Uehara Kurusu, an all-around slacker and uninspired young man, agrees to accompany his father (a documentary film director) to a dive, intending to film the wreck of the legendary battleship Yamato. Not five minutes into the dive, Kurusu lost his consciousness. After a cryptic voice talked to him, Kurusu woke up to find himself in a time slip to Showa 16 (1941), the day battleship Yamato is launched. After realizing his situation, Kurusu sets out on a game to make Imperial Japan win the Pacific War. With the help of an ensign who can see and hear him, he shared his knowledge about the history of Pacific War to Yamamoto Isoroku, commander of the combined fleet. But in this game, his opponent is not just the United States, it's the force of history itself.
Mugen no Gunkan Yamato (夢幻の軍艦大和, lit. Phantom Battleship Yamato) is a Historical Fiction manga with a supernatural twist. It was serialized between December 2005 to May 2011 in Kodansha's Evening magazine, and later was collected in 14 bound volumes.
Tropes:
- The Ace: Sawamura, the Navy ace pilot.
- Dying Dream: Kurusu suspects this at first, and to be fair this has not been proven otherwise too (as far as the Indonesian translation go that is).
- For Want Of A Nail: Kurusu wants Imperial Japan to win the Pacific War, but he gets the classist militaristic Japan for his troubles. Oh, and Hokkaido got occupied by the Soviets too, depriving the Japanese from delicious seafood. At least his father's a military bigwig in the alternate future.
- Historical Domain Character: By the bucketloads, especially IJN and USN admirals of the time.
- Hot-Blooded: Admirals Yamaguchi and Halsey stands out amongst the usually-reserved lot.
- Mental Time Travel: Kurusu traveled back and forth in a manner like this, although to Kaiba he (and his things) is still corporeal.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Kurusu still remembers the 'original' modern life as it is, despite having been through quite a few time leaps that progressively changed the present day.
