The cat and mouse game continues but the stakes are starting to rise.
What They Say:
The electronic battle between the Odette II and the mysterious ship has begun. Marika’s plan of tricking the opposing ship is working well, but once the Odette II goes on the offensive. The mysterious ship shows it has more firepower than they bargained for.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
The Odette II arc has been an interesting part of the series to watch as it’s very relaxed and laid back even as they deal with some potential real problems. The fact that there’s an incorrectly identified ship out there certainly has them on their toes, especially since it’s supposedly a ghost ship of sorts that was lost some time ago. While that plays out in an almost background fashion, the real fun has been watching the crew really come together well in a natural and simple way to do the jobs that they’re there to do. It’s far more professional than one might imagine, but at the same time it’s not something where you’d bring silly kids along to do this. These are the kids that want this and know how to act appropriately while on board. They do have some fun moments here and there though and act like young adults so it’s not completely stiff or boring. It’s more with all the girls than anything else, but there’s almost no focus on the young men that are on board.
A good part of this episode is focused on the cat and mouse game with this ship but also with the command crew trying to figure out the best approach to dealing with it. When they discover the entire area has been flooded with jamming waves, it presents them with a couple of different opportunities for counter measures. While there’s the initial push to just try and contact the port authority, doing so would open them to a different kind of attack so they all decide eventually to go with a proactive approach and draw out their enemy. The focus on electronic warfare is a big part of this as the two sides go back and forth against each other and the crew of the Odette II continue to find that they’re being underestimated because of who they are, which leads them to some fun countermeasures.
There’s plenty to like about the approach they’re taking with the show here and spending a whole episode on this kind of story element isn’t all that unusual. But it comes after several episodes that already have a very slow approach to it that can leave you wondering just how far the series will go or can go while keeping viewers engaged. I do appreciate the pacing and style of it here, but it also needs to work harder at drawing us into the characters. While we’ve gotten some stuff about Marika by this point, there’s really nobody else getting any degree of noteworthy attention that would help to flesh everything out more. With them all focused on their jobs, what we get is a by the books kind of feeling where there’s just a few slivers of personality coming through rather than getting a good idea of who these kids are, especially when things become even more dangerous towards the end of the episode.
In Summary:
Moretsu Pirates, or Bodacious Space Pirates as it’s now being called by Crunchyroll, definitely has its appeal and getting to the thrust of events here at the very end definitely works. While it’s not a surprise twist ending considering the nature of the series and some of the characters involved, it is a welcome one to see it arrive at this point so that the show can feel like it’s finally starting to move forward. It’s been a slow ride until this point but one that has had some good and engaging moments that showcased how it intends to handle starflight and what it means to operate one of these ships. It’s a training cruise to be sure but in more ways than one. I still think this is a series that will play out better when watched in full, but it’s definitely keeping me interested overall on a weekly basis.
Grade: B
Readers Rating: [ratings]
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
