First Impressions / Mouretsu Pirates

「平穏ままならず」(Heion mamanarazu)
“The Peace Does Not Last”

Marika’s insistence on leading a double life in high school and on the Bentenmaru may make her quite lovable and endearing, but how much longer will it take for her to realize that she makes a much better space pirate captain than a student? I admire her dedication to her studies, but sometimes “there are times when trying harder isn’t enough.”

Instead of paying attention in school, Marika daydreams about taking daring solo scout missions that go horribly wrong – luckily, the only casualty is her grades, not her life. Granted, these are some awesome dreams (who wouldn’t want to slide around in a bunch of tubes and hightail your way out of a mess), but why settle for dreams when you can just live the real thing? Like Mami alludes to in her stroll with Chiaki, Marika aims to become someone who can stand proudly beside her mother rather than overtaking her – so how can she accomplish that by being stuck in a boring high school most of the time? I say, put on that your outfit, leap and shimmy your way through the halls of the Bentenmaru, and get to the captain’s chair, Marika! (She should think about cleaning up that obstacle course though, maybe install those tubes because that’s an escape hazard right there!)

Marika’s personality is a perfect fit for what’s turning out to be a piracy business that takes on a lot of show business qualities. At this point, we can’t say for certain that’s all they do for a living, or if this is only temporary because the Bentenmaru has to work with Marika’s busy schedule. Nevertheless, even if it wasn’t explicitly stated, it’s becoming clear that certain clients hire the Bentenmaru to stage elaborate piracy “shows” on luxury transport vessels for their passengers’ entertainment, and this time around, the client has elected to pay double the standard rate to include the optional ship-to-ship battles. I can see why they’d pay that much, as the battles are fun to watch with flashy visuals and enough military tactics to satisfy a strategy buff like me.

The combat also served as a nice introduction to the Bentenmaru’s capabilities, the various roles of the crewmembers and some glimpses of their personalities as well. This week, it was all about the ship’s Electronic Warfare expert Coorie, whose keyboard must be full of crumbs from all of her snacks, and also a brief look at the enigmatic Luca. I’m still not sure what her job on the ship is still – maybe fortune telling from sensor readings? None of their personalities can really hold a candle to Marika’s though – I just love how much she gets into character now, going so far as to even wearing makeup when she boards the other vessel. With looks and charm like hers, it’s no wonder Chiaki finds herself drawn towards Marika, even if she doesn’t want to admit to anything other than a craving for parfaits. Given their growing friendship, what will be interesting to find out next week is how Bentenmaru’s royal stowaway is related to the warning given by Chiaki’s pirate captain father, Kenjo, and if Chiaki will choose to tell Marika about it.

* Full-length images: 10, 14, 16, 20, 29, 36
* Forgot to mention that Divine has been busy so I’m writing the post this week

 

Preview

53 Comments

  2. Chiaki, you adorable tsundere, you! 😛

    What’s with the makeup, Marika? She looks 100% better without it… I can kinda understand not wanting to completely give up her old life and wanting to at least finish highschool though. Not like all that knowledge will be useless in pirating, either, and maybe managing both will finally get her some real recognition with her cohorts. Misa is still acting like she hates having her on board half the time, and while I can kinda understand why, it’s a touch annoying, like she’s someone who really wanted to just use Marika and isn’t really warming up to her. Pirating does seem to be weird business though, and now we even have a princess! O.o Rough tides ahead…

    Call me a sucker for the beautifully strange, but Luca is already my favorite crew member XD

    Aex
    Reply

  3. Chiaka is a tsundere who loves parfait. I never seen an anime character that wears makup, this must be a first for me. This is becoming my favorite show of the season. If I remember correctly the princess is going to the same school as Marika from what I saw in the preview?

    Julio
    Reply

  4. Chiaki didn’t want the parfait she wanted to see Marika in a maid outfit. She’s such an adorable tsundere.

    Can’t help but love Marika for trying too balance her life. I liked her dedication. Its what I like about this show: the slow build up of how Marika adjusts to her life. No instant expertise here, shes slowly learning the ropes and showing her determination to be what she wants.

    fragb85
    Reply

  7. I liked this episode for most of the same reasons as everyone else but for some additional reasons as well. Such as the flushing out of more of Marika’s character, namely her flaws.

    Although she’s had some time to practice and get used to her new position she still isn’t up to speed yet as far as some of the more tense senarios which the Bentenmaru encounters more frequently such as combating armed escorts. It indicates she still has a way to go and still has much too learn.

    Also it shows her struggling. True we’ve seen Marika in some tense situations where she had little to know idea what she was doing but I think this is the first time we’ve truly seen her struggle. Juggling two jobs and two lifestyles is wearing her down quickly and her grades are plumetting. Despite all this she remains adament that she can accomplish the daunting tasks of maintaing her high school life and grades while being a pirate. Whether this is a redeeming trate or a fault might be up to personal opinion however the conflict is there.

    How the Piracy would conflict with her school life was one of my main concerns for this series. I was afraid it might turn into some cliche “Regular high school girl by day and Bodacious Pirate Captain by night” sort of thing. I’m glad they show the two in conflict and it might force Marika to choose between them.

    Also love Chiaki….CHAN!!!! 😉

    Roguespirit
    Reply

      1. The base concept, “teenager finds out that they are {Insert Thing Here}, has to balance this with school, hilarity ensues” is a bog standard anime trope. Its just that generally its a teenage boy, not a girl. Except in the Magical Girl variation, of course.

        Fencedude
        Reply

      2. That’s looking at it from a VERY broad scale, as almost EVERY anime starts that way, except for the hilarity ensues part. I mean that if you look at the specifics of the premise, girl becoming a space pirate captain, it’s unique as no other anime in recent times is about space pirates.

        Spinarakk
        Reply

      3. Well yes, but Space Pirates aren’t “original” just…retro.

        Not knocking the show, I have no particular devotion to “originality” as a virtue (I’d better not, my favorite show this season is Symphogear, the least original show EVER), just pointing out that the premise isn’t really original in any way.

        What it is, is fantastically executed.

        Fencedude
        Reply

      5. It really is a hilariously bad premise if you think about it. I mean the space pirates part is pretty cool (it’s been done in the past, but not many shows really have a space pirate theme anymore so it’s cool that they brought it back). But “legal” space pirates not acting as privateers but as an entertainment troupe. That’s the part that just makes it ridiculous.

        So I wouldn’t say the premise is ridiculous because it’s unoriginal, but it is ridiculous because these pirate’s aren’t doing any piracy. I started watching this show for epic space battles, but now I’m enjoying a light comedy.

        Moeronic
        Reply

  9. just as gokaiger just finish now this ugh still why the gokaiger expy/shout out on it.

    just wait for KR x SS crossover movie.

    as for this pirate anime yea not going watch after all just pic look wait for dub.

    MR.KLAC
    Reply

  10. It’s hard to make a judgement about where this series is going… On one hand we’re dutifully reminded
    that she’s a high school freshman, on the other hand she’s a PIRATE – in charge of a multi-million
    dollar (whatever their system is) space vessel.

    So, it would be unrealistic for her to take this role and suddenly become 100% adult and 100% pirate.
    A problem whose solution the writer’s seem to have chosen is pirates-for-hire for the passenger’s entertainment –
    an in-flight show. But, she doesn’t seem to really be running the show as everything seems to be arranged and
    choreographed in advance of her arrival. But she’s still is the star of the show; more of a figure-head,
    so to speak. Almost like the extra make-up is to underscore that point.

    So, it, at this point, tends to make the battle whose outcome is SUCCESS anti-climatic. IMHO, the writers
    realize this and added a little jitter to (hopefully) take the edge of. Right now, this is the series’
    greatest weakness.

    BTW, where does the plunder go?

    Given the length of this series, this all makes sense and will work in this series if her character continues
    to grow – based on what I’ve seen to date, I have confidence that we will. What I wonder, though,
    is how far… Given the character’s age, will she be in a live-or-death situation or will one of
    her crew die? I mean, they are PIRATES – but I predict not given what we have right now…

    mac65
    Reply

      1. Yes, I did use the angle brackets (which I see you changed – thank you), but
        when I hit submit on my end, the post didn’t make it through. Weird. And it previewed
        just as it appeared here after your correction…

        I dunno… Maybe firefox is trying to be too smart – but others work: bold, italic, etc.

        mac65
        Reply

  12. Marika’s makeup is the most frightening thing in the show so far.

    I really loved the dream sequence and I think it may be a sign that Marika is about ready to start taking back control of her life.

    Magewolf
    Reply

  13. Why is Verdant doing the review this week instead of Divine? I was reading through that thinking “this doesn’t sound at all like what Divine would say” and only afterwards did I notice that that’s because the one who wrote it ISN’T Divine.

    Wanderer
    Reply

    1. Divine has said in that gundam age post that he’s been very busy and has contemplated dropping a few shows. I guess he decided that Symphogear was better than Pirates and blogged that instead. At least someone else enjoys the show enough to continue blogging the rest of the series where Divine left off. (TY Verdant)

      Spinarakk
      Reply

      1. Strange. Divine really seemed to like this series, and I have a hard time imagining him dropping it in favor of some other series.

        More importantly from my perspective, I don’t think Divine would ever have encouraged Marika to drop out of highschool. Frankly, I think doing so would be the wrong decision.

        Sigh. I’m just disappointed because Verdant’s analysis of the episode is quite different from what I came here looking for, having been used to Divine’s in-depth look at things. Aside from pushing Marika to make a bad decision, I suppose there’s nothing wrong with Verdant’s review, it’s just not what I was looking for, so of course I feel disappointed. That’s probably unfair to Verdant, but I don’t think there’s anything I can do about it. I’ll just have to put up with it and see if my opinion changes over time.

        Wanderer
        Reply

      1. Oh, good. Thanks for replying. I’m sorry if I came off kind of harsh: diplomacy is not really my strong point, so I tend to just go with plainly stating what I feel rather than dancing around it. There’s nothing wrong with your review, it just wasn’t what I was expecting.

        Wanderer
        Reply

    3. I don’t think Verdant was trying to encourage Marika to drop out from school. He didn’t really say that he was against Marika going to school. He was just saying how he thinks she “makes a much better space pirate captain than a student”

      Megumi
      Reply

  14. Kato Marika, Gandamu! Ikimaassuuuu!!!

    I think Luca is just a normal radar operator with fortune telling as a hobby. A BIG hobby, so she just likes to put her hands around the radar ball like that. She said that she could see something in a mysterious tone but in the end she didn’t tell them what, which the blue hair guy pointed out (that was hilarious) so maybe she was bluffing. That’s what I think.

    Speaking of the blue hair guy(dunno his name yet) We know he has the hobby of collecting figurines, you can even see a lot of them on his bridge desk in the op.

    Rockmanshii
    Reply

  15. Again I love how they are going with this anime – the pacing is perfect and every week you feel like you just got your money’s worth, and then swear again when you realize you have to wait another week to watch the magic again.

    Best show of the season is best show.

    Thundershock81
    Reply

  16. Usual pirate job on a luxury liner but with an optional package, up-front payment, big bonus, twice the normal pay… the combination of all these elements seemed a little fishy to me.

    I think this episode was really good, but I definitely had lots of questions at the end of it. Most of them were answered, but I guess I wasn’t happy with the answers I got. What is really up with the wrong progression of surrender? Why were there two “surrenders” from two different places? Of course it could have been really just a mistake, but I still can’t help but think that there is a secret of some sort behind this “double surrender”.

    I agree that the combat served as a nice intro to Bentenmaru’s capabilities and its crew members, but in the end, because of the battle, I can’t help but wonder whether it really was just another show for the passengers of a luxury liner or a way for the little girl to get in Bentenmaru and talk to the captain. I also can’t help but wonder who really was the client.

    I am definitely looking forward to the next episode.

    Megumi
    Reply

  20. Talk about misnomers. You read “Bodacious” and you expect fanservice. You read “Pirates” and you expect space battles and plundering.

    Suffice to say, this is not what I assumed to get when starting a show called Bodacious Space Pirate. But I’m still here so they must be doing something right.

    Moeronic
    Reply

  21. I was suspiciousabout this job from the get go, and while regular military probably would love to have some live fire exercises against real enemy, the very fact 3 escorts followed that liner was ringing alarm bells in my head. I really wonder what is the story behind the stowaway… And why it set off Chiaki in quite big way.
    Speaking of Chiaki, while she is adorable tsundere of the first grade, its not like I would ignore such delicious parfait, either…
    Oh, and I adore Marika’s determination to finish the school. She knows that education is more than a knowledge gained, it is a key to learning to learn – which skill she uses in trying pirate too.
    P.S. is the world of the “Sea of the Morningstar” suspiciously similar to the one we saw in “Aria”?

    ewok40k
    Reply

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