The interior of the ghost ship is explored and its true past is revealed.
What They Say:
The crew of the Bentenmaru and the soldiers of the Serenity Fleet are racing toward the treasure on the ghost ship. But the closer they get to their goal; it becomes obvious the treasure is bigger than imagined.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the ghost ship pretty much at hand and the scale of things really going up a few notches, Moretsu Pirates manages to do the thing that has been its best strength since the start and that’s to be personal. While the big events are getting together here, it still gives us time with just the crew and with Marika and Gruier in particular where we get to see plainly that these are indeed good people. Of course, as the tension starts to rise when it comes to getting inside the ghost ship and finding out what this mysterious treasure may be before the Serenity Fleet does, it may push them a little bit. But what’s welcome is that the Bentenmaru crew truly is a crew of professionals with years of experience, so they’re confident but not cocky as they do their jobs.
Within the ship, it starts off feeling like it could go in an Alien style direction easily enough with the mystery, darkness and danger of what’s there, but then it has a somewhat Rendezvous With Rama feel as they come across a large, ruined city that’s also reminiscent of the colonies in the Gundam franchise. It gives it a much larger feel, a strong piece of history that has surfaced into the present, and adds to the overall mystery rather well since there are some very ornate moments, some pieces where things are in ruins and others where it’s just curiously strange since it does come from a very different time. The commentary along the way isn’t bad, but some of it feels a little out of place because of the younger characters and the lightness to it instead of a sense of reverence.
The further exploration of the ship is pretty well done, especially as it does continue to give it a growing sense of mystery and doesn’t really rush it, which can be a little frustrating to be sure. When it comes down to a match between the two sides as the Serenity team with Gruier’s sister leading them arrives, it hits a bit of tension but never really feels dangerous. As it gets a bit further into things though and more of the truth of it comes out with its connections to Serenity, it takes a curious turn when it comes to the royal family and with Gruier in particular since there are larger events at play. The politics of it is interesting and there’s a facet of Serenity history at stake that Gruier and her sister are taking opposing vies of, but it’s something that Marika is able to massage in a way that smooths things out in a manner that the young sisters may not have thought of.
In Summary:
Much of this arc has played out well, if appropriately slow, but as events move along here it feels underwhelming. That hasn’t been something I’ve found with the show overall, but once Gruier came in and then as she aligned herself with Marika for a bit, it didn’t quite connect in the same way. With this episode, there’s a lot to like with the exploration of the ship and how that unfolds, but the results of it left me feeling out of sorts, not entirely finding it working well or the manner in which the supporting cast acts. Marika’s methods are certainly her own and makes sense in context to what needed to be done for Gruier and for Serenity, but the pacing of it and the way it actually does unfold left me cool for the most part.
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.
