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「永遠(とわ)よりの帰還」 (Eien (Towa) Yori no Kikan)
“A Return from Eternity”
Everything works out when you’re a pirate! Marika may be still be a high school student and shows some real potential as a prince, but piracy with a dash of deviousness is still what she does best. After all, when you’re exploring an ancient ghost ship, why worry about trivial matters like opening ancient heavy doors, turning the power back on, or finding the bridge when everything will just work out thanks to you and your pirate friends?
Even though the secrets of the golden ghost ship weren’t as earthshaking as I had predicted and the resolution to the princesses’ conflict was more anti-climactic than I had hoped, this episode still had me on the edge of my seat the whole time – and for that, I have the thousand year-old golden colony ship to thank as it was the star of this episode. Watching Marika and her crew explore further and further into the depths of the ship, I couldn’t wait to see what lurked around the each corner. Rather than shedding some light into the ship’s backstory, every new discovery and every new section explored only added more to its mystery. One of my favorite aspects about this show’s storytelling is that it actually takes the time to either mention or explain each and every minutia, and there were several things that I found particularly noteworthy: the mention of nitrogen and inert gases to preserve the ship’s treasures, the massive gene bank that stored DNA and also live examples of every single creature found in the Serenity system, the mechanical pixel display, and the artificial womb, the rose spring. Like the techno-babble and jargon of the best Gundam series, all this attention to the small details makes the series a much richer and complex one – and one that inspires a thirst to find out more details about the Mouretsu Pirates universe.
The deathly silence of the ghost ship coupled with the imminent threat of Grunhilde’s troops made for a bit of good tension throughout most of the episode, and I especially liked Gruier’s continued seriousness in her banter with Marika, because it showed how carefree the band of pirates were even while they knew how important their mission was. Although I had hoped Schnitzer would finally be able to make use of his weapons, the unintended comedy of some of his actions, like holding up a massive power cord or stretching before opening a heavy door, more than made up for the lack of real firefights, emphasis on the real. I’m beginning to think we might never get to see the Bentenmaru’s crew engaged in actual combat, and while that thought does disappoint me a little, it does make sense given that they are awfully skilled in pretend fighting – a skill that Marika makes full use of in order to peacefully resolve the conflict between the princesses.
If there was one thing I would have liked a bit more of in this episode – besides some old fashioned pirating – is for each princess’ motives and backstory to be explained further. We were never able to see what the political conditions were like in Serenity to force Gruier to try and destroy the rose spring, although I assume it had to do with the diminished glory and role of its royalty. Nor did we find out what did Grunhilde had to gain from the artificial womb either, but my gut instinct tells me that there is still a mysterious organization at work who manipulated Grunhilde’s actions, only to be thwarted by the Grand Chamberlain. All we know is that in the end, the two princesses have presented not only the long lost colony ship to Serenity, but also a united front as the legitimate heirs to its throne, and what that means in the future we’ll have to wait and see. If the whole princess thing doesn’t work out for them, maybe they should take a page from Marika’s book and turn to piracy – because as we’ve learned, “Everything works out when you’re a pirate!”
- Full-length images: 01, 05, 11, 14, 20, 23, 36
- This ED2 was actually also in episode 9, but I didn’t notice until there was a new sequence in this episode – my apologies.
ED2 Sequence
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ED2: 「Black Holy」by 小松未可子 (Komatsu Mikako)
Preview
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Marika’s common sense saves the day. If it weren’t for her, the princess would had made a serious mistake. The last of the royal family born in the ghost ship… Won’t that makes the kid higher in the family tree than the royal lolis?
And lookie there: She’ll be having them over next episode!
Marika’s collection of blonde loli princesses is shaping up nicely.
This was a very good episode, if starved for the context behind the events. But then again…does that matter? Marika was hired to get the Golden Ghost Ship for Gruier, and…she did! She wasn’t hired to solve Serenity’s political problems, so what she did was above and beyond the actual contract. And at no additional charge.
This series really reminds me of “Tytania”: space opera with lots of interesting characters, splattering of cool action scenes, grandiose plots and setups. However, in the end, resolves most everything very anti-climatic, quietly and reasonably. I just feel like they build up a lot of tension and potential only to conclude with a whimper.
Still interesting to watch (as I did watch Tytania to the end), but I put it on my low priority list as it is very slow in development.
I like how this arc reminds me of Star Trek. Only with pirates. A ship and its crew go on an adventure lots of technobabble ensue, a conflict is introduced but ends peacefully(most of the time anyway) and then the ship and crew sails of looking for new adventures. Such a nostalgic feeling.
Managing to solve that mess before it actually even started is even more awesome than seeing a full fight with Schnitzer tearing open people. And he did tear open doors which was pretty awesome and funny like you said.
What I mean is that I totally didn’t feel ripped off by how this ep turned out, kinda like Katanagatari’s shark tease.
Brb gonna disguise yself as a blond girl so Marika adds me to her harem.
An artificial womb shaped like a flower? Paging Dr. Freud, Dr. Freud you are needed in the anime analysis room.
I haven’t given this show a try, but I just saw your review and I had to say that the blonde girl,, with the blue eyes reminds me of sailor moon. She’s really cute c:
Am I the only one who sees this? Lol
Grunhilde has some serious fail-hair in the previews. Need to get Misa on that!
Anyway, there’s been a whole lot of discussion about how this was resolved, in a lot of places. It basically comes down to our main character is James T. Marika. Which is awesome, but a little “fast” to some people.
[spoiler]
We also could have used some more backstory to the political world of Serenity. That would have cleared things up. Gruier, while accomplishing her short term objective, actually fails at her long term objective: to end the power of the Royal family and their privileged position. The Ghost Ship returning actually cements their power quiet a bit, but the system will eventually fall without the ghost ship breeding more Royals. So things will change… eventually.
Oh, and Grunhilde pretty much took the Royal Fleet out on a cruise. Which is why they were willing to go along with Marika’s plan. They weren’t in the mood to get in a shoot out with 2 princesses involved.[/spoiler]
“Grunhilde has some serious fail-hair in the previews.”
I’m glad I’m not the only one who dislike her change of hairstyle. Keep the ponytail, princess! D=
I didn’t expect much from this anime at first, the name of the anime didn’t help either. (Seriously who would name an anime ‘Bodacious Space Pirates’!? But apparently someone did.)
But then out of boredom I tried the first few episodes and I’ve been hooked on to this anime through an IV tube. (Not really)
I do agree that this anime makes the viewer want to find out more about the backstories and everything, but the element that captured me the most was the serious humour. Not overdone jokes or deliberate gags, Mouretsu offers captivating humour through the everyday habits of the characters, actions that may seem normal but nevertheless very funny. That’s what I love about this anime.
It coan also mean Extraordinary or Extreme Pirates but I know what you mean it just dosent translate well or sound good. lol
But it better then Mini-Skirt Uchū Kaizoku aka Mini-Skirt [Space] Pirates. Which sound so sexist for a non ecchi tittle.
well, I was expecting aliens coming out of every vent duct and I got happy princesses reunion – the show is keeping trolling me but in a good way! only thing I miss is getting better picture of conflicts behind Serenity royalty adventures in pirating 😛
Marika continues to surprise me in terms of character. She’s really down to Earth and composed, she just looks like a klutz, but doesn’t even begin to act like one.
This show is awesome to far… but… but… where’s Chiaki ;_; ? 3 episodes without her is gonna be painful.
Next episode…
New school year, a lot of newcomers for the yacht club, and one of them is a blond princess…
But don’t be surprised if they have one more…
I liked how Marika actually had a whole team of armed guards with her. It’s rare enough that main characters don’t go exploring on their own, but actually make the more sensible choice.
The end was the arc really surprised me. I certainly didn’t see that coming. However it felt a bit too convinient how everything works out so peachy all of a sudden. Maybe we get some more information on all that princess buisness next week.
I was waiting for when the clone machine would show up. I mean really the only way a computer would identify a complete distinct gene signature is that their either a clone or manufactured in advance (but also doesn’t have to be engendered just preserved). Thus ends the princess plant.
Well, looks like this “Clone Machine” was not 100% Perfect. Why? If it can Clone, why has the Princess little Sister different Hair color? 🙂
Oh wait, it was not a real Clone Machine. it was an Artificial Womb. to born Lifeforms out of DNA Sequence. Well, thats how i understood it
Anyone notice that GM helmet on Grunhilde’s troops?
Not sure bout the everyone, but when Marika gave that one-eyed wink to Gruier, i had a major “HNGGGGGGG” moment.
Patiences young Padawans, let the Series get time to “raise a New Propellant” :). Well the Golden Ship Arc was nice. Before we got “Sailing in Space Arc. Just be patience and enjoy the Trip. Like i do
With lots of series ending, I marathoned this and at episode 12 thinking it was the last episode, and was hit with that it actually had 26. No wonder I felt it was slightly unsatisfying. So far it’s been a nice light show with a bit of action and laughs spread out, I’m actually enjoying it more than I thought I would after I saw the promo pic of a pirate suit with school uniform underneath.
I’m part of the group watching series now that they have ended but MAN, was this anti-climatic.. And the worst thing is, I had to wait like 5-6(?) episodes for this to resolve..
I’m also one of those guys that is SUPER bothered by inconsistencies and plotholes.. No damage to the Serenity Fleet even though Bentenmaru got roughed up? Somehow Serenity troops landed on it even though it jumped right after the Bentenmaru boarded? Entire crew is OK embarking on this ridiculous journey without ever asking what the motives of the princess were or what mysterious purpose the ghost ship had?
I do hope the rest of this show isn’t of the same vein, I’m watching it due to the glowing recommendation and hope it’s not misplaced praise..