(L) Mouretsu Pirates

[DezoPenguin]

It's still 26. (This gets asked a lot for some reason...was there some place where they mistakenly announced it was a one-season series? )

[Tiresias]

Nah, it's just that the majority of this season is twelvers so I was worried this is also one...which would be terrible since the rest of the season would either be a snoozefest (because all other episodes are also all-talk-and-no-action) or a trainwreck (because they spend the rest trying to cram all the plot).

Still, episode four will probably be the make-or-break for me. It's nice to be eased into the adventure, but even for 26 totals three episodes of prologue is just way too long for my taste. If the synopsis and trailers promises some acts of pira privateering only for the show to fail to deliver, well you can't exactly blame the viewers for going 'this is not what I came for'.

Episode four, ladies and gents. Break or make.

[justpassingby]

The synopsis was nothing more than "Suddenly Marika is requested to become the Captain" and the trailers just a mix of contents from different volume of the novels (mostly vol 1).
Clearly the intended viewers who have past experiences with the author know what they getting themselves into

[Guardian Enzo]

Originally Posted by Dawnstorm

I'm looking at this post and I'm trying to figure out what you'd have liked to see. It's not exactly easy, since you say it's not pacing.

It's not pacing, per se - it's a lack of action in the absence of anything else to replace it. I'm not buying this is a character-driven story, because there's been almost no character development. And if you don't have character development and you don't have fanservice and you don't have comedy, you damn well better have some action. I want something that tells me what kind of show Sato is trying to make.

[CWW]

Originally Posted by justpassingby

Clearly the intended viewers who have past experiences with the author know what they getting themselves into

Wow. I can't tell if you're serious or not.

Either way, if the episodes so far portray the manga faithfully (which I'm not convinced since they haven't even bothered to faithfully reproduce the same character designs), then the original writer is simply awful at creating a hook and Satelight's screenwriters should have given more freedom. Literature does not always translate well on the big screen after all. It's not like Satelight can't tell a gripping story. Macross Frontier -Deculture edition- has one of the best first episodes in my opinion, ignoring the rest of the show. If they wanted it to be character-driven instead, Planetes is a good example of how to introduce and develop characters in the first three episodes while in space.

Throw me a bone. Any bone. All I can take from more than an hour of exposure is that she will eventually be the captain of a ship, but what will it lead to besides her self-discovery? What drives her beyond "My father who I've never met was a pirate captain so I will be too!" and "Space is cool!"? After an hour I'm still scratching my head and will probably continue to do so for a while. It's not exactly reassuring when the main character has to google 'pirates'. Then there's this mysterious transfer student who's obviously an important character and might serve a role as the main character's rival of sorts, but all I know so far is that she likes parfaits. That is actually her defining character trait! The rest of the cast is more forgettable than Akarin.

[justpassingby]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

It's not pacing, per se - it's a lack of action in the absence of anything else to replace it. I'm not buying this is a character-driven story, because there's been almost no character development. And if you don't have character development and you don't have fanservice and you don't have comedy, you damn well better have some action. I want something that tells me what kind of show Sato is trying to make.

Read the novels, interviews and commentary with the staff?

From Sasamoto

佐藤監督に対して、原作者としてなにかリクエストを出されましたか？　
一切出していません。「好き勝手やってください。その代わり面白い作品に仕上げてね」というのが自分のスタ ンスですので、佐藤監督には好き勝手やってもらおうと思っています。

Q: As the author, do you have any request towards Director Satou?
A: None. "Please do as you like. In return, please make it interesting" is my own stance, so I think I'll let Director Satou to do as he wishes.

Source: Ofiicial Site (The first commentary, at the bottom one)

From Satou

今回脚本・構成も佐藤監督がやっていらっしゃいますが、原作に最も手を加えられた所はどこでし ょう。

ヒロイン茉莉香の描き方ですね。小説の方だと狂言回し、振り回される側として描かれていますけど、アニメは 主人公ということで、彼女の成長を軸に26本書いてます。

Q: This time the scenario/composition is done by Director Satou but, what is the most thing that you revised from the novel?

A: How to write the heroine, Marika. The novels assist me in writing, but as anime main character, I'm writing about her growth as the pivot for 26 episodes

Source: Interview with 2.5d

Again, the translation from me is not official. And "手を加え" can also mean "to rectify"

Even the author knows that his books are not that compatible with Japan current generation of anime .
Want me to summarize the novels? Documentary and Explanation: The Books. There are iffy scientific parts, but Miniskirt Space Pirates is sci-fi and is not Passport to the Universe 4 or Mr. Shouwa Rocket Shop 2

No character development? Guess we perceived things differently. Both Marika and Chiaki are "repaired" from their "klutz" character from the novel. And who said character development should be done in 3 episodes?
No fanservice? What were those when Marika was changing to her space suit? The time it took to read that part in the novel is shorter than when Lily was chasing her friend across the screen, because there was no sentence describing Marika's body during that scene. And you know how there is no illustration for Odette II in the novel, because there are only descriptions about the looks and movement. I got one fanservice from Kawamori when he designed the ship, and looks differently from what I sketched
No comedy? Is that necessary?
No action? I don't need that in ep 3 when I know when the actions will come

Originally Posted by CWW

Wow. I can't tell if you're serious or not.

I am serious

Originally Posted by CWW

Either way, if the episodes so far portray the manga faithfully (which I'm not convinced since they haven't even bothered to faithfully reproduce the same character designs), then the original writer is simply awful at creating a hook and Satelight's screenwriters should have given more freedom.

It's not a manga, a LN. And I already got my hook when I'm reading the prologue, sci-fi part, history part, and character dialogue. Which most of them failed to make it to the screen. So from my part, Satou failed to recreate the hook that I got from the novel. Of course different people different hook.

Originally Posted by CWW

What drives her beyond "My father who I've never met was a pirate captain so I will be too!" and "Space is cool!"? After an hour I'm still scratching my head and will probably continue to do so for a while. It's not exactly reassuring when the main character has to google 'pirates'. Then there's this mysterious transfer student who's obviously an important character and might serve a role as the main character's rival of sorts, but all I know so far is that she likes parfaits. That is actually her defining character trait! The rest of the cast is more forgettable than Akarin.

Though this should have been covered in the first episode,

Spoiler for Comparison to the novels:

Marika is supposed to protect the "Business" and tradition of "Pirating/Privateering", so that the crews will not lose their place, and she has to protect the peace because the Galactic Empire want them to exist and they control the privateer license. [mod edit: inappropriate spoilers removed...] And who the hell is Akarin?

Hope my post here will help people in considering to drop this anime or not. I'm sure the anime will not follow the novel exactly, but I'm still going to follow it because I'm looking forward to Satou's orginal contents after volume 3, and I'm thankful that Sasamoto's book made it into anime adaptation. It opens possibility for more adaptation from his other books or his colleagues'

As an addendum:
Current reactions from 2ch regarding the anime
- Plain, but thoroughly made
- Looking forward to next episode
- Let's discuss the bio-suit
- I want to stroke Marika's hair <-- Why would you do that
- Give me back my "dojikko" Chiaki

Yeah, some people are hooked with this plain anime :P

[Tiresias]

Originally Posted by justpassingby

Clearly the intended viewers who have past experiences with the author know what they getting themselves into

Excuse me? So this has a "only viewers with familiarity with the author's work can enjoy this" mindset? Fresh viewers expecting some space opera (and mind you, the OP also shows some adventure so it's not just about the trailer) can just GTFO because this is exclusive for fans of the author neener neener neener?

...

... ...

... ... ...

Well thank you for warning me. I guess I won't even have to bother with eps. 4 then. Cheerio.

[justpassingby]

Originally Posted by Tiresias

Excuse me? So this has a "only viewers with familiarity with the author's work can enjoy this" mindset? Fresh viewers expecting some space opera (and mind you, the OP also shows some adventure so it's not just about the trailer) can just GTFO because this is exclusive for fans of the author neener neener neener?

...

... ...

... ... ...

Well thank you for warning me. I guess I won't even have to bother with eps. 4 then. Cheerio.

Yeah, because not everyone will enjoy talking talking talking. Go read the summary of each books.

[mod edit: removed information about future non-adapted content]

[Julio C]

After watching episode 3, this is clearly becoming a great series. I like that it's trying to build a story rather than just show action with no substance.

[Kazu-kun]

Originally Posted by justpassingby

Go read the summary of each books.

Where can I find these summaries?

[Tiresias]

Originally Posted by justpassingby

Go read the summary of each books.

Problem is we're talking about the anime, not the books. I don't care about how is it in the books because adaptation decay can always happens, nor do I care about the authors impressive track record because even the best can sometimes fail.

A good anime adaptation is one that can stand alone on its own merit, not one that goes "trust me, you'll understand if you read the novels!" If the viewer is forced to plow through the original material to appreciate the story, then someone failed at adapting the source.

Episode four, folks. If even after that the only defense it can muster is "trust me, it will get better!" then I'm out. World building makes the world rich, but when it's the only thing given focus this becomes the Discovery Channel instead.

[justpassingby]

^Satou is following the novel as minimum as possible with some alterations here and there. Or do you want Satou to create new contents for the introduction? Then that is not even an adaptation anymore
And if it helps, just download episode 4 and 5 and watch them in one go

[DezoPenguin]

Originally Posted by Tiresias

Problem is we're talking about the anime, not the books. I don't care about how is it in the books because adaptation decay can always happens, nor do I care about the authors impressive track record because even the best can sometimes fail.

A good anime adaptation is one that can stand alone on its own merit, not one that goes "trust me, you'll understand if you read the novels!" If the viewer is forced to plow through the original material to appreciate the story, then someone failed at adapting the source.

Absolutely true. If the anime is worth watching, then it's worth watching even if you don't know anything about the source material, particularly if the anime is an adaptation of a story already existing (and even if it's not, it's perfectly possible to create a good story--consider Canaan, which is a direct sequel to the visual novel 428 Shibuya and yet stands perfectly well on its own without knowledge of its predecessor).

Personally, I'm enjoying Moretsu Pirates for what it is on the screen--I liked the first two episodes a lot, and the third episode well enough. If anything, the story seems to be about Marika as she goes from "ordinary teenager" to (presumably) pirate captain. But if you're not enjoying what's on the screen, then it's pointless to say "but if you read the books then you'll know what's really happening or what ought to be there..." or "if you check the summaries than you'll see it gets better..." because it's not the books we're looking at, it's the anime. There have been plenty of perfectly good original novels, manga, and games which had crap anime based on them, and if Tiresias is not enjoying the anime, there's no point in him watching it.

[cerrian]

Originally Posted by DezoPenguin

Personally, I'm enjoying Moretsu Pirates for what it is on the screen--I liked the first two episodes a lot, and the third episode well enough. If anything, the story seems to be about Marika as she goes from "ordinary teenager" to (presumably) pirate captain. it.

Yeah, that's the impression I'm getting after 3 episodes. I get the very distinct feeling that the story is going out of its way to make the point that Marika IS an ordinary teenager. Not some teen with latent magical powers that'll make her the greatest pirate captain this side of the galaxy, but rather an ordinary teenage girl with untapped potential that needs to be groomed and cultivated to become the pirate captain we all want to see her be.

Aside from some pretty good piloting skills in the simulator, there's nothing about Marika that makes her more "special" than any of the other characters in the show. She's no electronic warfare expert, nor is she experienced in commanding (Jenny Dolittle has that over her), she doesn't have that hardened attitude that Chiaki has and she's not familiar with firearms like her mother. She's rather quite normal. The only thing that stands out about her right now is her level-headedness.

[Flower]

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

It's not pacing, per se - it's a lack of action in the absence of anything else to replace it. I'm not buying this is a character-driven story, because there's been almost no character development. And if you don't have character development and you don't have fanservice and you don't have comedy, you damn well better have some action. I want something that tells me what kind of show Sato is trying to make.

Fair enough ... iirc you had similar criticisms regarding Tamayura Hitotose? Nothing wrong with it imo, could be just that you don't like that ... erm ... method of presentation I guess?

To me it feels as if I am being slowly immersed in a world and slowly, gradually soaking it all in - maybe something like "world-absorbing" as opposed to "world-building"? World-absorbing being world-building without an obvious something (as you called it) that shows what is trying to be built?

With Tamayura Hitotose the "world" itself was so beautiful and gorgeous to me that I was fine with the slow process of immersion and seeing more and more small, slowly unfolding details around me. And perhaps that series came with a default expectation behind its presentation and the beauty itself ... umm ... "numbed" those parts of us that want an element of a "something" that shows us where the story is going? (A little like the Aria trilogy in that sense, maybe?)

But in this series of Mouretsu Pirates there is a completely different premise and backdrop associated with it, so the world-absorbing process ... umm ... doesn't "hold water" (sorry, couldn't resist) as well, so the aspect of wanting that "something" comes more intently to the "fore" for some people? Which could lead people to say things like:

Originally Posted by Guardian Enzo

... the disconnect between the promotion and the product is a lot more stark here.

Just thinking aloud here.

****

In any event I am thoroughly enjoying the slow "world-absorbing" process going on here, although I admittedly have a pre-disposition to greatly enjoying such "methods of presentation". For me it works, and it works fine. Maybe as the eps continue on it will be clearer whether or not the method in these first few eps (of a 26 ep series of course) truly "works" in the overall picture.

Anyway - for me ep 3 was absolutely enjoyable. 8/10 vote from me. For now I am really liking the series, and it continues to be my biggest surprise of the year, but I am very curious both what they are going to do with this and where they will take the series. Hopefully the transition will "work" for me (and others)!

[Kyuu]

Consider this:

What's worse?

Spoiler:

A slow start - hoping for something to happen later on?

OR

A fast start - with a bunch of fillers later on?

[shishio]

Also, I like the scenes in the ending comparing them from their casual clothing to their space clothing:


[/QUOTE]

I wonder why do they look fat and short in those pics...must be my glasses

[djmaca]

Mouretsu Pirates has gone very incredible,
I had not seen the book yet, the scans are intangible
But since the plot is good even though they changed the label
Naysayers can kiss my ass.

But GE's opinion is easy to see
When there is no action past episode three
where the crooks should already be in a robbin' spree
led by a cute young lass.

Red solo cup I fill you up
Lets have a party lets have a party
I love you red solo cup I lift you up
Proceed to party proceed to party

Offtopic: Next week: Lady Gaga's

.....

[Reckoner]

Well I did enjoy episode 1, and episode 2 a little less, and now episode 3 a little less.....

This show's content so far, adaption or not, has just been kind of boring frankly. Way too much time establishing the setting (I love exposition, but useful exposition, literally nothing more has been added to this story these past two episodes, at least not too much).

I'm sure the novels have a lot more detail, but an anime does need to stand up on its own. We won't get into the characters heads and find all the little details you'd get form a novel so its the anime's job to give it to us, a more involving experience.

There's just got to be more to this story that what we got. Otherwise expect this to turn out mediocre soon, and I had higher hopes than that after episode 1...

If she doesn't make her decision to be a pirate soon, this will quickly be a souring experience.

And oh god, the pink, the PINK. Did we really need to paint the inside of a space ship that blinding pink? I know it's a heavy female cast, but c'mon. Give the ship some dignity.

[Flower]

Originally Posted by Reckoner

....And oh god, the pink, the PINK. Did we really need to paint the inside of a space ship that blinding pink? I know it's a heavy female cast, but c'mon. Give the ship some dignity.

Awww ... I thought it was kinda funny.