Review of Umizaru Ep 1

Ep 1: Unmei no Maku Hirake (The screen on life is lifted)
O.A. 5 July 05
Ratings: 17.8%

Senzaki Daisuke (Ito Hideaki) is a rescue diver at Fukuoka's Coast Guard for the past one year. He was previously a salesman from a health food company but made the switch to be a diver because he was bored with his life and wanted to rescue people. He is informed of his transfer to Yokohama's Coast Guard and calls his "girlfriend", Izawa Kanna who is flustered by his move while moving house to Yokohama. Her friend Mitsumori Chika who is helping her, notices Kanna's weird expression but she just says that her friend is moving to Yokohama and does not reveal her relationship with Senzaki.

Senzaki is assigned to work on board a patrol ship, Nagare which is a small and old vessel and he feels quite disappointed upon seeing the ship. He is brought around by Yoshioka Tetsuya (Sato Ryuta) but bullies him once he finds out that Yoshioka is younger than him.

Senzaki is introduced to the crew on Nagare by the captain, Katsuta and he finds out that his buddy is Ikezawa Masaki who is cool and gives him the cold shoulder. Actually, Katsuta and the head of the divers team, Shimokawa have their reservations about letting Senzaki join them but Katsuta wants to give Senzaki a chance before passing judgement.

(If you have watched the movie, you would have known that during the practical exam, Senzaki's partner was trapped underwater and he caused a bit of trouble because of his inability to save his buddy. Even though their instructors called for reinforcements to save them, his training mates did not wait for help and went ahead to save the duo even though they were not allowed to. That resulted in an inquiry of the instructors where Senzaki and his teammates defended them. As such, this incident earned that batch of trainees a bad reputation so people were wary about them causing trouble.)

During the welcome party at Ocean (a restaurant), Senzaki is having dinner with his diving teammates and Yoshioka while talking about Kanna. At the same time, Kanna is at the same restaurant (she lives upstairs) and talks about her relationship with Senzaki. She does not know how to categorise their relationship and doesn't regard him as her boyfriend since they only met once during this year.

Senzaki spots Kanna and drags her to his friends so as to introduce her as his girlfriend. Kanna is in a fluster and goes home to calm down since she did not expect to see Senzaki.

Senzaki returns to Nagare and sees Ikezawa doing some training. He tries to talk to him but Ikezawa remains cold towards him. Senzaki finds out from Yoshioka that Ikezawa used to be a special diver from the elite team.

That night, a ship named Asian Trip is submerged due to its clash against some rocks so Nagare is sent to save the crew of the ship. Ikezawa and Senzaki have to search for the survivors with their other teammates and find 2 of them in the cabin filled with water. Ikezawa makes the decision to save the younger man since they only have equipment to save one man at a time. Before Senzaki leaves, he promises the elderly captain that he will return. However, when Ikezawa returns to the cabin with his other teammates, the captain has disappeared...

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Firstly, for those who have not watched the movie, you might be lost about some of the developments in this debut episode e.g. how Senzaki and Kanna knew and fell in love, what is Mr Densha Otoko doing in this drama (his character died in the movie due to drowning while saving someone), what is Karina doing in the drama. However, there are some flashback scenes from the movie which should help you understand how the plot develops.

In my opinion, I found the first episode pretty entertaining and it throws up some issues to consider.

- What is it that is stopping Kanna from acknowledging Senzaki as her boyfriend? What kind of doubts and worries does she has towards their future?

From what I see, Kanna doesn't seem to feel secure with Senzaki even though they did fall in love last summer. However, due to the distance between them, she was in Tokyo and he in Fukuoka, this has made their relationship appear more platonic than what Senzaki sees it. Alternatively, I can say that Kanna's passion for Senzaki has sort of cooled down. Besides, the nature of his job seems to make Kanna wonder if she can live with the fear that he might die suddenly due to a mishap.

- Why does Ikezawa behave so coldly to people and what is he doing on Nagare even though he used to be a diver from the elite team?

Well, if I'm correct, something must have happened e.g. a buddy died or something which changed his character. And when you see him talking to someone on his mobile phone (most probably his wife), he was so gentle and caring thus I don't think he's aloof by nature.

- If Senzaki and Ikezawa had saved the elderly captain first, would it have resulted in the younger crew member being saved too since he should be able to hold out longer than the older man? Was there a mistake here when making the decision?

There is no definite answer. I do not know what is the basis of their decision and they really had to leave someone behind first since there was only one set of diving gear. As such, if they had considered that the captain could not be able to wait for the next team of divers, they may have taken him with them. Instead, Ikezawa chose to save the younger man first thus I'm guessing that this is due to the fact that he might have a higher chance of survival than the captain.

Last but not least, the theme song, Ocean by B'z is very good. Well, that's sort of expected from them but the ending credits was too short to hear it in full so when the single is released, I can get a clearer picture of the song's meaning. It's a ballad in rock style, try thinking of Konya Tsuki Mieru Okani (Beautiful Life) which is similar in terms of the tempo.

I'm most probably going to stay on. Well, the story attracts me but the main attraction in the cast is not Ito Hideaki but rather Nakamura Toru. I never knew that he was so well-built and when you see him perform push-ups topless, I doubt most female viewers can stop drooling...