This series of posts will basically be exactly what the title says - short episode-by-episode reactions to the series I'm watching. I've already seen the first two episodes for both series so those will each be posted together, but after that it'll be as I finish them. And since there's much less content to digest than a Berserk volume, they should be pretty regular each week.
So without further ado, the second official series on this blog begins:
Bodacious Space Pirates
Episode 1 - Pirates Coming Through
Summary
When the colony planet Sea of the Morningstar attempted to break away from the Stellar Alliance it supplemented its outnumbered fleet by issuing Letters of Marque, giving rise to pirates who helped them win the war by plundering enemy ships.
A hundred years later, teenager Marika Kato is living an ordinary life with her mother, Ririka, on Morningstar, her time divided between school, the yacht club, and her job at a maid café. One night, two strangers show up at her house and she discovers that not only was her father, Gonzaemon, alive until recently (he died of food poisoning), he was also a pirate, as was her mother, and, more importantly, as his only child and heir, she stands to inherit his ship, the Bentenmaru, as its new captain.
Marika thought pirates were a thing of the past and isn’t sure what to do. The next day, one of the visitors, Kane McDougal, is now her new homeroom teacher, and a girl named Chiaki has transferred in unexpectedly. At work that afternoon the café has a number of strange customers, and Chiaki, who seems to know something about Marika, also shows up. When a man claiming to be from airport security asks Marika to come with him, claiming her mother requested she have emergency protection, Chiaki unexpectedly calls his bluff and helps Marika escape.
Thoughts
Not a lot of piracy going on here, and the whole episode was rather slow-paced. Good thing this is a 26er because it’s too slow for a shorter series, and it doesn’t really give us any idea of what’s gonna happen beyond that Mariko will become captain of her father’s spaceship, and we can only tell that because of the opening and ending themes.
There isn’t much to the characters yet either, and Mariko’s reaction to pirates still being around is a bit strange. Are they really so low profile most people don’t think they still exist, because a news release and her mother’s picture showing up immediately in the internet search seems to suggest otherwise, not to mention Ririka assumed her husband’s death would have made the news. Does Marika just not watch the news or something? Not that that’s implausible. Or maybe they just aren’t too active in that part of the galaxy and so don’t register on most peoples’ radar? And it’s only been a hundred years since the war started according to the intro, which, even by teenage hyperbole standards, is hardly “ancient history.” Her piloting skills learned from the yacht club will certainly prove useful, though. Chiaki, meanwhile, is obviously an agent of some group or other, what with her obviously knowing a good deal about Marika already, and as far as I know there aren’t too many teenagers who just happen to carry a flare gun around.
The animation is clean and colorful, and, despite what the title would suggest, there wasn’t a hint of fanservice. Not a lot to go on story or character-wise so far, but there’s nothing particularly wrong with it (apart from the title; I hope it doesn’t prove to be less misleading than it sounds). I was still sold on it when I heard the term “space pirates”, so I’ll just hope it gets better.
Another
Episode 1 - Rough Sketch
Summary
In 1972, there was a girl named Mei Misaki in the third class of the ninth grade at Yokiyama North Middle School. She was pretty, popular, and excelled in her studies, but when she suddenly died the class continued on until graduation as if she was still the alive. But it was just an act; or was it…*
In 1998, Kouichi Sakakibara moves to Yokiyama to live with his grandparents and attended North Middle School, where his mother and aunt also went, after his widowed father moves to India for his work. He suffers a collapsed lung shortly afterwards and is visited in the hospital by classmates who act strangely and ask him if he’s ever lived in Yokiyama before; he says he only visited when he was young and doesn’t remember the details. That night in the elevator he meets a girl with an eyepatch who calls herself Mei Misaki…*
At school, Kouichi is in grade nine, Class 3. Everyone is friendly but he seems to be the only who sees Mei sitting at the (suspiciously worn) desk in the corner. During gym class he sees her on the roof, and when he goes to talk to her she doesn’t remember meeting him, warns him that his classmates associate his name with death – specifically a horrible one that occurred at the school, and says he shouldn’t get close to her.
Thoughts
Apart from when they were talking to Kouichi at lunch, everyone in the school seemed very subdued. It’s weird, but everyone’s so bland character-wise that nobody’s very interesting or threatening; even Kouichi has no personality so far.
Whatever happened to Mei, a Sakakibara was definitely involved (her hints about his name and death, Akazawa was reluctant to use it, and the questions on whether he’d been there before). Also, that shot of a dam at the beginning, and some feet floating in the water? Yeah, totally an accident. I also suspect the reason why Akazawa was absent, whatever it is, probably doesn’t bode well for Kouichi (the class rep signaled another student to change the subject awful quick…).
The lighting in the animation is suitably dim for that ‘small town with a dark secret’ feel, and it throws in glimpses of creepy dolls imagery. At least, I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be creepy because it isn’t very.
Overall, not particularly scary, but right now I feel compelled to keep watching to find out if there’s going to be a ‘dead all along’ twist (not Mei; she’s obviously a ghost – I mean Kouichi or the rest of the school or something like that), or if everyone’s part of some weird cult – either way. The ending theme is oddly cheerful-looking, though; I wonder what’s up with that?
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