One-Punch Man Studio’s WWII Anime Imagines Japan Winning the War

Konpeki no Kantai, also known as Deep Blue Fleet, is one of anime’s most overlooked WWII anime classics that are lost to time. J.C. Staff created the anime as an OVA that ran for 32 episodes between December 24, 1993, and August 22, 2003.

Many anime fans may know J.C. Staff best for its recent work on One-Punch Man, where Season 3 left many viewers disappointed with its choppy animation style. However, Konpeki no Kantai came from the same studio, and this decade-long war epic shows that J.C. Staff can pull off ambitious projects. The classic anime is a tactical war drama rather than an action piece packed with forty-minute episodes to keep you hooked.

What Is Konpeki no Kantai About? Alternate History Explained

Konpeki no Kantai Anime | Credit: J.C. Staff

Konpeki no Kantai anime is based on Yoshio Aramaki’s 20-volume novel series of the same name, released from 1990 to 1996. The story opens with a real moment in history where Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese fleet, dies when a US fighter jet shoots down his plane over Bougainville Island on April 18, 1943. Now in the anime, Yamamoto suddenly wakes up in his younger self in 1905, aboard a ship after the Battle of Tsushima, with his 38 years of memories fully intact.

With all the necessary knowledge of the future, Yamamoto retains his birth name, Isoroku Takano, and starts building his influence on the Japanese military. He pushes technological research to create advanced fleets with nuclear-powered submarines and futuristic bombers. Pearl Harbor plays out very differently than in our original history, as Japan declares war first and strikes the area at night to wipe out the entire US fleet.

Later, Hawaii is captured, the Panama Canal’s Gatun Locks are destroyed, followed by a strike on Los Alamos. President Henry Roosevelt dies upon hearing about the devastating invasion, and his successor, Bill Truman, surrenders to Japan. With Takano at the helm of the strongest fleet, Japan wipes out allies in Southeast Asia, granting independence to invaded colonies and making Hawaii its Pacific stronghold.

In the final arcs, Nazi Germany gets afraid of Japan’s exponential growth and declares war on them. Japan allies with Britain and other powerful countries to fight Hitler and his forces. In the end, Japan wipes out the Nazi forces to create peace with all nations and becomes a superpower.

In real life, Japan surrendered to the Allies after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Aramaki’s alternate timeline, Japan becomes the real winner of World War II, and this happens because of a single man traveling back in time and building a futuristic fleet.

J.C. Staff’s Forgotten WWII OVA Is a Hidden Gem

Konpeki no Kantai OVA is one of the finest works of J.C. Staff in terms of production, as each episode maintains the same consistency throughout the series, whether it’s animation, music, or voice acting. The classic is not known worldwide due to its limited global release and was never made for the West due to its controversial take on WW2.

Konpeki no Kantai’s narrative is straight-up “what if,” where real-life famous figures show up as well, with their names changed: Winston is introduced as Keiston Churchill and Adolf Hitler as Heinrich von Hitler. Fans can’t be fooled this easily, but it’s a fun take. Aramaki’s story is really interesting, as it takes the actual characters and places from our history and puts them on a live chessboard.

The animation style is old-school and is fully hand-drawn, with the same high quality from the first to the last episode. Fans of Legend of the Galactic Heroes and Gundam will definitely relate to its narrative space and animation. The anime offers a great window for fans to see the golden age of long-form, high-budget 1990s war epic anime before digital production took over, and from a different perspective.

Have you seen Konpeki no Kantai, or any other alternate-history anime? Tell us what you think in the comments below.