1 As a neat little easter egg, that script she's given is the same as the episode script for the show.  Same yellow folio cover, same font, same picture on the front.  So the voice actress would've been holding more or less the same thing that her character was holding when she read those lines.

2

I can tell that the seiyuu was having fun with that scene. She sure was chewing the (virtual) scenery, but that's what was called for, because Marika was hamming it up.

3

There's a character named "Otou-san", who is shown in the credits dressed as a cook. I bet he runs Bentenmaru's cafeteria, and I wonder if Mami ends up working for him?

It's a job, and someone has to do it, and she knows how. Why not? Besides which, having a friend on board seems to help motivate Marika -- which is all to the good.

4 One moment, near the end: Marika sits alone in a fancy office. And she says, "This is my father's office?" And I said, "No, it's your office."

5 And we find out what the "surprising end" to the war of revolution was.  Veddy interestink, no?

6 Er, um... "revolutionary war of independence."  Pardon useful Engrish for me. 

7 So nice I watched it twice. The new character I expected didn't show up, but perhaps next time; I certainly wasn't disappointed with what we got.

I approve of Chiaki  leaving the ship for now. They needed to compete once as pirate girls, but now Marika needs to bond with her crew, and Chiaki needs to make some decisions. She's the cover girl for book 3, by the way, so she won't be gone too long.

As for Mami, I think she's going to come aboard as the captain's personal assistant, giving Marika someone outside the chain of command that she can confide in. I assume from the end credits that she'll keep the maid costume.

The history lesson and first mission fleshed out the universe without being dull exposition. Misa is becoming my new dream girl, although a nice Ririka flashback/comeback episode could still dethrone her.

-j

8

Misa has the same voice as Takei Hisa in Saki, and it's perfect for her.

Doesn't it strike you that there was an element of theater to the attack? The guys in the boarding party were wearing traditional, almost cliche, pirate costumes, things like colored scarves wrapped around their heads. And of course there was Marika's silly hat and tremendous coat. No one on the ship dresses like that, and she doesn't the rest of the time either. Plus the arranged sword fight, and the way that Kane was also overacting -- it was almost like street theater, like they were buskers.

Maybe it's because it helps to put the victims in the proper state of mind, i.e. to give up their valuables without a struggle. But it's curious that they should do that. What made me think about it was that Marika's curious performance, with mistakes and overacting, had the effect of turning the whole thing into a comedy performance. The victims were laughing and applauding, mostly. I think that Kane keyed into that and decided to play it the same way, right up to the shocking ending.

Those on the bridge listening to it all didn't seem too concerned about how Marika was behaving. It worked, after all; they got a good haul of treasure.

9 Speaking of voices, Marika's seiyuu is new. This is her first leading role. I think she's doing a fantastic job. This will not hurt her future prospects in the industry, especially since I expect this show to be a major hit.

10 Wow.  That episode really threw me off stride.  I certainly didn't expect them to go pirating against general civilian commerce for loot.  I expected their activites would be directed against some particular faction or group.  Nor did I expect them to play it for laughs.  The fact they didn't seem to mind beclowning themselves a bit is fascinating.  And why would this Galactic Federation think their activities were OK, sanctioned by a particular world or not?  I'm really confused right now.  Which means this show just got a Hell of a lot more interesting -- because I'm pretty sure there's going to be some logic underlying all this. They're just going to have some fun playing with our heads (or at least mine) before they let us in on it.

11 The political situation is obviously complex and important, and they haven't revealed much of it to us yet. It seems apparent that the government of Sea of the Morning Star doesn't just tolerate the Bentenmaru. They are actively enthusiastic about it and are willing to go to great lengths to help it continue to operate.

Even to the point where government agents helped Misa find Marika at the beginning of this episode. It's hard to believe that it's only because the government gets a percentage of the take; that planet is large and wealthy, and compared to its normal tax revenue, the income from the Bentenmaru must be in the noise.

Likewise, the Odette II is quite mysterious. Why is one of the original seven pirate ships assigned to that school? And why is it so up-to-date? Surely the school can't afford all that stuff; the government must be paying for things like an up-to-date EW system for it, and stuff like that. Why is the government so interested in maintaining it in mothballs that way? All they'd have to do is install guns on it, and it's ready to become a privateer again.

I wonder if there's another revolution brewing?

12 Which brings up another point: I really do wonder whether Marika's father really is dead.

If there's another revolution brewing, maybe his death has been faked, because he's gone underground to help prepare for it.

13 Yeah.  I thought the whole death by food posioning thing was a little fishy anyway.  Also, after finally thinking about if for more than two seconds, it seems obvious that the "attack" on the Apricot was arranged so Marika could fulfill the terms of the Letter of Marque -- which illustrates more of that cooperation between the authorities and the privateers.

14 Timing: Marika's homeroom teacher had an "accident" a week before Kane showed up, making it 3-4 days before her father's death. And no one seems to think it odd that the school nurse was also suddenly replaced at the same time.

Theatre: IMHO, pirates are romantic tourist attractions, and the cruise lines and their insurance companies are in on it. Everyone on the Princess Apricot (heh) who had prior space experience was thrilled to be attacked, and Kane told the first-timers not to worry because the ship's insurance policy would cover any losses. It's not a full-time arrangement for the Bentenmaru, but as a privateer with a reputation for putting on a good show without hurting anybody, they probably had no trouble arranging for The Dread Pirate Marika's debut.

However, I disagree about the costumes. The bridge crew and "away team" seem to dress in flashy pirate gear all the time; it's the ordinary support crew that are wearing modern uniforms. Maybe most of them are just merchant sailors.

Oh, and it's "Oyaji-san" in the chef outfit. Minor thinko.

-j

15 I've wondered about all that too The suspicious death, the rather obvious pirating set-up....  Especially the bit about the insurance.

Most anime is so illogical that shows like this are a treasure -- it's deep enough that the writer and director have obviously been thinking things through, not just assembling random tropes.  These are the fun shows because we can speculate like mad, not to fill in the gaps that aren't there, but to guess what is there that we haven't seen yet.

And on that score, could we be looking at a giant money laundering scheme, designed to funnel funds to the supposed revolution?   Could both sides have decided the Empire is the bigger enemy and have buried their differences?  And the next episode certainly looks like it's about to pick up even more.

I pity the folks that gave up after episode 3-4; I was getting pretty impatient, but I'm glad I hung on.

16 You're right about the chef. Seems like "Pops" would be a good translation of that, wouldn't you think?

17

This one has the same feel that Shingu did, in the way that there seem to be lots of things going on which we don't understand right now. In Shingu everything was clear at the end (though some people were not satisfied with the explanation regarding Muryou). I have a feeling it's going to be that way this time, too.

Sato likes to tell intricate stories. Martian Successor Nadesico was like that, too.

18 They didn't show it, but how do you think Kane got back on the Bentenmaru afterwards? My guess: After the guys collected all the booty, I imagine that he stood up, waved to the crowd, and left with them, wearing a great big grin.

19 Can anyone tell me why Mami walks so strangely in the first part of the ED?  She's walking with her knees turned inward while she's in her school uniform, but when they switch to their 'work' clothes, she walks normally.

20 Tom...there are some questions a gentleman simply does not ask of a lady!  For shame.

21 Maybe it's on purpose. Merlin Monroe did it in "Some Like It Hot" when she demonstrated how to walk on high heels.

22 I've been avoiding these threads because I hadn't had time to watch it all, but I just watched all 6 so far in one go.

I certainly didn't anticipate this last one to be played the way they did it, but it was fun.  And a nice change of pace from the submarine battle like previous arc.

I think the reason they show Mami in the end credits is that like in any other Anime, the main character must still go to school.  So I'll wager that her Pirating is going to be part-time until she graduates.  But I kinda hope I'm wrong.

(On the other hand, they're certainly not going to create and name all those school characters and then abandon them after 5 episodes in a two-season show.)

23 Marika said that she intends to keep attending school until she graduates.  Which it should be interesting to see how Marika's classmates treat her  -- I clearly recall no pirate captain was in my highschool, and I suspect it's going to be fairly uncommon to have even one, let alone the heir apparent to another in Morningstar's schools.(C'mon, you know Chiaki is going to be there too.)

24

In the series preview which was released before ep 1, there was at least one scene where a classmmate referred to her as "Marika-sama".

With everyone in the yacht club knowing about her, there's no way it stays secret, and it's pretty clear that by the time her classes start again, everyone in the school is going to know. Given that by then she'll have probably made several attacks, her prestige is going to be sky-high.

25 Theatre: One thing that struck me about the whole scene is how Marika and company enter the ballroom. It certainly looks like they came directly in an airlock from their ship, and it's a nice showy one to boot with a bonus dramatic descending staircase. Now, maybe there are other uses for an airlock in such a place (eg showy entrances for other important people), but it's certainly suspiciously convenient for pirate raid theatre.

26

Did you also notice the spotlight on Marika and on her opponent? Rather odd, isn't it?

Those lights could have been from the Bentenmaru. I suppose it's also possible that Courier was controlling lights inside the Princess Apricot. But it still seemed rather theatrical that it happened at all.

27 It was borderline "rule of cool" so I just went with it.  If you want one that's over the top, try ep.#15 of Macross 00, the double serenade of "What 'bout My Star".  That scene is so awesome (and funny, in a way) that I go back and watch it every few months.  Even without subtitles, you can see what's going on, and how it plays out excuses the silliness.

28 Theatre: Also the waiters carefully moving the pyramid of glassware out of the way and the band packing up their instruments, just before the lights dim. The icing on the cake is when they make the ceiling transparent so the "victims" can see the Bentenmaru passing overhead. And Kane knows precisely when that's going to happen, because he read the script. After the ship docks, you can still see its spotlights through the ballroom ceiling, but there are also some flashing lights coming from ceiling fixtures, and Marika's voice is being amplified. It's so well-staged that even Chiaki gets excited watching, and she knows it's fake.

Oh, and speaking of Chiaki, when Marika asks Schnitzer what her mom was like as a pirate, his answer applies just as well to Chiaki, and he knows that his other student is listening.

-j

29

Over at Random Curiosity, someone named "Sunflower" posted this:

The insurance company is behind all this.
They make insurance contract with the ship company and call the Bentenmaru.(They have a phone number for a reason, right?) The privateer ship provides the Disneyland-Pirates-of-Carribean surprise show and give some entertainment to all those rich and bored passengers on the cruiser. The ship company knows what's going to happen. They even fully expected all this when they made the contract. The Bentenmaru sells the things they get from passengers to the insurance company and the company sends those thing back to the passengers.

So…
The insurance company can get big contract and make good money out of it.
The ship company can make their "customer experience” a little more spicy and keep passengers happy.
The passengers can get happy with the entertainment and all the things they give to the pirates are going to get sent back later.(They can even decline to give away some stuff which is too valuable)
The Bentenmaru can make some money by selling the stuff to the insurance company and since it's still considered "pirating”, their Letter of Marque stays good.
Now see, everyone is happy.

What if some naive guy actually challenges Marika?
Thats when the big cyborg guy steps in and takes care of business without harming the poor guy.

Sunflower doesn't say where this comes from, whether it's speculation or from reading the books, but it really does sound plausible.

And it would make a good first-mission for Marika, wouldn't it?

30 I think I buy that idea, in fact. If the Bentenmaru has a rep for putting on a good show and not hurting anyone, they might get a lot of repeat business, too.

Having the captain -- i.e. the lead player in the melodrama -- be a cute girl just makes it all the better. There may be an element of "aidoru" mystique seeping into this show regarding Marika. Considering how good of a show she put on her very first time, she can only improve the Bentenmaru's rep in this regard. (Once she was on the Princess Apricot, she was in the groove and never missed a beat. She never hesitated, wasn't flustered, didn't make any mistakes. She was great!)

Sunflower doesn't include Ubu's speculation -- which I also buy -- that this is a huge money-laundering scheme to fund a new revolution, but that fits too.

Barbarossa is from a different planet, but it was one of those who joined Sea of the Morningstar in the revolution 150 years ago. It isn't much of a stretch to guess that both planets (along with others) are now involved in setting up a new revolution. And Barbarossa may also be involved in this pirate-attack-by-appointmeent business, funnelling money to the underground. Given how he looks, I bet Chiaki's father also puts on a hell of a good show, albeit a lot different kind of show than Marika did. All of which would explain why Bentenmaru and Barbarossa are on such good terms.

31

Remember Jenny? If the shipping companies are involved in this, then this may explain why Jenny Dolittle, future leader of the Dolittle Shipping company, was so interested in Marika becoming a pirate. She really does have skin in the game.

32

I keep having ideas. I sense Misa's hand in something:

Marika hasn't been wearing her school uniform on the Bentenmaru. (She's mostly been wearing sweat pants  and a sweatshirt.) But she was wearing it under her cloak, which you know because you can see the miniskirt. That seems like Misa's staging. I bet she told Marika to do that, because it would make for a better, more distinctive, show.

33 Misa being behind it would make more sense; I really didn't understand why she was doing that otherwise. It would seem to signal that Marika was holding on to her identity as a schoolgirl, and hadn't really committed to being a pirate.  But as theater, it's a logical bit of "rule of cool" that actually fits within the context of the show.

34

Misa's official title is "Ship's Doctor". I wonder if her unofficial title is "Theatrical Director". She's rather more glamorous than you would expect a doctor to be, for example, but a Director would be more flamboyant. (That jumpsuit she's been wearing is pure sex.)

If so, then it begins to make sense of why Misa has been in charge of Marika's training, doesn't it? Marika is her star performer.

Of course, this kind of thing isn't all that Bentenmaru does, and other kinds of piracy will be more serious. And sometimes they do get involved in shooting. But this kind of piracy-by-appointment is lucrative and relatively low risk, and it's probably a big part of their operation.

35

If what Sunflower says is true, then this is nine kinds of illegal for the insurance company and the shipping line. Not for the Bentenmaru, of course; their Letter of Marque covers it. But it's conspiracy and all kinds of other things for the shipping company and the insurance company.

On the other hand, if they're on one of the planets involved in the conspiracy, then the planetary governments are involved in it, too, and the law enforcement authorities will look the other way.

I can even imagine that the insurance company gets huge tax breaks on the liability, which would mean that most of the money that the Bentenmaru is getting (and funneling to the underground) is really coming from the government.

It just all makes too much sense to me. But I've built these kinds of castles-in-the-sky about shows like this in the past and had them tumble down in ruins.

Maybe not in this case; this idea about Mouretsu Pirates isn't any more farfetched than what was eventually revealed in Shingu, and likewise in Martian Successor Nadesico. Sato likes his conspiracies deep and dark and complex.

36 That was pretty much where I went with the idea, except that it might not be illegal under local laws.  It's perilously close to barratry under ours though.

There's one thing that puzzles me -- why is the GE so tolerant of local piracy?  From Misa's explanation, it seems their attitude is "Oh, it's legal under local laws, so it we're ok with it."  I see parallels with the Abh, except they'd never let local planets have space forces, no indeed!  Two things occur to me: 

One, it was sold to the GE as "theater" not real space piracy.  And if something happens that's "real" piracy, well, gosh, there was this debt collection that needed to happen, and they were in the area; see all these nice legal papers to prove we hired them as repo specialists?  I mean, they're flamboyant repo men (and women) but hey, they're effective!

Second, well is the GE a human empire or is it aliens that don't really get these weird humans anyway?  Haven't seen any evidence, so that's probably out there. Castles in the sky, indeed.  

Heh. Maybe they're Time Lords. 

*runs away quickly!*

37 Nothing more than an impression, but  the little blond standing on the balcony in the OP gave me a real "princessy" vibe.  If so, that would indicate the GE is probably Human.  That little scene is also as close to genuine fan service as this series has gotten, in my opinion.  Which is cool.

38 Dave, about the girl on the balcony, she's a princess, but not of the Galactic Empire. And I hope she shows up soon, because she's voiced by Tomatsu Haruka, who's always fun to have around.

Speaking of familiar voices, I checked, and sure enough, Ririka was Yuu in Daphne and Ryomou in Ikkitousen.

-j

39 By the way, did anyone else make a Princess Apricot - Princess Peach connection?

Another thing I like about the series is how individual the character designs are.  To the point that I think of Misa being an escapee from a Rumiko Takahashi flick.

40 J.G.:  Thanks for the info.  As far as I'm concerned, one can never have too many princesses.

41 With that voice, one can hope she'll be more like Princess Leia.

42 I've been holding off asking this, because I didn't want to spark stupid posts until I thought we might already be there, but is this now officially the longest thread ever on Chizumatic?

43 I have no idea. I'm not sure there's any way for me to check, short of manually searching 3900 posts. (Ick.)

44 Frankly, I'm surprised it's gotten this far without anybody mentioning "How Much For Just the Planet?" yet.

45 Well, Marika and Chiaki do have a Kirk/Spock vibe going, but Misa's floor show doesn't really have that over-the-top Plan C feel to it.

-j

46 Chiaki seems to have some issues. I think a lot of her apparent resentment towards Marika is really envy.

47 Idol Pirate Marika: 14 minutes into episode 1, Marika is searching online for information about pirates, and finds an obvious glamour pin-up of Ririka. The costume styling is also similar to Marika's new outfit. The video clip that comes right after the pin-up has her leading the boarding action, not Dad, so it looks like Blaster Ririka was the ship's poster girl back in the old days. In true idol style, Marika might suddenly find herself worshipped by forty-year-old men across the galaxy.

-j

48 That's an interesting concept. And based on episode 6, Marika's got what it takes to be successful at that.

Chiaki clearly doesn't. She's good looking, good enough anyway, but she doesn't have any charisma. She couldn't play up the way Marika does. If Chiaki had been leading that boarding party, it would have been a bust. The audience wouldn't have enjoyed it, and might even have fought back.

And that may be part of her resentment to Marika. When she begged Misa to let her train for the attack, she said that she'd never done anything official. Maybe she's been begging her father to let her try one, and he hasn't allowed it -- because he knows she would put on a terrible show.

Marika did great. She stumbled a bit at the beginning, was a bit hammy, read one line twice, and her fiendish laugh was less than fiendish. (But plenty laughable.)

But once she was on the Princess Apricot, she did great. There was no sign at all of nervousness. She never flubbed any of her lines. She was attractive, but also intimidating. The evil grin on her face when she shot him was perfect, as was her apparent complete lack of concern afterwards.

And she really is nice looking, too. Bentenmaru is going to get a lot of business while she's the captain.

49 Think Misa was the previous poster girl? Between when Ririka retired (pregnant) and now, that's quite a gap. If part of Bentenmaru's rep is that its raiding parties are led by beautiful women, Misa may have been the previous ship's idol.

And that would be the reason she's in charge of training her successor in that job.

50 While Chiaki is clearly deficient in her charisma quotient, I'm guessing when it come to genuine action -- she'll be pretty formidable.

51 Dave, I'm not so sure. When the shooting started in ep 5, Marika handled it better than Chiaki did. (If they'd followed Chiaki's plan, they'd all be dead.)

52 That's most likely true, but I was thinking more of the serious boarding party/hand-to-hand kind of battle.  She already showed she seemed comfortable in that kind of situation in Episode 1.

53 You said that Sato said in an interview that he tried to scrub all romance from the anime, but how much was in the light novels? Your desc. makes it sound like there's little or no opportunity for it. Someone described this type of writing as "female shounen".