So, I was ready to sit back and relax while watching the next installment of the quietly paced Mouretsu Pirates. And then they come with this.
This was a very pleasant surprise: the entire episode was just nothing but a long string of dialogue, full of technical terms and concepts that explained what was going on, and what could be done against it. A ghost ship suddenly appeared, and what in particular caught my attention was how thorough the lead character was in trying to find something against it.
I like how you really need to pay attention to follow everything in this episode. This episode actually showed, against all my expectations, that the creators don’t consider their viewers to be idiots. And while at first this episode may seem to have a lot of techno-babble, it does all fit together with the rest of the theories that it has presented so far. I did not expect to get so much hard sci-fi in this series, but it’s a very pleasant surprise nonetheless. And on top of that this episode also delivered some really good characterization on the captain and vice-captain of the yacht club.
Rating: ** (Excellent)
I was still a little bored by the episode (less then with episode 3). They just don’t give me enough reason to care yet, although the characterization of the captian and vice-captain was a nice addition. It helps seeing the difference between all those girls.
This is one of my favorite shows…..I really like what they are doing with the story and they keep the characters acting within reason.
I thought the writing gave a very intelligent portrayal of what space warfare might be like. I also dug that the students and teachers spy on each other….too cool.
I can’t wait for the next one.
I enjoyed it, although it wasn’t chock full of battles and excitement. Hope that it kicks up a gear for next episode!
When I think of “techno-babble,” I think of the way Star Trek writers (and others) tend to make up new technologies or science on-the-fly to get themselves out of situations that their poor plotting has boxed them into. On the other hand, almost everything in this episode was quite well understood technology, even by today’s standards. It was the strategic and tactical discussions that were complex and involved. Absolutely cool! Color me impressed!
Correct. Lazy writers also misuse the word “technobabble” as a catch-all term for scifi physics whereas it only applies to excuses for bad writing.
Good episode, solid build up that will pay off later with realistic character development
Though others are getting bored out of their mind with this show, I really like it. My favorite show of this season.
I generally like large space opera type stories anyway, so the slow pacing hasn’t bothered me so far. It’s nice to have some intelligence behind a sci-fi show for a change. The hard sci-fi stuff and the strategy stuff reminded me of Starship Operators, one of the more realistic portrayals of long-distance space warfare.
Now I wonder whether Mouretsu Pirates is hard scifi, due to its careful observation of plausible science that doesn’t exist today, or a space opera due to its focus on character development set in space/future?
Oroboros: I think this show’s on a spectrum between those two labels. It doesn’t pay “quite” enough attention to detail to be classified as “Hard SF,” but it’s certainly way more realistic than something like “Star Wars.” I think they’re trying to give a realistic “feel” to the show while keeping it accessible to a more general audience. (People who expect starts to twinkle, and wouldn’t understand why the airlock doors don’t make any noise when they open.) They’re trying to communicate the important stuff while not worrying about the inconsequential details that might throw off a wider viewership. Maybe you could best call this a “Space Romance.” (As in “Romancing the Stone.”)
This series is good a preparing and building up. Despite the gun-jumping OP and ED, it would be ludicrous to simply Marika the captain’s chair of a real pirate ship without any training or experience, so she gets that on the Odette II. It’s taking its time to make sure her rise is plausible; a good move.
We especially like how the pirates are keeping both her and the crew in the dark about the fact this isn’t a true threat, but a test. It’s like leaving out the fact that “this is a drill”, Kane gets to sit back and see how their crew performs when they believe their lives are on the line.
This episode also does a good job aligning Marika and the Yacht Club’s goals: she has to prove herself as pirate material – and I think her performance this week is most impressive – and the club wants to solve their own problems without running to the adults for help, lest they forbid future cruises on the grounds it’s too dangerous.