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「傷だらけの弁天」 (Kizudareke no Benten)
“The Wounded Benten”
I nearly ran out of fingers trying to keep track of how many plot twists and surprises there were in this episode. Okay, so maybe that’s a little bit of an exaggeration, but that’s basically how I felt after watching it. Although it’s an anime original storyline, Mouretsu Pirates’ pirate hunter arc has been a surprise in itself and a top-notch affair that I have very few quibbles about.
For starters, Marika and the Bentenmaru crew really showed why they are among some of the brightest stars in the galaxy when it comes to pirate ships by becoming the first ship to survive an encounter with the Grand Cross. I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of watching our adorable captain giving out orders without a hint of hesitation or trepidation; it’s basically a breath of fresh air to have a show that doesn’t always rely on turning an incompetent character into a competent one to show their development, and to have a show with a main protagonist who rarely shows any doubts in her abilities. Even though given the title and the style of this series I knew nothing too terrible was going to happen to the Bentenmaru, its escape from the pirate hunter vessel was probably the most exciting battle yet, with every crew member working to the best of their abilities just to escape destruction by the tip of the blade.
Once the crew was back on land the surprises really started rolling, starting off with the upgrades to the Bentenmaru and the lady who went to negotiate for a better deal by using her feminine charms. Let’s just get this off our chests: like Oreimo’s Makishima Saori, Coorie is actually stunningly beautiful behind those thick glasses. I loved hearing Horie Yui switch to her ‘proper’ voice and then going back to her ‘fun’ voice once Coorie got what she wanted. The plan for the upgrades was a surprising revelation as well – the idea of Marika commanding an entire of fleet of pirates has me salivating at the thought of an all-out war between the pirates and the ones hunting them.
Some of the surprises were more abrupt than the others, like Marika suddenly running into the Grand Cross’ captain Quartz Christie (Sanpei Yuuko) on the Pirate’s Nest. Their subsequent conversation also felt like it came out of nowhere, and really didn’t give us any additional information beyond what we already knew about them, other than alluding to a spy on board the Bentenmaru. I’m guessing that just like many others, I fully expected the spy to be whoever was posing as Kane, especially since Misa had been reviewing a file on him when Luca voiced her suspicions. I had somehow missed seeing Misa reading a file on Luca right before switching to the one on Kane. Never in my most outlandish theories would I have predicted that Luca was actually an android spy belonging to the same faction as Quartz. This also raises the question of what happened to the real Luca, as there weren’t any signs that I can recall of her being a fake other than the fact she actually talked in real sentences instead of short, mysterious, and foreboding phrases. I’m also curious about Kane’s twin/clone’s purpose for impersonating the Bentenmaru’s helmsman, and when the switch was made. The one twist that didn’t surprise me at all was finding out that Ririka really was the pilot of the Parabellum – that swimsuit fanservice in the previous episode didn’t throw me off at all. I do wonder what she meant by her cryptic words about fate while looking back at Ironbeard, so thankfully we won’t have wait long to find out from the look of the previews.
Preview
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Mind = Blown
How does she even maintain her figure considering that she is always seen eating sweets and snacks?
1st reason: this is the future, where sweet and snack don’t contain much calorie
2nd reason (if 1st reason is not legit enough): this is sci-fi, an anime to boost, deal with it. LOL
To answer your question, just look at all the girls and their love for parfaits and everything sweet – not a plump one among them, haha
Medical science has solved the problem of obesity. If they can travel faster than light, why not that too?
Love it that she looks a bit chubby in that nerd getup but is actually a total babe.
And she’s freaking smaller than Marika! Who would have thunk!?!
DANG! Coorie is so freaking HOT!
Is it me or is Chiaki’s dad actually supporting Chiaki to be with Marika? And just look at Chiaki’s tsun-tsun expression when he told Marika that she is Chiaki’s favorite pirate. Tsundere at its best!
And of course, Christie is hot too!
And next week, MORE TSUN-TSUN CHIAKI!!!
I’ve seen real girls do this.. And much to my horror, I’ve seen real guys do this too. Take for example.. this guy.
You really like traps huh.
You forgot the word “kill” in that sentence…
I was wondering wads with the new character introed at such a late stage of the series… then she flashed that earring and i started wondering why her voice sounded abit familiar…. when she reverted to her normal voice i literally went WTF!
And yeah, apparently these girls who travel in outer space often must have metabolisms like a furnace… So much snacks and sweet things and they have figures that are just amazing lol~
Just found something
http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f246/kalulu12345/swordgirls%20online/Dungeon%20M/22A.jpg
Ah, I was wondering when Coorie would get around to her Pretty/Ugly Transformation via the medium of Bottle Caps.
Don’t know why everyone is so surprised. Heck, Naru did it loads way back in Love Hina. And Melvin in Sailor Moon (if I remember right).
Though I’ll admit the voice change was nicely done.
My first reaction was, Could someone really change their voice that much? And my second reactions was, Yes — Yui Horie is indeed changing her voice that much, so why not Courier too?
Funny how the first 0.5 second of this scene https://randomc.net/image/Mouretsu%20Pirates/Mouretsu%20Pirates%20-%2024%20-%2014.jpg Misa was looking at Luca profile, not Kane
Show Spoiler ▼
I’m really interested in learning what all those Power Ups are, also drawing Marika is so cute.
It’s nice for the grand cross captain to come all the way to their meeting just to confirm their thoughts on who she is … which actually just makes me suspicious considering it’s exactly what they already thought.
Looking forward to the pirate party next week. Every new crew I see further convinces me about how awesome the Bentenmaru crew is.
What no mention of Tsun Chiaki? Because I think Chiaki’s dad officially ships MarikaxChiaki.
I loved how Marika constantly keeps her cool, especially when she was able to manuver the Bentenmaru away from the Grand Cross. And when she confronted Quartz she didn’t even flinch!
Tsun-Chiaki is second nature already. Needs no mention because everyone is already anticipating and enjoying it XD
Chiaki getting owned/burned by her old man, that made my day, and boy, my jaw dropped when I saw Corrie. Like Kane said, she should dress like that more often.
So many questions after this episode:
1- Why is Christie attacking pirate ships ? Vengeance ? Salvation ? Guilty pelasure ? If I had to guess, she probably was part of the Bentenmaru’s crew until she got expelled or cast out for her savagery.
2- Was Luca an android all along or, like Kane, got a clone to get in her place ? I would say that she got replaced because she’s been noticing Kane’s clone’s wild cowlick (that’s his piece of hair that doesn’t stay put, people) unlike the others.
3- Why is Ririka with Ironbeard ? My guess is that Ironbeard is Marika’s father. Why ? Think about it for a moment: Ririka announced to her daughter that she’s now the Bentenmaru’s captain because her father passed away. However, Ririka WAS the Bentenmaru’s captain, not her husband, meaning that SHE would have to die in order for Marika to succeed her. Technically speaking, Ririka is still the captain, unless she wanted to leave the pirate’s life behind her and have her daughter taking over her legacy.
4- Will Chiaki FINALLY tell her reasons for watching over Marika ? I swear, that has been going on since she’s saved Marika from bad guys back in episode 1.
5- What the “you-know-what” is Ironbeard is doing bowing to Christie, the same person he tries to kill since last episode ? If he’s with her, that probably means that Ririka is too, meaning that Marika is in for quite the family reunion.
The series is going for quite the finale here… but are we talking about one, two or three more episodes here ?
Great episode, thanks for the review Verdant.
1. mostly because she’s in charge of testing out new battleship technology, and because pirates are suitable targets. i don’t think there’s much more to it than that.
as for everything else, that’s a hell of a lot of overthinking things. they’re going to be answered eventually anyway so *shrug*
I doubt Ironbeard is Marika’s father, but it will be crazy if he is. Imagine having a total badass as Marika’s father?
Ririka was the captain of the Bentamaru, but we don’t know if she let Marika’s father take over for her at some point which is another possibility.
Not possible. Captaincy passes down family lines. Marriage isn’t enough to do it. Gonzaemon was the captain; Ririka was his wife and mother of his child. Marika becomes captain because she’s heir to Gonzaemon, but Ririka isn’t in the family line.
It happens that Ririka became the kanban musume for Bentenmaru and led the boarding actions, but that doesn’t make her the captain.
Image 24
>>mfw I finished this episode
Chiaki has now my vote as lovable tsundere of this year.
lol Chiaki’s favorite captain. :3 *gushes*
If you hear the actual Japanese dialogue, Kenjo actually said “daisuki captain” which roughly translates to “like/love captain”. Captain Kurihara is a supporter of Yuri!
That is one awesome dad ._. Letting his daugther have her own free will
Could somebody tell me, if possible, how far into the novels the series has gone? And how accurate as well?
And honestly, if Verdant hadn’t mentioned this being an original arc, I guess, I wouldn’t even notice it…
The anime has been faithful to the novel…up to episode 18. From episode 19, its all anime original, apparently because the next arc in the novel was too long to fit the rest of the episodes.
And do you know up to which novel it adapted?
I’ve been enjoying this quite much 😀
The first three novels, based on a comment from another blog.
So the only chance for a heterosexual relationship in this series has been thrown out of the window.
Interesting.
I dropped this show around episode 10~11. Is this worth picking up again?
May I ask what was the reason you dropped this show? I know it’s a bit laid back and slow paced but are there any other?
no. You’ve already spent 200-220 minutes of your life on this. That’s enough. heh. :O
Yes the Kane’s twins reminds me of The Prestige. You can’t get 100% identical as when twins age their are slight differences in there body. The crazy hair was cute. There is the possibility that both are part of the crew for the Bentenmaru. Even a few episodes back Kane was acting differently and when Marika brought it up he jst brushed/laughed it off.
The tip off for robot Luca might have been that she didn’t know this bit of information and when she said he was acting strange to Misa.
Coorie take on life, I’s to much work to get girl when your cyber hacking. lol It also gives her an edge if she dose have to recon work.
Ririka is just throwing out red herring on top of red herring…
First there’s all the setup that she’s preparing for some secret business involving large ships… which is subverted by a sudden luxury vacation… which is then subverted by some secret business involving a large ship…
This show makes me sick. I only watched it because i lost a bet with my twin brother.
you poor boy. I’m sorry for your suffering. There, there.
If you dislike the show that much then why are you here exactly? If I hated it as much I would avoid it like the plague.
Dunno, is this an Explosion of Twists at the End? Or is this a build up for a 3rd Season?
3rd Season? There isn’t even a second.
I think Germanguy was referring to a 3rd cour, a 3rd set of 12/13 episodes.
Unfortunately, these 26 are all of it for now…
I could understand not liking a show. But how does it make you sick?
That’s a really good comment you made about Marika’s character development differing from the more common incompetent-to-skilled person. I never noticed it myself.
Maybe someone can explain this to me – why does Marika call her mom by her name instead of just calling her “mom”? I have never been able to figure that out.
Marika does say “Okaa-san” once, and Ririka is a bit surprised when it happens. That’s in the conversation where Marika announces that she’ll accept the job of captain of Bentenmaru.
But why not the rest of the time? No indication in the show so far that I’ve noticed.
“Some of the surprises were more abrupt than the others, like Marika suddenly running into the Grand Cross’ captain Quartz Christie”
I like to think she was just curious to learn more about Marika so she wanted to meet her personally, she seems to have that effect on women… *cough* *cough*
I first thought it was Jenny who was the Bentenmaru’s contact but man Coorie was the last I’d expect. Coorie? More like CooriYEAH!!!