Amidst the flurry of sub-aquatic battles in "Pilots," scriptwriter Hiroshi Yamaguchi hews closely to the headier themes.
In fact, he even makes the violence itself a commentary on the chaotic impulses of human nature, essentially turning the good
guy/bad guy axis on its ear. Director Mahiro Maeda continues to shape the anime along these lines, blurring the notions of
good and evil in an attempt to expose both as the result of misguided righteousness: The "good" Blue Fleet champions the
survival of a mankind that has systematically dismantled the world's eco-systems; the "bad" Professor Zorndyke feels that
humanity can no longer learn the lesson of environmental decay and, therefore, shouldn't survive. Only Hayami recognizes the
hypocrisy evident in both mentalities.
"Pilots" fleshes out the global scene. The Atlantic and Pacific Fleets, assembled from the tattered remains of the world's
national navies, plan to strike at Zorndyke's Antarctic compound. The Admiral of the Atlantic Fleet has a personal grudge against
Zorndyke, his attacks having caused the death of her family. Her fleet plans to make the main strike. (And kudos to the
progressive vision of the "Blue Sub" design team for making the Admiral a black woman, an ethno-gender combination that
seldom makes it into anime.) Head of the Pacific Fleet, Dr. Marunami, a diminutive, bespectacled intellectual with cybernetic
implants in his skull (a telling symbol of his sickly body and mankind's reliance on technology) masterminds the attack.
The madman's threat is made more concrete with the revelation that Zorndyke has developed a machine in the Antarctic that
slowly shifts the poles causing the dissipation of high-energy particles in the Van Allen Radiation Belts. But Maeda doesn't
score the discovery of this apocalyptic plan with a dark musical motif. Nor does he punctuate it with a villainous visage
cackling loudly with ill-founded confidence. Zorndyke is hardly an exhibitionist. His earnest disappointment in his own species
pours through his words in a message to Blue Fleet. Spoken with a soft tone reminiscent of a father mollifying the fears and
pain of a terminally leukemic child, the speech introduces an antagonist who understands the gravity of his actions but proceeds
with his ostensibly evil plan anyway from sheer lack of hope. However, Zorndyke's military coordinator, Verg, is just a brutish,
abusive, salacious wad of evil. A shark-like humanoid with a shrill voice, Verg represents the typical face of the enemy in anime.
Of course, Zorndyke sends him to defeat the Blue Fleet because of his savagery, fighting fire with fire so to speak.
As Zorndyke's forces attack the Pacific Fleet headquarters, Marunami orders an evacuation but stays behind to run the
control room and, eventually, perish in it. As the ceiling caves in around him, Marunami speaks directly and familiarly with
Professor Zorndyke. The madman's betrayal is not only against humankind, but also against individual friends.
Hayami, who in the first episode states 'it is already too late for our world,' unwittingly shares Zorndyke's sentiments.
His loyalty, though, belongs to the Blue Submarine No. 6 crew, however cynical or uncooperative he may be with it. Therefore,
rather than dismiss mankind he is poised to bridge the gap between Zorndyke's concerns and Blue Fleet's perception of them.
The amphibious woman from the first episode, a sea monster to the rest of the human characters, closes this chapter with the
same sense of compassion and reason taking root in Hayami. He is not alone, nor is the enemy who they seem.
Though voiced numerous times both in anime and the wider field of entertainment, never has the cry indicting mankind for
global warming been sounded so poignantly. These weighty dynamics may be obscured by the visual splendor of "Blue Submarine
No. 6," but they drive this story toward a profound ending.