1
It's a series about Bread Making, that has a bunch of cute girls that the MC won't be dating, that has a cranky dwarf that's utterly ripped that has a Magic-girl-as-mecha-that-shoots-Nukes hanging in his work shop. And there's also Elves around.
This series is both utterly restrained and completely nuts at the same time. How, I'm not sure (probably Sega dictates), but it's still... an interesting watch.
Posted by: sqa at April 27, 2012 10:45 PM (9gBG3)
2
It also has a human population of maybe 10,000, yet it is high-tech enough to produce steel for weapons and armor, not to mention enough paper so that they can use it for paper bags.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at April 28, 2012 05:49 AM (5OBKC)
4
Also, if Hank is a callout ..
so is Kaguya. Kaguya is a Moon Princess who fell on Earth. In this case the Moon may be the actual Moon or another island with this island representing Earth. I'm amazed that literally not one animeblogger that follows Happy Bread remarked upon it.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at April 29, 2012 05:09 PM (5OBKC)
5
The steel is made by Dwarven magic, and the paper by Elven magic. Or maybe they have some trade with the outside world.
Rick rode a plank, passed out on top of it, got tipped off onto the beach when it washed ashore, and was heavy enough, unlike the plank, not to get washed back out with a subsequent wave.
I want to know who's in the palace, commanding those troops & issuing things like blackout orders.
Posted by: jcm3 at April 29, 2012 05:15 PM (OU30d)
In the game, Princess Rufina and Prince Ragnus are important characters. And there's a queen who shows up now and again. That's from Wikipedia.
On the other hand, the anime may not be following the game. Wikipedia doesn't list Hank (the dwarf) as a character, but it's clear he's going to be an important one.
1
My only nit with that episode was they portrayed it as if Marika was generating MORE energy through the regenerative braking. Also, she wouldn't have
won if everyone else hadn't screwed up.
Also, I see what they did there with that star...!
Posted by: Mauser at April 30, 2012 11:49 PM (cZPoz)
A migrating helium balloon set down in the creek today for a couple of hours to rest and eat.
Do helium balloons migrate north or south in the spring? (Yeah, yeah, yeah, depends on whether it's an African helium balloon. You don't have to tell me.)
UPDATE: Of course it's migrating! It has to mate! (Where did you think that baby heliums came from, anyway?)
You may think that Spring begins at the equinox. Or that it's signaled by the plum trees blooming. Or the first song birds arriving from the south.
Nope. Today is the first day of Spring. I know that because today is the day I turned off my heat.
I have baseboard electric heat here, and on the first day of Winter (by definition) I turn my heat on. It stays on all winter. And on the first day of Spring I turn it off again, and it stays off until the next winter.
1
For me, I would define it by when the ceiling fans get turned on. Pretty much the same concept, they run all spring and summer, and get turned off in the fall and winter. For me, that was Friday.
It's interesting that this weekend was hot enough that I changed out for summer sheets and blankets, turned off the heat, opened all the windows, and turned on the fans, and still had trouble sleeping at night due to the heat. And yet last night the heat was back on and I had a blanket back on the bed. I think it will be another few weeks before the temperature is reliably warm.
Posted by: David at April 25, 2012 02:03 PM (+yn5x)
2
It's the first day of summer here: 95°, and the air conditioner's on.
4
By this standard, it was summer almost a month ago here at Pond Central, when I turned on the a/c because it was 85 outside, and nearly as warm inside.
Summer was short-lived, because two days later the high was 35 and I turned on the heat again.
Posted by: Wonderduck at April 25, 2012 04:18 PM (PVVuW)
5
I never even turned on the heater this "winter" just outside DC, but I think it was only partly due to the warm weather. There are a lot of foreign diplomats in my apartment building, and whoever is renting the unit beneath mine must be from a tropical nation. Even on the coldest of nights, my bathroom floor was toasty warm all season due to the heat radiating from below.
Posted by: Siergen at April 25, 2012 04:52 PM (3/gGt)
Bugfox isn't a regular visit for me, though I think it's going to become one. So I'm late seeing this post.
Jonathon said something that turned on a light for me: Mouretsu Pirates is a kid's show. You know what? He's right. That's exactly what it is. But it's a kid's show that isn't dumbed down. It's a kid's show that an adult can love.
A kid's show doesn't have to have an airtight plot. What it needs is good characters, interesting stories, and lots of action. (If it's an action kid's show.) But no sex, no fan service, and no one getting killed or badly hurt. Scary scenes, but not too scary. And lots of happy endings. It needs to have lots of Cool, and if it has it, then the Rule of Cool excuses plot holes and contrivance.
We've seen 16 episodes now out of 26, and there hasn't been anything in it I would hesitate to show to a ten year old of either sex. Or to a kid even younger, in fact, although the show might be too complicated for a six year old. (If a six year old watched with a parent or older sibling who could explain things, then it would be OK.)
Having a girl be the main character might be a bit of a turn-off for a boy, but I don't think so, mainly because the show isn't girly. They aren't talking about boys. They aren't angsty. The only makeup we've seen (one time!) was stage makeup. And, you gotta admit, for a little boy space pirates are genuinely cool -- especially Schnitzer, who is awesome. Plus Kane and Hyakume are cool. There's plenty in the show for a little boy. Laser guns! Pirate ships! Unexpected pepper sauce in Chiaki's dinner!
And for a little girl, well, wow! There are princesses! (Everything is better with princesses!) And Marika is just an awesome character, one that little girls will definitely love.
All of those things are good for me, too. And there's depth to this show, which little kids couldn't care less about. It wouldn't get in the way of little kids watching and enjoying it, though.
The only real concern is that the show unfolds a bit slowly for a kid, who might get bored and change the channel to the latest episode of Pokemon.
A lot of what we've seen makes more sense if you think that Sato has been trying to make an outrageously good kid's show.
1
To avoid having younger viewers change channels to Pokemon, just have Marika change how she assigns boarding party details: "Schnitzer, I choose YOU!"
Posted by: Siergen at April 23, 2012 07:20 PM (3/gGt)
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I've been thinking for a while that it had a lot in common with Heinlen's juvies. The science is handwavium of course but the attitude is similar.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at April 23, 2012 08:14 PM (EJaOX)
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It is, indeed, nice to find a "kid's show" that doesn't talk down to kids. Particularly amongst Western cartoons, they are rare indeed. Its one reason why Avatar was so popular.
( mind, I'm not sure it meets *all* your criterion, but if you account for the time passing between seasons, I think it still counts; someone who watched season 1 as a little kid will be several years older by the time of season 3, and ready for it. )
Posted by: metaphysician at April 24, 2012 06:00 AM (3GCAl)
I don't think that proves anything. The studio pays for the time slot, and late night slots are cheaper. Most anime runs in those kinds of time slots.
Yeah, ratings are also lower, but the studios don't make their money from broadcast. The broadcast is really just an extended advertisement for disc sales, which is where the real money is.
8
Sato's other show from the Winter season was the first R-rated Kids' show that I've ever seen. (Seriously, Rinne seems targeted at ten year olds with a thing for nudity. Making that series hard to figure out who it's really appealing to)
But, this is really Sato's style, anyway. Nadescio was a pretty safe series (if I'm remembering it right) and Stellvia would fit almost the same demographic, though closer to the 10-14 bracket. Lots of depth, but everyone important lives. Though Stellvia has a bit more relational drama.
Last point, I watched old-school Star Trek reruns when I was 5 & 6. So, to me, I don't see a problem giving this series to a child that young. There's enough flashy things to cover most of them, haha.
Posted by: sqa at April 24, 2012 01:22 PM (9gBG3)
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There was a shocking death in Nadesico, about episode 3 I think. And there was a much more shocking death late in the series.
10
Actually, Nadesico was realy bloody.
There was the space station that got blown up in ep 2. And Yurika killed all the Martian survivors when she had to turn on Nadesico's screens on the surface of Mars.
13
I've been quite happily showing it to my 8 and 6 year old, and they enjoy the episodes. They also enjoyed Stellvia, even though my dvds are incomplete.
Posted by: Tom Tjarks at April 25, 2012 09:22 AM (T5fuR)
Well, that covered a lot of territory in a short time. Achiga enters the prefecture qualifier round, and breezes to victory. They met the prefecture champions, Bansei, in the first round and cleaned them.
Our coach arranges for the team to travel to visit other powerhouse schools, one per weekend, for extensive play and experience. First was Ryumonbuchi, where they ran into Koromo, loli of legend. It was their first experience playing against a demon, and it was a shock, but they recovered and eventually won. (It helped that Koromo is still Koromo, but she isn't sadistic any longer.)
Seven weekends, seven schools, and they won against all except one. Then they had a ten-day intensive training camp, and at the end we arrive in Tokyo for the national finals. And in the last scene they're walking down a hall at the venue, and a girl walking alone passes them going the other direction. They can feel her ki and they're all intimidated. It's Saki. She comes off as a monster. Koromo told them that it wasn't Nodoka who beat her, it was Kiyosumi's rinshan-tsukai. The others would have filled in just how formidable Saki is.
The other series was 25 episodes and ended just before the nationals. This series reached that point in 3 episodes, and has 9 to go. Apparently we're going to see the nationals this time -- only we're not going to see it from the point of view of Kiyosumi. We're going to see it from the point of view of Achiga High School.
So who am I supposed to root for? When, eventually, Achiga plays against Kiyosumi, who am I supposed to want to win?
One complaint about the original series was that events moved really slowly. The whole series felt padded. Sure can't make that complaint this time. On the contrary, it's too fast. I didn't like angst-of-the-week in the original series, but this time we're not getting any character building at all. I got to know the characters in the previous series by name, but this time they're the genki girl, the one who is always cold, the short stoic one with black hair, the younger sister of the cold one, and I can't even come up with a description of the last one.
The previous series was based on the manga. This one looks like it's the director himself telling the story -- and, well, it's a lot different.
What worries me a little is that if this series shows us the nationals, then we probably won't ever get to see a true sequel to the original series, showing us the nationals from Kiyosumi's point of view. So how will we ever get the resolution to Saki's own story, and see her reconcile with Teru?
UPDATE: Something just occurred to me.
Achiga only competes as a team. They aren't competing as individuals.
Saki plays last for Kiyosumi. Teru plays first for her team. So in the team play, even if the two schools eventually meet (presumably in the finals) Saki won't face Teru. They won't meet until (presumably) the final round of the individuals.
And we won't see that in this series because Achiga won't be competing in the individuals. I bet this series ends with the team finals. Which, I would bet, Kiyosumi will win.
1
Yeah, two things bothered me about this episode:
1) that, as you mentioned, they breezed through the prefecture competition in about 3 minutes, then one of the characters said something to the effect of "we won, but it sure wasn't easy." Really? Looked like you blew everybody away to me.
2) that Saki's skirt was too long. There's no way we'll see blushing thighs or knees now.
You're right, the characterization is pretty poor, and so far the mahjong has had no drama whatsoever. Disappointing, to say the least.
Posted by: wahsatchmo at April 23, 2012 11:22 AM (1CZmg)
2
Over at RandomC, a commenter said that in the manga, Saki had put on Mako's skirt by mistake.
I've reached my limit, and won't be following this one any longer.
Episode begins with an extended bathing scene, including lots more innuendo. Then we get a long exposition on submachine guns (grade school students) and then one on why the British guns suck. And we close with yet another extended bathing scene, loaded with "Buy the BD" censorship.
It's just entirely too strange. I'm through.
UPDATE: For whatever it's worth, my schedule now is:
Shining Hearts actually runs on Thursdays but the sub doesn't show up until Friday. The other three shows are on Crunchyroll.
I am pretty sure I'm going to be following Shining Hearts all the way. Mouretsu Pirates is a lock. The other two shows I may still give up on, or not, depending on how they develop. Saki is the one I'm most likely to drop at this point.
1
FWIW, I laughed harder during this episode than I did in the previous two combined. Some funny, funny stuff in there if you know anything about guns (the history of the L85 was spot-on, by the way)... like the M16 girl "cleaning herself more thoroughly" than everybody else. Or the SMG teacher, Thompson, having big (ahem) magazines.
It's not a good show by any stretch of the imagination, but the production staff knows that, I think.
Posted by: Wonderduck at April 22, 2012 08:23 PM (PVVuW)
2
I knew that the M16 had a reputation for needing to be kept particularly clean if you wanted it to be reliable, and I figured that the business of Ichiroku being particularly careful cleansing herself was a reference to that. But it doesn't ameliorate the squicks.
1
The ending for this episode really surprised me (I was expecting something else as the "secret"). And like you, I want to see the next episode NOW!
I just wonder who is going to pay them for the next "gig"...
Posted by: Siergen at April 21, 2012 10:51 AM (3/gGt)
2
That's an interesting question.
Jenny is rich, of course. But she's also going against her family, and may not really have access to her wealth.
What I suspect is that this will lead to an in-family row, where they finally acknowledge that she really, really, really doesn't want to marry this guy. Then they make up, and she regains access to her wealth, and pays Marika handsomely.
3
And now we see why the narrator was saying at the start, "Space has laws, but no rules." This one is going to break quite a few of the first, and make up a lot of the second on the fly. (As if they weren't doing the same already. There's probably a law somewhere against hazardous teen labor!)
But what surprised me was the reference in the preview to "armed corporate fleets." Those Galactic Empire types are pretty laid back, aren't they?
Oh, and "good job" to Lynn, for reading the mood when they first entered the Princess Apricot, and for looking out for the crew during the raid.
4
Galactic Empire rule does seem to be rather benign. At one point we were speculating about a possible revolution, but at this point it hardly seems to be necessary. Everyone's free and prosperous; what's to revolt against?
5
I have a big guess about Jenny:
Her company is "Hugh and Dolittle". I bet her fiance is Hugh. Way back when, one family had a son and the other family had a daughter, and they decided that it made the most sense for the corporation for them to marry.
I also bet that her fiance is just as unthrilled about it as she is, and will be happy to call it off. That's simply because it's that kind of show. No ending leaves anyone hurt and crying. The four parents will be disappointed, but not hurt or crying.
6
About next week's show (is it Saturday yet?):
If Marika was going in with her regular crew, busting into a wedding guarded by warships would almost be routine. With the yacht club, this is going to be tricky. Only Marka and Chiaki are close to fully trained for this sort of thing. Lynn seems to have talent, but she's not a professional, and it's not known how much (if any) military training the princesses have.
I suspect that some of the girls will slip in "undercover", or possibly as guests since they were fellow students of Jenny's. Then, once they "kidnap" Jenny, they can use her as a human shield to lessen the military response as the Bentenmaru performs the extraction.
Posted by: Siergen at April 21, 2012 03:20 PM (3/gGt)
The one thing I'm curious about is
if Lynn is working with Jenny, or if an interested third party might be behind the planned "Dolittle Raid?" Perhaps someone she's actually in love with? I wonder because Jenny seemed the type who would accede to such an arrangement out of a sense of responsibility to the family/corporation, as much as she might not want to. This might be a case of her friends trying to save her in spite of herself. Which would add another level of complication to the fun.
Oh, and I noticed that there was only one stateroom that had four beds and five occupants. Heh.
Posted by: Dave Young at April 21, 2012 03:28 PM (ZAk0Z)
8
Here's another odd thought:
Was there more Method to Mami's Madness than there would at first seem to be? The passengers were focusing on the outrageous costumes much more than on the girls themselves. Could that have been Mami's intent...to make the girls less likely to be recognized? Just a thought.
Posted by: Dave Young at April 21, 2012 04:40 PM (ZAk0Z)
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Dave, about Lynn:
In the books, Lynn is lesbian and is in love with Jenny. Not known the extent to which Jenny returns the feelings.
Sato, the director, has said that he's removed all the romance aspects of the story, and in particular that seems to be this, so all they've really shown us is that Lynn and Jenny are close friends. But in terms of the original story being told, I think we can assume that this is Lynn's motivation, even if Sea Of The Morningstar doesn't have gay marriage.
I think it was Jenny that Lynn was surreptitiously communicating with. Not known whether this raid is exclusively Lynn's idea, or whether the two of them talked it over.
But I seriously doubt that there's anyone else involved.
By the way, just wanted to mention that Show is pretty cool.
He comes across as very weird, but he is genuinely concerned with Marika, and doing a lot to help her.
Of course, he has a strong interest in her. She's a big customer of his, as an insurance broker, and she's a big part of his other business, which I guess we could call entertainment booking. Losing Bentenmaru would seriously affect his bottom line.
Even so, he seems to be going the extra mile for her, and that's pretty awesome. Things like warning the captain of the Princess Apricot that Marika's regular crew were all ill, and that Marika's entire crew was trainees. That was pretty helpful, because it prepared the captain to cut Marika some slack for the weirdness of the raid.
11
Giving a minor character like Show such depth is really a nice touch. Regarding Lynn
and Jenny, that makes perfect sense, motivationally. And acknowledging romantic ties between supporting characters certainly wouldn't undercut Sato's main point. I was actually hoping Misa and Kane were a married couple -- they initially seemed to give that vibe, and it's not the kind of comfortable but competent relationship you see very often in any media.
Posted by: Dave Young at April 21, 2012 07:02 PM (ZAk0Z)
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Misa and Kane:
Misa is a lot older than Kane is. Doesn't it seem to you that Misa is going rather overboard? Some women who are beautiful do that when the years start catching up with them. Misa is trying to hold on to it, even though her looks are starting to fade. She's compensating with sexy clothing, for example.
One demonstration of that is that Misa referred to herself as a bijin, which was rather immodest.
She's about the same age as Ririka, and Ririka has a grown daughter. And Ririka had a pretty long and successful career as a pirate before she got pregnant. I figure Misa and Ririka are both 40-45. Ririka is still pretty damned fine looking, but she isn't trying to be a sexpot the way Misa is.
They never have said, but it's pretty clear that Kane is in his 20's. He wasn't part of the crew of Bentenmaru when Ririka left, and there are other clues. If he was also 40, he wouldn't have been worried about the school girls getting crushes on him etc. And he wouldn't have been as successful flirting with those two young women just before his sword fight.
Misa isn't quite old enough to be his mother, but she's well outside his radar range. And we have seen nothing whatever on the Bentenmaru to indicate that they are anything besides co-workers.
13
I hope that
they don't completely drop the romance between Jenny and Lynn. It makes sense for both their characters and the plot to leave it in, even if it's not explicit. Also, I it would be a nice gesture acknowledging the importance of lesbian relationships in the early Soviet space program...
Posted by: Siergen at April 21, 2012 07:51 PM (3/gGt)
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I do like:
When details mentioned in passing 10+ episodes ago are actually important. It's just subtle foreshadowing, but, still, it's nice to see it done.
Dark Mami:
Is one of the best side characters ever. She's also completely unique in the series. She loves that Marika is a pirate, but she's the only character with 0 interest in the space aspects of it. She likes her school, her job and designing clothes. Marika's pirate gig is just fun and a way for her to put her work out there.
Also, if they ever mention her family background, 2:1 odds her family is involved in a lot of less than legal activity. She's just too manipulative, haha.
On the episode:
I had to pause a few times to laugh about the costumes and the singing. It was a bit much, but it came out okay. I did love Ai getting hit on and Jenny coming to the rescue. Remember, dressed like a prince. Haha.
Though I really wasn't expecting the cosplay. I was expecting them to be dressed up as chibi-pirates or something. That was a tad bit of a shock.
Oh, and Marika can sleep hard. I imagine there'll eventually be a big joke with Gruier or Chiaki painting something on her face. Though Gruier, I guess, did get a cuddle session with Marika? haha
On Lynn & Jenny:
I really wasn't expecting this. I'd seen the Wikipedia entry and Lynn's setup was pretty obvious from the beginning, anyway. I just assumed that Lynn would go work for Jenny (I was thinking they were in the same class), then they'd both come back as running contract work through Marika. This was not my expectation.
Yeah, that's most definitely Jenny she was talking to. Though I wonder if both Jenny and her, soon to be former, fiance are in on ending the wedding. It'll be interesting to see how it turns out. It'll also be really interesting to see how Show takes this news. Or Misa, haha.
They could get Grunhilde & Gruier into the wedding pretty easily. But I foresee a security detail needing a heart transplant after they found out that detail.
We also have to assume that Jenny's last name as Doolittle was entirely to setup the reference to Doolittle's Raiders. That's fun.
Posted by: sqa at April 21, 2012 09:17 PM (orsHm)
15
The word of God is "Dolittle". Not that it matters.
In the books, Lynn is lesbian and is in love with Jenny.
Then I guess it was a tip of the hat to that to have her dressed like someone in a `Zuka cafe.
I really cringed at the outfits..I should have seen it coming but I didn't. The costume thing could have been awful, and defied any suspicion of disbelief but for the offhanded comments from the Captain, which was a nice touch.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at April 22, 2012 12:13 AM (EJaOX)
17
Technical term for the costume at the end with the umbrella is "race queen".
Posted by: muon at April 22, 2012 12:50 AM (JXm2R)
18
I have to admit borrowing this idea from a MAL commenter, but:
If they kept the costumes for the normal crew, which outfit would Schnitzer have to wear on the next Raid?
Oh, the random image possibilities!
Posted by: sqa at April 22, 2012 07:38 AM (orsHm)
19
He'd be the dinosaur. (I incorrectly identified it as a bear.)
This show may be an example of iyashikei, "healing anime". The second episode continues the feeling from the first one: not very much happens, and everything comes out OK in the end. Alvin the sourpuss elf even smiled.
Alvin detected a huge storm blowing in. His sister Rana warned Madera, the old lady baker, about it, and she and the other four bakers spread the word throughout the town. So when the storm really began to blow, everyone was ready. No one got hurt and there wasn't very much damage. Happy endo.
We have another castaway, just showing up at the very end. Based on what I've read, she's the real focus of the show. She'll inspire a series of treasure hunts, and presumably Rick will temporarily return to his old ways and be a swordsman. There are hints about him. As gentle and honorable and hard working as he is, he uses ore. Rick is the player avatar in the game, so presumably he's the protagonist in the anime.
One thing I'm looking forward to is what Neris, Airi, and Amil do during the treasure hunts. I have a sneaking suspicion that some or all of the are magic users. Airi in particular; she's the blonde who wears a nun habit, and I bet it'll turn out she has the powers we associate with clerics. And it'll be all four of them who engage in the quests. It wouldn't massively surprise me if one of the turned out to be an archer, though.
At least I hope that's what turns out. The Wikipedia article on the game says that they're just bakers. That's all.
Anyway, the next episode is where the real story begins, and it'll be interesting to see if they maintain the comfortable feeling I've gotten in the first two episodes. The girls took Rick in when he was a castaway, and presumably they're going to do the same for Kaguya.
