January 14, 2012

Mouretsu Pirates -- ep 2

RS is posting 1080p versions of the show, so naturally that's what I went with. For all I know it's an upscale of a 720p raw, but it might not be. Regardless, that's what I got.

It took forever to download. Only one real seed, and the average download rate was only about 15 KB/s. Sheesh. (Snore)

Anyway, all good things come to an end, and I finally got it. And, quite frankly, it was worth the wait.

They're doing character building on Marika. Too many shows make their female protagonist either a complete loser ditz or a supergirl. Marika isn't either one. She's strong but not infinitely so. She's confident in herself but isn't cocksure. She's got guts and brains but she's not a world-beater.

Yet.

I really like her. And I like Chiaki. She's still a mystery. But the two of them are beginning to click, and that's good. Chiaki is still distant, and seems to be a bit contemptuous of Marika, but as this episode proceeded Marika began to gain Chiaki's respect.

Sato is taking his time, and some people are impatient. I'm not. It's a two-cour show, and Sato is building his foundation thoroughly. When the time comes that Marika (inevitably) accepts command of the Benten-maru, it'll be believable that she does so.

Oh, and there was no overt fan service. Again. And lots of non-fan-service eye candy. Plus we got to see Marika fire a gun for the first time -- which was pretty cool.

This show still gets the thumbs-up.

UPDATE: I think I know what Aroduc's problem is. (heh) He wants gizmos, and Sato is telling a character story. The reason Sato hasn't rushed right out to space is because this show isn't about space. It's about Marika and Chiaki and Kane and so on, and we need to get to know them. It's also about Marika's mother.

Sato is giving us time with his characters -- and his characters are people, not space ships. For someone not in synch with this, the result seems dull.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 07:05 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
Post contains 348 words, total size 2 kb.

1  You know CR's got 1080p streams now?

Personally, I'm confident there'll be PLENTY of action.  But it'll mean something, because the show will have built up the characters into people we care about.

Posted by: tellu541 at January 14, 2012 07:18 PM (pJ1uW)

2

The series preview showed us ship battles, or at least showed us the Benten-maru firing its main cannon at least once. I'm sure there's going to be action.

But as you say, when it happens, we're going to be more engaged because those doing the shooting, and being shot at, are people we know and care about.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 14, 2012 08:11 PM (+rSRq)

3 It's a lot more deliberate than most shows out there today..  Out of the last season, I think Fate/Zero was another one that built up slowly, but it got away with it because of a pre-buiilt fanbase. Moretsu doesn't have that advantage,so it's getting an unfair rap.

Posted by: ubu at January 14, 2012 08:11 PM (GfCSm)

4 Beautiful teenage girls, mini-skirts, zero-G...and not a single panty shot.  Now, THAT's class, baby!  I also really liked the discussion of electronic warfare.  It'll be interesting to see if they make that an on-going factor in the battles to come.  (And why am I not totally accepting of Chiaki's statement that she's not very good at it, either?  Hmmmm???)

Posted by: Dave Young at January 14, 2012 08:31 PM (ZAk0Z)

5

There were several more cases of shots which, in any other show, would have featured panties, but didn't in this one.

It doesn't feel like Saki where they really wanted to do panty shots but were prevented by the TV station. It feels like Sato is trying to send a message: "This isn't that kind of show".

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 14, 2012 08:41 PM (+rSRq)

6 Does anyone know why Chiaki continues to wear her old uniform? In Japanese schools it is rather significant.

Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at January 14, 2012 09:33 PM (G2mwb)

7

I think she's trying to be cold, distant, stoic. She's trying to hold everyone at arm's length.

It isn't quite working; she betrays a much nicer person inside on more than one occasion. But keeping her old school uniform instead of adopting the correct one is kind of a signal, "I don't belong here. I'm not one of you. Stay away from me."

At least, that's the way I read it.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 14, 2012 10:06 PM (+rSRq)

8 There was one line from the opening intro of the first episode that really grabbed my attention:  I think this is our first clue that this may be a deeper story than some commenters seem to suppose at this time.

Posted by: Dave Young at January 15, 2012 10:00 AM (ZAk0Z)

9 That caught my attention too... and isn't it just odd that a girls high school ends up with   Even one of the pirates thought that was odd

Another thing... the green-lipstick pirate (name eludes me) was looking through the dossiers of several other students, with a "hm, this one might do" response at least once.  I suspect they may recruit more than just a captain. Which brings me back to the the above...

Posted by: ubu at January 15, 2012 05:50 PM (GfCSm)

10

If they're pirates, they don't just sail around. They're taking ships, or cargo from ships, and someone else out there is getting angry about it.

Given that they're privateers, it's also a political matter. The government which issued the letter of Marque could, presumably, cancel it -- and hasn't done so. Which makes their predation something of an act of war.

Who is that enemy? I suspect it'll be a while before we find out, but once we learn that, we'll have a lot better picture of the real story being told here.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 15, 2012 08:12 PM (+rSRq)

11 I just caught this episode last night, and I agree with Steven.  It's designed to start as a character piece with the action to be fleshed out later.  I think it's well paced, especially compared to the two mecha shows this season.
Aquarion EVOL has too much angsty silliness mixed with a creepy vibe about "unions" between boy/girl robot controllers.  Rinne no Langrange's protagonist is way too cocksure, such that her brief moments of doubt are completely unbelievable.
I much prefer the Mouretsu Pirates approach where the characters are established first, which will give weight to future action.

Posted by: wahsatchmo at January 16, 2012 10:23 AM (r4uXE)

12 What I get out of the intro voiceovers is that there was a period of sub-lightspeed colonization, leading to a bunch of isolated planets, followed by the invention of a faster-than-light drive that allowed for real connected colonies and the possibility of interstellar invasion. This is the only way I see that Sea of the Morningstar can simultaneously be described as a "newly settled frontier planet" (episode 1) and "one of the earliest colonized planets" (episode 2).

So, the Galactic Empire grew out of the pre-FtL colonies, and the Stellar Alliance was set up as a series of FtL-connected colonies, of which Sea of the Morningstar was one of the first. The metal tile that Marika conspicuously steps on in episode 2 has the same logo that appears at the beginning of each voiceover, so presumably that represents the Alliance.

All speculation aside, can I just say that I admire the way Chiaki manages to look fierce and commanding while finishing off her chocolate parfait?

-j

Posted by: J Greely at January 16, 2012 11:31 AM (fpXGN)

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