I had hoped you'd come around eventually, I am glad I did not have to wait that long.
Well not much hard sci-fi and action going on this week but given how we got Chiaki-chan cosplaying as Marika, I am not going to complain too much. It was strange, it was whacky, but it made perfect sense, sort of. I guess when cruise lines hire their pirate raiders they don’t pay particular attention to specifics so long as their patrons are entertained. To that end I was entertained watching Chiaki do her best Marika impression, and it helps plenty when Chiaki is starting to adore Marika’s outfit and get a good taste of Pirate Theater. On a more serious note it seems that this War of Serenity Succession has gotten a possible new twist in that Gruier might be a clone given how similar she looks compared to her rival. Moreover while you can identify a genetic marker across generations, it seems odd that Gruier’s biometric data was already inputted two years before she could have been conceived. I had joked last week about Taiidan Clone Emperors but it seems very possible that instead we have Princess Gruier Serenity I the second.
While cloning would be a way to ensure an unbroken line of succession, somehow I think that there will be more to it. Gruier seems to think that their unbroken line is the key to keeping their independence but I still wonder how that can be. If the readings are correct from the Bentenmaru’s sensors then Gruier’s rival seems to have brought much more of the Serenity Fleet and possibly has more clout with the Navy given how she wore a more military uniform and is not dealing with pirates. I am sure we will get answers next week but that is something to chew on in the meantime, while we wait for the explanation.
Misa still shines as she took over the role of Space Mom and laid down the law on Marika and Gruier. Sure they may be high up there but they are still kids and they need a curfew. As for the rest of the crew they are a dedicated bunch to have gone through the trouble of staying up all night to finish their work and not complain about it.
Marika’s response to the ambush was fairly sound given the tactical error their foe mad when the pursuit force was so woefully under gunned that Marika was able to turn around punch them in the nose and get out of it. The thing to remember about an ambush for the attacker is to catch the foe with their flanks exposed, hopefully panic will ensue when with the first volley but you should never neglect having a pursuit force of some size if your objective is to obliterate and not just delay the enemy. Marika was correct in that the best response out of an ambush is to surge forward, however given that she only had a single ship, she was correct in attacking the ambushers where they were weakest. She punched a hole to escape while dealing some minor damage to her foes by taking two Corbacks out of the fight or at least ensured that neither one could operate independently.
I hope next week will provide some more thrills as well as give more information about Serenity royal succession and how this ghost ship fits in.
A valiant effort at cosplay, that may or may not surpass the original.
I wonder now since it will be Chiaki-chan that she will respond with Marika-sama.
I see that they still use gold and not credits.
I for one approve of Chiaki-chan's evil laughter.
In strange nebula SHIP FIND YOU!
Union rules are union rules...
Your parents aren't here but...
Misa is not only your teacher...
She's your space mom.
Chiaki-chan is learning just how cute the outfit is.
You aren't be we are.
I am sure Misa can put together something for you if you would ask...
So have I, Mass Effect 3 is taking over my weekends.
Either some one's math was wrong, or we may have a line of clone princesses here...
I wonder if this has anything to do with a Silver Crystal...
Oh anti-matter warheads...hmmm...any tri-cobalt torpedoes as well?
Someone's been itching for a fight...
Magical Pirate Girl Marika...
I just hope next time they will be fighting more than just Corbacks.
I wonder if they do have Heavy Missile Frigates in Space Pirates.
If this is an ambush, it was poorly planned as two Corbacks aren't going to stop much on their own...
For Marika will shoot first and often.
I like the confidence...
I wonder if their navy has split yet...
Intensify all forward batteries I don't want any thing to get through...
Too late!
I wonder if next time Markia's boom and zoom is going to have more lethal consequences.
No it's more like a lack of information...what are you hiding...Princess?
It's great that you believe that...
Thank you Marika for stopping that auditory pain.
Nice of you to apologize but you did nothing wrong...
AND MARIKA IS NOT YOUR SUBJECT.
Jenny really does need to commission a painting of her Yacht Club.
Yes Chiaki cosplaying as Marika should be preserved for the ages.
Yes, but I wonder...
We pillage plunder, we rifle and loot. Drink up me 'earties, yo ho.
To the ends of the UNIVERSE.
Or that...
Marika gets particularly excitable when going for the booty.
Okay...
Begun the Clone Wars have?
A Message From Your XO, EO
I would say that the defining moment of this episode was Marika making the decisions on whether to attack, and to not allow the princess to contact the Serenity escort ships. She really showed off some sound, decisive decision making during a tense situation. Which I can definitely appreciate after making a lot of decisions in Mass Effect 3 lately, which is where most of my time has disappeared recently. She made up her mind to fire on the nearest pursuing ships, since the status quo situation wasn’t going to benefit the Bentenmaru with two other squadrons out there to close in on them. They were chasing her, and given what she knew of the political situation, likely to attack; Marika knew the situation she was in and how serious it was. It was an admirable move to commit to the hit-and-run attack, and smart to disperse the cannons’ beams like grapeshot to knock out their sensors and other fragile systems. The second nice call was to not let Guire’s emotions and optimism get the better of her and deny her request to contact the ships. I kind of doubt that they’d have acted differently if they’re from the opposing faction back on Serenity, and it also gives the Bentenmaru another surprise to play on the Serenity ships if they get cornered or need to bargain. Definitely some great command decisions.
Chiaki in that uniform is pretty moe~
Don’t try to fight it.
Chiaki didn’t have a monopoly on the cool poses this episode.
Hmmm, looks like that coup faction is led by the Zabis. I hereby declare them Zekes, and may the might of the Bentenmaru, the Morningstar Defense Forces, and the Galactic Empire crush them into space dust like the Zeonic scum they are!
This week’s Mandatory Misa.
15 Comments
“If this is an ambush, it was poorly planned as two Corbacks aren’t going to stop much on their own…”
I don’t think the Serenity attack was that bad. It is more that Marika did the right thing in the way she responded. *IF* she had tried to continue to run, the Bentenmaru would have been surrounded. *IF* she had attacked the two Corbacks seriously, the other two fleets would have had time to catch up. Instead she handled the situation quite well (as you detail above). She escaped the net, AND degraded the capabilities of two adversaries.
Marika did well and all the credit in the world to her for making the best decision, but the ambush was still flawed because of the glaring weakness of just having two escorts act as a containing/pursuit force.
I don’t think this is Gruier the second. I think it’s Gruier the Seventh. That’s why she identifies herself as the “Seventh Princess of Serenity”.
You maybe right.
Knocking out the sensors of 2 ships and breaking through the ambush was pretty smart, but it still annoys me how space is once again presented as a 2-dimensional battlefield.
I would just, fly the ship upwards and blast all those ships with the turrets facing backwards
A full 3D space combat would be really hard to handle in an anime. I imagine we’ll get a bit more of it later, but this is mostly a tactics/strategy combat world, so it makes sense to limit how much they work the 3D aspects.
I do agree that it’d be nice, from a sci-fi point of view, but most are going to think of it like Air Combat: there’s a Height dimension to it, but it’s not really huge. People just aren’t used to it yet.
It’s hard to integrate the Z-axis for many games it ends up being a range modifier… still you are right Marika had three clear escape paths, she still choose the best course of action. Maybe when we get more ships we will see walls of ships in box formations.
For many games – but not for anime.
You’re right, at heart, Mouretsu Pirates is ‘whacky’, except it really isn’t, because everything is coherent, everything makes perfect sense. Even if actual space pirates (or even space mercenaries) may not exist in the future, you bet your ass the entertainment industry will still be alive and kicking, and of course there’ll be tons of bureaucratic red tape.
Which is why I absolutely do not approve of these space battles. It wrecks the entire anime. Everything else about the anime is simply impeccable; there’s no flaws to speak of. However, in space, you can go in three dimensions. You can avoid the enemy by warping away at light-speed. You can’t use radar to detect where you’re going when travelling at faster than light-speed (because radar is just electromagnetic radiation, after all). You can’t fire missiles that are faster than light-speed. You can’t intercept an enemy spacecraft by standing in front of it with non-aiming missiles. You can’t suddenly turn around at light-speed, accelerating yourself in the opposite direction by twice the speed you’re currently going at (which is already faster than light). You can’t dodge all those asteroids we’ve seen in the Tau Ceti system. Our solar system (up to Pluto) is barely 1/35th of a light-year across, and including the Oort cloud, just over 1 – a far cry from this 7-light-year wide system they’re talking about.
Of course, there are explanations. ‘They’re not travelling at light-speed!’ – then how did they cover the distance light travels in 7 years in one day? ‘They’re not in the Tau Ceti system, they’re in the Serenity star system!’ – And? This system magically doesn’t have any asteroids that may crash into the Bentenmaru with all the impact of an object travelling at over 1,079,252,848,800 metres an hour? If the Bentenmaru’s travelling faster than light, wouldn’t spacetime be bent and have objects being sucked to the Bentenmaru by gravity?!
These questions should not be questions. Mouretsu Pirates has demonstrated its intelligence in every other aspect, skilfully answering every question without seeming like a cop-out (Q: Why does Kane have to spin a wheel to pilot the Bentenmaru? A: He doesn’t, the wheel’s a computer that can be put on autopilot. Q: Why does Marika have to wear a pirate uniform? A: Businessmen need to wear suits on the job. Q: Why do pirates still carry guns thousands of years in the future? A: It’s all for show, their actual weapons are hidden in their body). However, unless next episode reveals that this was all a dream or a simulation, Mouretsu Pirates’s reputation has already been forever tarnished…
Or maybe I’m just over-reacting.
I don’t usually post comments, however as I had enjoyed the episode only to see that it had somehow put you in distress, I thought I’d hazard a reply to the issues you have raised.
Avoiding enemies by warping at light speed – a valid point, however the Bentenmaru had only just dropped out of warp, and it can be assumed that one probably cannot re-engage the warp drive so soon, hence there is a need to delay the pursuit force until the warp drive can be engaged again – thus Marika’s decision to about-turn and engage the closest pursuit squadron and destroy their sensor and surveillance capabilities, leaving the much larger other two squadrons far behind.
You can’t use radar at light speed – as I had pointed out above, they had just dropped out of warp when they started scanning, as did the pursuit fleet.
Firing missiles at faster than light speed – this is indeed rather weird, however the warp mechanics have not fully been explained in this series yet, so perhaps the warp, like so many similar concepts in other Sci-Fi stories, is faster/slower or works in a completely different way to light speed travel – that is, while in warp they are in a different dimension, and return to the current dimension after dropping out of warp, thus perhaps in some weird way, missiles fired in one dimension destined for a location in another dimension can arrive before the ship that fired it.
Can’t intercept enemies by standing in front of them with non-seeking missiles – they were firing beams, and although non-seeking, beams do travel very fast – fast enough that its chance of hitting is almost guaranteed if said target is within the distance of 1 light second or less, and the only reasons they would miss would perhaps be the storm distorting firing calculations, the beams’ trajectory were distorted by the ambient radiation and dusts, or that an enemy’s computers are advanced enough to estimate enemy firing line and immediately adjust the ship’s flight path.
You can’t suddenly turn around in light speed – as discussed above, they weren’t in light speed, having just dropped out of warp, and probably trying their best to hold off the pursuit fleet by incapacitating the closest squadron to buy time for warp drive to be ready again.
Dodge asteroids – also as discussed above, the warp itself is probably in another dimension, which is very possible in this series, given that the Ghost Ship they are after was found to be drifting between dimensions. How “hard” a science fiction this point would make of the series is best left for another discussion.
Covering 7 light years in one day – they warped. And so far there is no indication that they are in a star system – they seem to be in the middle of some galatic storm, let alone in either Tau Ceti or Serenity systems.
If the Bentenmaru is traveling at FTL then wouldn’t all things be sucked towards it? – again, they warped, with the assumption that it is in another dimension.
I hope I have addressed all the points that you have raised, and that this one episode wasn’t such a huge hiccup to the entire series.
Yes, I suppose that makes sense. Nevertheless, the concept of a ‘warp’ seems more of a plot device than actually creating a faster-than-light spaceship…
However, that doesn’t matter, since ultimately, all of this technology really is a plot device. The main point for nearly every science fiction show isn’t actually in the science, nor the fiction, but in the characters. And I think Bodacious Space Pirates is getting there. Who can fault a plot device for advancing the plot?
It seems like the Bentenmaru and the other pirate ships are a form of Battlecruisers /Aegis .Able to outrun anything it could not outfight and outfight anything it could not outrun which is just right for a commerce raider .Of course in real life this mostly lead to glass cannons that never lived up to their theoretical abilities.Hopefully they work better in space.
Given their size I would put them closer to the Graf Spee (Deutschland Class) I don’t think the Bentenmaru has enough firepower to take on a handful of Talbots.
Man what I love about this show is how much they say without directly coming out and talking about it like we’re 4 year olds. They allude to so much and are great at building even side characters. Lets just hope they take all this awesome setup some where.
It feels good to connect the dots and not have everything spelled out for us.
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