Sun and surf training is the name of the game for the Bodacious Space Pirates this time around.
What They Say:
The yacht club plans to enter the 19th Nebula Club, a competition the school was ban from for 5 years. Kayne, now the P.E. teacher, sets up a race to determine which girl is qualified to race one of the dinghies.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With some of the fun and silliness past us with Marika being the one in charge of things while the crew is stuck in quarantine out of the way, Moretsu Pirates gets to get back to dealing with more fun situations. While I had expected that they’d get back into space with a job or two, the show instead goes in another direction by having the yacht club get ready for a competition. While they all picked up a lot of things during their run as makeshift pirates, club competitions are a bit different. What they’re going to get trained for is anything but though as Kane has decided to help out, against Marika’s objections, and show them what it means to really sail.
The training side is pretty fun to watch as Kane really does run them through some intense things, and Marika’s reactions to it are priceless as there’s a lot of intensity seething about her as she watches what’s going on. But there are also some good tender moments as well, not involving Kane of course, where she’s spending time with some of those in the yacht club and they’re all enjoying the experiences overall that they’ve had with Marika and how it’s opened up their world a bit. Seeing all of this reinforces the kind of choices that Marika has made by keeping her friends from the school, sticking to school and having that separate work life as well with the cafe. It’s kept her grounded and a part of things that helps to smooth her out a bit. And these are friends that help remind her about a lot of things about herself as well.
Amusingly, when her Captain work comes back into play, it’s related to the Nebula Cup itself as they’re requested to get involved as someone is looking to interfere with the race and they need someone to work it from the angle she can. Not surprisingly, this is a tiny part of the show but it indicates where things will go as the Nebula Cup arrives and we see if Marika and the yacht club even qualify. Before all of that can happen, the training has to be the main focus and it’s a lot of fun here, even if we do get to see Kane in some bikini briefs. The challenges he puts them through are a lot of fun and really makes for some cute sequences that go over the top but challenges the team to really excel in a way that they might not otherwise. Episodes like this make me fall in love with Kane all the more.
In Summary:
The start of the next storyline here is pretty decent overall since it sticks to things planet based for awhile but also lets us do some beach and water scenes without going all sorts of crazy with fanservice. It’s more about the thrill and fun of the training they’re going through in order to participate in the Nebula Cup which should be a whole lot of fun once it gets underway. The work side of things does make an appearance as well and it leaves you wondering where it’ll fit in to the storyline as it progresses. There’s plenty of cute bits to be had here and it left me smiling, especially since it’s getting away from some of the things that just dragged on a bit too much in the previous few episodes for my taste.
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.
