Mouretsu Pirates – 22

Episode 22 –

…Woah, where the heck did this episode come from? I think this is arguably the first episode out of this series where it feels like the main cast is genuinely in danger. Up until this point, all the conflicts have been safely resolved with little to no genuine threat to the danger of the crew. But heck, this episode seems to have finally broken away from that trend, and actually placed the crew in an extremely precarious position.

But, with that being said, the crew is still safe at the moment from the terrifyingly powerful “Pirate Hunters” that appeared this week, and it does seem that a rescue team may have conveniently arrived. The stakes are certainly higher here, but I have reservations as to whether I should expect an actual intense battle of sorts. This show has almost always had its main cast resolve things in a more peaceful (and convenient) manner, and there’s no reason why that trend would stop here.

On the plus side, it does look like the hints from the previous arc have been acted upon, and we are starting to see a more heavy focus on Marika’s internal debates on her own future. She is explicitly asked about what she wants to do after graduation, and considering the end of that non-aggression treaty up right after her graduation, she will eventually have to choose between becoming a full-time pirate, or pursue something else (perhaps an education at that Space University). This is a refreshing change-up from the usual themes to this series, even if the outcome seems rather obvious. I mean, after all, she wouldn’t abandon her pirate duties.

In the end, it seems that Mouretsu Pirates is starting to up its ante due to the final few episodes to this series fast approaching. I still have qualms with the poor storytelling up until this point in mouretsu pirates, but that doesn’t necessarily mean this finale will hold the same flaws. I can only hope at this point, I guess.

Overall Enjoyment: 3.3/5

Screenshots are later in the post.

Mouretsu Pirates – 20 + 21

Episode 20 + 21 –

Well, Mouretsu Pirates has been a mixed bag up until this point. It’s become quite obvious that the story does not want to take any risks at all whatsoever, resulting in very convenient conclusions, mediocre conflicts, and stagnant character development. It almost feels as if these episodes were an extension of that same trend, until you realize that the show does seem to be shifting in tone a bit. These episodes seem to be pointing more towards a “coming of age” vibe, where we are seeing hints of Marika seriously contemplating her future after high school. Will she become a full time pirate captain? Will she continue to commute to the Bentenmaru all the time? The questions posed here will probably grow in importance over the remainder of this series.

With that being said, the “coming of age” tones is quite subtle as of now, with the main focus on a major racing competition of sorts. There are hints on the horizon of some sort of major conflict (based on Hakuoh’s 5 year ban from the race), and while this race got serious, as usual there was that picture-perfect conclusion. There was a brief scene with the Bentenmaru Pilot and Marika’s mother, which may also be a hint at whatever is to come after this.

All that can be said at this point, though, is that the show is continuing with its “happy-go-lucky” slice of life setup that has been strangely successful in Japan (as seen in DVD/BD sales). With the end of the series fast approaching, I really hope this series pulls together for a decent finale. Though based on what I’m seeing here, I’m not expecting much of anything.

Overall Enjoyment: 2.8/5

Screenshots are later in the post.

Mouretsu Pirates – 19

Episode 19 –

Mouretsu Pirates as a series has been one littered with instances of poorly written characters and plot developments, with the most recent arc being pretty ridiculous in terms of mediocre writing. The characters have continued to be the flawless, exceptional space pirates that they’ve always been, and this series seems to be dead set on keeping things perfect and boring ‘til the very end. The plot also has its fair share of conveniences and holes that the series has yet to address, and at this rate, will probably never be addressed. To be fair, it seems that these ugly flaws pop up most frequently during the more serious arcs of this series, which makes this brief slice-of-life interlude involving simple garbage collection as a welcomed change of pace.

If there’s one thing I should give this episode credit for, it’s addressing a task that seems to almost always be nonexistent in most anime; the notion of reorganizing belongings, and taking out the trash. The absence of trash is one of those conveniences in anime that nobody really notices (nor cares for), which makes this plot development an unexpected surprise. It’s an unexpected way to add a slice of life element to the series that showcases the girls having fun, all without the parfaits and cosplaying that has dominated much of the slice of life up until this point. I will also admit I got a kick out of Marika’s realization that trash collection would be easy after she disabled artificial gravity. Clever girl 😛

Honestly speaking, though, this episode was practically a filler episode with a vague emphasis on “bonds”, with the younger Serenity sister holding some jealousy towards the Marika x Gruier relationship. Because, you know, watching people collect trash and cleanup is totally engaging =_=;

And of course, any signs of serious character development continue to be nonexistent, with Marika still considered the flawless, ever so perfect captain. The plot almost feels rigged into making Marika a perfect little space pirate captain, and with an apparent beach episode looming next week, I’m strongly debating the idea of dropping this show.

Overall Enjoyment: 2.5/5

Screenshots are later in the post.

Mouretsu Pirates – 18

Episode 18 –

I’ve been mentioning in my Mouretsu Pirates posts on how Marika, our young pirate captain, is “too perfect” as a main character. She makes level headed decisions, always leads her crew to success, and has yet to really make any glaring mistakes or problems. The previous episode had the first sign of that setup changing up a bit, where Marika made a more emotional and rash decision in deciding to help out her upperclassman, Jenny. She was captaining a novice crew and was diving into a battle headfirst against a gargantuan, Goliath of an opponent. Her almost whimsical decision to not weigh the pros and cons, the potential dangers, and on top of that, not even having a proper strategy to engage the enemy, was an extremely brash move on Marika’s part. While this could have been a perfect chance to showcase and explore Marika’s flaws and shortcomings as a captain, unfortunately, Mouretsu Pirates seems to have this very nasty tendency where it doesn’t really stress the characters and try to provide any character development for them. Instead, this show loves to have happy, convenient conclusions that seem to work on the assumption that “everything will work out somehow”.

This is easily seen throughout the entirety of the episode, everything from the actual battles, to the “strategies” that Marika and her crew pursued in this dangerous conflict. In the battle, as expected of having a giant interstellar corporation as the opponent, Marika and her crew quickly realized that they would be no match against the opponent in terms of raw firepower. So what’s their strategy when they are under heavy siege? “Hey, let’s just have the pilot conveniently dodge everything they shoot at us while we go sip some tea and try to think up a strategy”. There is absolutely no sense of true “danger” to the situation, because it’s quite obvious that the characters aren’t in real danger if they can discuss strategy at a nice, slow pace. The strategy the girls thought up was admittingly sound, trying to make up for their lack of firepower with a more covert style of information warfare, but this was also based on the assumption that they would “somehow” get some interesting dirt/info to blackmail their opponents with. What would happen if they found nothing? Well, they would have been screwed.

And then there was the escape of the Bentenmaru when it was surrounded by enemy ships. The decoy idea, in theory, is a fantastic little trick to have up one’s sleeve. However, in practice the idea sounds absolutely ridiculous. According to the episode, the “decoys” were missiles launched from the Bentenmaru that emitted the same signal as the Bentenmaru. For one, if you were the corporation pursuing the Bentenmaru, why the heck would you rely purely on a signal that an enemy ship emits? Visual confirmation of targets would have made this method absolutely worthless, and not to mention, if ship IDs/signals were this easy to copy, there would be rampant identity theft in the interstellar world. The decoy idea here is essentially an extremely poorly thought out deus-ex-machina plot device, where it conveniently saved the Bentenmaru crew.

And then let’s not even talk about how Marika pulled off her “win” in this situation. When she decided to capture Jenny’s fiance, it just so happened that he was organizing a faux rebellion against the interstellar government. Talk about convenient. And then, on top of that, she just “happens” to get some info on her opponent’s dirty secrets, bribery, and whatever else could be used for blackmail. And thus, the conflict that Marika brazenly didn’t think through ended with a happy ending, where her novice crew conveniently won the matchup, Jenny gets to go to Space University, and all is good in the world. There were no real gunfights, nobody was injured, and there was never any real threat to Marika and her crew.

The critical message to get out of this arc seems to be that “ok, go ahead and make decisions without thinking of the potentially dangerous consequences, because yea, it will all work out somehow”. It’s a blatantly terrible setup that makes it extremely difficult to take much of any conflict out of this show seriously anymore. If there’s one positive that we’ve gotten out of this arc, it’s that Marika has come to a realization that she is far more reliant on her crew than she thought. Her genuine feelings of thanks towards her crew in that phone call in the closing moments of the episode were touching, if only for how much emotion she put into her heartfelt thank you. That was the only redeeming aspect to this entire arc, and aside from that one scene, it’s quite easy to see how disappointed I am with this outcome.

Overall Enjoyment: 2.0/5

Screenshots are later in the post.

Mouretsu Pirates – 17

Episode 17 –

I guess I should give credit where credit is due, and note how Mouretsu Pirates this time around did a terrific job with quickly building up tension in the atmosphere. The transition from the goofy first half to the serious latter half of the episode was executed well, and really gave a good sense for the large (and frightening) implications to the situation at hand. One thing that jarringly stood out, though, was just how simplistic the actual decisions made by Marika have been.  Her choices have been surprisingly simple-minded and straightforward, something that I feel is very unfitting of a captain responsible for the lives of her entire crew.

This is clearly evident in how she nonchalantly took up the mission to “kidnap” Jenny based on the consensus of her current novice crew. Her off-hand decision was extremely reckless and poorly thought out on Marika’s part, a rare messy decision from the young pirate captain. She didn’t think about the possibilities of being attacked, losing her piracy license, and heck, she seems to have barely thought out the possibility of severe injury or death amongst her crew. The main flaw to her decision is that she can’t see this mission going bad, so she seems to have not seriously thought about all the consequences.

While this is poor decision making on Marika’s part, I have to admit that it does make for a rather entertaining plot. After all, Marika and her crew are now the indisputable underdogs against the monolithic corporation that is pursuing them. The inherent appeal to underdog stories is that the underdogs need to find some creative, roundabout ways of dealing with seemingly insurmountable obstacles, something that Marika can hopefully pull off in this high-stakes cat and mouse game.

One thing that really stood out, though, was just how simplistic Marika’s strategy for dealing with pursuit has been. To put it simply, her “strategy” for dealing with opponents is to merely jump into “faster than light speed” and run away with all her might. She has no real strategy to contend for pursuit, nor does she consider if the opponent ships can outspeed her, etc. Her strategy is very easy to read, and something that makes her rash decision to help Jenny seem even more outrageous. I cannot stress enough how Marika made some wild, emotional decisions this week that are unfitting of a captain that is supposed to be the rational, responsible guide for the ship and it’s crew.

The reality of the situation is that Marika has never actually failed any of her piracy missions, and thus, has no frame of reference for just how bad a situation can get. It’s an issue that becomes explicitly noticeable this week, where it almost appears as if Marika expects everything to work out somehow in the end. Unfortunately, knowing the story to Mouretsu Pirates so far, everything will probably indeed work out somehow (which would only serve to validate Marika’s status as a Pirate captain). I really hope this arc can seriously challenge Marika and get her to question her own responsibilities, something that Chiaki seemed to have understood far more than Marika.

Overall Enjoyment: 3.0/5

P.S. I guess I should be happy that this episode finally exposed some of Marika’s flaws as a captain (finally!). My main grievance is that Mouretsu Pirates, so far, has told it’s story in a way so that everything works out in the end with little to no serious introspection on the character’s part. Perhaps this is just an inherent dynamic to the story due to the peaceful times in which the story takes place.

Screenshots are later in the post.

Mouretsu Pirates – 16

Episode 16 –

Ahah! It looks like there’s still signs of an actual plot outside of the goofy slice-of-life antics of our main cast. It’s become quite obvious that Mouretsu Pirates is going to be a show with multiple independent story arcs, with each separated by an interlude filled with girls eating cake and fancy parfaits, dressing up in silly costumes, and all-in-all just having a blast. It’s a compromise that’s great for those that enjoy slice of life and comedy, but terrible for those that would prefer a continuous, well-written plot.

To be fair, the plot to Mouretsu Pirates isn’t necessarily bad, it’s just that there’s an inherent flaw that comes with the repeated slice of life interludes that we’re constantly seeing. That main flaw would be how the interludes literally cut off any potential buildup of tension from previous independent story arcs, and thus, stunts the potential for any super-epic climactic moments. Fate/Zero is an instance of a series that is actually handling this notion of continuous buildup rather well, where the entire first season was dedicated to buildup and character development, all of which has started to explode into multiple fantastically dazzling and captivating moments. As for Mouretsu Pirates, there’s no such continuity in terms of buildup, which is a shame considering how much potential arcs such as the Golden Ship Arc had.

Another noticeable issue would, once again, be rooted in the character development of our main heroine Marika. Marika, as a captain, has held the recognition of being quite the level-headed and responsible leader. She’s almost too perfect to some degree, where she manages to calm and motivate the crew, lead when necessary, and makes reasonable and accurate judgements. As a captain, she is still the flawless girl that we’ve seen in previous episodes, and instead it is the crew that’s quickly becoming the flaw that is detrimental to the mission at hand. At this point, I can only see any potential growth for Marika through events involving her mother and deceased father, as opposed to from any character flaws she might have as a captain.

Aside from my complaints about the plot, the episode itself was quite the hilarious one. Seriously, I could barely watch the heist scene in this episode because of how ridiculously embarrassing the entire affair was. I was laughing nonstop at how ridiculous the costumes were, the unprofessional handling of the heist, and the cheerful acceptance from the spectators of this entire affair. It was almost like watching through a trainwreck, only somehow the trainwreck was hilarious.

In the end, Mouretsu Pirates does look like it’s back on track for some sort of plot. The plot twist at the end did turn out to be quite the surprise, bringing into the picture a conflict that there had only been vague hints of in previous weeks. I’m glad that things are moving right along, with this arc being kind of a training episode for this impending rescue mission. The mission is bound to have problems (especially with the new crew), so the upcoming arc should be rather interesting to see.

Overall Enjoyment: 3.2/5

Screenshots are later in the post.

Mouretsu Pirates – 15

Episode 15 –

Mouretsu Pirates, up until this point, has had some sort of general overarching story. Sure, the overarching plot was split up with brief slice-of-life interludes, but the plot was still there. On the other hand, this current arc has no such direction at all whatsoever. Instead, we’re seeing our main cast fool around and be silly little girls. Sure, it’s all fun and games (and rather amusing), but the story has pretty much come to a standstill. Ever since the end of the Ghost ship arc, my expectations of this series have continued to fall, and this episode just reinforced such.

The big issue I’m seeing here is that the story made a rare opportunity for Marika, our flawless captain, to get some legitimate character development that has been sorely lacking. She’s been too perfect of a character as of now, so I was hoping the temporary replacement of the entire staff of the Bentenmaru would somehow show flaws to her characterization, and elaborate upon them. It would’ve been a great way to make use of the new crew to further the main heroine, even without signs of an overarching plot.

Instead, though, we got an episode that was practically filler in the sense that it was all about the yacht club members being all ditzy and clumsy. The jokes and hilarity that ensued was funny, sure, but this episode did virtually nothing worthwhile in terms of the bigger picture. All of the conflicts and problems were framed in a way such that the crew was at fault, and not Marika.

To be fair, there is one positive to the entire situation; the new crew brings up crucial questions about how to manage a crew that treats you as a friend, rather than a captain. A captain holds absolute authority, and the crew is to follow her every word. On the other hand, the yacht club seems to see this entire affair almost like a fun school trip, and don’t exactly show Marika the due diligence needed as a member of the crew. This issue will definitely come back to bite back in the future, and could potentially test Marika’s ability to lead. She’s still portrayed as a level-headed leader in this episode, but that dynamic might fall apart in the coming weeks.

In the end, this episode did manage to setup the basis for a conflict of sorts, but it’s a conflict that doesn’t really have any long-term implications, and doesn’t quite cue us in on any sort of larger-scale issue. Marika still remains the admired, smart captain, and her current crew remains as your average bunch of goofy friends. We’ll have to see where the show goes from here, but I can say for sure now that I’ll be approaching this show with a different, less ambitious set of expectations.

Overall Enjoyment: 2.8/5

Screenshots are later in the post.

Mouretsu Pirates – 14

Episode 14 –

Well, this episode sure changed up the situation, though not quite in the way I had expected. Marika, as captain, has always been blessed with a rather talented crew that complemented her own level-headed, logical mindset and decision-making process. Thus, so far there hasn’t really been any major flaws to the teamwork of the Bentenmaru crew. Her judgement has proven to be sound, and her crew has complemented her leadership with their own unique insights and skills. What makes this episode rather unique is how it is completely changing out the current crew for a bunch of temporary replacements, all close friends with Marika. This replacement with a new crew will probably expose issues that have previously been hidden away due to the talents of the original crew. On top of that, the issue that arises here is that Marika will have to assert her role as captain amongst her own friends, which in itself may be an awkward and difficult hurdle to overcome.

With that being said, I can’t say I’m exactly a fan of this plot twist. The one aspect to this series that I’ve started to think of as a weakness is the slice of life, where the slice of life cuts off any sort of meaningful buildup and tension-building. The slice of life cut off the momentum that had been building from the ghost-ship arc, and has kind of lingered in situation where the main cast is just goofing off. I’ve always thought that the pirates + schoolgirl slice of life combination was a bit strange, but it’s really starting to cut into the narrative of the story. And now we have the entire crew being replaced by a bunch of schoolgirls? This could be a risky move on the creator’s part.

On the plus side, this twist might finally bring some much needed development to the previously flawless captain Marika. As I’ve already mentioned in earlier episodes, she seemed to be too “perfect” of a character, and perfect characters don’t really have much room for character growth. Perhaps this new group of crew members will be able to elaborate upon unnoticed flaws in Marika’s abilities as a captain, and perhaps stir up some drama amongst friends.

In the end, while I do sort of see what Mouretsu Pirates is trying to do, I can’t help but feel that there isn’t much of an overall purpose for all of this. All that’s happening is that Marika will lead a new crew to do some sort of random pirate mission, only for some problem to pop up (and eventually be resolved). It’s a rather predictable setup, and I’m not seeing any signs of this setup segwaying into any sort of larger premise or issue. Hopefully I’m proven wrong, but my interest in Mouretsu Pirates is starting to wane.

Overall Enjoyment: 3.2/5

Screenshots are later in the post.

Mouretsu Pirates – 13

Episode 13 –

Oops, with all the new Spring season premieres, I almost forgot about Mouretsu Pirates.

Anyways, after the conclusion of the Ghost ship arc last episode, it seems that we’re now exclusively in a buildup phase. The princesses are still involved in the grand scheme of things, but with no real upfront political crisis anymore, it seems that the focus may shift to Marika and the Bentenmaru. The princesses’ dilemma dominated much of Mouretsu pirates so far, so the hints at a conflict on the Bentenmaru are welcomed. The transition is currently being done through plenty of slice-of-life moments, fairly standard fare by this anime’s standards.

With that being said, it’s not too clear as to what exactly any future conflicts will entail. The last arc wrapped things up pretty well, so in this episode we just watched Marika goof off and be her usual self (aside from becoming an instant star due to her newfound celebrity status). Marika remains as flawless of a character as ever, though we are starting to see signs of some of her own ruminations and worries. There are scenes where she is pondering about her father, whom she has never met, and it seems the late father’s presence and reputation will forever loom over Marika’s shoulder.

In the end, the change to a more relaxed atmosphere this episode was proper way to handle the aftermath of the conclusion of a major arc. I personally still don’t feel very compelled by the conflicts that have unfolded so far, where I had hoped for the Ghost ship situation to segway into an even more intense conflict. The abrupt end of the conflict in a peaceful manner, and the return to a slice-of-life setting, felt terribly anticlimactic that cooled much of the expectations I have of this series. I get the feeling my main gripe with Mouretsu Pirates will be how the conflicts may never rise up to the point where something complex and grandiose in scale unfolds, which is kind of what I’d expect of a space-based anime.

Overall Enjoyment:.3.0/5

Screenshots are later in the post.

Mouretsu Pirates – 11

Episode 11 –

Mouretsu Pirates continues to get highly political with the discovery of the Golden Ghost ship and a confrontation between two princesses, but this week also brought back one of the flaws I mentioned back several episodes ago. That is, Mouretsu Pirates sometimes throws around far too much terminology. The overuse of terminology made it unclear as to exactly what was precisely happening to the Bentenmaru; all that was for certain was that they were in danger, but that’s something that could have been portrayed without the excessive terms. Aside from the terminology issue, though, this episode was good at highlighting the notion that some sort of power struggle is occurring in the Serenity Royal family, and the political plot continues to grow in scale with the involvement of the Royal flagship.

The key points to note here with regards to the political aspects to the story is how Princess Gruier is confronted by her younger sister, the 8th royal princess. What makes this situation rather peculiar is how the two princesses obviously aren’t on the same side, and the younger sister even threatened to take action against the Bentenmaru and it’s crew. It seems that there are multiple factions that are seeking the Ghost ship, and it is still unclear as to exactly what the significance of the ship is. Is the ship a symbol of legitimacy to the royal throne? Does it hold some sort of superweapon? All that is known that the Ghost Ship is at the center of some sort of conflict, and with the Bentenmaru now stuck inside the Ghost ship, things can only get more dangerous from here on out.

On a different note, it’s interesting to see the dynamic between Marika and Princess Gruier mainly because while the two are friends, there is also a brooding tension due to the different priorities of both girls. Marika, as a captain, prioritizes safety over everything else, and her concerns are very much reflected in the way in which she leads the Bentenmaru. At the same time, she is balancing her safety concerns with the princess’ objectives with regards to the Golden Ship. As of now, safety isn’t the biggest issue, but if the time comes when lives are in danger, there might be a conflict of interest between the Princess and Marika.

Of course, while the story is getting interesting, Mouretsu Pirates does suffer from some minor flaws. Previously, the show had liberally used the term “electronic warfare”, which while the term’s usage was a bit unbelievable then, the story was still straightforward and understandable. This episode’s barrage of terminology simple translated to “bad stuff is happening around us”. It was already understood that this episode was going to be intense, with a time-space earthquake and all battering the Bentenmaru and it’s crew, but the additional terms such as “gravity waves” and the “neutron stars” just made the entire situation rather confusing. Yes, I know the terms themselves are real terms (or at least, terms I’ve heard before), but a barrage of these terms one after the other completely detracts from the buildup of tension. Rather than paying attention to the intensity of the situation, the terminology made it so you had to decipher what exactly was unfolding.

Nevertheless, Mouretsu Pirates has been continuously improving in terms of story. The tension continues to racket up, all while the entrance of the Ghost Ship further adds an element of mystery to the situation. The plot is what has taken to center stage with this series, as opposed to the cast, and I anticipate that it’ll stay that way for a while longer.

Overall Enjoyment: 3.8/5

Screenshots are later in the post.