Okay, so the princesses are now recurring characters. Yeah, Gruier found it so much fun as a regular student that she decided to stay a while longer on Marika’s school, taking her little sister along with her. It’s a bit forced, but I get what the creators were gong for: they’re princesses, so they should be allowed to be children for a while.
The rest of this episode was a quiet aftermath, mostly dedicated to the everyone passing a year. The captain of the yacht club is gone now, and there are a few new characters introduced. Nothing special, but it did give a good feel of its characters. The downside is that we’re probably going to have to wait a while until things get interesting again. I was hoping that this series would be more like Stellvia, having just one build-up arc at the beginning, but it seems that this is much more arc-based.
My favorite part of this was probably Ririka. She’s a really interesting mother for an anime: she stays in the background, as it’s obviously not her story, but she is not a mother who is there for the sake of having a mother here. In this episode she actually thought to change jobs, in order to find something to do that she really enjoyed. It’s also interesting how Marika addresses her by her first name, rather than the usual “okaa-san” or “mama”.Rating: * (Good)
Also, given the situation in the Serenity System that Gruier talked about (and the part both of the princesses played in it), it may have been politically advantageous to get both of them out of the system for a while, until things finish settling down.
And given the previews for next week, I think things are going to start popping again pretty quick — though perhaps not at the same level of intensity as the previous arc.
Yeah, they did mention something about it being the end of the era of the royal family or something like that. It would be interesting to see Gruier join the crew.
I’m going to miss that yacht club prez though. đ I liked her character a lot in the yachting trip arc.
Pretty curious too about how Marika calls Ririka by her name. Maybe Ririka isn’t Marika’s birth mom? Or was Marika raised to not call Ririka “Mom” because of her colored past? I’m kinda curious if a former infamous pirate can get a regular space trucker license.
Well young mothers (and she was) sometimes dont like to be called mums.
It re-explained the whole political situation for those that didnt get it in the previous episode. Quiet start to a new six episode arc with the story threads looking to be the cargo run and the mother getting a large ships license (new yacht club teacher perhaps?), new ending music.
Oh and almost forgot, hope the freind who designed her new pirate costume doesnt become the creepty lesbian from Cardcaptors!!!!
Ehhhh??? You don’t like Tomoyo?! XD I mean, as stalkers go, she’s as good as they get. And I really liked her costumes on Sakura. They were even themed. Nice twist on the usual magical girl transformation cliche. Sadly I highly doubt if Mami will be able to compare to that. Plus I think Marika’s pirate costume is best left alone.
Mami is the bomb! I love her character! I wish they’d find a way to bring her onto the Bentenmaru. And I don’t get any yuri vibes from her. If she was inclined to hit on Mrika, I think we would’ve seen some sign of that with their scenes working together in the cafe. She really comes across as the “wise friend” kind of character. Plus the director said he was ditching the whole “romance” angle from this series, focusing on other emotional ties.
Ditching romance seems to be becoming a trend. I notice it in Persona 4, Rinne no Langrange and Last Exile II too. I’m not against it but it’s a bit surprising to see so many series going that way simultaneously.
I think it helps these series a ton.
A bad romance plot just drags everything down. It wastes time and, honestly a non-cliche romance story is hard to write.
Actually, I’m pretty sure that Marika’s form of address for her mother is a pun – not ‘Ririka-san’, but ‘Riri-kaasan’.