I don't quite know what to say about this episode. For a beach episode it was amazingly free of fan service, for one thing.

There was one very noteworthy thing: Ai is being developed as a strong character. She got a lot of screen time.

Looks like we're finally going to find out who has been gunning for Marika. We met an illuminati, or at least saw him. Ririka recognized him, but we didn't get any more. It looks like we're going to get a whole lot of plot exposition next time.

There's a dinghy piloting competition. Hakuoh Academy was in it once and got a five-year ban for dangerous behaviour. That's expired, and they're eligible to enter again, and they decide to do so. But you only enter three people.

Kane is back. He's now a PE teacher, and he was doing the whole "drill sergeant" schtick. He's also back as faculty advisor for the yacht club. His solution for picking the three members for the team was to have the whole yacht club do a wind-surfing race. And just to make things interesting, he arranges to have Bentenmaru fire into the ocean nearby in order to create interesting winds and waves.

Well, the winners were Natalia, Grunhilde, and Ai, all first-year members of the club. (Isn't that interesting?) Meanwhile, Bentenmaru has been hired to provide security for the race, because there are suspicions that someone is going to try to mess it up.

The next ep preview is very disturbing. Someone is there in a small fighter craft shooting at one of the dinghies, for one thing. And it looks like Marika is out in the Silent Whisper. Chiaki is going to be in it, too.

The real point of all of it seems to be Marika herself. Someone named the "Bisque Company" appears to be after her. All the parties to the truce had a meeting, and even though they are all in competition with one another, they don't appreciate having an outsider come in to upset the game. So they're going to work together to punish said Bisque Company.

It seems that they agreed that the truce will last until after Marika graduates from high school. And a lot of this seems to be arranged by the mysterious illuminati. He may well be the "Fairy Godfather" I've been hypothesizing about, except that it's unlikely that he's part of the government.

The voiceover for the next-ep teaser suggests that we're going to find out a lot more next episode, and if so that's very welcome. The lack of exposition about the first episode assassination attempt was a major weak spot in the story telling. They owe us an answer on that before the (first!) series ends.

Oh, yeah, one more thing about the next ep teaser: Gruier, in full princess regalia, is going to fire the starting gun for the race. Sure, why not? She's probably the most celebrated celebrity available to them.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 09:05 AM | Comments (19) | Add Comment
Post contains 501 words, total size 3 kb.

1 Yeah, next week definitely looks like it will reveal some of the secrets that have been lurking since the first episode.  I also have my own theory about mysterious hooded figure at the bar.  Could it be that the rumors of his death were slightly exaggerated?And, as always, the next episode is too far away...

Posted by: Siergen at May 19, 2012 10:28 AM (PuIGa)

2

Interesting idea! I wonder if you're right?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 19, 2012 11:00 AM (+rSRq)

3 Well, on our "Fairy Godmother" characters:

They used the plural for "Kato", right?  That implies more than one.  Now, this could be Ririka, but she doesn't seem too worried about her own safety.

So, the idea is that the hooded figure is either Gozaemon or, what I'd actually guess, Marika's uncle.  And if it was an uncle, if Marika died, he'd suddenly be pressed into service, right?  Lots of interesting possibilities. 

The council itself looked like it had military and government officials among them.  That'd make a lot of sense.  And maintaining the power & utility of a Pirate ship that bases there would be really important.  So the truce, while always a very logical thing, finally gets confirmation of why it's operating.  It's nice all of the speculation paid off.

Oh, Kane was riffing as "Coach" from Gunbuster.  You kind of had to expect that send up to eventually happen in a space series like this.

On the episode as a whole:

Obviously, they're setting up Ai-chan to be a major player in the final story arc.  She's still something of our Chiaki stand in, as someone at school with a level of skills that Marika can interact with.  Yet, she's quite enjoyable.  Seems both realistic and determined to do what she likes.  Can appreciate that in an anime character.

Yeah, our "fan service" was Kane, ripped, in a speedo.  The body shots of the girls were more revealing in the space suits.  Which just kind of goes with this series and doesn't bother me in the least.  Oh, and poor Lynn & company, haha.  (That was another Gunbuster reference, btw. Running laps was used as punishment by Coach there.)

Plus, a wonderful cameo by Show.  He's always trying to steal the show.

The last thing was a little moment at the end.  After Kane had finished his whole run as "Coach", Marika corrected him and forced him back into addressing her as Captain.  Really subtle moment, but one of those details that is actually really important.  I liked that they were mindful of that.

Further thoughts on the "Fairy Godmothers":

It strikes me that the Truce has as much to do with future influence.  Since Marika will have a considerable amount of local power when she goes full time, who she aligns with can have major repercussions.  If she sides against a set of companies/organizations, she can do significant damage to them.

That would explain a lot of what is going on.  And why so many people suddenly showed up in episode 1.  They all wanted influence with Marika, but they were likely going to end up fighting each other more than anything else, so they made a mutual decision to let her get up to speed and just save the bidding war for later.

That and Ririka kept a not terribly small arsenal and could make their lives hell if she decided to go against whoever.  At the end of the day, she's still Blaster Ririka and a notable pirate in her own right.

Posted by: sqa at May 19, 2012 12:04 PM (fYnLL)

4 If anything, the deferred conflict is even more stark now. With the Bentenmaru now having the Silent Whisper, it has even more varied and more valuable abilities.

It's easy to see why various factions would want to be on Marika's good side. It isn't so obvious why any of them would want to kill her, unless it's because they fear she might align with their enemies. Bentenmaru's assets are potentially also a threat.

As privateers, and de facto mercenaries, Bentenmaru is a loose cannon.

Marika has already made some serious friends in high places, and I don't just mean Gruier and Grunhilde. The government of Sea of the Morningstar has already done well by her in a lot of ways.

But she's also already made some blood enemies. Taking down Robert Dolittle probably seriously inconveniences some people not to mention frightening them, and maybe that's the story with "The Bisque Company". I hope we find out more about that soon.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 19, 2012 12:26 PM (+rSRq)

5 About the truce: I think I understand it now. If the conflict was among different groups jockeying for future influence with her, then they must have realized that they were potentially killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.

Too much violence and/or intrigue too early might well have convinced her she wanted nothing to do with it, and in that case the game would be over.

The original truce term was until she got her Letter of Marque, but now it seems to have been extended to when she graduates from high school. And I think it's for the same reason: by that point she's going to be firmly committed to the job. Before then, she still might decide to chuck the whole thing.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 19, 2012 01:36 PM (+rSRq)

6 sqa, in the first episode Misa said that only the previous captain's "direct descendent" could become the new captain, so if the new face is Marika's uncle, he sounds as though he couldn't become captain.

By the way, I just rewatched the first episode, and there's a lot going on that I missed at first.  Little glances and facial expressions that hint at things only revealed later.  It also seemed that the way that Misa and Marika's mother greeted each other was some sort of pass-code.  I also got the impression that they were sharing some secret that Kane was not in on.

Posted by: Siergen at May 19, 2012 01:44 PM (PuIGa)

7 I don't buy the idea of an uncle. It's way too late to be introducing previously-unknown relatives. It's also lousy storytelling, and this author seems to be better than that.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 19, 2012 02:08 PM (+rSRq)

8 I've always thought the "food poisoning" bit was a little hard to -- ahem -- swallow.  Also, as much as I like Marika's ability to solve problems peacefully, if she's going to continue on as a pirate, at some point she's going to come up against the necessity of using genuinely "deadly" force.  I've wondered if they would deal with that in this show, given the fairly light tone it's maintained.  But it looks like we might see some of that play out next week.

Posted by: Dave Young at May 19, 2012 03:30 PM (ZAk0Z)

9 Dave, nice choice of words there.  I only wish I'd thought of it first.   As to the use of deadly force, I've been wondering that myself.  Marika seems to understand that her decisions could put her and her crew (and fellow students) into grave danger, but I don't think she has yet needed to "fire in anger".  As I recall, it appeared that the ship that she "flashed" with the Odette's solar sails was left disabled, then driven off by the arrival of other ships. 

I can't wait to see if she needs to face that, and if so, will it change her?  Will she still be light-hearted and innocent afterwards, or will she become more her like mother?

Posted by: Siergen at May 19, 2012 03:51 PM (PuIGa)

10 Based on the preview, Marika may go into a killing rage next episode. Basically, someone will be shooting at one of her friends in an unarmed dinghy and Marika will be flying the Silent Whisper, which I assume has rapid fire lasers or some equivalent. The look on Marika's face in one clip was terrifying, and the voiceover suggested she might be in a killing mood.

I don't think a member of the yacht club is doing to die. And I suspect that Marika won't actually kill anyone herself. But she'll try, and then afterwards she's going to do a lot of thinking.

Which parallels Gruier's "I almost killed this baby!" moment, and I suspect Gruier is going to talk her through it, having already been there.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 19, 2012 05:53 PM (+rSRq)

11 Steven, yeah, for this show that sounds about right on the money.  That way they can deal with the issue without getting too dark.

Posted by: Dave Young at May 19, 2012 07:51 PM (ZAk0Z)

12 Is it just coincidence that, except for Marika's mother, the two conspiracies are split along gender lines?

Posted by: Siergen at May 19, 2012 09:24 PM (PuIGa)

13 Sqa, it wasn't the plural, exactly; his exact words were "Kato-oyako", with oyako = "parent and child". We haven't seen anyone gunning for Ririka (which sounds like a really bad idea), so either the food poisoning was an attack, or that isn't what happened. If, however, Dad was so seriously injured that he couldn't engage in piracy for an extended length of time, it would be in everyone's interest to declare him dead, both to keep the franchise running and to flush out the bad guys. Which reopens the question of how recently he met Gruelle, and why he gave her the ring.

I think they've avoided the trap of ending the series with filler...


-j

Posted by: J Greely at May 20, 2012 10:10 AM (2XtN5)

14 Generally, I'm happy when anime and manga avoid traps in general.  Squick.

Posted by: ubu at May 20, 2012 10:56 AM (GfCSm)

15

If they're going to make a plot arc out of answering the question, "Who tried to kill Marika in the first episode, and why?" then that will be a very satisfying ending.

It sounds just like Sato to do that, too.

If that's what's coming, they just set up a nice character moment. Marika told Kenjo that what was most important to her about her crew is that she be able to trust them. But it looks like her crew has been holding out on her, about some really important matters. How will she feel about that?

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 20, 2012 10:59 AM (+rSRq)

16 I did like that Natalia, the third first-year, finally got some characterization. It's odd, that aside from Lynn and Jenny the three new first-years seem to have the most characterization of the regular club members. We do have some idea of the other student's personalities from their time on the Bentenmaru, at least.

Regarding the Bentenmaru, I was a bit surprised at the nose/hull/spinal weapon they used in the contest. I don't recall that being used before; they always used the triple laser turrets mounted on the side of the hull. I wonder if that's putting us on fair notice that the Bentenmaru has a few tricks up it's sleeve that we haven't yet seen.

Speaking of the Bentenmaru's newly-revealed capability (Warning! Bad pun ahead!), I am surprised but happy to see the ship is equipped with what can with 100% accuracy be described as a Wave Motion Gun!

Posted by: Civilis at May 21, 2012 03:25 PM (VMYCu)

17 The nose is the hyperdrive.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 21, 2012 04:30 PM (+rSRq)

18 I'd missed that!  I hadn't been paying much attention to the ship itself when it gets used.

Still, the fact that the hyperdrive doubles as a 'wave-motion gun' and is linked to the fire-control system is new to me.

I also find it convenient that none of the yacht club members we've seen (including Jenny's year) would have been attending the high-school five years ago.

Posted by: Civilis at May 21, 2012 05:11 PM (YVev7)

19

It seems like that old hag is nutso. Clearly whoever she's holding a grudge against isn't there any longer. But that will all become more clear, I hope, once we find out why in hell she wants to kill girls from Hakuoh.

As to the nose they showed us that clearly in ep 18, about 10:45. There are hull segments which retract, exposing more of the nose, when they're setting up for an FTL jump.

Those same hull segments were shown retracted when they were trying to do things to the ocean, and the nose was also glowing. Exactly what that latter mode was, it's hard to say. But I don't believe for a moment that Sato put that in there with no intention of taking further advantage of it. My guess is that the nose device has the ability to warp space. One use of that is to create an entry portal into hyperspace, but there seem to be other ways it can be used.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at May 21, 2012 06:33 PM (+rSRq)

Hide Comments | Add Comment