Hello everyone, and welcome back to Wrong Every Time. Today we are presented with a vast and glittering starscape, offering a call to adventure as insistent as anything in fiction. There is no trepidation now, no fear of the unknown; Marika has won the support of her crew, and now has an improbable fairy tale of an adventure under her belt. Instead, this is the calm, comforting peace of the professional lull, as the Bentenmaru and her crew prepare for the storms to come.
With the Golden Ghost Ship arc now completed, I’m guessing we’ll be returning to Sea of the Morningstar, and reuniting with both Chiaki and the yacht club. The last set of episodes have served as a fine introduction to the Bentenmaru’s crew, and now that we’ve got a feel for these characters in their natural habitat, I’m eager to see them try and negotiate with Marika’s high school friends. Marika’s greatest talent might be her ability to naturally integrate into any community, and actually make the people around her feel more comfortable for her presence – but that gift certainly won’t extend to characters like Coorie or Schnitzer, so I’m expecting some charming awkwardness ahead. Either way, the slate is empty and the skies are clear as we return to Bodacious Space Pirates. Let’s see what the heavens hold!
Episode 13
Yep, the crew’s heading home
This opening song is so hyperactive. The actual animation can’t begin to keep up with it; it feels more appropriate for some kind of slapstick gag comedy than a hard scifi adventure. Though I guess that describes this franchise’s general bait-and-switch as well
Excellent comedy beat of Marika rambling about her spring break plans before a giant CAUTION alarm goes off. The disconnect between this show’s two genres is a fertile vein for gags
It’s a message from Gruier, stating that the royal family is now in more danger than ever. I’m kinda doubting the veracity of this message
Yep. From there, we jump right back to Mami and Marika on Sea of the Morningstar, with the reveal that Gruier just wanted to give them a bunch of medals and honors. Embrace your fame, Marika!
Mami-Marika scenes have some of that good Hibiki-Miku energy from Symphogear. Not in a romantic way, but in how Mami effectively grounds Marika back in mundane concerns, and is easily able to reach her as an individual in spite of her new status. When she’s with Mami, you forget how terrifying Marika can be
She actually seems almost the opposite of Chiaki in that way – Chiaki drives Marika towards her most impressive pirate queen self, while Mami maintains her connection to the mundane realities of being a teenager
Ririka has a pretty good pirate laugh of her own
Ririka says that she’s planning on changing jobs, now that Marika can take care of herself. In response, Marika articulates some fundamental pirate philosophy: “I’m doing what I want, you should do what you want too!”
And of course, after that brave display of maturity, she oversleeps on her first day of school. It’s nice to get all these bright, colorful backgrounds after all that time in space
Her whole school unsurprisingly treats her as a princely idol now
Oh god, now Gruier and her sister have decided to permanently join the school. So I guess the yacht club boasts two princesses and a pirate captain now; I can’t imagine the tennis club can compete with that
It looks like Jenny has graduated at this point, and now Lynn is the club president
Ooh, beautiful establishing shot outside of Marika’s cafe. Sea of the Morningstar is a buffet of Venetian visual riches
Rather than getting a bunch of new members, the yacht club’s current prestige is actually intimidating potential applicants. Given they were almost boarded by pirates during their last field trip, I can understand the hesitation
“I’ve worn this uniform longer than my other one.” One of the key elements of Marika’s disarming nature is her total lack of ego. She’s competent and confident, but also humble without being aggressively self-effacing. And she’s also friendly and earnest, so it’s difficult not to be won over by her unless you’re really trying – within minutes, she’s capable of making almost anyone feel like they’re her long-time friend, with no barriers of station or age between them
Gruier returns Marika’s father’s ring, with Morningstar’s galaxy looming brightly overhead. The whole sequence evokes a strong sense of a journey’s beginning, with each of them reflecting on the legacy they’re inheriting as low-angle shots emphasize the vast scale of the world they’re entering
Apparently, this ring can control the whole Bentenmaru by itself. Quite the loaded gun they’re placing on the stage
Strangely, this episode offers its most fluid sequence of animation yet to one of the yacht club members bumbling around in a mascot suit, complete with lusciously fluid stumbling and expressions. Well, it certainly makes an impression!
The yacht club gains three new members, including a short girl with an adorable dog-eared cap. She looks almost like a Lain knockoff
Lynn is a far more aggressive leader than Jenny, more in the “rebellious pirate captain” model than the “dignified fleet captain” one
Another nice background as Marika asks the princesses to dinner, shrouded by the massive pillars of their school
“I wonder what food made by Blaster Ririka would taste like.” It’s fun approaching this family from the opposite of our normal perspective, with the Bentenmaru crew wondering what domestic Ririka could possibly be like
“Recently, the things she’s cooked have actually resembled food.” Thank you for that, Misa
“Maybe she was a different person. Not the pirate Blaster Ririka, but the mother, Kato Ririka. She must have worked really hard for her daughter.” It’s interesting to see this point raised in a show that’s all about space pirates, but it fits this story’s unique perspective. Normally, adventure narratives like this are all some sort of loose metaphor for journeying out into the adult world, and discovering your mature identity along the way. Marika is certainly doing that, but Bodacious Space Pirates as a whole doesn’t really embody her adolescent perspective – it’s full of self-conscious adults, who are already quite comfortable with their mature identities. As a result, it can lionize virtues that are less visible from the heady perspective of adolescence, like compromising on your own desires, and changing yourself for the sake of someone you love
I appreciate that Ririka compliments her own side of the table with two personal bottles of wine. Still a pirate to some extent!
“Marika said that princess or not, since I was on a pirate ship, I had to work.” Another example of Marika effortlessly dispelling the formal distance between herself and others
Ririka’s angry bear apron is excellent
And Done
Thus the Bentenmaru and her crew return to a comfortable neutral, having gained Serenity’s royal blessing and the personal interest of a couple rogue princesses. This was more or less the cooling-down episode I expected, as Marika reintegrated into Sea of the Morningstar’s daily life, and did her best to cope with her rapidly rising profile. Marika’s talents as a negotiator shine through in basically all her interactions, and at this point, it feels like the question is less “is Marika pirate captain material” than “how far can this natural captain truly go.” Meanwhile, the show is clearly seeding Ririka’s own return to piracy, and Chiaki’s notable absence means she’s almost certain to return as well. With our crew rested and ship restocked, it’s time to set out once more into the celestial sky!
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