Wa Ga Na Wa Umishi
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...
Wa Ga Na Wa Umishi is 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 used in Wa Ga Na Wa Umishi include:
- 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.
- Badass Grandpa - Leave the piloting to Gramps.
- Bathtub Bonding - Averted by Hiro who makes it clear she has no intention of getting friendly with Maaya.
- Badass Bureaucrat - Chief Kasai.
- Beergasm - Nanba Salvage sure like their beer!
- Best Beer Ever - Used frequently. Very frequently.
- Blackmail - Possibly. Sawa seems to have something on Eguchi
- 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).
- Childhood Friends - Rin and Maaya
- Coast Guard - The Japanese Coast Guard features prominently, and Rintarou was a former CG diver.
- Damsel in Distress - Maaya in the LPG arc. In distress largely by choice.
- Defrosting Ice Queen - Hiro. Became especially friendly after a rival showed up.
- Does Not Like Men - Used inconsistently and unconvincingly with Hiro.
- Engrish - The "official" English title is "Master of Sea"
- Evil Debt Collector - The supremely slimy Saitou Hajime of Nichiyou Bank. Takes special delight in reminding Nanba Salvage that they will soon go bankrupt.
- Fan Disservice - YMMV, but I did not need to see Sawa half-naked
- Forgotten Childhood Friend - Maaya, to Rin.
- Get a Hold of Yourself, Man! - Slapping Hiro doesn't particularly calm her down.
- Giant Wall of Watery Doom - Comes with the territory, but the rogue waves from the Haneda arc are particularly terrifying.
- Grumpy Bear - Sawamura just lives to grumble.
- Hidden Eyes - Rintarou does this often, usually right before making a cool/meaningful pronouncement.
- Jerkass - Eguchi, Sawamura sometimes.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold - Sawamura
- Jumped At the Call - What Rintarou does for most salvage cases, in many cases literally when a phone call comes in
- Kuudere - Hiro is a textbook example
- 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.
- Loan Shark - Nichiyou Bank
- 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!
- New Old Flame - For Maaya. Rin never liked her that way.
- Nightmare Fuel - Hundreds of cars 90 degrees up and 50 feet underwater. Creepy as heck.
- Nobody Poops - Averted by Gramps, played straight by everyone else.
- North Korea - The latest arc has the Coast Guard chasing a North Korean boat
- Not Distracted by the Sexy - Sawa leaves his fling just so he can go home and watch TV
- Obstructive Bureaucrat - The Coast Guard appears to be populated largely by these.
- Panty Shot - Hiro apparently sleeps in her underwear.
- Parental Abandonment - Both inverted and played straight.
- 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.
- Rapunzel Hair - Hiro. Highly impractical given the nature of her job.
- Red Oni, Blue Oni - Rintarou and Sawamura
- Refusal of the Call - Rintarou's initial reaction when his father gives him the salvage business in his will.
- Rescue Arc - Basically the point of the whole series, but the object to be rescued is rarely human.
- Say My Name - Less often than you might expect, except for Gramps going "Bon!".
- She's All Grown Up - Maaya-chan after 10 years or so
- Shown Their Work - It's overkill sometimes.
- Silly Rabbit, Idealism Is for Kids - Sawamura often calls Rin out on his idealism, but goes along with him anyway.
- Smug Snake - Eguchi
- Sour Supporter - Sawamura is a textbook example. It's a mystery why he still works for Rin with his world-class skills.
- Spy Ship - Disguised as a fishing boat. Allegedly from North Korea.
- Stylistic Suck - Random dots and splashes on the artwork. After 10 volumes it's probably not a scanning error.
- Team Mom - Gramps
- The Chick - Hiro
- We Wait - Rin gets this from the veteran salvors during the first major arc.
- 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.
- World War II - One of the arcs involve raising a plane downed in WWII.
- Would Hit a Girl - Sawa to Hiro. YMMV on how much she was asking for it.