Weekly Digest: 2/25/12 - Mouretsu Pirates, Shakugan no Shana III

Mouretsu Pirates – 08

To be honest, I’m having a hard time coming up with anything new to say about Mouretsu Pirates. There isn’t a whole lot of change from week to week in terms of character or mood – it’s all classy, civilized and sanitized for your protection. Ideologically this piece seems very much of a kind with Rinne no Lagrage (though much less action-driven), in that both run counter to the suffering teenaged girl as messiah trend. That’s not surprising given that Sato Tatsuo is the mastermind of both shows. They’re both more of a celebration of the idealized free-spirit girl, rather than the whole Madoka “she died for your sins” vibe that’s increasingly prevalent in sci-fi anime. That’s not a bad thing by any means, but there’s a sameness to this series that becomes more of a problem the more I watch it. Character development is nonexistent, and I guess that’s not a shock since most character development comes through suffering of one sort or another.

There was some foreword movement in the plot, as the series decided it needed to go even younger, cuter and more idealized by adding Princess Gruier Serenity, the stowaway from last week. There’s nothing here that hasn’t been done a thousand times, but there is the interesting element that the Princess is voices by the sublime Tomatsu Haruka – a fact I never would have guessed if I hadn’t read it for myself. What an amazing vocal chameleon she is. Her story is that she wants the Bentenmaru to search for the “Golden Ghost Ship” – no details yet – but what really looks to have happened is that the ship has been inserted into the middle of a civil war on Serenity, Gruier’s home planet. She also enrolls in Marika’s school (the middle-school branch) where we get some very familiar scenes of the other students cooing over her Princessity.

Shakugan no Shana III – 20

This isn’t my favorite sort of “Shana” episode, where things tend to fall back on being loud and explosive and a bewildering away of characters are showcased with quick-cuts that look like they came out of a Michael Bay film. It sometimes feels as if JC Staff is punting on trying to appeal to any but the most die-hard fans of the novels, as there’s really no way an anime-only viewer could keep all these characters (each of whom have at least two names) and their abilities and artifacts straight. I think the show does better when it picks a couple of major focuses and sticks with them, as it did last week.

With that said, I’m obviously not the target audience for this so I don’t think anyone at the studio is losing sleep over my concerns. My major rooting interest at this point is in seeing some kind of focus on the core characters, and on the story acknowledging that the flame haze are just as much in the wrong as the God of Creation, if not more. I don’t even remember who the flame haze with Sopie who said “What is considered victory? Who are we trying to satisfy?” was, but I’ve been wondering the same thing myself for most of the season. I’m also struck by just how weak Yuki/SotF appears to be at this stage, relying on Sydonay and his other minions to bodyguard him and able to muster up only Yuji’s unrestricted spell when left on his own. It almost seems as if the two sides of that identity are beginning to splinter, but it ties into the general theme that much of the season seems to be spent watching Crimson Denizens systematically ass-whupped by flame haze. If Sydonay can be taken out of the game by Margery and Wilhelmina, what hope is there for that side?

17 comments

Anonymous

February 26, 2012 at 8:19 am

Looking at the Mouretsu Pirates screenshots I was struck by a question: Where does the princess's hair go when she puts it in the skinny braids? Or could it be attributed to future tech?

admin

February 26, 2012 at 5:25 pm

Her braids are wound very, very tightly?

Indigo_Fire

February 26, 2012 at 8:31 am

@Anon

Strangely enough, that was my exact first thought after seeing her show up at the school. Maybe she's hiding mini-black holes in those odango of hers?

Anyway Enzo, I'm not sure if it's just me or not, but this article isn't collapsing appropriately on the front page. The whole thing shows up on the front page. I assume it's not deliberate, but if it is I apologize for making it seem like I'm trying to make an issue out of it.

admin

February 26, 2012 at 5:26 pm

Nope, you're right Indigo – my bad.

Eternia

February 26, 2012 at 11:22 am

He must have forgotten to put 'wrapper' or 'read more..' section or something.
😛
Anyway, I have pretty much given up on this Shana season 3.
Usually, I will watch an anime at the same day they are aired.
But I haven't even downloaded this episode 20.
They are sacrifing personal characterizations, and instead, pointlessly show us a huge casts / lots of names, which are impossible to keep track of. I would rather watch a show full of logic fails, rather than a boring show such as this. Oh, I might watch it later tonight~

Anonymous

February 26, 2012 at 2:29 pm

It is strange how people can get so very different impressions from the same show.Shana 3 has not been perfect but my complaints would be almost the opposite of yours.The Crimson Denizens have been pumped up in power to the point that it destroys the base of the story.They do not need to make a copy world they apparently could have slaughtered all the Flame Haze at will anytime they got together.And about the morality of it,all but a handful of the Crimson Denizens are eager and willful mass murderers who deserved to be killed for their past actions ignoring the vast danger of leaving them uncontrolled.

deafvader

February 27, 2012 at 8:56 am

Shana 3 is just throwing in new characters. Killing them off.
Kill one of the original cast. Be more daring. Do something wild. A plot twist or something.
And they keep on using the same old attack again and again. And then if the plot needs to be moved forward, Intro new character, Intro new unrestricted spell, or Intro new hidden attack.
Imagine watching Rambo shooting his machine gun for 20 minutes non-stop. And suddenly a rocket launcher appears out of nowhere. And then a never seen before appeared ally from his past came to assit

elior

February 27, 2012 at 9:08 am

@deafvader the pepoles in the van are not new character they showed them in season 2

deafvader

February 27, 2012 at 2:47 pm

I am talking about this season suddenly so many new denizens and flame hazes. They come they go.
They fight and they die.
If this was band of brothers I am ok. But Shana usually introduces 3 good/bad character every few episodes. Not everyone popping up at the same time.
It just rubs me the wrong way. No biggie, personal presences

elior

March 2, 2012 at 9:11 pm

actully there is a father and son in this season but not in the regular way

elior

February 27, 2012 at 9:07 am

enzo if they will go to that copy world there will no murders no pepoloes will be killed becouse this world is in the rift a close place where they cant escape and this will bring peace that what yujji wanted to do to stop the battle between the flame hazes and denizens and change shana fate i dont see what will be bad in this copy world

deafvader

February 27, 2012 at 2:45 pm

people in copy world will die
copy people are still people

elior

February 28, 2012 at 11:26 am

@deafvader do you already have any guess what kind of agreement shana and yujji will reach about the new world conflict so both the denizens and the flame hazes will be happy?

deafvader

February 28, 2012 at 4:34 pm

He gives away Reiji Maigo so everyone has food to eat?
Or all the flame hazes form contracts with the denizens? The same contracts they have with their talking inanimate objects?

Who am I kidding. I'll just wait for a couple of episodes to find out,

elior

February 29, 2012 at 7:39 am

@deafvader about what you said there is many new denizens and flame hazes in this season actully only at the falme hazes side there is many new characters. in the denizens side lot of them was in season 1 and 2 and only 3 or 4 of the new character died.so only at the flame hazes side there is lot of new characters.what do you think?

deafvader

February 29, 2012 at 10:06 am

Hmmm. If I were to make a comparison it would be like the Matrix. The first and second movie had normal number of characters. Just that in the 3rd Matrix movie: All the Agent Smiths had their own names and personality. And a couple more people on the good side appeared.

elior

February 29, 2012 at 12:19 pm

@deafvader that mean if we will make comparison lot of pepoles on the good side apeard in shakugan no shana season 3 on the good side while in metrix only couple of pepoles and in the bad side in shakuga no shana only few new denizens apeaerd while in matrix was lot of them.is this kind of comparison you mean?

Weekly Digest: 2/25/12 – Mouretsu Pirates, Shakugan no Shana III

Guardian Enzo

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