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「姫と海賊」 (Hime to Kaizoku)
“Princesses and Pirates”
No “bodaciousness”, no mini skirts, and no pirates! One would think that I’d be disappointed at how misleading the title of Sasamoto Yuuichi’s novel is, but I’m really not as it continues to redefine my understanding of what it means to be a “space pirate”. Most notably, it turns out that I was wrong about how the cruise liner stuff is not just an entertainment sideshow sponsored by the insurance company. As it turns out, the act of pirating is just that — an act. However, there does seem to be some more dangerous jobs that space pirates can take on, being officially recognized as a private military of sorts. All it really takes is some royalty sneaking on board to up the stakes a few notches, as Princess Gruier Serenity (Tomatsu Haruka with more of her endless vocal range) showed us this week. Rather than pirates, Marika and the rest of the Bentenmaru crew looked more like royal escort who took the utmost care to not disrespect the very hacking-capable Seventh Princess of Serenity. Interestingly enough, it didn’t feel that unusual to see things unfold that way, as I was quite amused by the crew’s reaction and Schnitzer’s hilarious refusal to be the one that has to show Gruier around. What’s more, it put a much more pressing problem smack-dab in the middle of Marika’s lap when she’s already struggling to balance school and pirating, which was made even better with the mention of a golden ghost ship. Ooo…
Admittedly, I’m still a little confused about exactly what happened at the end there though. From the look of things, Gruier purposely kept Marika in the dark about how she plans to have Serenity’s ships engage Bentenmaru in battle to draw out the golden ghost ship, claiming that they’re simply delivering some information that she left behind (even when she’s capable of establishing secure channels), but those plans quickly went out the window when she found out that the Serenity ships were fighting amongst themselves — likely due to the different factions mentioned in the preview. The golden ship for whatever reason is supposedly the key to ending that strife and Gruier enlisted the Bentenmaru’s help to try and find it without divulging how she intended to go about it. Misa appeared to be onto Gruier’s true plan, but purposely refrained from informing Marika about it so that the newly appointed captain can react to the situation. I presume that Marika was even prepared for the scenario where they might have to engage Serenity’s ships in battle because of the whole issue with a military ship entering Tau’s solar system, but it’s a whole different matter now with the Serenity ships are fighting amongst themselves. Assuming that’s the case, there’s an imminent danger of getting caught up in what I imagine to be a civil war over the heir to the Serenity throne, which is still far from my idea of pirates but much closer to the risks involved in being one.
The next episode should quickly confirm or deny my suspicions, which looks like it’ll finally have the Space Yacht Club coming back into the picture. Jenny looks quite stricken by Gruier, which I imagine will be as fun to watch as the many faces of Katou Marika here. I didn’t think it was in Marika’s character to be a bit a of tsundere, but she’s quickly proving to be absolutely adorable when she’s teased. That pirate outfit does look great on her after all.
* Full-length images: 05, 12, 14, Preview 02.
Preview
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Blonde Loli Appreciation Week! Anyway, Gruier is quite the ladykiller it seems. And yes, I had no idea that was Tomatsu until I looked it up, though really she should have been Kanemoto Hisako, just to make it real 3-for-3.
Also, someone must eventually make a “Pirates who don’t do anything” AMV with this show.
Hm… pirates that don’t do anything… KAIZOKU SENTAI GOKAIGERS!
Princess…Serenity…Sailor Moon, is that you?
No one saw the “Easter Egg” for Princess Leia’s “Ears”? 🙂
Headphones hairstyle FTW! When not making cameo of Sailor Moon, that is…
somebody get the Jabba’s dancer outfit creator on the phone?
By day, she is a cute underclassmen.
By moonlight, she is Supa-Hacka Closet-Pirate Princess!
Dunno, but i think she will now be the “Propellant” of the Story, where Fights and so on appears
Is this the first time a preview shot is a full length image?
This show should have one of those “sanitized for your protection” wrappers from motel toilets wrapped around. Emotionally, it’s like a house that’s been baby-proofed – all the sharp edges and nasty chemicals and anything that could possibly be hurtful have been safely filed down or locked away. It’s fascinating, but boy is it clinical.
“It’s fascinating, but boy is it clinical.”
My thoughts exactly. The show is definitely unique, but it feels so cold and detached. Marika is the one character I’m closest to attaching myself to. Other than that, I find it difficult to invest myself emotionally.
This show is one of those inflatable bouncy castles that you go in and jump around and safely fall on your face. However, every inflatable castle has a little plug that lets the air out, and I think this show is going to find and open it. It probably won’t happen until like episode 20, but there are signs that this happy world is just not quite right.
Clinical is pushing it but I know what you mean it a very professional environment they have created on the ship with it’s silly moments without the interference of sex, violence or forms of drugs to add edginess to it. It’s a very clean show which is rare for anime without it being actually targeted to children.
No “bodaciousness”, no mini skirts, and no pirates!
> bodaciousness – Marika and gang are as hip as the cast of Stardriver. See their clothes? Bet you $20 they’re branded in-verse.
> mini skirts – The uniform, THE UNIFORM!
> Pirates – Or Privateers, which is actually their real job, sidelining as performers.
Princess Serenity. REAL SUBTLE on her character redesign there show. Where does all that hair go when she ties them up anyway? By the Power of the Moon?
The bun, then any excess is braided. I have seen it done before.
That and extension… No one has that much volume without a tone of hairspray and hair rats.
All in favor of their main royal ship being a former transport ship that survived the war?
IIRC Show Spoiler ▼
Show Spoiler ▼
Show Spoiler ▼
Oh i see, “i am Legion, i am many” Trick.. Smart move
Someone obviously wasn’t getting the reference. I knew I should have made it more apparent and blatant.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_%28TV_series%29
Starting to get interesting
But I really want to see some serious space battle 😀
for some reason, I just can’t look forward to Moretsu Pirates episodes. I’m always reluctant to play to video. I know its one of the best animes this season— Probably the 2nd best behind Natsume Yuujinchou — and that they’re gonna show us an awesome or solid episode But I just can’t seem to look forward. However, it’s a different story when I start watching : I always end up asking for more. This anime is definitely a ‘marathoning’ material xD
Yup – up to this point it’s a tame series. Still enjoyable, though, with
simple mysteries. I don’t think it goes as far as clinical, but definitely
has the sharp edges removed, as Enzo mentions. But with all of that, it has
a good story and a plot that makes sense, so far.
公認日本語かわいい。
There’s also this from ep6 when she got happy that some Bentenmaru crew members stole a glance at her. Marika is a high school girl after all. A really cute one.
I’m wondering how Gruier could hack her way into the ship and send the request to bring info to her homeland. She got her hacking skills from the power of the moon being transmitted in her family for generations perhaps?
I’m having a hard time understanding it all too so I’m looking forward to next week for answers about the golden ship and all this stuff happening. And for more Space Yacht Club.
The Hacking Powers? She know the Old Captain, aka Marika’s Dad. Perhaps She somehow gained the Captain Override Codes.. And i think, the “Hacking Genius” changed them after this happed. Well i would do that
Oh yeah, forgot about how she knew the captain. Maybe she already knew the ship’s passwords or things like that. Makes me wonder how the hell did she even met him in the first place. As she didn’t know the crew she must have met him very young or something. So Marika’s dad and the princess’s parents were acquaintances?
Great episode… and I loved Marika’s and Gruier’s faces in the car after arriving at the airport. However, there’s a few things I didn’t unde3rstand:
– Marika decides to “hide” Princess Gruier Serenity at her school… but Gruier presents herself as “Princess”. Kinda defeats the purpose of hiding someone if she reveals her special status anyway, doesn’t it… ?
– When Misa, Kane, Marika and Gruier arrive at the airport (in a hurry), both Marika and Gruier have a bad hair day and complain about Misa’s driving. What I don’t get is that Misa take them for another spin before going back to the airport despite the urgency. Huh… weren’t they in a hurry ? Why did Misa floored it a second time ? she could have just said something like: “Wanna go for another ride… ?”… right ?
Anyway, obvious nitpicking, but still good episode.
As far as I understood it, the “second” ride was actually a flashback.
By sticking the princess in her school she has 3 people to call on in case of emergencies and an entire school population of shields. Marika also seems to think whoever is aiming for the princess won’t risk the fallout of have students as collateral damage which is pretty accurate when you see how the Serenity Defense Force is fighting each other. Somewhat cold blooded (on the risk the ignorant students shoulder) but not a bad plan.
As mentioned by Nipah, the second was actually a flashback to explain how they got into their new hairstyle and why they looked dazed
This was mainly the setup episode, so I can understand that some people are beginning to lose their interest in this show. But for me, watching the characters fleshed out through their interactions with each other, coupled with solid world building week in week out more than offset the slow moving plot for me. In fact, I find myself rewatching each episode every week, the first time to get my fix of a new episode of Moretsu, while the second watch through is for focusing and analyzing any new information for the week. I even find myself musing on numerous possible plot directions the show would take throughout the week as I wait for each new episode.
As for some people’s criticism of how nice all the characters seem to be in this series, I for one find this rather refreshing. Instead of the usual angsty teenage protagonist who has gone through boatloads of suffering, or another brooding anti-hero who resorts to anything in the pursuit of his/her sense of “justice”, I’m really enjoying just seeing the good-natured Marika learning earnestly on how to become a space pirate captain from her ever helpful crew members, whilst surrounded by her smiling and understanding gaggle of friends and supported by a very sporting mother. For me, it isn’t inherently necessary for me to be privy to all the emotional turmoil they’ve gone through for me to be able connect with the characters.
Regarding the battle between those Serenity ships, I think I might have an inkling as to the reasons why. I suspect that this golden ghost ship that Gruier is enlisting Marika’s help to search for might cause a major inconvenience to certain factions in the Serenity government or nobility if it were to be found. Therefore this faction sent the pursuit forces to destroy that single ship to impede Gruier’s search for the ghost ship. I’m guessing the information Grueir requested is inside that chip that we see in the preview, which would corroborate with her statement that she should have just brought it herself. But I still don’t understand the actions taken by the Serenity government when Gruier first went missing, so I guess I’ll just have to wait for the next episode to shed more light on that matter.
MOAR mini skirts next week 🙂
@divine: the new poll is a trap!
I care about which writer is blogging but I do not mind new bloggers. As long as I like the way they write. I don’t care what they cover as that is under ignorance.
Divine, given the book and data-chip we see the Princess holding in the preview, I believe your suspicion of her motives is incorrect. It appears she DID, in fact, simply request that some extra data be brought concerning the ship, and that’s all this rendezvous was supposed to be. Unfortunately, it appears someone else within Serenity’s command structure doesn’t want that to happen, and is willing to risk civil war to stop it.
I noticed the chip, but I’m thrown off by what Misa whispered to Gruier about how she’s worried about Serenity’s ships (presumably from engaging in battle). Then Misa goes on to say that she believes in Marika to ensure everything goes smoothly.
Seems like the old Intrigue Play is on full steam. Someone want to extinguish Serenity’s Blood age to take over the Throne, i bet. Well works for me, as long its well played (*looking to the Anime Script Staff*)
Looks like the series will go into political battles. The opponent might be either someone higher in ranking to succeed the throne or a clique out to abolish the monarchy and replace it with something else (probably themselves). I’m thinking the ghost ship has some treaty, royal crown or one of the crew is actually the missing royal heir or similar.
I’m not sure whether the princess is actually lying as given the setting shows a lot of capable people in high positions. The failure to carry all the necessary data with her would then seem out of place.
I’m not sure if the series mentioned it before, but it was only in this episode tht i knew the woman who constantly has her hands in the air was the navigator. I would have though she was the sensor crew. And the scene with Kane jumping into Misa’s car, i thought he was going to complain about her trying to kill him.
Can someone explain to me, what difference there is between Navigator and Henchmen?. She is the Eyes of the Ship? Is that not the Guy on the Radar Station? She drives the Ship? Is that not the Henchmen doing? So, i dont really get this Position. In Time of Age where Computers can tell where you are in Space…
Navigator says, according to our planned route, we should go 10 degrees east
Sensor guy says, 10 degrees east is that way (relative to the ship), and there’s nothing to crash into
Helmsman turns the rudder to that direction, controlling the engine as necessary.
Thanks, but this 3 Positions can be done from 1 Person.. Dunno, well it’s their way. (*look at Star Trek*)
The actual spelling is Gruelle not Gruier
https://randomc.net/image/Mouretsu%20Pirates/Mouretsu%20Pirates%20-%2008%20-%20Large%2014.jpg
Or this is the Part of her Hiding… Change a bit the Name, so She is just “another” Serenity Family Members not the Princess. But then later in the Cafe blow the cover right away… Or this Serenity are High class Members
Well that’s according to the official website which is weird.
Yeah, some anime do that sometimes…I remember Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D’s and, recently, Yu-Gi-Oh! ZeXal both did such a thing where a screen in the episode would say the name one way, and then it’s changed in other things or even within the same episode to what it’s (now) supposed to be, lol.
Anyways, sparkly Sailor Moon loli > sparkly vampires XD (except for Rosario + Vampire’s Moka XP lol)
My first guess was Kugimiya Rie but the princess was Tomatsu Haruka? She fooled me with her Mamiko Noto voice in Geijutsuka Arts Design Class. Tomatsu-san really never fails to impress. Oh and Misa-sensei’s driving reminded me of Yukari-sensei from Azumanga Daioh, only less lethal.
Rinne and Pirates both made by the same guy. Both have got a blonde loli and both get introduced the same week.