1 Ep 15:

I love that Chiaki brought the princesses along.  You knew they were coming, but Marika, quite rightly, was doing them a favor by not having them along.  I imagine their security detail wasn't too happy about this plan, though I'm guessing they put the safety on Chiaki's hands. 

Lynn is definitely being setup to stay around, though she might also join the employ of Jenny, after graduating.  It should be noted they changed Jenny into a dress in the OP/removed her from the card files in the ED, as well.

Oh, and Fake Kane was awesome, too. 

Looks like they're waiting on Marika to start going full time before they put the ship in for some massive upgrades.  I.e. they'll need money for that, which means a lot of jobs.

Was definitely a fun episode, and the preview hints at the problems with using high school girls for a pirate ship.  They'll want to have fun, yet there will be serious business at hand.

Also, is Marika directly piloting the ship?

2

It's going to be interesting to see how they stage the raid, since a bunch of girl pirates showing up would pretty well give the show away.  Dress 'em up as guys and keep 'em in the background, I'd guess.  And I don't think I'd give them charged guns, either.  Heh.

The visual of the Odette II's sails unfurling was pretty awesome.

3 I think the people who are making this show must be readers of Chizumatic.  In this episode they finally addressed Steven's question of how people get to the lower bridge deck - they even showed it more than once, just to make sure that he noticed it...

4 I didn't notice it. WhyNot's fansub hasn't come out yet, so I haven't rewatched since yesterday morning.

5 Dave: They're going as girls, but in pirate costumes. We already know that because it's the cover of the third book. Also it was in the next-ep teaser.

Also, there isn't any "show" to give away. A pirate raid entirely by girls will be just fine with the shipping line; it'll be even more of a novelty for their passengers.

I wouldn't be surprised if later there's a throwaway gag where Shou asks Marika to do it again with all-girls. (And of course she refuses.)

6 Dave, as to guns: I think that Marika and Chiaki will be the only ones carrying weapons. After the screwup of firing Bentenmaru's main battery, Marika isn't going to take any chances with an accidental disaster. Marika and Chiaki are both familiar with those weapons, and none of the rest can be trusted with them.

7 OK, I guess I'm a little vague, then on why   the Yacht Club went to so much trouble to hide their true destination.  Was that just to keep the crew of the Bentenmaru from worrying?  I was thinking if it came out that high schoolers were out pirating, there would be repurcusions.  And it would seem pretty easy to put 2 and 2 together, given how famous Marika herself is.  So, I'm confused...not unusual.

8 Um, the girls' parents? Not to mention the school officials?

Grace Hopper once said that it is easier to get forgiveness than permission. I think that's Lyn's attitude here.

9 On the Yacht Club:

If they all show back up on the Odette II when they should, they'll, theoretically, be able to go about their business like nothing happen.  (We can assume that won't be true, but it should make for some laughs later)

But, you can't just take a group of high school girls on a Pirate raid without a massively pissed off set of adults.  The mess it could put the school in is kind of insane.  Especially now that you'll have 2 Princesses on board.  That's exactly why it has to be hidden.  You also have to get the idea that this is an upper-class school, given that Jenny was there and that they have their own sailing vessel.   Those parents WON'T be happy when this hits the news.

And, oh, is it ever going to hit the news.

Ironically, Marika can get out of the entire situation.  She's a pirate, after all.

10

And, oh, is it ever going to hit the news.

Maybe not the way you're thinking. It'll hit the news that someone made a pirate raid with all the raiders being joshikousei. It may even hit the news that the now-legendary Captain Marika led it. But it won't necessarily hit the news that it was girls from that particular school. Generally pirate raids aren't filmed, after all, and the girls are all going to be in disguise.

Everyone is going to know that Captain Marika is there, because she's going to announce her name. But how would they know who the others are?

So it may hit the news that an all-girl crew made a pirate raid. But I don't see how that gets connected back to the Yacht Club -- unless someone talks.

Shou won't. Kenjo won't. Chiaki won't. The princesses won't. And Marika's bridge crew sure as hell won't. And the members of the Yacht Club have demonstrated that they can keep their mouths shut.

After they all learned that Marika was a pirate, I thought that'd be all over the school. But it wasn't until she hit the galactic news.

11

My line of concern was that since it's no secret that Marika is a member of an all girls Yacht Club -- which just happens to be out on a voyage at that time -- that it really wouldn't take a genius to put those two facts together.  I was also thinking most of these pirate raids ARE filmed, by the "victims," as mementos, in the same way people are always filming things with their cell phones now.  But disguises would work if the "all girls" thing didn't give it away.  Seems like it would've been smart to leave one or two people on the Odette to stay in communication and maintain the illusion it was crewed, which would have provided good cover.  But...perhaps they've rigged up more replicants, like they did for their departure?  'Cause all they really need is plausible deniability. 

12 I think the answer to most of this is the Rule of Funny. This is a comedy arc.

13 My interpretation of the whole thing was that there isn't any concern on the girls part about keeping their actions secret long-term, it's just that they wouldn't be able to get on the Bentenmaru conventionally.  It's being held in an isolation area, presumably out of range of any transport that the girls could get access to, other than the Odette II.  Perhaps they could have asked for permission and made arrangements to do it somewhat conventionally, but when have we seen any of these characters operate that way?  It probably never crossed their minds.  They'll probably make no attempt to hide their identities or prevent recordings of the pirate action, the whole thing is far too exciting and cool to try and keep secret.

14 Yes, I think Rule of Funny is probably the best explanation.  It doesn't appear this show is quite the tightly scripted work I was initially thinking.  Which is disappointing only in that I REALLY like disecting those kind of shows, and they're few and far between.  That doesn't make this any less a GREAT show...just different.  Adjusting expectations accordingly.