Episode 08 –
Hrm, well I’m not completely sure as to what direction Mouretsu Pirates seems to be taking, but I’m starting to get a vague idea. Based on how the story is progressing, it looks like the plot will get much more political extremely fast, meaning Marika and her crew are going to be drawn into a messy power struggle of some sort. Or at least, that’s just my hypothetical guess as of now, though I think it would be interesting to see inter-space politics in the works here.
At this point it’s safe to say that you should not treat Mouretsu Pirates as your typical pirate-based story. Pirates are much more formalized in this series, so the popular impressions of pirates in the West as adventurous, gritty, and scheming, should be thrown out the window. Instead, pirates here can almost be thought of as a form of mercenary groups, where they can be hired by third parties for to perform some sort of task.
If you think about pirates in that manner, then the story gets a whole lot more interesting in a few ways. For one, you know you shouldn’t expect anything too crazy and silly, which pretty much destroys the meaning behind the “Bodacious” in this series’ title. You also know that Pirates can be hired by anybody, meaning that they can be manipulated into traps and large scale conflicts depending on what the intentions of the person paying may have. Then there’s the involvement of political factions surrounding important figures, and usage of battleships in space to maintain a balance of power. I can easily imagine this show become somewhat like Ginyoku no Fam, where the fights come to have very strong political implications, and are very tactical/quick-thinking based.
What’s really throwing me off here is the inclusion of the slice-of-life high school life, which is a total contrast to the political overtones of the upcoming conflicts in space. On the plus side, I am really starting to appreciate how the series is characterizing Marika, where although her flaws and lapses in capability are subtle, they are put to the test with each passing episode. The plot is also increasing in pacing, which is no doubt because of the introduction of Ms. Princess this week. The princess herself seems to be embroiled in some sort of ugly power struggle too, which should make her role in this series interesting to say the least.
Overall Enjoyment: 3.8/5
Screenshots are later in the post.
Distant Paradise 
“…I think it would be interesting to see inter-space politics in the works here.”
I just can’t wait!
At the beginning, as soon as Gonzaemon’s death was revealed to be of food poisoning, I think we all realized, subconsciously, that this would not be a normal pirates show. Then again, it’s not like we’ve seen many pirate shows before, have we? The whole Letter of Marque business and Sea of the Morningstar Revolution should’ve clued us in that this would be a show of a much larger scale than you’d originally expect.
The problem is, now that eight episodes have already passed – do they have the time to make it an epic? The Legend of the Legendary Heroes was similarly epic, but it ended quite weakly; there just weren’t enough episodes. Perhaps, even two cours isn’t enough for ~bodaciousness~
P.S. Legal pirates should only be able to be hired by the government; after all, they’re government employees. You can’t hire a government lawyer to help you with your taxes.
P.P.S. Given Mouretsu Pirates’s recent track record of trolling (last episode subverting the token beach episode and of course, the pirate-acting), I’ll bet that the entire school slice-of-life is just a giant troll, too. After all, you heard what Kane said, all those students are… uh, ‘special’…
I don’t know about the food poisoning being on purpose or not. I mean, didn’t he pick off the food from the ground? Then again, I guess it is strange for food poisoning to be strong enough to kill someone off.
Anyways, the scale to the show is increasing at a steady rate, and the complexity to the role of a “pirate” is also changing as the series marches forward. The series certainly has been doing a solid job of worldbuilding and buildup, which is really starting to show in the actual main plot.
Interestingly enough, at this point you could say that “pirates” in this anime fulfill a role very different from the pirates we’d imagine up from popular conventions. You may as well call the pirates a group of traveling performers/handymen/mercenaries/etc, because that’s pretty much their actual job.