It is becoming a bit annoying the way this show stretches the story out. Despite all the action, it seems like almost nothing is happening.
Fact is, it feels like this show should have been fewer episodes, forcing them into a more brisk story-telling mode.
I have long had a suspicion that this is one of those shows which will work a lot better watched all at once. The frustration here is because the show is weekly, so we're only getting small bites at a slow rate.
So we've found the Golden Ghost Ship. Next week we board it, and maybe we'll find out, at long last, just why in hell it's so important to Serenity.
Grunhilde didn't turn out to be as interesting as I hoped she'd be, and we didn't learn as much from Gruier's conversation with her as I hoped.
In fact, there isn't really much to say about this episode. Despite all the sound effects and flashing and banging, not really very much happened.
J says that books 4-6 are a single long plot line, and it's apparent that Sato has decided to make that the wrap up for this series. But that means he has to fill the first half of the series with the first three books, and it begins to feel as if there really wasn't enough material. Usually when we get filler in a two-cour series it's in the high teens, but it feels this time as if we're getting it now. The whole Gruier plot arc has been four and a half episodes so far, with at least one more to come, and frankly it seems like it really should have been about three total. Eps 10 and 11 together should have been about half an episode.
1
When the first few episodes were so slow, this is what I was afraid of.
On the other hand, as I expected, solve one mystery, two more pop up.
Is the significance of the uniform that Grunhilde is signaling a usurpation of the throne -- that only the Emperor may be uniformed on board a Serenity warship? How does a non-FTL spaceship have the ability to escape into subspace? Why did it effectively pick sides by suddenly powering up, opening its doors for the Bentenmaru only, and then escape? And who is the cute military girl we're starting to see in the background, with a different uniform from the rest?
2
One possibility that occurred to me was
that this happens each generation. The succession is settled via a treasure hunt, and whichever princess gets to it, and inside it, becomes sanctified as the next queen.
And that's why 17 different Serenity expeditions over however long have been involved in trying to find it. In fact they have found it, again and again.
That's also why Gruier said that if necessary, the ghost ship would come to her. She firmly believes it is her destiny to become the next ruler.
3
I didn't think of that, but I'm not sure it's the case.
Gruier seemed shocked at the uniform and asked Grunhilde if she realized she was being manipulated. Also, if it's a contest, it seems the sides/resources are uneven. The military is heavily backing the younger princess, while the older has a shoestring to work with. This bespeaks a serious level of factionalism, perhaps just short of civil war. Oh wait, that was a couple of episodes ago, when Serenity held a shooting match inside the Morningstar system.
Gruier also seemed upset over speculation that the home front was being left defenseless while the majority of the fleet was off ghost hunting. I suspect that if there is such a contest and she wins there's going to be hell to pay. What I don't understand is how it would be enforced... if the military is heavily backing Grunhilde, what is the macguffin Gruier could potentially bring back to say "I won, I'm the queen," such that they'd have to recognize it? Or is the confrontation in the previews their attempt to grab it after Gruier has supposedly won?
4
I like how the writers keep putting in little details that I wouldn't have missed if they were gone, but that add to the "realism" of the show.
For example,when the princess returns to the bridge, we both see and hear Misa hand-cranking the hatch open. With many of the ship's systems still off-line, it had to be opened manually. Later, when Marika heard that the ghost ship was going back into hyperspace, she immediately ordered the ship secured, even though it was "docked" at the time.
Posted by: Siergen at March 17, 2012 01:59 PM (3/gGt)
5
I wonder if the Galactic Empire
is trying to use Grunhilde, to put her on the throne and to make a puppet out of her. Gruier is trying to maintain a greater degree of autonomy for Serenity. Gruier is senior, and presumably is the legitimate heir, so making Grunhilde the next monarch involves a coup of some kind, which the GE is supporting surreptitiously.
I don't find any of this all that convincing for the simple reason that I can't figure out what the hell the Ghost Ship has to do with any of it. Once we see what it is that Gruier seeks, and presumably finds, in the next episode then maybe it'll be more clear.
For all I know, it's going to turn out that the Dogisians are behind it all.
6
In fact, with the way they've been miserly about plot exposition,
I bet that even after we see Gruier accomplish whatever she's after on the Ghost Ship, that we still won't know what the hell is going on. I figure we've got at least two more episodes in this plot arc, maybe even three, and we won't get any kind of explanation of it until the last one.
I'm to the point of thinking of looking around online for spoilers, descriptions of the books. Maybe I'll try looking them up on the Japanese version of Wikipedia.
I did some looking around, and I still don't know what's going on. What I did figure out is that this is all part of the second book.
The third book is an entirely different story -- and it may be a lot of fun, if I understand what I read. It isn't going to be anything like as serious as this arc. And the Yacht Club is going to feature highly in it.
Here's a discussion of book three:
It isn't really all that much of a spoiler, because it's the kind of story which will be fun even if you know what's coming.
Bentenmaru takes on a job to transport some sort of animal to a hospital ship. But it gets loose, and spreads around some kind of disease. It isn't a very serious disease, but it means that Bentenmaru is placed under quarantine.
The problem is that the during the quarantine they won't be able to perform any pirate boarding actions, and it will last long enough for them to go over their performance deadline and lose the Letter of Marque.
Marika is going to recruit the Yacht Club to do Pirate Cosplay (the title of the book). Bentenmaru will lead a two-ship pirate flotilla, under authority of Marika's Letter of Marque, with Marika in overall command. (She has to be. Everyone has to be working for her in order for it to be legal.)
Bentenmaru will take care of any mock-fighting. But the boarding action will be handled by the Yacht Club, using Odette II.
I'm not sure if Marika is on Bentenmaru during the quarantine, or if they do that transport mission without her. It'd be more fun if she is on Odette II, and leads the cosplay boarding action. (And if she's on the ground during the botched hospital job, then likely Kane and Misa are too, and they both will also be on Odette II.)
I think it'll only happen once, but that will be enough to satisfy the letter of the law, and the Letter of Marque won't be revoked before the end of the quarantine.
It sounds like it'll be a goofy story, and maybe Marika will recruit Mami to be one of the cosplayers. We all want to see Mami out in space, don't we?
11
I'm also disappointed with the pacing. Things are being stretched out, and we're no longer getting filler that is as useful for development as we did in the first few episodes.
My thoughts on the significance of the uniform:
A member of the royal family commanding a warship is probably a violation of Galactic Empire law. Brunhilde may be expecting to find something on the Queen Serenity that will let her get away with it, or that is worth the risk of open rebellion.
Posted by: David at March 17, 2012 11:59 PM (Kn54v)
12
This is definitely a series for "mainlining" through. It'd help a bit, though you wouldn't notice a lot of the little details. Which is something of an issue, as this is a "little details" anime.
And the details do give away most of what is going on:
- Gruier may be ahead of Grunhilde in succession, but she's obviously been displaced by some machinations. Otherwise, she wouldn't have snuck onto the Bentenmaru in the first place. (Didn't they say there were 7 planets in the Serenity kingdom? Might be 1 princess per)
- A main part of the fleet is away, which includes 17 ships (so the total fleet is probably under 75 ships), so this is obviously of huge importance to someone. Being a move by the GU makes a lot of sense, which explains some of Gruier's dialogue earlier in the arc.
- Gruier is the "rightful heir" in some manner. The line about talking "on the ship" definitely implies that Gruier knows that Grunhilde doesn't have actual access. Preventing Gruier from getting to the ship was actually very important. Which is also why it closed up its doors and headed into subspace.
- It's very likely the actual "royal family" is on the ship. If they have status abilities and work in "subspace", it's very likely that the actual passage of time is far, far shorter for the crew of the Golden Ghost Ship. Which also means Marika is going to be probably 1-2 weeks late getting back to class. She's going to get hell for that.
- Per some posts from Light Novel readers, they've foreshadowed the reveal and everything else, you just have to look closely for the details.
- The episodes titles are out, so it should almost all be resolved in ep 12. That should end this arc.
But, most of the fun of this series is the little details of what everyone is doing, such as:
- Kane backing the ship in, at combat speeds. You don't leave a hostile port with your weapons facing away from your enemies.
- Marika having Gruier use the Captain's chair to talk to Grunhilde. That had nothing to do with where she sat. She needed time to assess the situation and formulate a combat plan.
- Cleaning your weapons before combat. Subtle, little but oh, so accurate.
- The crew compliment appears to be around 50.
- Intra-system FTL. Always the way to show get ahead of your opponent. Wish more space combat series would use this trick, it solves a lot of problems.
- They just needed to wait about 2 minutes to come out of FTL, haha.
- Marika giving combat announcements like it's being done over the school intercom. Love that little bit.
- Schnitzer apparently doesn't need a space suit, per the preview. He's a cyborg, after all.
Enclose all spoilers in spoiler tags: [spoiler]your spoiler here[/spoiler]
Spoilers which are not properly tagged will be ruthlessly deleted on sight.
Also, I hate unsolicited suggestions and advice. (Even when you think you're being funny.)
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