What They Say:
Its Marika versus Quartz, Marika has rallied all the pirates to confront Quartz in a winner take all battle. But no one expect for three Grand Cross battleships to appear.
The Review:
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With the way that Moretsu Pirates plays out, it’s not a surprise that things go from mostly dialogue to big moments in a flash. This particular arc has been more useful for the overall history it’s provided about the pirates in the area and beyond, some of what lays beyond in terms of governments and territories as well as a look at the varied kinds of pirates that exist in the immediate area. It’s been a good if awkward exploration of all of it as there’s just something about the way it’s unfolded that has left me less than thrilled with it. But that’s been a common theme throughout the series in that I really do enjoy the results overall, but the execution makes me grumble.
The finale goes big as much as it can, giving us action right from the start as Marika works her ship to take on Quartz after the way the challenge was so plainly issued before. Marika’s growth over the series has been the strong point for me overall as she’s worked to balance her life there with everything else she grew up with, so seeing her confident and capable without all the usual teenage girl trappings that are cliches is pretty welcome, especially since she has her own quirks that come into play. The space battle action is solid here, similar to what we’ve seen before as Marika and her crew now have a handle on trying to balance what the enemy does with the zigzag style of fighting, and that helps to even things out between them a bit while still giving Quartz an overall edge.
With a good number of the pirates by their side, they make some good coordinated attacks and work through the team efforts that are employed. But it also has to be a personal battle, which leads to an in person meeting between Marika and Quartz. Unfortunately, it’s all rather anti climactic when you get down to it in that encounter since it’s over so quickly and really is just an invitation to larger things. The obvious question that we’re left with is whether Marika will leave for those vaster seas some day or not, but it’s pretty obvious that it will happen at some future point. Much as I expected, the two season show has been like a first chapter opening of the larger universe out there for Marika, which makes sense considering the novel origin nature, and there’s plenty to like with it even if it doesn’t feel like it truly capitalized on things.
In Summary:
While I’ve had my fair share of criticisms about the series as it went on and the overall kind of narrative it told, I do like the series as a whole for its setting and the more laid back nature it has. It gives us some big moments but without all the drama usually associated with it, giving it a more realistic approach to dealing with things. Marika’s introduction to a larger world at the start here and her learning the ins and outs of being a pirate with a letter of marque is well done even if it gave me characters I don’t like along the way. With the finale here, it opens up the show to more potential and places to go which is a plus, but it also means that the interesting little world and scenarios we were open to are likely to be ignored in favor of larger things, be it in the movie or a hopeful series of future seasons. I may give the show grief for various things, but it does a lot right in terms of characters, designs and the space settings and I’d love to see more. Just with less dead weight filler.
Grade: B
Streamed By: Crunchyroll
Review Equipment:
Sony KDS-R70XBR2 70″ LCoS 1080P HDTV, Dell 10.1 Netbook via HDMI set to 1080p, Onkyo TX-SR605 Receiver and Panasonic SB-TP20S Multi-Channel Speaker System With 100-Watt Subwoofer.
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