2012-02-01
My issue with the zero-G sequences in Moretsu Pirates
Pirates has made the unusual decision to not use artificial gravity in the sole spaceship that we've seen; instead all of the areas of the ship we've seen so far have been in zero G. (It's possible that part of the living quarters have gravity from spin, but the bridge and main ship areas don't.)
Unfortunately there is one bit of how Pirates is handling the zero G sequences that gets to me. It's not how everyone's skirts are apparently nailed down (yes, the schoolgirls are still wearing their uniform skirts in zero G); as noted, this is not that sort of show, and I'm perfectly willing to accept that.
What gets to me is how people maneuver in zero G. Pirates has repeatedly had people floating still in the air, not in contact with anything, and then had them just start moving again without pushing off anything or otherwise having some source of thrust. Sometimes people have stopped in midair (not coasted to a stop, just stopped). It's as if Pirates is treating people in zero G just like people walking along the ground, except they can coast and float and move in any direction.
(Unfortunately this isn't the kind of thing that can be illustrated without an animation clip of some sort.)
Pirates doesn't do this all of the time; a lot of the time people do push off things and stop themselves on things. But not always, and the exceptions make me twitch. I wish that Pirates would either commit wholesale to real zero G or just give up and give the ship artificial gravity.
(Perhaps the clearest example of this happens during parts of the spacewalk in the third episode. I'd try to handwave that as their suit backpacks having some sort of maneuvering thrusters if it wasn't for all of the other times this happens.)