Cosplay pirates, ahoy!
What They Say:
The yacht club members are settling into their roles aboard the pirate ship. But once Marika announces it is time for some piracy! The girls are placed upon a new stage with surprising results.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
AS the Moretsu Pirates series continues on into its second season, I do find myself mildly conflicted about it. I’m enjoying it and I do enjoy the pacing, but some of the story elements have left me less than thrilled, especially the second half of the first season. This part of this season has worked better for me, even if it did bring Gruier back into play when she was better off being kept elsewhere, as it’s dealt largely with putting Marika in a far more interesting yet smaller position of a problem. Getting her to gather a temporary crew with the yacht club after trying to bring in real pirates has been pleasant since the team has been handling it well, being girls but not being hyper and overactive stupid and goofy girls.
They have their moments, to be sure, and it’s kind of something that has softened up Marika a bit since she is involved in all of this with friends of varying degrees. But once she starts to truly get in captaining mode, she has to change how she handles the crew and that can be really difficult. But with the girls being fairly sensible overall, they fall into their assigned roles well and discover just how well they can connect with it, impressing not only themselves but others. So when they get to the actual bit of piracy, things do go somewhat smoothly but not without some hiccups along the way. Naturally, I still find the whole entertainment/piracy angle kind of silly though functional because of what they’re doing with it, so having this inexperienced crew doing things shows just how awkwardly it can go and how everyone else notices.
Amusingly, and I really felt like I shouldn’t be amused even though I was, the girls that put on the entertainment side of it along with Marika essentially get into cosplay mode with their costumes since the ship isn’t filled with what they need for it. It’s kind of goofy, kind of silly and sort of charming in its way and it definitely fits the smooth and slice of life style atmosphere that the show wants to portray. It does leave you feeling charmed but it’s also not what you may have expected early on in the series, though it did make things clear. Watching as Marika handles her crew and what they do here works quite well and while she doesn’t have to deal with anything extreme for the first mission, it’s something that says a lot about her and her friends that they pull it off.
In Summary:
Moretsu Pirates certainly made itself clear many episodes about what kind of show it wants to be, which is why I have a hard time calling it “Bodacious Space Pirates” even if that’s the official English language name. It just doesn’t feel right. Even the more literal mini-skirt pirates doesn’t work, but fits a bit better since that’s what most of them are wearing. This episode lets us see Marika’s new crew in action and how they handle the whole series of experiences and it’s nicely done. It doesn’t make you laugh out loud and it doesn’t challenge you, but it does show that they’re a capable crew and they perform admirably overall, even if the more experienced people involved in the first mission think things aren’t quite as professional as they usually are. It’s a good experience for all involved and something that leads into the next story arc in a quiet and subtle way for much of it.
Grade: B
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.
