Salvors are men responsible for towing wrecked ships and handling the cargo. They are different from rescue teams as they usually ask for money before offering help. Nanba Rintarou's father was the owner of such a company, but Rintarou really hated the way they operated and decided to join the Coast Guard.
However, Rintarou's father died right after Rintarou completed his training. In his will he asked Rintarou to take over his company. What's worse is he left his son a debt of 1.5 billion yen...
A seinen manga about the rarely-explored world of modern marine salvage, the ups and downs, the long periods of waiting and the brief flashes of action. The authors did a lot of research for this manga, and it shows. Written by the team of Yoichi Komori and Yuji Takemura, this series ran from 2004-2007 in Big Comic Spirits and was compiled into 15 volumes.
Tropes:
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: Coast Guard chief Kasai isn't too proud to beg fishermen for a favor.
- All Devouring Black Hole Loan Sharks: Nanba Salvage owes a bank a whopping $14 million. It is still not clear exactly what they used the money on.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: Eguchi can usually pinpoint exactly where something sank without ever going to the scene.
- Anime Hair: Rintarou's spiky do is only barely affected by water.
- "Blind Idiot" Translation: Usually good, but "Kaizai" turned into "Kasai" and "Narita Airport" became "Haneda Airport" halfway through.
- Can't Hold His Liquor: Rin is the biggest lightweight in the series (Hiro and Eguchi have the strongest stomachs).
- Damsel in Distress: Maaya in the LPG arc. In distress largely by choice.
- Evil Debt Collector: The supremely slimy Saitou Hajime of Nichiyou Bank. Takes special delight in reminding Nanba Salvage that they will soon go bankrupt.
- Hidden Eyes: Rintarou does this often, usually right before making a cool/meaningful pronouncement.
- Jumped at the Call: What Rintarou does for most salvage cases, in many cases literally when a phone call comes in
- Least Is First: Inexperienced Rin (and understaffed Nanba Salvage) have jumped at many jobs that better salvage companies have turned down, usually with good reason.
- Moment Killer: Eguchi steps in right before Maaya can tell Rin how she feels.
- Ms. Fanservice: Hiro. She rides out typhoons in a bikini top! She does yoga naked!
- Plot-Based Photograph Obfuscation: Used once to cover Rin's father's face.
- Race Against the Clock: Most arcs involve racing to finish a job some arbitrary deadline hits (tide rising, storm hitting, dawn breaking, etc)
- Ramming Always Works: Nanba Salvage rams their ship into a crane ship to keep it aground during a major typhoon.
- Say My Name: Less often than you might expect, except for Gramps going "Bon!".
- Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids!: Sawamura often calls Rin out on his idealism, but goes along with him anyway.
- Stylistic Suck: Random dots and splashes on the artwork. After 10 volumes it's probably not a scanning error.
- What Did I Do Last Night?: Rin passes out drunk after drinking with Gramps and wakes up to find his fly unzipped. Cue panic
- What Happened to the Mouse?: In the first chapter Nanba Salvage owes the yakuza money. After that, somehow they owe the Nichijou Bank money and the yakuza are never mentioned again.
