Tatsuo Sato, you are awesome. I didn’t think it was possible, but Mouretsu Pirates just surpassed itself. In fact, this episode was THE proof that there was a really talented writer behind this series. I don’t know whether this stems from the original writer or Tatsuo Sato himself, but whoever it was: someone really spent thought and time into how to make the anime work best. This completely exceeded all my expectations, more than any other penultimate episode this season so far.
The restraint of the creators deserves a medal here. This episode was full of twists that could have been pulled at any other episode, but by saving all of them for just this episode, it made all of them extra sweet. Seriously, I love how many new things we learn about the cast. And what’s even better is how these twist all show that every single cast member has been acting and doing stuff, even when the cameras weren’t on him. I don’t see that often, but in order to bring a big cast to life this is a wonderful trick, and usually leads to amazing results when it’s pulled off correctly.
This episode was a ridiculous amount of fun put together. The new pirates are all colourful and go together wonderfully. the revelation of the twin was hilariously down to earth. In fact, I love how this episode brought back so much that seemed so dramatic, and made it such a simple issue. I’d say that Tatsuo Sato even surpassed what he did on the Secret of Stellar wars with this, and that show also really was quite witty.
The guy who really stole the show was that chef, though. Just about everything is awesome, even though he seemed like an ordinary chef last episode. Here though, he just got so incredibly over the top despite his incredibly tiny posture (I didn’t even realize that, even though he had been in the OP for ages). Chiaki also was adorable when her father played the song she recorded with Marika. Seriously, when I first saw her on the promo material I thought that she’d be your average side-kick and all, but she turned into someone completely different from what I could have imagined.
Also, this whole arc has a fantastic set-up. Sure, it’s about a pirate-killer, but more important is how it’s about forcing everyone to choose a new direction for the pirates: continue with the imperialism, or go back to what pirates are symbolized to be. Seriously, this is one series that turned out to be much better than what I imagined it would be.
Rating: ***+ (Amazing)
Sorry, it still looks like shoujo in space to me.
And that is bad because????
I’m still surprised you’re enjoying Pirates this much, but that’s the fun in visiting your blog sometimes. For me this was just a bunch of rather bland anticlimaxes, and the show continuing to tell us that Marika is epic and awesome because.. she asks questions, I guess. But I will admit that for the first time in a while it felt like there was a full episode’s worth of plot being delivered rather than the seemingly pointless stuff we’ve been getting. That was kinda nice.
Can someone explain this to me because I must not have been watching close enough… so Luca (eye patch member) went on vacation… and she didn’t tell anyone before she left… and no 1 in the entire crew had any idea of this… but some other organisation did and sent an android to take her place in the crew…?
That is a very poor plot development in my eyes. Unless if, like I said, I misunderstood something somewhere?
She had apparently told the crew she was going to view auroras but after the sky gliding planet she had seen plenty and without telling them switched her holiday plans to a tropical resort. What she didnt tell the crew was Ririka saved her from a bunch of guys in suits.
So that guy is still looking like her dad with Ririka fawning over him (unless her non-mother personality is naturally promiscuous). It also seemed to be hinting that the enemy pirate woman was a princess and the other empire pirates job is as much to protect and return her safely as to stop her trouble making suggesting a possible unexpected enemy twist?
As predicted early in the series it does seem to be building to a pirates uniting against the empire and becoming true pirates change. Was surprising that they copied the letter of Marque from the Empire, suggesting that they didnt just ‘appear’ in the frontier but were in contact.
Marika and Chiaki singing is the cutest thing ever, and Chiaki’s reaction hiding in her bed pushed it over the top.
I’ve rewatched that scene at least a dozen times
@Loz: I’m not really clear about this either, but my impression is that a kidnapping attempt was foiled by Ririka, and the whole “vacation” scenario was fabricated after-the-fact to keep the kidnapping attempt hidden — mostly from Marika, though I’m not sure why. A LOT of things seem to be being kept secret from Marika. And it kinda seems Ririka and Ironbeard wanted the android aboard the Bentenmaru. There are still some mysteries here that have not yet been revealed.