(L) Mouretsu Pirates

[Kanon]

The narrator is the main villain? What a twist! No, really, I jumped out of my seat when I heard his voice. I'm guessing he's from that mysterious galactic empire (?) we heard about early in the series. That would explain the gap in technology. They may have gotten tired of waiting for Pirates to die on their own and decided to exterminate them. I was amazed to find out there were still sixty pirate fleets around, I thought there were a lot less than that left.

The next episodes ought to be very interesting. It feels weird to see this show become so serious all of a sudden. I had assumed it would stick to slice of life in space to the very end.

[Theo]

I have no idea why the characters refuse to acknowledge or even mention death. These ships clearly explode yet the crew just say "damage unknown" or "gone silent".

Dude, they're fuckin' DEAD.

[MrTerrorist]

Originally Posted by Sackett

Looks a little like the Full Metal Panic designs. More realism in that the ten year old actually looks ten instead of like a kindergartner, and teenagers look like young adults.

The manga adaption is drawn by Touge Hiro, who is also drawing Maoyuu Maou Yuusha - Other Side of the Hill, one of five manga adaptions based on the Maoyuu Maou Yuusha(The Demon Queen and the Hero) light novels.

[DezoPenguin]

Spoiler for Generic nerdrage, probably:

...Okay, is anybody else unnerved by this? We've got a sudden sharp genre switch (there was more loss of life in this episode than in the entire series put together up to this point; there's suddenly not one but two ships of what apparently represents ridiculous over-technology levels compared to the rest of the series; and there's a guy standing around in outer space) combined with the fact that this arc is anime-only. I feel like I'm driving up a ramp in a motorcycle and really hoping there's not a shark pool below.

(If Ririka's flying around in either one of those ships, I'm guessing it's the pirate. Particularly if the mysterious masked pirate is, as about a half-million people have already speculated, Marika's dad...which raises the possibility of whether he's mysteriously returning from the dead in the show but staying dead in the books (if anyone's read the novels, do you know if he mysteriously returns from the dead...or sensibly returns from the dead through well-foreshadowed and reasonably explained methods...?).

Combined with the fact that the Yacht Club was drawn off-model for pretty much the whole first part of the episode, and the fact that Marika's back to wearing her original pirating outfit and not Mami's modified costume, I'm really wary about what's coming up for the rest of the series. It'd be a different story, obviously, if these were the kind of adventures she'd started having in Ep. 6, but...yeah.

[ars89]

Those are 2 huge enemy ships. Kane seems to be keeping something from the rest of the crew.

[00Coyote]

And so the big bad(s?) appear.

Spoiler for pirate hunting:

We finally get to see some of the other remaining pirates... briefly, before they are blown to bits by the Pirate Hunter.

Those with the "Letter of Marquee" aren't limited to a single ship, I'll assume that as long as they are under the Letter Holder's direct command, a pirate could legally command a whole fleet, to the limit of their budget, power and force of personality.

On a related note, since the letter isn't tied to a single ship, Marika could probably don her pirate outfit, and go raiding in a tugboat, and still be considered legal.

The other pirate ships shown are of the the 'Use More Gun' school of thought, which is in contrast to the Bentenmaru's emphasis on speed, skill and cunning.

Marika's plan to escort a pirate ship was brilliant on several levels. She knew eventually the Pirate Hunter would show up for them, so convincing Show to assign them to escort the Big Catch, she fulfills the time constraints, forces an engagement with the Pirate Hunter (attacking 2 pirates at once beats just attacking 1) in more favorable conditions, while preventing their usual clients from getting caught in the crossfire.

Of course, none of that really helped, since their opponent is using HAX and breaking the laws of physics left, right and center.

What are the odds that Lynn 'received' her recommendation to Space University through here usual means?

Misa, Kane and Show (to some extent) seem hellbent on keeping Marika in the dark on the workings of the pirate world. I'm sure if she wasn't doing 200 things at once (school, Yacht President, Pirate Captain, possibly still working at the Lamp House) Marika could start poking about on her own, but she lacks the time and connections to really learn how her world is run, and her crew doesn't seem to be helping with that.

I'm very very impressed (And a bit jealous) of the awesome trust and understanding between Ririka and Marika. Neither is trying to control or manipulate the other, but letting each other do their own (dangerous) thing. Both are big girls, who can take care of themselves, but neither is cold or uncaring to the other.

[MeisterBabylon]

Originally Posted by encia

Spoiler for ep22:

It looks like hunter starship has
1. a gravity based impulse drive similar to StarTrek's UFP impulse engines with mass reduction fields e.g TNG "The Wounded" for peak impulse engine demo.

2. non-turret(non-gun barrel) based beam weapons system with semi-omni-directional beam targeting similar to TNG/DS9's phaser array system.

3. a starship with "textured iris giant machine eye" design similar to UFP's "textured iris giant machine eye" (i.e. main deflector emitter) design on Starfleet's ships.



Like the above hunter starship, Star Trek's Akira class also sports a double hull design i.e. like USA's P-38 WWII fighter.


The hunter starship seems to be based on double blade type battleship design.

The unknown man from the last ship to arrived from FTL has similar blue eyes to Marika. It would be nice to see that Marika's Father still looks after his grown-up baby girl.

Well I'll be. Never'd think someone would hand me the winner from the get go.

Originally Posted by Ithekro

I'm guessing the next few episodes will give you more that enough ship ideas.

Its filling up alright. I was thinking of something twice the length of Bentenmaru, dual secondary hulls and rocket nacelles. The saucer cargo bay would have to have one set of doors in and another set out so that loading and unloading can take place simultaneously. The entire craft must be able to land should the saucer not be able to separate from the star drive. That means this ship would appear somewhat aerodynamic.

And yet, there's a ship which already has all that:



This shall be the Imperial Star Ship Fairy Jane then.

[dahl_moon]

That... was rather disappointing.

The first half was pretty nice; a good mix of mystery and slice of life, more background information of the Mouretsu universe. The gradual leaking of information about the pirate hunters to Gruelle and Rin was well done and helped build the atmosphere.

And then they blew it in the latter half. I'm not sure if it's due to the acting, BGM, or directing in general, but I lost all the tension built up. Or maybe it's because of the the pirate hunter ship (with needless zig-zagging) or the new-comer ship (with Cap'n Harlock) that broke through my suspension of disbelief barrier. It was supposed to be serious, but didn't feel like it. Marika seemed worried, but I thought it was out of character for her to be so un-concerning of Big Catch's crew.

I like the idea of pirate hunters so I'm keeping my hopes up, but I hope the staff delivers better next week.

[encia]

Originally Posted by 00Coyote

And so the big bad(s?) appear.

Spoiler for pirate hunting:

Of course, none of that really helped, since their opponent is using HAX and breaking the laws of physics left, right and center.

Gravity base drive can bend the rules i.e. it can reduce the object's mass relative to real space.

In Star Trek, you can have ~150m x ~150m box (i.e. USS Defiant) or 440m x 470m (i.e. USS Phoenix, tactical type Nebula Class) box capital starship moving like a fighter.

[Theo]

Marika had opportunities to poke around when she discovered her father's secret UI but sure as hell doesn't seem interested enough. It's not like they're trying to keep her in the dark; she just never seemed interested enough to ask. She even did a Space Google search for pirates back in the first ep, yet doesn't know much about pirates now even with the information so publicly available.

[Texas84]

Did my silly Saturday fun just get serious?

[Algent]

Originally Posted by Texas84

Did my silly Saturday fun just get serious?

Well, a trans-am rotating (magnet power ? or maybe cat+butter would explain the rotation) spaceship and a guy in a gay outfit without helmet on top of a tank-like spaceship.... you call that serious ?

Seriously these 2 things got me past the "wtf" mode directly into the "did I just saw something like that in that show"

[totoum]

From the next episode preview it seems the guy isn't literally on top the ship,looks like it's a hologram.

[Shimapan]

Originally Posted by Ithekro

Well as you can see here (from many many pages ago), that is what Chiaki looks like in the Light Novels:

This would be a good fit, except for two things:
- Hair should be black (or blue) instead of lame brown
- Ugly granny blouse in ugly granny colour. Yuck. Wear a school uniform!

[00Coyote]

Originally Posted by Theo

Marika had opportunities to poke around when she discovered her father's secret UI but sure as hell doesn't seem interested enough. It's not like they're trying to keep her in the dark; she just never seemed interested enough to ask. She even did a Space Google search for pirates back in the first ep, yet doesn't know much about pirates now even with the information so publicly available.

There's probably a vast difference between the public face of the pirates, and what goes on behind the scenes. Even in her father's log book/notes I really doubt there is one file that summarizes the intricate web of tangled alliances, betrayals and powers that exist in the shadows. What information there is, is probably scattered across hundreds of entries, written in a personal style that assumes the reader is intimately familiar with the subject.

Marika's problem isn't lack of information, between the Bentenmaru's log, the info Lynn provide as payment, and her father's log book, she has more data than she can hope to sift through in her hectic life. Given enough uninterrupted time, she has the dedication and intuition to sort through, and make heads or tails of the whole mess, but time is something Marika is always short on. Misa, Kane, and Ririka know a great deal about the workings of the underworld, but they are being very tight lipped about everything that is happening. So they leave Marika so far in the dark she has to ask elementary questions like 'How many Pirates are still active?'

[Patriot's Blade]

that pirate hunting ship is a total nightmare fuel when it reveals its 'face'
& by the way, they should play this when that kamen rider & his ship appeared out of nowhere
http://youtu.be/

[Theo]

Originally Posted by 00Coyote

There's probably a vast difference between the public face of the pirates, and what goes on behind the scenes. Even in her father's log book/notes I really doubt there is one file that summarizes the intricate web of tangled alliances, betrayals and powers that exist in the shadows. What information there is, is probably scattered across hundreds of entries, written in a personal style that assumes the reader is intimately familiar with the subject.

Marika's problem isn't lack of information, between the Bentenmaru's log, the info Lynn provide as payment, and her father's log book, she has more data than she can hope to sift through in her hectic life. Given enough uninterrupted time, she has the dedication and intuition to sort through, and make heads or tails of the whole mess, but time is something Marika is always short on. Misa, Kane, and Ririka know a great deal about the workings of the underworld, but they are being very tight lipped about everything that is happening. So they leave Marika so far in the dark she has to ask elementary questions like 'How many Pirates are still active?'

She didn't display this curiosity with her mother, who she had a LOT of time with even after her license. She never asked Ririka about pirate politics or history. All the evidence points towards Marika being passionate towards her position, ordering her crew around, and missions, but not about the history or politics involved until its of immediate importance. If there were scenes of her inquisitively asking about these things with her being shot down or diverted, then yes I would agree, but we don't see that anywhere.

And it even seems contradictory to that scene where Misa teaches her the history of the I-War back in ep 6, yet she's "tight-lipped" about how many pirates are left?

For the sake of less keystrokes, I'll be calling those guys "anti-pirates" now.

[Sackett]

Originally Posted by DezoPenguin

Spoiler for Generic nerdrage, probably:

...Okay, is anybody else unnerved by this? We've got a sudden sharp genre switch (there was more loss of life in this episode than in the entire series put together up to this point; there's suddenly not one but two ships of what apparently represents ridiculous over-technology levels compared to the rest of the series; and there's a guy standing around in outer space) combined with the fact that this arc is anime-only. I feel like I'm driving up a ramp in a motorcycle and really hoping there's not a shark pool below.

(If Ririka's flying around in either one of those ships, I'm guessing it's the pirate. Particularly if the mysterious masked pirate is, as about a half-million people have already speculated, Marika's dad...which raises the possibility of whether he's mysteriously returning from the dead in the show but staying dead in the books (if anyone's read the novels, do you know if he mysteriously returns from the dead...or sensibly returns from the dead through well-foreshadowed and reasonably explained methods...?).

Combined with the fact that the Yacht Club was drawn off-model for pretty much the whole first part of the episode, and the fact that Marika's back to wearing her original pirating outfit and not Mami's modified costume, I'm really wary about what's coming up for the rest of the series. It'd be a different story, obviously, if these were the kind of adventures she'd started having in Ep. 6, but...yeah.

Well... I'm a little wary. I don't want to start screaming that the sky is falling yet, but I did sort of get a One Piece vibe. And not the good One Piece, the filler One Piece. (Reviving the "Pirate Council"?)

But it's really early to be worrying, so I'm just gonna go along for the ride and trust that since the last 21 episodes were good, this arc will be too.

[Kyuu]

That's so not fair dumping the Yacht Club onto Marika. So not fair.

[ReddyRedWolf]

Is it just me or are they raising flags between Kane and Marika?

Oi Oi Did Marika's ass was saved by a mysterious masked man?!

Potential love triangle along with the genre shift? Maybe I'm hoping too much.