The direction of this episode was superb. I mean, Mouretsu Pirates never really stood out through its animation, but the designs of the ship was really creative, and the camera work was really solid. I really liked this episode and it was a great conclusion to the Gruier arc.
So if I understand things correctly, Gruier was actually in the wrong here. What she wanted to prevent is the monarchy from increasing its influence. Her sister kept using the ghost ship, or rather the device that was used to create the royal bloodline of Serenity, to cling to it, and she wanted to end that once and for all, in order to move on. Interestingly, she seemed to assume that members of the family were still being produced, so she actually was ready to at least prevent these births. I guess that this is why she enlisted the help of pirates.
I really like how this show weaved actual complex politics into its story beyond the “let’s wage wars in order to end all wars”, or stuff like that. Again this show takes its audience seriously and I really appreciate that. On top of that, this episode had the best characterization, and I loved how the characters subtly played off each other. With this, I really have to say that overall, Mouretsu Pirates ended up as my favorite of the three big sci-fi shows of Winter 2012.
Rating: **+ (Excellent+)
The best part of this episode was that confrontation on the bridge(?), loved the way they shifted the focus away from the two arguements and onto the two groups behind them
Mine too. Glad how the adults took charge silently while the kids were having a conniption fit.
Even more so that Marika was in on it as well.
Steadily this show has improved and now reigns supreme as the winter shie worth watching for Spring season.
I love this aspect of the show. The adults are actually wise and have the perspective that comes from being older and more experienced.
Way too many anime just make adults artificially incompetent or stupid so that children can solve the problems, and while that does work in some cases, usually it feels forced and contrived.
This show has great characters, and the writing keeps you guessing. It’s not predictable at all, and the characters have a sense of humanity to them that I am continually impressed by.
yeah I was on the edge of my seat at that part! Amazing show!
Hm…I would have liked a better explanation for what the big crisis was all about though. In the end, a lot is implied but nothing concrete was explained. There’s a lot of nuances and build-up, but in the end, none of it seemed to be used or explained so they wind up feeling like red herrings. You get a general sense of what that big something is about but it isn’t clearly explained. It leaves the impression that the creators may have intended for greater things but were forced to cut short somehow. On the other hand, maybe they wanted to keep the perspective of the story on the Bentenmaru’s crew and their singular role in a much grander saga, and didn’t want that grand saga to upstage the main story.
I’m not sure if it all works but I still like it. Maybe there will be something more about it next week.
I was somewhat disappointed with this episode too. I still think there are BIG THINGS boiling beneath the surface, and I was expecting the events of this arc to play into that somehow. (For example, we still don’t have any clues as to who was after Marika at the beginning of the show.) Maybe this whole incident will have ramifications down the line. I hope so. Also, I’m really not sure why simply bringing the Golden Ghost Ship back to Serenity defused the situation. I agree that it feels like some important context was left out or glossed over too much.
For a thousand years since it was launched the royal family have been cloned onboard the ship. The older sister wanted to end the royal familys control of Serenity- essentially she was an abolitionist. The younger sister wanted the royal family to continue as she thought the people still needed them.
In the end the gene bank was exhausted and the last baby born on the ship so the cycle was forced to a conclusion without her influence.
Not only did this episode build upon the sense of awe and wonder the initial reveal of the ghost ship last week (the grand tour of the ship had an air of Castle in the Sky to it), but compounded that with a race to a goal, an excellent standoff between sisters, and a complete surprise resolution, in which said sisters and their baggage are simply removed from the equation so that peace and be achieved. “Wage War to End War” is getting really old now (I couldn’t get into Gundam Age), so I’m glad some series are dealing with political strife in other ways.