Mouretsu Pirates – 19 Review

Imagine this: Two little sisters who are princesses sitting on a sunny morning in the backyard of their school at a table eating with a fork and knife talking about how fun it is to be a pirate. Yeah, never imagined that to be the kind of thing I would get to see in a series about pirates…

Mouretsu Pirates 19 – Another Important Lesson About Friendship

I wasn’t a big fan of Mouretsu Pirates at the beginning because I thought the show’s concept of piracy was rather stupid and had nothing to do with piracy whatsoever. Then the characters kinda grew on me and I started to like the show a little bit and I expected the show to start getting serious at some point. So far – it didn’t. And now looking back I have to admit that I liked the show best when I was satisfied with it being happy-being-about-nothing. But the show didn’t do a good job of showing what it really wants to be about anyway. Remember that episode in the beginning when Marika’s mother talks about the responsibility that comes with having a big gun in your hands? Jesus, that’s so dark! A dozen episodes later we see a girl from Marika’s school accidentally press the fire-button on the Bentenmaru and everyone laughs about it like it’s funny or something. Where was the responsibility in that moment…? Mouretsu Pirates just isn’t the gritty realistic show about pirates in space it might want to be considering these intros we get to listen to in each episode. At times it just may be the closest thing we ever gonna got of seeing “K-ON!… in space!!”.

Mouretsu Pirates – 06 Review

I like how it’s assumed that the best way to deal with bad situations is to laugh about them. It’s like turning something into a comedy will make a “OMG, we’re gonna die!”-situation less severe. I can really see how that can work out.

Mouretsu Pirates 06 – Being Robbed By Pirates Is High-Class-Entertainment

So Marika hasn’t beaten the Kobayashi Maru test obviously. Sad state of affairs, really. A normal protagonist of a shounen-series would beat the crap out of whole fleets of enemies with flimsy explanations like having shitloads of courage to spend. Obviously this series isn’t that dramatic at this point but this week any issues with the pacing are excused because Marika has to go through the bureaucracy of getting her Letter of Marquee as new captain of the Bentenmaru. And that kind of stuff always takes time – just like in the real world. Also, what’s just like in the real world is making Piracy a real job. That’s just the kind of honest work any child should aspire to do. Robbing rich people while giving a good show. It’s just like a musical – but without singing. That’s why there’s a cyborg on board of the Bentenmaru, not because he’s strong or anything, no, he’s there because he looks good on stage. Being a pirate means being an actor for the people who seek real hardcore entertainment. Because in the future meeting criminals is an event full of entertainment. And that’s a notion surely everyone can empathize with.

Mouretsu Pirates – 05 Review

I think in this case one may argue whether that opponent was “surprisingly primitive” or whether the girls weren’t rather surprisingly clever.

Mouretsu Pirates 05 – A Glimpse Of Excitement

So, five episodes and Marika decides to become a Space-Pirate-Captain? Gee, who’d have expected that… And Kurihara is also space-pirate, another ‘surprise’! And did anybody doubt that these evil bastards would lose the fight? Well, I guess, before anyone could even consider it Mouretsu Pirates made it its single task to explain to the audience why they will lose. I always think that elaborate plans are better as surprises after the fact instead of having them spoil the fun by being explained beforehand. But I guess this is a series that takes its lessons rather seriously as surely the narrator at the start of the next episode will remind us.

Mouretsu Pirates – 03 Review

I don’t think Marika is the only one at this point who looks forward to some serious action…

Mouretsu Pirates 03 – The Future We Look Forward To Is Not The Present

After another boring Mouretsu Pirates episode I will admit that this series certainly doesn’t care much about pirates kicking ass. It’s not a realistic portrayal of pirates either, at this point it has nothing to do with pirates at all actually. A school-yacht-club with a space-ship and lots of time – that’s the current premise of the show. The cliffhanger of the second episode also led to a rather anti-climactic end. It may not be Tamayura but it surely doesn’t try hard to get away from the image of daily-life-banality. All the little details the sci-fi-setting does right don’t really help when it’s just there and not really part of any plot. I think Mouretsu Pirates has to change quite a few things since right now I can’t imagine myself continuing to watch this pacing for 20+ episodes. Something needs to happen in this series…! Anything, just so that I can actually care about it instead of feeling like I’m watching “~Healing~ – The Sci-Fi-Version”.

Mouretsu Pirates – 02 Review

Marika learned this episode that with great power comes great responsibility. She also learned that having a bigger gun than your opponent is always a good plan.

Mouretsu Pirates 02 – A Pirate-Spaceship Is Just The Kind Of Thing Every School Should Have

Pirates are about doing whatever the hell you want BUT you can’t have fun. And if that tells us anything then that being a pirate is as dull a job as being an office-clerk. That explains why this series is in no hurry to show us what being a space-pirate is like. Instead we get to see a field-day of the yacht-club with the school’s own pirate-space-ship. And electronic warfare, a lot of really exciting electronic warfare. Apparently it involves a lot of button-mashing. And that’s supposed to be entertaining to watch, yeah, button-mashing, that’s just the kind of thing I prefer to seeing pirates kick ass…

Mouretsu Pirates – 01 Review

*sigh* Yeah, you’re right, without robots or androids a maid-café is a really cheap story-idea…

Mouretsu Pirates 01 – The Fluffy World Of Space-Pirates

And once again I don’t have to tell you to stay the hell away from another atrocity. But I should add that this is a far less safe bet than Nisemonogatari. If you’re one of the few hating Bakemonogatari than you know what you’re getting with Nisemonogatari but what about this series? It’s about space pirates obviously but a girl becoming captain of a pirate-ship isn’t quite the material for a ‘Die Hard’-like-action-series, now is it? In fact this episode tries very hard to show you that there’s no real action to be found in any way. It’s an easy-going adventure with little bunnies, rainbows and villains stupid enough to become goofballs. It’s a nice world to live in if you’re a character in Mouretsu Pirates.