An episode about insurance and recruitment. That is actually quite interesting. Ideally I would have liked to see Marika actually try and hire new crew-members, but the end of the episode gave a good reason of why this isn’t going to happen: Marika is looking for people she can trust. And for that, the Yacht club fits perfectly, despite their lack of experience. With such a huge cast, I kept wondering how the creators would bring all of them together. Well, I suppose that this is a way.
But things like insurance are also pretty interesting to watch. With all of the destruction you usually see in anime, you’d have to wonder how much restoring everything costs, and especially for someone like Marika, who has to maintain not just a ship, but just an entire crew, it’s very logical for them to be insured in the case of something happening.
I’m also surprised that someone who is supposed to be the second-most important character (if you look at the promo art and all), Chiaki has surprisingly little airtime. She was completely gone in the Serenity arc, and here too it looks like she’ll be away from Marika again, filling in for the jobs that Marika couldn’t take. I like how this show handles its cast, however with such a huge cast also come challenges: the development. Now that we’ve arrived in the second half of this series, we need to see these guys grow. Up till now, Mouretsu just did this for Marika and perhaps Gruier, while the rest of the cast remained fairly static. This needs to change.
Rating: *+ (Great)
Really enjoyed this episode because it continues the theme of “throw stuff at Marika she’s never had to deal with before.” She handled her first practice cruise; first pirating gig; first deep-space quest; first political clash, and first encounter with sudden, widespread fame. Now she has to deal with the prospect of quickly assembling a crew from scratch or losing her license to pirate due to inactivity.
We only had a couple of gripes with an otherwise well-executed exploration of this latest challenge. First, Gruier seems a little shoehorned into this episode, and Mami’s continued existence as a character baffles us, as it never seems she gets more than a couple lines to remind us that she still exists and represents Marika’s pre-pirate life. Both of these two characters do little this week but dress Marika.
Also, while it’s good to finally meet Chiaki’s dad, we’re a little disappointed in his character design. Marika and the diminutive Serenity sisters are living proof that you don’t have to be portrayed as a enormous beast to convey a sense of power. Schnitzer gets a pass because he’s a cyborg, but why is Chiaki’s father an eight-foot freak of nature? It would have been cooler if he were more lean, mean and dark – like his daughter.
I think it kinda explains that, different captains select for different qualities, Marikas crew is freindly and goofy, he selected his crew for strength.
Again with the Cardcaptor creepy freind ‘let me design all your clothes’.
I think the yacht club members being involved was a given from the start, they do crew an ex pirate ship afterall and im sure that ship at some point is going to come in useful as well.
I ddint find her creepy, maybe she h as a pasion for designing, I mean imagine being the fashion designer for a pirate that saved a kingdom or whatever, Instant Brand recognition and fame, I think she’s just thinking business! 😉
Gotta agree with tktym. Mami’s not nearly up to Tomoyo’s level of obsession. I think she just happens to be into fashion and accessorizing – a pretty common thing with teenage girls. You can start to worry if Marika visits Mami’s room and finds a Soushi-style photo shrine to Marika. Really doubt that’ll happen. XD
Well you could tell that Marika herself didnt feel comfortable with it.
I love this series because it gives us realistic outcomes.
Instead of having an inexperienced girl accomplish something that should be impossible, she either finds alternatives or gets help from more experienced people around her.
This ends up portraying her as wise beyond her years, and when she actually does solve things (like at the end of the Serenity arc) it stands out even more, in a good way.
I am so refreshed by this show’s approach to developing a young prodigy. She is gifted, but can’t do everything from the get-go, so she actually learns as time goes by rather than just pulling things out of nowhere.
I wish more series were written like this. Marika is a character. She has a girly side, but it doesn’t turn her into some kind of shallow moe-blob.
yeah, This is pretty much the one show of the year that is THAT refreshing
Realistic outcomes? I think placing a child in the seat of captain could not be considered a realistic outcome. I mean out of the Bentenmaru no one even thought of taking the captains seat? There was no one more qualified? Did they even try asking blaster Ririka to come back?(I can’t remember if they did) The whole idea of training someone still in school to be a pirate instead of hiring someone who knows pirating from the get go is frankly ridiculous. Also why hire experienced crew members when you can hire your classmates who have only been in deep space…once or twice.
As for Marika’s character could you elaborate? Cause to me she just seems like a really bland character. There’s nothing really interesting about her. I keep trying to describe her personality and every time I just come up blank.
And I would like to see some actual pirates. Seriously you could replace the word pirate in the shows title with space captain and barely anything would feel amiss.
This is one of those annoying shows for me. I don’t really enjoy it but I find myself at the halfway point where I might as well finish it.
“I think placing a child in the seat of captain could not be considered a realistic outcome.”
You are forgetting that they tested her and she’s an exceptionally gifted individual. They wouldn’t have gone forward if she was a failure early on, but she’s proving to be her father’s daughter so far.
Also, Ririka + her father both wanted her to take over for him when he retired or died. It’s only natural that they’d at least give her a chance.
I also get the feeling that they don’t want to recruit from the open market of crew.
“I mean out of the Bentenmaru no one even thought of taking the captains seat? There was no one more qualified?”
They are mostly specialists. Maybe one of them could become a captain, but the skills of a quick decision-maker are not the same as an engineer, navigator, doctor, soldier, or computer science / electronic-warfare specialist.
“Did they even try asking blaster Ririka to come back?(I can’t remember if they did) The whole idea of training someone still in school to be a pirate instead of hiring someone who knows pirating from the get go is frankly ridiculous.”
Ririka was done for good, she wasn’t coming back. I think they wanted to give the captain’s daughter a chance because her parents were both so talented. So far it seems like they were right, don’t you agree?
“Also why hire experienced crew members when you can hire your classmates who have only been in deep space…once or twice.”
It’s because she can’t trust random people to crew her ship. They could steal the Bentenmaru or do something else. If this were a darker show she could end up being some kind of hostage to them that gets abused or even sexually assaulted.
“As for Marika’s character could you elaborate? Cause to me she just seems like a really bland character. There’s nothing really interesting about her. I keep trying to describe her personality and every time I just come up blank.”
I find her to be exceptional because she seems like a real girl. That’s actually harder to pull-off than you would think. Many times, girls in anime are incredibly badly written. A big part of that is the tendency to follow what past shows have done.
In other words, there are several easy molds to use when making a character. Marika is special precisely because she doesn’t fit any of them.
As for being boring or unremarkable, I disagree. I would describe her as smart (although believably so – not a perfect genius that never does anything wrong), compassionate (although not so much that she puts her ship and crew in undue danger), decisive (she makes fast decisions in tense moments), good at making friends (she even got Chiaki to help her, and Chiaki is a cold person), and very grounded (she doesn’t let fame get to her or make her ego grow).
“And I would like to see some actual pirates. Seriously you could replace the word pirate in the shows title with space captain and barely anything would feel amiss.”
This show takes place in a time after the golden era of piracy. When the war ended, pirates were forced to find new ways to pay the bills, and must work under the permission of an official government.
I think this is actually a harder task for the writers than just doing some generic pirate story with lots of fighting, and I commend them for keeping me interested without much action. Nothing impresses me like a good story, and Mouretsu has been well-written so far.
“This is one of those annoying shows for me. I don’t really enjoy it but I find myself at the halfway point where I might as well finish it.”
Drop it then. This isn’t going to be a show many people talk about down the road, because it simply didn’t get a big fan base, so you won’t “need to see it” for any particular reason.
The show is obviously not going to change, so don’t waste your time if you don’t enjoy it.
I obviously really love their approach so far, but I can totally understand how it’s not for everyone.
Actually, I think in next week’s previews I remember seeing Chiaki on the bridge with Marika. And that would make sense. Her father could spare her from the Barbalusa, and Marika could certainly use at least one experienced hand with her on the bridge.
I kinda wonder how they’ll do though. This isn’t a normal space yacht anymore. And all of them seem to be inexperienced, even Chiaki. She’s apparently somewhat more reliable than Marika but I don’t think any of them have the experience or expertise of the crew they’re replacing. I would imagine it would usually takes quite some time and supervision to break in a green crew, even with a few vets around to supervise. But it looks like they’ll be doing a trial by fire on their own.
The whole situation actually feels a bit suspicious to me. I felt like the whole biohazard breach may not have been an accident in the first place. Marika may have dodged a bullet leaving the ship early, minutes(?) before the timer on the biocontainer released. Not sure if the insurance guy is involved. Why did he seem to be pressing Marika into recruiting a fresh crew? I wonder if he was lying about the license being revoked. Normally if you have such a serious crew disability, you should be able to have some kind of reasonable time-frame to wait for recovery of the old crew or recruit and break in a new crew. Kind of like what happened when the original Captain Kato died. I feel like Ririka might have realized it too and sent Marika on a wild goose chase to the relay station with Chiaki to back her up while she works up something in the background. Just off the top of my head.
Marika + Chiaki + the high school girls = amateurs taking on a challenge way over their heads.
Now that’s a recipe for a good arc.
Did no one notice they specifically said it was biowarfare samples of the Empire we keep hearing about. Could be another early thread setting up their proper introduction.