I approve, too many people just don't understand the value of a good education.
While the absence of the Yact Club will be sorely felt this episode did much to establish the crew of the Bentenmaru and add some more information about the setting. Things may get faster and technology will progress but one thing that probably won’t change is the bureaucracy that demands forms by the pound. I was rather amused that they went to such lengths to show just how labyrinthine the process is to get a Letter of Marque. Granted Stellar Military would need some paper work, 20 some odd departments are a bit much though anyone who has gone through the DMV would be able to appreciate the ridiculous process. Not only is the pile of forms ridiculous there is also a probationary period and a piracy requirement for the Letter of Marque.
Marika might be their next Captain but I like how the whole privateer business felt more like a guild/union with the employee orientation and required training time. I have no idea how building a model ship is supposed to help but I do appreciate that Marika is not above building one herself. Otherwise it was fairly standard stuff, combat training, battle simulations, hacking tutorials, and good old swabbing the deck for all trainees. I am glad they brought in Chiaki as the whole process seems a little less silly and comes off more like an apprenticeship. In that sense though the Bentenmaru feels less like an anarchic pirate ship and more like an organized trade guild with the Barbaroosa more akin to another chapter of the guild and not a competitor. I am not sure why Misa felt that she had to speed Marika along by bringing in Chiaki but I suppose it’s more fun to learn with other students. Also Marika and Chiaki like to be a little more competitive at times.
I am glad that they are both friends and while Chiaki is heir to another ship I think that they will get along just fine. Both make each other better and neither one seems to be clearly superior to the other. I am glad Chiaki made clear her initial reaction to Marika though I wonder why she felt so offended at Marika “acting like a ditz” I don’t think there was any acting on Marika’s part though (she does after all think running around with an inflated dolphin and inner tube is a NICE idea) it does seem that Chiaki is just perplexed that Marika doesn’t seem to take it as seriously as she does. Marika’ might be bubbly but she isn’t being an ass when the shooting starts. Marika’s inherent bubbliness is probably why she gets along with her peers though it does seem at times that Chiaki is a bit of a shut in. Granted we have not seen Chiaki in her natural environment but she never made a point to really socialize in the Yacht Club.
Misa’s history lesson was most welcome as it explains the context for what looks to be a full on shooting war with West Kilia. While everyone seems to be under the nominal rule of a Galactic Empire, it seems that there is no direct Imperial control and systems like Sea of Morningstar are vassals in a tributary relationship with the Empire in a similar fashion to how Imperial China treated other states. While Misa made a point that local autonomy is real and not some façade it makes me wonder why they seem to be on a collision course with West Kilia if they are all vassals of the Empire. Moreover I am curious to see how the Empire exercises control given that they allow vassals to maintain their own militaries and let the locals deal with piracy instead of using their vast war fleet to exercise more direct control. While West Kilia seems to be the likely antagonist I wonder if the Empire will step in at some point to keep the peace since it would make little sense to allow such infighting as it might cause another war that could threaten the Empire. Time will tell I suppose and certainly having a mighty Imperial Power in the series would only increase the likelihood of a big fleet action.
Misa mentioning that they are treated like military forces and that she herself demands a degree of professionalism only adds to the idea that the Bentenmaru is part of the Morningstar Military as a whole, though their independence would allow Morningstar to wage a proxy war without getting directly involved. Given how Chiaki in the ED and some of the Bentenmaru crew wear a uniform instead of gaudy pirate garb seems to indicate that they aren’t classic freebooters but more paramilitary, though why the bridge crew follows a different dress code might need a bit of explaining. While I am surprised that Marika’s first act of piracy was a stage show for the Tourism Bureau (Though maybe it was an elaborate set-up where the cruise company thought that they were getting a show and instead really did have a luxury liner robbed. Kane dying to shock the audience might have been to show that Marika was in fact serious.) it does make some sense as Marika would have to start small as well as play nice. Perhaps it is one more revenue stream for the Bentenmaru as it has yet to be explained how the crew is paid and the ship maintained. They also need some peace time jobs as well since they can’t be fighting a shooting war in perpetuity. Special mention must be made for Misa’s artistic talents for making a presentation. I hate Power Point presentations as they tend to make me fall asleep. At least with the arts and crafts method I could at least marvel at the methods of analog animation.
As stage shows go I am glad they took the opportunity to kind of lampshade the whole thing, the moment that Kane was talking about pirates the waiters were moving off the drinks and the band was packing up. Also the excited reaction of the passengers to the prospect of being robbed made it pretty clear that Marika was literally reading off a script. I just hope that Marika does have some skill with a cutlass though shooting Kane with a short ranged pistol was great, though not as great as Kane’s hammed up last words as he “died.” I am not sure if they intended to or not but Kane’s comment that all the passengers were insured, to me felt like a hint about the distinct possibility that the major cruise lines buy off pirates IRL given that those would make tempting targets since ransom is the primary goal of the modern pirate. At least in the end Marika didn’t have to kill anyone for real and wasn’t being a real cutthroat by taking the passengers hostage and demanding ridiculous amounts in ransom for her pirate debut.
Next week looks to be the combat debut of the Jabberwocky which is likely also from West Kilia given how it shares the same color scheme as Lightning 11. I really hope though that it is a larger vessel and that it will be able to take on the Bentenmaru, Barabroosa, and a few Corbacks. From the looks of it the Jabberwocky is packing a lot more forward fire power than the Bentenmaru and the Barabroosa. I am also elated that they do have power armor of a sort even if they are still using paper forms. As much as Chiaki talks about going away it looks like her leave will be delayed for some parfait. There also looks to be some fancy fighter maneuvering next week as well. I am not sure how long the Jabberwocky will be around but I do hope that it will put up a fight and start the shooting war with a BANG. Just please let there be torpedoes/missiles, and kinetic weapons. RAMMING would also be welcome.
Damn they got more forms than the DMV...
So much for a future with electronic forms...
Damn it's like driving a car all over again... probationary period and all.
BEST MOM EVER.
I guess targeting the engines is standard operating procedure...makes perfect sense tactically.
I like the confidence but who are you yelling at?
That's not good...
Well the idea would be to avoid fighting a battle group to start but I think Misa set the difficulty to Linsane...
Just wait until you eat rations for month, and tell me that again.
So I am wondering is he a cyborg, robot, or an alien?
I see that Marika also frequents Deep Akiba.
I see that the crew was not 100% sure that Marika would renew the license.
Marika is getting frisky...
Yuri Bliss indeed.
No use denying it...
I wish we could see Marika wrestle Chiaki and tag her.
I am surprised that Chiaki is still a white belt.
I wonder what else Misa draws when she has free time, MarikaxChiaki images perhaps?
Screw Power Point, CRAYON is better.
If only more college professors were willing to put this much effort into their presentations.
It's lost art...
Misa is none too happy with the Empire's required forms.
Damn and here I thought they would be conducting gunboat diplomacy...
I am glad she found herself so soon, some never even do.
Yep she's the prince and you're her hime...
I just think it's because Marika is as bubbly as root beer.
But you still love her...isn't life grand?
No time like the present... though I wonder if you have done anything unofficially...
We need to change that title to include "Yuri Princess" and something about stealing hearts as well.
As if you wouldn't...
DO IT.
Don't forget the "ARRRGGHHH."
I have never seen a crowd that was looking forward to being relieved of their valuables.
WHAT IS THIS TREACHERY?
I am glad that cutlasses are still in use.
We're going to have to work on your swordsmanship...can't let the bishies win.
I am glad you care this much but worry not for Marika, she's craftier than you think.
Blargh...
LOL cheating...
Can't win against the Yuri dude...
I wouldn't worry, Chiaki will be back for the parfait...
DAWWWWW it would be even better if she swapped hers with Marika.
I see we are in for some more fireworks...
Looks like the Jabberwocky is going to make it's combat debut, hopefully it will have a larger displacement than the Corbacks, but at least it is festooned with GUNS.
A Message From Your XO, EO
The Yuri is strong with this episode.
Not a bad episode, though not as technical and tense as the last ones. Still, the shipping was good in this episode between Marika and Chiaki, with Misa and the bridge crew fujoshi providing some support. I was a bit dubious on the way that privateering is handled, since it sounds like anyone with a letter of marque is just given free reign to steal from whatever ships they want. Actual privateers are only given the ability to raid ships flying the flag of enemy nations, whereas this just seemed like normal piracy and theft. Maybe they had an arrangement with the cruise ship’s captain or company in exchange for protection or a cut of the take, or perhaps privateering in this universe is more like a feudal system, with pirates being given letters of marque and allowed to steal from anyone except Federation ships and in exchange the privateers are obligated to serve the Federation in times of war. Hopefully the terms of all this will be cleared up in future episodes.
But that aside, the training was interesting and funny, and it was a great time once Chiaki showed up and I could get my ship on. Having the two of them together for training worked well for things other than shipping too, since it gave them some moments to cooperate and compete in their mutual endeavor of becoming pirate captains. The bridge crew didn’t get much of an introduction, but Schnitzer had a cool moment when he told Marika that it didn’t matter how her mother did things, that now it’s about what Marika will do. I’m looking forward to having more of the crew introduced, in particular the girl with the baggy clothes and thick glasses who just screams ‘fujoshi’ in both her looks and reactions the Marika X Chiaki. Chiaki has proven herself capable when things get tense, but she still goes back to her more bubbly and sometimes clumsy way of doing things when the pressure is off, like in the cruise ship raid. But as she’s shown more of her good judgement and creativity, I’ve warmed up to her a lot lately. Comrade Crusader mentioned her being “as bubbly as root beer”, and it reminded me of a rather apt exchange that could apply equally to Marika.
So much for that trip to the beach. Poor coworker never stood a chance.
So happy together~
By the look on her face, I’m sure we thought that same thing about the ‘special training.’
Dere…
…aaaand the tsun.
Even in the future, you’ll still have to swab the deck, scallywags!
Oshiete, Misa-sensei~ <3
Ah, and even she ships Chiaki X Marika, could she be more perfect?
21 Comments
I REALLY liked this episode, particularly Misa’s lecture.
The range of reactions I’m seeing in forums regarding the raid, however, are bothering me. It seems a lot of people have decided the whole thing is a joke and they can’t take it seriously anymore. My own take, based on Misa’s lecture and my own expectations, is that they simply picked an easy target which I assume was a flag of another government. Kane was sent to act as a plant to take the fall to convince the passengers that the Bentenmaru meant business – you can see the stunned looks on all the faces in the background as he hits the floor.
In short, I see the Bentenmaru and other ships of its type as acting as proxies to continue the border wars between the various former waring colonies without being so obvious that the Galactic Empire would need to step in and step on them. Why would the Galactic Empire turn a blind eye most of the time? Space is really, really big. It would be very expensive and probably ineffective to patrol all that empty space, and it would be counter productive to squash economically valuable cash cows that the colonies probably are to the Galactic Empire. Keep the colonies happy by giving them the illusion of independence, and as long as they pay their taxes don’t worry about the details.
I don’t know what these people you’re talking about are smoking because even though I knew before hand it was staged, my adrenaline didn’t give up the pumping during the (fake) fight. There was something about Marika that…
I just get the feeling we are in for some serious business in the future episodes. I nearly salivated when The Princess made its entry via teleP!
Certainly there could be more to the raid than that but we’ll have to wait and see how Morningstar views the Empire and what kind of reaction the Empire will make at the prospect of a Private Little War between sworn vassal states. Maybe the Empire will do nothing so long as both still pay their tribute and do not mess with systems that under their direct control. Or they could intervene and have an overwhelming show of force to cow the barbarians into submission.
It wouldn’t be the first time states used “pirates” to conduct a quasi-war.
Ready for a weird explanation for it all?
The whole thing is a giant money laundering scheme. The pirates, the shipping line, and the insurance company are all cooperating. Bentenmaru takes all the valuables, and then sells them back to the insurance company, which returns them to their owners. The insurance company gets a big contract with the shipping line, and still makes money. And the shipping line gets to give their passengers an exciting experience.
You can see all kinds of evidence for it. Why were there spotlights on Marika and Kane? Why was Marika’s voice on the PA system? Why did the waiters move all those glasses out of the way just before the excitement began? It’s all a setup.
And where does the money actually end up going? Some goes to Bentenmaru for its expenses, of course, but I think the majority of it is going to pay for preparations for a new revolution being planned by the Colony Confederation, this time against the Galactic Empire.
How’s that for a crazy idea?
Nothing is impossible, though coincidences happen everyday I do not trust coincidences…
About the spotlights and the PA, they did say they took control of the ship’s systems.
But yeah, this definitely wasn’t a complete surprise on the liner’s side. Whether there’s anything more to it, we’ll have to see.
Naze Nani Moretsu.
“Space is really, really big.”
Which, by default, makes “space pirates” concept ridiculous. How easy is it, to avoid pirates when you have entire universe and some kind of FTL drive ?
Space is vast but here’s the thing not every star system can support life and it does depend on the FTL drives in use its unlikely that any FTL drive would be able to run indefinitely, it has to recharge at some point or at least discharge any waste. More over while the ship can run the crew has to eat and they need fresh water. It is the crews that limit the range on a pirate ship, since people can’t go more than three days without water. Also add to the fact that with a limited number of life supporting planets there will be limited trade routes which would be patrolled differently. since distances are so vast it would cost a lot to send out patrol fleets to police those shipping lanes. More likely than not there will be trade hubs and major trade routes.
Given the limitations of humans, budget constraints, patrol fleet sizes, and the limited number of M-Class planets you can have Space Pirates since the patrol fleets cannot be everywhere at once hence more points of ambush. Depending on the sophistication of pirate groups they can conduct surveillance on choice targets and simply stalk their prey until the most opportune time to strike.
Much like how today you still have piracy at trade bottlenecks and pirate havens in unstable countries despite the ocean being a vast place, limitations of humans are the factor. Even now some major shipping lanes pass through the Suez and Panama Canals along with the Cape of Good Hope, the Straits of Magellan, and the Straits of Malacca. So even while space is vast you can still have piracy. Also you can still have speed variances in FTL drives, much like how a Ferrari is going to out run an 18 wheeler cargo truck. Lastly you might not even have the whole universe given the emptiness of the space between galaxies, moreover while you could exceed the speed of light the size of our own galaxy means that even with FTL you aren’t necessarily traveling from one end of the galaxy to the other in the space of a few days.
So yeah it’s not so ridiculous when you factor in everything else and not just FTL drives.
“Depending on the sophistication of pirate groups they can conduct surveillance on choice targets and simply stalk their prey until the most opportune time to strike.”
Thats the point. Real pirates never actually just randomly sailed the seas, they chose prey at the ports, or got information beforehand. On Earth it makes sense to have established trade routes, because of all sorts of enviromental dangers, reefs, storms, weather, etc. In space you can potentially go anywhere, the environment is the same at almost every point. And having ANY FTL drives basically means that boarding in transit is out of the question. Of course in this show they dont just have any FLT drive, but some variety of warping, so its even less plausible. And even if you could match speeds at these magnitudes – nothing stops you from just factoring in two jumps instead of one. Simplty jump a bit sideways half a way, and then to your destination. Impossible to raid.
But then again, this is the show where a ship apparently cant even have a computer with a simple “offline” function as protection from hacking in, so…
The Bentenmaru crew didn’t just randomly attack the Princess Apricot they put in a plant and basically laid in wait at their next destination. I don’t understand how you can declare it Impossible given how little we know, but warping isn’t transportation per se so maybe there is a way to drag a ship out of warp. Usually you could only warp when you are outside a solar system, maybe that is the case here so space pirates can lie in wait at various points in a solar system if sub light engines are more limited. Either way they’ll explain it at some point, even if they don’t I don’t see anything wrong with letting fiction be fiction.
As for ocean environments causing problems I am sure space will provide plenty of problems. Given how we still struggle with missions to Mars celestial phenomena can probably give us fits. Again though humans are the limiting factor unless you can recycle everything with 100% efficiency. You can’t just FTL jump forever time still passes does it not?
As for last week’s hacking, I thought that they had just killed off their computer controls and were using manual systems to aim their guns. It wasn’t as if Lightning 11 was moving and I have a hard time believing that a power off computer that has likely been smashed up can still be hacked. Let me know if there is a way though.
No time was wasted in introductions to the crew, that was really nice. I also agree that Marika’s first job as captain was appropriate since she is clearly not ready for a job where the robbed would actually fight back. Besides, we do need some calm before starting to rise anxiety in the show, I’m expecting something along the lines of the real earth pirates whose support was dropped from the governments after piracy was no longer needed by them. I do see a small conflict in how “evil” these pirates actually are, I’m referring to “the insurance company will pay for everything”; I mean, it’s ok to be soft pirates, but that was a little too soft.
Also, did anyone notice that Macross-like-fold-space-travel has become the de-facto standard so much we don’t even find it amusing anymore?
Much like how Rome wasn’t built in a day there should be no expectation of a meteoric rise given the pace of this series. As for FTL travel depicted in this series well Satelight is making it so it stands that they will use art assets that they have pretty much perfected. I really don’t mind FTL is taken for granted more often than not anyway.
As for picking soft targets, it made perfect sense since you have to start with the sure thing. It wasn’t as if Marika should have been picking harder targets and make a daring raid against a heavily defended port like Henry Morgan did at Porto Bello. Perhaps it was too soft but better to succeed in a small endeavor than fail at one where you are overreaching. Besides they don’t need to attract too much attention to themselves or be perceived as a genuine threat by the Empire. It was pretty much a dress rehearsal so I can’t really fault them for that.
This episode can be summed up with a line from both Chiaki and Marika.
Chiaki: Honey, I’m homeee
Marika: Oh Darling I missed you
But seriously, I sure didn’t expect this much so soon. And not just the yuri, the story seems as if it just skipped like 5 standard episodes ahead for some reason.
Captain Marika in her grande chair under that flag was kinda….*woot*
And I think Chiaki is definitely a Black belt, they just don’t give those to trainees, I don’t think. Or may be she’s still hiding her true colours. She did say she hasn’t done anything official yet and her dislike of Marika’s easy going attitude pissing her off is also telling.She probably has a lot of field experience on her. Hmm, Now I am very looking forward to learning more about her.
Totally love the yuri!
Chiaki shouldn’t be blaming Marika much at all then if not getting any official tasks is her issue. Her father is the one stonewalling her in that regard not Marika, but Marika’s so bubbly that eventually Chiaki will learn to like it.
I just meant that maybe Chiaki didn’t think Marika was ready for the life of piracy which is why she is not all for the happy go lucky way she’s approaching this life with.
But this is all speculation when I think the series will turn dark and show us the real ugly life of pirated.
I don’t think that Chiaki is jealous of Marika at all. More on the line that she is kind of disappointed or awed or…I don’t even know what Chiaki thinks of Marika. She’s just so tsundere.
The happy colorful palette would suggest that this show isn’t headed for GRIMDARK, but time will tell.
Excellent episode, and it looks like the next episode will be even better.
As much as I love the MarikaxChiaki pair, for some strange, quasi, unfathomable reason, for a second, I wanted to ship Schnitzer x Marika…I am a horrible person, aren’t I?
You are flip-flopping and going against yuri… I’d say you are a couple degrees beyond horrible.
I always understood on what was happening on this show but this episode was the first time that it made me confuse. From what i understand, the Galactic Empire assimilated both the Colonial Federation Forces and the Stellar Alliance Forces into their military after ending the Independence War between them. The pirates that were sanctioned as privateers during the war also became part of the Empire forces. Since these pirates are now a official military unit, they are not only do to piracy unless the targets are enemies of the Empire. And now comes the part i have a hard time understanding: while not doing any military work, the pirates earn money during peace time possibly by:
a) becoming tourist attractions where cruise ships hire them to “attack them” aka “do entertainment” for their audience who pay the pirates by giving them their valuables.
or
b) they attack non-government ships as long as no Empire forces witness the pirates committing the attack which gives the government a plausibility denialbility.
I hope more episodes can clear this up.
PS: Oh Chiaki. Your such a Tsundere for Marika.
I think that they will elaborate a bit more but if the Empire is in tributary relations with it’s vassals and said vassals have a great deal of autonomy the Empire might only be interested in tribute and maintaining a balance of forces and not direct control. That or they are biding their time before they can exert direct control. So right now it is possible that they are in a 100 Years War kind of political environment with the Empire holding the greatest amount of military power but a bunch of vassal states have varying degrees of military forces. We could simplify it down to a 40k setup with only nominal Imperial rule with planetary governments being fiefdoms that do war with each other when the Empire is not looking.
As far as I can tell privateers are contracted by local systems to be part of a system defense force with the Imperial Fleet being an independent entity. Autonomous systems engage in private little wars while the Empire is largely interested in collecting taxes and crushing any system that gets too much local military power. Hence while West Kilia and Morningstar are nominally under the control of the Empire, such is their autonomy that they can and will engage in war. That’s how I see it any way. I am sure we will get more clarification later.
ChiakixMarika is DESTINY
Ok something is bothering me, the Galactic Empire was basically able to overpower the two factions at war but now they don’t do large fleet actions to hunt down pirates… so what IS their fleet doing?
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[...] hand, the battles weren’t what some people expected, such as Crusader of THAT Anime Blog: “Misa’s history lesson was most welcome as it explains the context for what looks to be a fu… I honestly don’t even remember what West Kilia is (I wasn’t paying much attention last [...]