hayami has a dream about his friend's misfortune, and awakens with Mutio, the aquatic hybrid girl he rescued in episode one, appearing to him with a fish for him to eat. A quick check of the surroundings shows that he is stranded on what had been part of the Blue Dome facility that rose to the surface at the end of Episode 2.

Hundreds of Mutio's sisters arrive and surround the two on the flotsam from Blue Base, intent on ripping Hayami apart despite Mutio's desperate protests. They leave as a large Musuca arrives, and Hayami and Mutio leave while being borne upon him. Along the travel, the Musuca communicates with both of them and ponders about his purpose in life and the whole war in general; Verg later refers to this Musuca as "defective". The Musuca is mortally wounded and will eventually die.

Meanwhile, an impatient Verg brings his Ghost Ship into the Antarctic to reload its weapon cache. Verg has somehow acquired nuclear weapons, which he intends to use against the Blue Fleet to eliminate the entire fleet with one searing blast. Zorndyke's army is stationed in and around the Antarctic ice in preparation for the arrival of the Pacific Blue Fleet, while another group prepares for contact with the diversionary Atlantic Blue Fleet.

Blue Six and the Atlantic Fleet rendezvous, and a Cold War-era Soviet Typhoon class submarine with a full load of nuclear missiles is readied with AI control. It is designated "Sub Zero". The fleet travels to Antarctica, arriving just in time. They encounter the Musuca bearing Hayami and Mutio, which alerts them to the Army's presence. Blue Fleet goes to red alert. They rescue Hayami, but Mutio decides to stay with the mortally wounded Musuca, who comments how he doesn't feel lonely anymore. Hayami and Kino ready a Grampus for the coming battle.

Minasoko
The uncut version begins with Mutio before Verg, evidently having been beaten for the "crime" of associating with a human. Verg informs her that they will soon kill all the humans and continually jabs his sword at Mutio, ordering her to swear never to consort with humans again. Mutio knocks the sword away and Verg is enraged. He stamps about and curses Mutio before wildly lashing out with his sword until she jumps in the water. Verg angrily breaks his sword on the floor. He flings the handle at Mutio and yells that she's a filthy traitor, telling the other fish women to banish her.

A massive undersea battle ensues, with many twists and turns. Six’s captain (apparently the man responsible for the other subs) orders all ships to "...fight to the death" to protect Sub Zero. Several volleys of torpedoes and anti-torpedo weaponry are exchanged as each side seeks to gain the upper hand in the battle. Hayami and Kino take the Six's Grampus out to confront Zorndyke, with Hayami busting his friend, now an aquatic hybrid, out of the storage chamber that was stored on the Six. They use his knowledge to penetrate the Antarctic base's passages, and he keeps Zorndyke's creatures away from the Grampus. Hayami sees him off one last time as they speed away.

Meanwhile, the Atlantic Fleet engages Zorndyke’s forces on the other side of the Antarctic base in an effort to draw as many enemy forces away from the Pacific Fleet as is possible. This results in the probable annihilation of the Atlantic Fleet, as the overwhelming number of submarines, including the Altantic Fleet’s admiral's flagship, are destroyed.

After several battles, Sub Zero is forced to surface. Six manages to destroy Verg's Ghost Ship, losing the rest of the fleet except for Three, which acted as a decoy. Six's captain and first officer prepare to remotely authorize the nuclear barrage on Zorndyke's territory.

Hayami and Kino land in Antarctica, which has been transformed with geothermal energy into a tropical paradise. Outnumbered, they are forced to surrender their weapons and are taken to meet Zorndyke face to face. He explains that his actions have been an attempt to teach mankind a measure of humility: though they have colonized the ocean floor, taken great strides towards mastering genetic sciences, and filled most material needs, they have actually regressed ethically; war and strife are as common as ever, now only because of the most insignificant of reasons – prejudice. When his family was killed in a racial purge, he went mad with grief and attempted to teach the world the pointlessness of race by reducing the number of humans alive. At first, the sole purpose of the pole shift was to destroy the massive food resources of the world's grain producing areas. Without this massive surplus, many humans starved and the population was given a permanent limit - what it could harvest from the seas.

But though this united the population against him, it did not create the sense of human brotherhood he desired. And once he clearly considered his actions, he realized that there was no chance that it could have. That is when he decided to create his bio-engineered "children", in the hopes that seeing the myriad species working together would teach the relatively homogeneous humans that their differences were irrelevant. Unfortunately, his earlier actions had tainted humanity's view of him: they saw his creations as a mutated army set on destroying them as they did each other, and the war began in earnest.

Kino confronts Zorndyke with Hayami's pistol, and the elderly scientist gets to the point: the machines that power the pole shift are controlled by a device which monitors his heartbeat, and he no longer has the strength to continue. The machines will stop when he dies, which will be quite soon. But if Blue Fleet launches their nuclear weapons, the machines will be super-charged, and the pole shift will begin once more and never stop. Combined with the destruction of his utopia, this will exterminate all life on Earth. This is his last effort to teach mankind humility. If they leave the Antarctic to his children, the threat will cease. But if they exterminate them, they will exterminate themselves as well.

Kino, though enraged almost to madness by the loss of her entire family in the war, realizes that she is now where Zorndyke was when he embarked upon his quest, and is unable to kill him. Instead, Hayami relays his message to the Blue fleet: Zorndyke is dead and the pole shift has stopped, but they must leave the Antarctic and learn to co-exist with his "children", or everyone will die. They seem to accept these demands.

Verg, who survived the sinking of his Ghost Ship, swims to shore and attacks Kino and Hayami. But Hayami refuses to fight back, speaking of Zorndyke's life and message: that they have to learn to live together, or they will be unable to live at all. Ultimately, he breaks down emotionally at the site of Zorndyke's funeral procession. He, like all of Zorndyke's creations, loved him as a father. He and Mutio, with a band of mourning hybrids, carry Zorndyke to rest at the bottom of the ocean.

Six picks up Kino and Hayami, and the war seems to be ending.

Related links

 * GONZO Official Website
 * The Blue Dome - A fan blog and information database on Blue Submarine No. 6
 * J-pop.com review
 * The Ghost Ship - A Verg fan site

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