The chase continues on but with a few new twists along the way.
What They Say:
The Bentenmaru is up against the mysterious Serenity Fleet, 1 ship vs. 7. With battle imminent, another space riff happens bringing the prize everyone seeks. But who will claim it first?
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the series having worked well so far to establish its cast of characters and what they’re like, it’s also blended in a story fairly well throughout the background with the mysterious Golden Ship. With there being some layer of discovery made about its origins and what it is, now they’re in the bind of trying to find it before the Serenity Fleet does. Putting Marika in the position of being one to chase it in competition with them gives her something different than the kind of romanticized things she had been introduced to with legal pirating so far, something that mots of those they went after liked and enjoyed because it was fun. Here, she’s getting to do some serious work but it hasn’t become dark and too serious.
The chase itself has turned into a good part of the series so far, though some of it has been rather mild and in the background. But it’s something that Marika is intent n continuing with and now that she has Gruier in her company for the short term, it has some added importance to it. What’s fun with this part of it during this episode though is that the space travel isn’t exactly free from trouble as the path they’re taking has some real “stormy weather” in space to deal with. While the majority of the crew hasn’t really defined itself, not surprising considering how little the series has really run and its style of pacing, here we get to see them dealing with a really difficult situation as they try to handle the currents. The music kind of offsets the intense mood a bit as it really does feel kind of 80’s, but overall it makes for a good bit of excitement.
Because of the chase that’s been going on, when the two sides finally do meet and we get the Serenity Fleet in the same place, it comes down to a really good moment between sisters. Having Gruier talk to Grunhilde as she commands the Serenity Fleet shows how alike the two are and the kind of authority that they can command when given the right circumstances. But it’s also made plainly that both young women are very much born with that kind of force to be reckoned with in how they carry themselves. What gives Gruier the advantage though is that the Bentenmaru is a small ship overall and they have Marika on their side as they try to figure out how t best deal with the Golden Ghost Ship.
In Summary:
The chase with the mystery ship has certainly been fun but in this episode it finally starts to move up to the next level as we get more of what it’s really about. And along the way we get some good stuff, from seeing the crew of the Bentenmaru really work well together under the first sign of serious pressure that they’ve faced to getting a face to face confrontation between Gruier and her sister on the Serenity Fleet ship. I’m still not sold on the two sisters in general, but they’re fitting into the show well enough. It’s just something that comes across as a bit of age pandering to some degree, making me gain wish for older characters being a bit more the norm in series rather than high school age and younger. Regardless, the show is kicking it up a few notches here and definitely ends in a way that says you have to come back to see where it all goes from here.
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.
1 thought on “Moretsu Pirates Episode #11 Anime Review”