This was a build-up episode that was mostly meant to flesh out Marika as a pirate. She developed a bit, got used to her life as a captain, and continued with her education.
Bizarrely enough a lot of her jobs are to act as entertainment for large cruisers for a very heavy fee (oh, the insurance will cover things anyway). What struck me in particular is how it focused on human errors. Usually in science fiction settings, everything is managed perfectly. Here however, this episode stressed that there are humans behind these controls, and that these humans can make errors. We have no idea who they are, but by describing who they are and what they’re doing, they are getting fleshed out quite well. That’s very good for later on in the series. I also like the solid advice that they kept giving Marika. If anything, Misa Grandwood is a very good teacher.
The end of this episode also showed the first glimpses of the overall plot of this series. The small girl who snuck aboard the Bentenmaru. She will very likely be the catalyst that will trigger everything that’ll be happening for the rest of the series. I’m glad to see that the creators waited relatively long with introducing her, in order to allow the characters to play themselves out. And all that, while avoiding the big problems of building up: not being interesting.
Rating: * (Good)
Improvement in the CGI thank god, my belief that the pirate attacks were entertainment confirmed with the meetings with the ships crew to arrange how the theatrics would pan out. I still think its a bit early to kick in a major plot, it looks like perhaps the Princess booked the attack so as to escape, the military ships were escorting her rather than the liner and thats why they surrendered when the ship surrendered and not vice versa.
Which begs the question: Who were the actors and Who was the audience?
In general? The rich passengers of the liners looking for excitement while the pirates faked a surprise raid. In this specific case? If it does indeed turn out the escorts were duped then they were the audience, I dont think there can be any confusion as to who the actors were.
Well, this does clarify more about the economics; I wish they did it in the previous episode, but they do make a good attempt at eliminating what seemed like a plot hole.
I still don’t think that even the rich would enjoy having thing stolen that much, though. I am not thinking about the monetary value of items stolen, but sentimental value. I can see them willing to pay a lot for a rare spectacle, but loosing your family heirloom is not so enjoyable.
I extra-specially like the narrow & difficult trip from the captain’s quarters to the bridge – squeeze through, up, under, over – much like the last few episodes.
You would never store stuff like that on a ship though, I think its just another part of hazing her.