For involving herself with the fate of a human, Mutio faces Verg's wrath while back on Blue Submarine #6 Hayami decides to take the fate of the world into his own hands. Both cling tenaciously to the idea that embittered battling will only lead to mutual annihilation. Winding through Blue 6's deserted chambers after freeing Katsuma from his life-support sarcophagus, Hayami carries his mutated friend along on his secret mission only to be stopped by Iga, who promptly lets him pass after officially admonishing the rogue pilot. Iga, too, hopes that Hayami's journey to Zorndyke will yield a diplomatic, rather than a nuclear, end to the conflict. Kino waits for him in the hanger, another accomplice in Hayami's illegal jaunt to Antarctica, more suspicious of Zorndyke's intentions but still willing to follow Hayami. Once released into the open water, Katsuma arranges safe transit through the hostile waters around Zorndyke's compound, putting as much faith in Hayami to reach a resolution with the alleged madman as Iga, Kino ... and probably even Zorndyke himself when the two finally meet face to face at a transformed south pole.

Up until now, the series has had a propensity to decry the savagery of mankind and in this episode, as the battle to stop Zorndyke comes to a head, the raw philosophical debate reaches a fevered pitch, leaving the action somewhat muddy. But despite the inability to navigate its thematic waters smoothly, "Blue Submarine" ultimately succeeds through the efforts of director Mahiro Maeda who tackles its textual anti-climactic ending with vigor, his keen sense of human dynamics enough to bring out the heavy tension imbedded in a relatively somber closing episode.

The series doesn't end with an explosive conflagration, which in a medium that thrives on near epileptic action cuts deserves praise. In fact, after Zorndyke forces eradicate a majority of the combined Atlantic and Pacific fleets in the opening sequences of this longer last installment of the OAV series, the narrative coasts towards its ending with nary a torpedo tube alight. Maeda shifts all focus, then, to Hayami and Kino's meeting with Zorndyke, who for all his grand schemes still suffers from the same shortcomings of humanity that he condemns in others. The end almost coagulates with self-discovery, Hayami coming to a realization that to achieve peace he must take one more life, Kino learning that her spitfire aggression only contributes to the cycle of decay that she self-righteously combats against, and Zorndyke placing his fate, just like the rest of the "Blue Submarine #6" cast, in the hands of this fatalistic, hot-shot pilot struggling with inner demons.

At two hours and twenty minutes, "Blue Submarine #6" deserves more time to flesh out the relationship dynamics it insinuates throughout the series. The rift and reconciliation between Iga and Hayami gets perhaps three and a half minutes of screen time. Granted, their unspoken conflict impregnates some scenes with emotional intensity, but exposing the inner workings of this tension and the torrential past that led to such ambivalent emotions could fill another entire episode. Also, Hayami's past with Katsuma, relegated to a few flash back sequences at the beginning of the third episode, wants for more; perhaps even an explanation of how the three, Iga, Hayami and Katsuma, rose through the ranks of Blue Fleet together. The relationship between Hayami and Kino is refreshingly unromantic, or only sub-textually romantic, but Kino hardy transcends her complaining, cocky teenage persona to come through as a formidable female protagonist. And without any weighty stakes - except some voiced at the end as if tacked on as an addendum to her character - Kino's presence is not only unnecessary but distracting as well. However, she too is an engaging character and worthy of further development. And the gnarled, beastly, typically villainous Verg, bereft of his vessel and his "papa," atypically weeps into the arms of the scarred Mutio, a relationship that in it self could spawn a whole other series.

So, the only real problem with Blue Submarine is that it is too short. But perhaps with some American success on the Cartoon Network and a greater public awareness of the effort's loftier pursuits, Gonzo/Bandai Visual will embark on yet another Maeda-led mission into the pasts of these individuals that saved mankind's future.