And Marika was really awesome in this episode.

In fact, she was awesome twice. First, when the shooting started. Second, when the client lost her nerve.

Marika has steel in her spine. The one thing she doesn't do is freak out. She didn't when Odette II came under fire. And she didn't when she had to order Bentenmaru into a fight.

She's not crazy, and it wasn't false bravado. She was trying to prevent the ship from being surrounded, and she took what looked like the best escape route. But it meant firing on Serenity Navy ships, and she never hesitated. And it worked, and they got away.

And then she had to talk to Gruier, who wasn't so sanguine.

Misa made a comment to the effect that Marika really was her father's daughter. And it looks like the rest of the bridge crew was very impressed, and pleased, with her performance. And why wouldn't they be? She's showing exactly the kind of intelligence, decisiveness, and guts that a captain's got to have if the ship is to survive and prosper.

I must say that the beginning of the show had a couple of surprises. One was Chiaki pretending to be Marika, and Barbarossa pretending to be Bentenmaru. Apparently they had an appointment, and Misa subcontracted with Barbarossa to take it over. And since Bentenmaru's new calling card is that its skipper is a cute girl, then Chiaki had to wear Marika's uniform and pretend to be Marika. (Which suggests that Barbarosse refused the contract to search for the Golden Ghost ship which Chiaki told Marika about. The "Kill everyone else" clause probably was the key.)

Chiaki has a long way to go; she was terrible. But the crowd loved it, and that's all that mattered. And if we are to believe earlier exposition, that was the first time Chiaki had ever led a boarding party. So we have to cut her some slack.

A different thing: think that Gruier is a clone? I think Courier suspects so. I had been assuming that "Seventh Princess" meant she had six older sisters. But maybe it means she's a seventh generation clone. And if she doesn't have older sisters, I wonder if she's heir apparent?

Anyway, next ep it looks like we find the Golden Ghost ship. And next episode we meet Grunhilde, Gruier's sister, who seems to be the one in charge of those seventeen Serenity warships.

And if so, and if there is friction between the two (as appears to be the case) then the Serenity ships will still be willing to fire on Bentenmaru even if they know that Gruier is on board. Marika didn't say it, but I think she expects that to be the case.

A different observation: One of Bentenmaru's advantages appears to be crew competence. Schnitzer's aim was good and the two Serenity ships were both hit and damaged. And their return fire didn't score on Bentenmaru. But there may be more to it.

We have speculated that the Corback class is deliberately undergunned, by orders of the Galactic Empire. I wonder if their targeting systems are also deliberately inferior? Such is not the case with Bentenmaru; she's got the best equipment that money can buy. And Schnitzer appears to be very experienced and very competent.

Which leads to another speculation: maybe the Corback drives are also inferior, and maybe Bentenmaru is faster and more maneuverable. I won't be surprised if that turns out to be the case.

Gruier really better have a big bank account; at the rate Bentenmaru is using up expendables like sensor probes and decoys, the bill for this escapade is going to be sky high.

But if I'm right, then what we're going to see next time is a competition between quality and quantity. Grunhilde has brought a fleet of ships which are slow and inferior. Gruier has gambled on a single ship, but one with very high quality from top to bottom. Especially at the top, its captain. Grunhilde is commanding her fleet directly; Gruier is letting Marika, the professional, run the show.

And Gruier is going to win because of that.

UPDATE: One more noteworthy thing: A magical high-tech costume change by Marika, and no fan service. The camera didn't even look at her body while it was happening. Yet another signal from the director, if one even be needed, that this is not that kind of show.

UPDATE: Another thing that was nice is that Marika understands her role, and she doesn't micromanage. During that battle there were long periods in which she sat still and didn't say anything. Her bridge crew know their jobs and are good at carrying them out, and they don't need her interrupting them. Her job is to set policy, to pay attention to the situation, and if necessary to change the policy. But when it isn't necessary, her job is to shut up -- and she did.

Very impressive.

It is a noteworthy aspect of the competence of the story telling that it isn't a surprise. They have spent 9 episodes building us up to this point, Marika's first real battle, and building her character for us in preparation, and this is how we expect Marika to act. It's completely in character for her.

And Misa, in particular, seems to be very, very pleased.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 10:34 AM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
Post contains 898 words, total size 5 kb.

1 Grr - my internet connection is sluggish the last couple days, and CrunchyRoll won't stream more a couple seconds before stalling for me.  I may have to wait till a fansub is available...

Posted by: Siergen at March 10, 2012 02:26 PM (3/gGt)

2 A couple of points: when the mystery of Gruier's biometrics being loaded on the Serenity sensors was discussed, she started looking really upset, and Marika quickly changed the subject. I think she suspects exactly what we're speculating.  Also the conversation about why it worked involved Gruier commenting, "I believe this is how the royal family has managed to maintain Serenity's independence." 

Presumably from the Galactic Empire, but did she mean "total independence from the GE" or "maintain political cohesion after conquest?"   If they're politically independent, then are the Corbacks under-gunned due to a galactic Washington Treaty, or do they lack the heavy industry and tech needed to build superior ships?  Note that their seven planets were described as "paradise" planets, not "industrial powerhouses."  Is Serenity the Switzerland of the galaxy? 

I still think it's really odd how a supposedly civilian conversion can be armed and armored so heavily as to be able to take on pure military ships.  Something's still odd here, on both the political and military fronts.

Posted by: ubu at March 10, 2012 02:58 PM (GfCSm)

3 If Serenity has been building its own ships, why do they look like the Corbacks belonging to Sea of the Morningstar?

There isn't anything particularly special about that shape, which would cause Serenity ship engineers to use it, and in fact in some ways it's a rather poor design: too much surface per volume, long and narrow so the angular momentum is high and the ship can't turn as fast, things like that.

A different possibility is that it's like pirate captains, or maybe like Monte Carlo used to be. Until about 10 years ago, there was a treaty in place between France and Monte Carlo that Monte Carlo would remain independent as long as a member of the Grimaldi dynasty reigned. If the ruler ever died without a successor, then Monte Carlo would become part of France.

That got changed in a new treaty a few years back. But suppose that Serenity has a similar situation with the Galactic Empire, where it can maintain a higher degree of independence as long as certain genetic individuals reign. Serenity has been sneaking through another crack in the regulations by cloning their rulers, and Gruier is the latest one.

I don't think that's what's going on, but it's an interesting idea, isn't it? How the Ghost Ship fits into all this is beyond me, though. What I think does seem clear is that there's a power struggle on Serenity. Grunhilde, the younger sister, seems to be trying to replace Gruier as heir apparent, or something like that. I suspect that will all become much more clear next episode, when we see Grunhilde and Gruier talk to each other.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at March 10, 2012 03:50 PM (+rSRq)

4

As confusing as some things are right now, I think we're being given honest clues that will all fit together and make sense after the fact.  I don't think this show is going to "cheat" with resolutions pulled out of left field.

I really enjoyed seeing a pirate attack from the viewpoint of the "victim's" crew.  Their admiration for the pirate's "professionalism" was hilarious.  And aside from her horrible laugh, I thought Chiaki did pretty good.  Also, really liked the "look" of the bedrooms. Very retro!  (Someone did question the starfield through Marika's "window."  Considering the conditions they were flying through, I wonder if that was a projection?)

Posted by: Dave Young at March 10, 2012 04:40 PM (ZAk0Z)

5 Regards Design questions:

I still think it's really odd how a supposedly civilian conversion can be armed and armored so heavily as to be able to take on pure military ships.  Something's still odd here, on both the political and military fronts.

  In the episode where the Odette2 encountered the "ghost ship" the ship is initially identified as a 'Pleiades Class Battleship'. I note that the Alcyon's schematic is very close to Benten Maru and Barbarossa. This indicates that at least those two ships might actually be pre-war battlewagons that have been maintained as auxiliaries. Kane also mentions offhand that "ghost ships" like Alcyon are seen in this area all the time.

The boneyard Marika did her prefire and marksmanship training in had several similar ships that looked like they had crashed or been deliberately scuttled there (they were nose down).  IF we assume that the powers have had something like the Washington Naval Treaty foisted upon them, and they had to crap their frontline forces in favor of vessels that are essentially like coast guard cutters of varying sizes, then the pirates become a  very interesting loophole indeed, especially if the converted merchantmen were quietly swapped out with (or always were) frontline ships like Alcyon that had "disappeared" mysteriously. Remember that the original 7 were reportedly quite surprisingly  effective for privateers.

Remember too that Sea of Morningstar kept the Odette 2 hiding in plain sight as a schoolship and maintained its EW/ECM system at state of the art levels for a century.  I imagine that the yacht club (and others) are actually analogous to Germany's  Paramilitary Sports Union. 

Also: One thing the Corbacks would likely be very good at is heat dispersal.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at March 10, 2012 07:40 PM (EJaOX)

6 Chikaki wasn't terrible...They LOVED it.

Posted by: The Brickmuppet at March 10, 2012 07:47 PM (EJaOX)

7

When I was watching this on Crunchyroll, I was confused by something that happened near the end of the episode. Just after exchanging fire with the two Corbacks, Bentenmaru was boogying, and the Corbacks tried to fire backwards at them, but something stopped it.

I just figured it out. Just as they were leaving, Bentenmaru dumped chaff, and it fouled up the Corback gunfire. That's pretty awesome.

They also foreshadowed it. In the training simulator in ep 6, one of the things Marika ordered was to dump chaff.

For those not familiar with it, chaff is carefully-cut pieces of aluminum foil. In WWII the Allies used the code name "Window" for it.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at March 10, 2012 09:15 PM (+rSRq)

8 Now we know that the pirates are capable of actual combat, and not just the entertainment "attacks" that they perform for cruise ships.  I wonder...will we see a pirate ship attack a cruise ship for real, say to recover a stolen item or rescue a kidnap victim?

Posted by: Siergen at March 11, 2012 03:41 PM (3/gGt)

9

I think it unlikely, in fact. But if it were needed, they probably could do a good job. The boarding parties we've seen have been carrying  downgraded weapons when they've been doing their entertainment attacks, but if it really comes to it, they seem able to fight pretty seriously.

When Bentenmaru took delivery of that package from Serenity, Schnitzer put his gun down, and then powered up four glowing spots on his chest. And the two men standing next to him did the same -- except that one of them had six spots instead of four. I'm guessing that they're cyborgs, too, altbeit not quite as much of a rebuild as he is.

And there were another fifteen of them, in three squads of five, back guarding various doors nearby ready to defend against a Serenity boarding action, or to come forward and help Marika's group if it were required. They didn't look like they were playing around.

I have a suspicion that everyone that has been accepted to be part of the boarding team is like that. I've stopped tthinking of them as entertainers and started thinking of them as Pirate Marines. It may not be the case that absolutely every one of them is a cyborg, but every one of them is a serious fighter and capable of doing it for real if it is needed.

I imagine that one of Schnitzer's duties is to test and train those guys, and he won't accept anyone not up to his standards. And if they are cyborgs, so much the better.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at March 11, 2012 04:07 PM (+rSRq)

10 I had to figure it out about the chaff, too -- but it's a credit to the writers and director that they'll leave things like this for us TO figure out.  They're telling an intelligent story.  They're assuming intelligent viewers. (Now, THERE's a gutsy move for ya.)

Posted by: Dave Young at March 11, 2012 04:09 PM (ZAk0Z)

11 Siergen, spoiler tags, please!

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at March 11, 2012 05:34 PM (+rSRq)

12 Sorry - I can't edit the old post - can you add them, or blow it all away and let me report?

Posted by: Siergen at March 11, 2012 05:41 PM (3/gGt)

13

Siergen posted:

Based on the Ghost Ship briefing under the airport in episode 9, we know that it originally traveled at sub-light speeds, and had no "inertial control" (it probably spun to generate artificial gravity).

Based on how fast it's been traveling between star systems recently, it probably has faster-than-light drives now (or it just travels at "the speed of plot"). It is also much longer along it's apparent spin access, suggesting a much larger population now. More people and more space may mean an intrinsic industrial capacity. It's choice of course suggests it is trying very hard to not be found.

Based on the princess' unusual arrival method, and the later combat between Serenity ships, it's likely that the princess is caught up in a political power struggle. Her urgent mission (she left without her data files) suggests that she was losing that struggle.

I suggest that the Ghost Ship carries some sort of shadow government for Serenity.  This secret government may be using it as a base to build a revolutionary fleet. The princess is trying to find it to plead her case in person regarding the power struggle back on her home planet.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at March 11, 2012 08:08 PM (+rSRq)

14 Just finished it.  Steven pointed out already the point I wanted to make, about Gruier possibly being a clone (guess it's okay to speculate since it wasn't tagged out.)

My speculation is that the Ghost Ship, being a Generation ship, might ACTUALLY be a bit more "Compact" in its capacity than cold-sleep pods.  It might actually contain a genetic databank and the cloning machine.  I think Gruier's quest is that she actually wants to be a "Normal" girl, and not the Princess any more.

I laughed when I saw Ubu suggest that the Corbacks are Coast Guard "Cutters".  After all, they do look like flying Bowie Knives.

Posted by: Mauser at March 12, 2012 03:34 AM (cZPoz)

15  For this kind of post, I treat everything "below the fold" as being potential spoilers and don't usually tag them as such.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at March 12, 2012 05:39 AM (+rSRq)

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