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TBS' Boku Tachi no Senso (Sept. 17, 9 p.m.) features a fictional young man, Kenta (Mirai Moriyama), who accidentally slips back in time from 2006 to 1944 shortly after seeing a sudden lightning flash while surfing. Soon he finds he has mysteriously traded places with a young soldier, Goichi (also Moriyama), who was doing flight training over the same area of the sea where Kenta was surfing. Kenta, as a soldier, is then sent to an Imperial Japanese Navy base, where he is assigned to be a pilot for one of the manned torpedoes called Kaiten.

Has anyone seen this drama?

I added the spoiler alert because I'm really confused about the ending and would like to hear other people's opinions on what exactly happened with the 2 boys.

Thanks!

I don't understand Japanese but here is my take on the finale:

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Ishiba and Ojima were at their moment of death, the former by drowning and the latter by explosion of the torpedo. Both of them were thinking of Minami and somehow that caused the two of them to return to their normal timeline. You can tell Ojima has replaced Ishiba in the sea by his posture - he looked like he was still trying to control the torpedo. The bracelet Minami gave to Ojima broke, probably to emphasize a magical moment when the two of them 'returned'.

A lot of the above is speculation, take it with a grain of salt.

Hiya...

Yeah...there were some parts where I had some difficulty trying to understand what was happening because of the lack of subtitles.

Thanks for the clarification, I think it made perfect sense. What made things confusing was the boy's hair at the end. At the start, his hair was blonde but at the end it was black. Thereby confusing me as to who was who. I wonder what the soldiers in the past thought about their blonde-haired comrade?

I want to say more but I don't know how to make a "spoiler" paragraph.

ganmo wrote:

I want to say more but I don't know how to make a "spoiler" paragraph.

Like this: [spolier] text [ /spoiler]

Thank you so much...I had been searching for that code.

Click on button to reveal/hide spoiler:

I wonder what will become of the baby? Do you think the girl's pregnancy will miraculously disappear, obviously because the child was fathered by a man who no longer existed?

ganmo wrote:

Thank you so much...I had been searching for that code.

Yeah, I/we need to put that on Genma's "to do" list.

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Yeah, I/we need to put that on Genma's "to do" list.

Sou...desu ne...

ganmo wrote:

Click on button to reveal/hide spoiler: I wonder what will become of the baby? Do you think the girl's pregnancy will miraculously disappear, obviously because the child was fathered by a man who no longer existed?

This is what I think:

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The baby will be fine. From a timeline point of view the baby's father did exist. He may have 'jumped' 60 years ahead to conceive the baby, but he did exist in the baby's past. It's like a guy impregnated his wife and then got killed in an accident, and the baby was born without a father. This did not change the fact that the father existed before the baby in the same timeline. What is more confusing is this - what if Ojima courted Fumiko (Minami's grandmother) and impregnated her? Ojima was from the future and therefore should not have existed before there was a baby.

Fun stuff to lose some sleep over.

thtl wrote:

I don't understand Japanese but here is my take on the finale: Click on button to reveal/hide spoiler: Ishiba and Ojima were at their moment of death, the former by drowning and the latter by explosion of the torpedo. Both of them were thinking of Minami and somehow that caused the two of them to return to their normal timeline. You can tell Ojima has replaced Ishiba in the sea by his posture - he looked like he was still trying to control the torpedo. The bracelet Minami gave to Ojima broke, probably to emphasize a magical moment when the two of them 'returned'. A lot of the above is speculation, take it with a grain of salt.

I just watched the very last part of the Chinese-subbed version and think I can confirm that the above speculation is true.

Hiya...

Click on button to reveal/hide spoiler:

You're right. It's possible to jump forward - even if Goichi was technically 60 years old - he can still make things happen (if you know what I mean). However, it is not possible to step back into the past so yeah, I wonder what would have happened if Kenta had a relationship with Fumiko? Also, I wonder...when Kenta returned to the present, how would Minami's situation be explained? If you think about it...it's almost as if she had an affair, even if she wasn't aware of it at the time. How would she explain how she got into the situation she was in? Would Kenta accept the situation as is...you know...shikataganai ne?

You're lucky that you have Chinese subtitles - at least you're able to understand what they're saying. Without English sub-titles, I can only understand some of the conversation so it gets confusing for me at times. I think I need to watch this drama once more.

Thanks!

ganmo wrote:

Click on button to reveal/hide spoiler: Also, I wonder...when Kenta returned to the present, how would Minami's situation be explained? If you think about it...it's almost as if she had an affair, even if she wasn't aware of it at the time. How would she explain how she got into the situation she was in? Would Kenta accept the situation as is...you know...shikataganai ne? Thanks!

Here is what I think:

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Ojima knew he must have traded places with someone in the past, specifically from the Showa 19 period. When he goes back home to his parents he will find out that his 'replacement' looked exactly like him. Add to the fact that his mentality have changed somewhat by his experience in the war, I don't think he had too much trouble accepting Minami's pregnancy.

BTW it is common courtesy to use spoiler tags, or at least give a clear spoiler warning, when actual contents are posted.

My apologies...I was trying to be as vague as possible. I'll go back and add the spoiler tags. Thanks!

ganmo wrote:

My apologies...I was trying to be as vague as possible. I'll go back and add the spoiler tags. Thanks!

And I've just added spoiler tags to your quote in my message.

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And I've just added spoiler tags to your quote in my message.

No problem...thanks for the reminder.

Click on button to reveal/hide spoiler:

Ojima knew he must have traded places with someone in the past, specifically from the Showa 19 period. When he goes back home to his parents he will find out that his 'replacement' looked exactly like him. Add to the fact that his mentality have changed somewhat by his experience in the war, I don't think he had too much trouble accepting Minami's pregnancy.

Click on button to reveal/hide spoiler:

You're right. I think Kenta got the short end of the stick...I mean they were really rough on him during his training. For a pampered boy from the year 2006 to suddenly undergo such horrible treatment, it must have really changed him a lot, mentally. I think he would be so happy just to be back home that I don't think he would have too much problems accepting Minami's pregnancy.

ganmo wrote:

Click on button to reveal/hide spoiler: You're right. I think Kenta got the short end of the stick...I mean they were really rough on him during his training. For a pampered boy from the year 2006 to suddenly undergo such horrible treatment, it must have really changed him a lot, mentally. I think he would be so happy just to be back home that I don't think he would have too much problems accepting Minami's pregnancy.

I'm sure you are right about that. However my reasoning is a little different:

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Ojima was a listless guy going nowhere in his life. Back in Showa 19 he was drilled, beaten, and experienced camaraderie for the first time in his life. He even sacrifices himself - by taking Kamoshita's place in the 'Kaiten' - in order to ensure Minami's existence in the future. His whole psychological profile has changed, probably for the better. Therefore I think Minami's pregnancy by his 'doppelganger' isn't going to bother him.

Hiya thtl...

So, I watched it again this past Saturday. I realise I wasn't really paying too much attention to the drama the first time because I picked up on a lot of things I missed.

Since you have sub-titles, can you tell me what Kenta's explanation was for the colour of his hair? I know the Granny asked about it but I couldn't understand what he was saying.

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Also, I felt so sorry for Goichi in the beginning...the poor guy was terrified and confused when he first awoke in the hospital. He actually thought he had been captured as a prisoner in America at first, and then later he thought he had gone to hell, an American hell. Was kind of funny, but sad. So, at the ending, he knew he had to bring Kenta back home but the only way to do it was to return to Okinawa (where he supposedly died) at the same date and time and die...so that Kenta could return to the present. That's what I got from watching this the second time.

ganmo wrote:

Since you have sub-titles, can you tell me what Kenta's explanation was for the colour of his hair? I know the Granny asked about it but I couldn't understand what he was saying.

According to the subtitles:

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Granny didn't actually asked - she assumed that Kenta's hair turned white because he was working to hard.

A couple of points I've observed after re-watching this drama with subtitles:

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Minami made the bracelet of beads she gave to Kenta. Supposedly if you make a wish when the bracelet broke, the wish will be granted. At the end of the drama when Kenta direct the torpedo to the enemy's battle craft, the bracelet broke when Kenta was saying he wanted to meet Minami again. So the bracelet broke not just to highlight the 'magical moment' as I previously said, it was actually the cause of the magical moment. A loose end - I wonder what happened to Goichi's little sister, Yoshiko. Her name was not on the Ishiba family tombstone, so presumably she is still alive or was old enough to be married when she died.

Regarding Kenta's hair - so that's what happened. Thanks!

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Yeah, I wondered about the tombstone too. Yoshiko's name wasn't there. I assumed that she had gotten married and perhaps died or if she was still alive, perhaps Goichi going to find her wasn't too relevant to the plot so the producers decided to omit that (like in Sekai no Chuushin de Ai wo Sakebu when Saku returned home but you never saw him reunite with his good friends from high school). I really like what you said about the bracelet...makes a lot of sense now that you've explained it. I didn't catch on to the significance of the broken bracelet due to the lack of English subtitles. Thanks for clarifying.

Hey...you wanna sub the whole movie for me...?? Okay, I'm just joking.

At least you could understand what they were talking about and it helps a lot to clarify a lot of things I missed in this drama.

ganmo wrote:

Hey...you wanna sub the whole movie for me...?? Okay, I'm just joking. At least you could understand what they were talking about and it helps a lot to clarify a lot of things I missed in this drama.

I've never done any subtitling work before, and wouldn't know how to go about it. It's certainly less accurate to translate the subs from Chinese to English compared to the original Japanese. Maybe I'll give it a go...