Sato continues to tell his story in what some may consider to be a leisurely pace, which is to say that he's concentrating on his characters, not on trying to give us visual fireworks. He's got two cours to tell his story, and he isn't in any hurry.

For those like me who are in sync with his rhythm, it's going nicely. In this episode the yacht club begins its trip in the Odette II. After launch from the space station, they deploy their solar collectors.

Words sometimes survive their original use and continue to be used in other contexts. What I'm doing right now is called "typing", even though there isn't any typewriter involved. Indeed, I think it's been ten years since I last saw a typewriter. And I doubt there's a piece of physical type within a mile of here.

The solar collectors are on long mechanical arms, and in a nice conceit they're referred to as "masts", and specific ones are given names like "mizzen-mast". That was clever. Likely a lot of this came from the original light novels, but still credit where credit is due.

Turned out that one of the masts didn't deploy properly. The ship doesn't have any repair bots, so we have to have a space walk. Kane takes the first-year students out to have a look.

The Kane character is surprisingly interesting. Sato isn't falling into the trap of making him a perv, thank goodness. He's surrounded by nubile young things, but he isn't trying to sneak a peek, and isn't really affected by it. When he first introduced himself to the class he informed them that he was married. Whether true or not, the real message was "Don't mess with me." He's got a job to do, and he really is doing it well.

We get a nice example of operations in this one, including the way that the bridge monitors everything, and the way that everyone coordinates with one another. Kane uses the opportunity to help the students learn how these things are done; he doesn't outright take command and give orders -- which he could do. He's the faculty supervisor, and he's spent most of his life in space. But he wants the girls to learn; this is a training mission, after all.

The visuals on the ship continue to be nice. I like this design for the ship's bridge:

The one on the top left, sitting on the seat that sticks out, is the commander. Marika is sitting next to her and seems to be the helm. (Kane is in the lower right corner with his back to us.)

So we got a problem, and Kane will take six students out to try to fix it. So we get a locker room scene; first fan service of the series -- and not really very explicit.

And inevitably the suits are rather snug:

Chiaki continues to be an enigma, but one thing is clear: she wants Marika to become captain of the Benten-maru.

She shows up at the cafe again, to have another parfait. When she walks in, Marika and Mami greet her as "Chiaki-chan!" And she harumphs and says "Chan janai". More or less Don't call me 'chan'.

In terms of the series construction, there's a hell of a lot of foundation being laid in these episodes, but I think the most important thing is development of the relationship between Chiaki and Marika. You can see it happening.

Sato has said that he eliminated all romance from the story. Which suits me just fine. Romance subplots can make for good stories, but usually they're a crutch for writers who don't have anything else to say. It appears that this series has a deep enough story to tell that it doesn't need that.

I continue to be enthusiastic about Mouretsu Pirates.

UPDATE: Chiaki mentioned "the renewal of the Letter of Marque" as an event in the immediate future. What I've put together in my mind is this: if there is a captain from the designated family line, then renewal of the Letter of Marque is automatic. If there isn't, the Letter expires. There were originally several privateers, but by this point all of the other Letters have expired, for whatever reasons. That's why the Benten-maru is the only privateer from that planet still operating.

We don't know when the critical date is, but it doesn't seem to be really immediate. Were that the case, Kane and Misa would be in a lot more of a hurry to get Marika to agree to become captain. So we're probably talking months.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 11:15 AM | Comments (11) | Add Comment
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