Oh, what an awesome episode. Sato crossed me up several times, and had me in stitches at least once. Somehow I have the idea that next episode is going to be a surprise, too.

Kane's secret is out in the open, and they won't be doing it again. The younger brother is one of the officers on Parabellum, presumably the pilot. (We still don't know his name.)

The council started unexpectedly, and early. Marika did well, and I think she did a lot to enhance her prestige. Enough so that the other pirate captains agreed to her plan. She challenged Quartz Christie to battle, and the other pirate captains all looked like they agreed.

No one talked down to Marika. None of the other pirate captains treated her as just a schoolgirl. That was really nice. I guess her reputation had already gotten around, and the fact that Bentenmaru is the only pirate ship to survive a battle with Grand Cross is enough to make the other captains take her very seriously, irrespective of her other achievements. Courier used that, too, in a later scene. And it worked, big time.

Courier wore her nerd clothes to a meeting with the EW officers on all the other pirate ships, instead of her glamor outfit. And I think I understand why. With EW officers, glamor doesn't matter. Nerd credibility is where it's at. And protecting her ship from Grand Cross's EW is big time nerd cred.

Besides which, that's the real Courier. She dresses like that on the ship because it's how she feels most comfortable.

Next episode we get the main battle. A fleet of pirates are going to have a meeting engagement with Grand Cross. All the EW officers are going to work together, coordinated by Courier using all the new comm equipment that Marika bought.

Luca is back. They kind of fudged the whole question of how the substitution happened, which is unsatisfying. (But we know it happened after the dinghy race, which means it didn't happen at the hospital.)

We also learned why Ririka is known as "Blaster Ririka". Even after all these years, she's a crack shot.

There is no longer any doubt in my mind that Ironbeard is Gonzaemon. But I'm not sure they're going to formally reveal it to us.

Quartz Christie? I think what we're going to learn is that she's a princess of the Empire, and she's out here doing this just for kicks, because she's bored, a spoiled brat, and a tom-boy. If so, it means she isn't a very nice person.

But there's more to it than that. Something about really being pirates, about letting their Letters of Marque lapse and being real outlaws. I'm not sure what's going on about that. Another possibility is that they will trade their existing Letters of Marque for new ones issued by the Empire itself. Ironbeard and Quartz already seem to have such. (And remember Jenny making a comment to the effect that she'd heard there were ways to get new Letters of Marque? Foreshadowing?)

Marika really spent the bucks on upgrades. They've added two new engine nacelles to Bentenmaru, for one thing. Sensors and radar have been upgraded. The reactors have either been repaired or replaced.

But... the high point of the episode was finding out why Chiaki was hiding under her blanket. And I sympathize. I truly do. But it was hilarious; that whole scene was wonderful.

The hell of it is that while she was doing it, she looked like she was having fun. There's a barrier inside Chiaki. A kind of pomposity. It's a feeling of expectation she has about herself, an image of how she thinks she should behave. And her true self is on the far side of that barrier and she doesn't want to admit it. Eventually it's going to shatter and she's going to give in -- and she's going to be a lot happier for it.

Kenjo knows this. He knows that Marika is the key to making it happen, and that's why he doesn't mind having Chiaki spending time with Marika. It's something that has to happen before Chiaki will be ready to become captain of Barbarossa, but it's also something that has to happen for Chiaki to be happy and to really be an adult.

As to next episode's battle? The Next Ep teaser showed an Empire fleet coming out of warp. I have an idea it's going to be "no game". The pirates will engage Grand Cross, and give her a struggle, but before it can come to any kind of conclusion, Quartz Christie's mother is going to show up with a fleet and stop it all. That's my guess. And then we'll find out if she's Queen of the Empire, or Queen of something else.

And between EW and Marika's tactics, I think we won't see any pirate ships getting destroyed.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in General Anime at 09:11 AM | Comments (14) | Add Comment
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1 Between this and Shining Hearts, it's going to be a long week.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 23, 2012 09:44 AM (+rSRq)

2  

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 23, 2012 09:50 AM (+rSRq)

3 The thing I found interesting is that it's hinted that just about everyone on the Bentenmaru (at least bridge crew) knows who Gozemon is.  Which means he took them into his confidence when he suffered his "food poisoning" and they're keeping it secret from Marika.

Posted by: ubu at June 23, 2012 09:56 AM (GfCSm)

4

Only one episode to come, and I just don't see how they can wrap everything up. Frankly, it looks to me like they're planning for a sequel.

I sure hope there is one. There's plenty of story potential left in this canon. And Marika and Chiaki (and Gruier and Grunhilde) are wonderful characters. I want more of them!

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 23, 2012 10:10 AM (+rSRq)

5

 Quartz: Irrespective of her physical build, doesn't it strike you that she isn't acting very mature? I bet it comes out that she's about the same age as Marika and Chiaki.

Gruier: Gruier really gets around, as princess of Serenity. As we know she had already met Jenny formally, for example. I wonder if it's going to turn out that Gruier knows Quartz Christie? I wouldn't bet against it.

Sato likes to hint at things, to give us indirect evidence that lets us infer stuff. Mami says that according to Gruier, Marika had reached the Pirate's Nest, so we know that Gruier has been keeping up on what's happening. Of course, it's Serenity military intelligence that's doing it, and feeding her what they know. I wonder if Gruier will show up at the battle?

For instance, I wonder if she'll be on one of the Empire ships that are shown coming out of hyperspace.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 23, 2012 10:19 AM (+rSRq)

6 In the preview, were those Empire warships coming out of FTL, or multiple ships of the Grand Cross class?

Posted by: Siergen at June 23, 2012 10:52 AM (PuIGa)

7 Grand Cross is a prototype. It's too soon for it to become the basis for a ship class.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 23, 2012 10:59 AM (+rSRq)

8 Ive been eagerly looking forward to each Saturday, but now my feelings are mixed.  I don't want it to end! 

Posted by: Siergen at June 23, 2012 07:11 PM (PuIGa)

9 I know exactly what you mean. It's going to leave a big hole. Nothing I see coming this summer will be able to fill it.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at June 23, 2012 08:13 PM (+rSRq)

10 Here's a question:  Why did Luca not want the others to know that Ririka had saved her from a kidnapping attempt?  Not only was her story about altered travel plans bogus, but when Marika asked her directly, she answered by changing the subject. (Involving another rare fan-service shot, by the way.)

Posted by: Dave Young at June 23, 2012 08:44 PM (ZAk0Z)

11 Dave, although the crew obviously respects Marika's abilities, it seems that most (perhaps all) of them have no troubles keeping secrets from her.  In fact, it almost seems to be their primary objective.  I wonder how she will react when she learns just how much they all have been deceiving her...

Posted by: Siergen at June 23, 2012 09:02 PM (PuIGa)

12 The only thing that eases the pain of waiting for a sequel is the knowledge that the story arc in books 4-6 includes Lynn and the yacht club, with a side order of Ririka.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at June 24, 2012 10:36 AM (2XtN5)

13 I personally wouldn't mind seeing Quartz Christie truly taken down and abjectly humiliated.

I'll keep my crude question about her suit design to myself....

As for the Grand Cross, In spite of possible SDF-1 comparisons, the way it makes a face before attacking, I think of the old Video game Sinistar.

Posted by: Mauser at June 24, 2012 06:34 PM (cZPoz)

14 In the next episode, I really wonder if Marika is going to reveal to the bridge crew that she hasn't been completely fooled by the shenanigans with Kane-squared, Luca, and Ironbeard.

-j

Posted by: J Greely at June 25, 2012 10:24 PM (2XtN5)

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