Well, for the people who have been complaining that the show has been slow and uneventful, in this episode things begin to pick up.

The Odette II is being trailed by hostiles. The nature of the hostiles isn't yet clear, but it's probably related to the EW attack while they were in the space dock.

And in this episode everyone on the ship finds out about Marika being a candidate to become captain of the Benten-maru.

There were surprises in this episode. One was that Jenny Doolittle, the club president and current captain of the Odette II, and Lynn Labretta, VP of the club, both already knew about Marika. From their reactions when told, the others on the ship weren't aware. But they all know now.

In the pilot, way back when, there was at least one scene where other schoolgirls called our heroine "Marika-sama". Now that they know what's going on with her, maybe that's why.

Jenny surprised me in a lot of ways, in particular in how she decided to let Marika become the ship's strategist in the battle they face. And given her utter inexperience, Marika came up with a pretty good plan.

After a while it occurred to me that this is an aspect of the sempai/kouhai relationship in Japanese schools, where the older students see themselves as being responsible for guiding and teaching their juniors. (That is particularly the case in school clubs.) Once it's out in the open that Marika might become a pirate captain, Jenny sees it as her duty to help develop Marika's skills -- and developing strategies and tactics for particular situations is certainly part of what Marika will need if she becomes captain of the Bentenmaru.

Kane and Misa are on board, and they're playing an interesting game. The Bentenmaru is also shadowing the Odette II, and when the stealthed ships were discovered, Kane called the Bentenmaru to tell them about it. Which the students weren't supposed to know, but Chiaki tapped his call.

Indeed, there seems to be a lot of benign espionage going on in that ship. Kane and Misa have been listening in on the bridge when the girls have been doing all this. Chiaki tapped Kane. And it seems that Jenny and Lynn have been doing some of it, too.

Lynn seems to be an uber-hacker. She got suspended from middle school for hacking, for instance. One of the attackers seems to be an unmanned drone, which Marika thinks the bad guys are going to use as a relay for an electronic attack on the Odette II. In the next episode Lynn is going to try to take it over, so that they can use it against those who deployed it. Should be fun!

The Odette II was once a warship, as well as being a pirate. It turns out to have a lot of its original equipment still installed. So far we've seen a military grade electronic warfare unit, a high frequency targeting radar, and a military IFF system. Makes you wonder what else got left in. Is it still armed, for instance?

In particular, maybe when it was decommissioned they locked down the weapons instead of uninstalling them, and maybe Lynn can get them back on line. I doubt that's where this is going; I think this battle will be electronic warfare.

UPDATE: A possibility occurs to me: this is an improptu training exercise for Marika, quite possibly by Chiaki's father.

A further possibility: Jenny knew it was coming, and knows what it's for, and that's why she's letting Marika be strategist and tactician. Maybe she was warned about it at the same time she learned about Marika's candidacy.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 04:45 PM | Comments (24) | Add Comment
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