Roving Thoughts archives

A theory about why piracy is still there in Moretsu Pirates (as of episode 7)

(There are spoilers here.)

By the end of episode 7 of Pirates, it's become obvious that the 'privateering' that the eponymous pirates are doing is in fact pretty much a stage show, admittedly a stage show that is sometimes conducted with live ammunition. This is rather odd, as noted by omonomono in Mouretsu Pirates Are Like Maid Cafe Maids. I was recently struck with a theory for why the privateers are still around in this odd way.

First, I'll run down some things that we know about the setting:

• the war for independence that spawned the privateers didn't come to a conclusion; it was suppressed by both sides being forcefully absorbed by (and into) the Galactic Empire.
• the privateers weren't shut down when this happened because the Galactic Empire respects each system's rights to self rule; the privateers fall under this clause (as long as they are privateers with a Letter of Marque instead of pirates).
• there is a bunch of bureaucracy and restrictions on the privateers, but at the same time there also seems to be a lot of assistance and good will from the government to the privateers.
• the Bentenmaru is said to be vastly more powerful than three escort warships combined.

My theory is that the privateers, or more exactly their ships, are a legal end run around limitations that the Galactic Empire imposes on the size and power of the Colony Federation's local naval forces (if it's even allowed to have any). Through the privateers, the Colony Federation has effectively managed to retain a bunch of battleships with a significant amount of firepower and keep them outside the authority of the Galactic Empire.

(This is not enough firepower to stop the Galactic Empire if the GE wants to put a big enough fleet together, but it may be enough firepower to make a difference in a lesser situation. And options are always good, especially when the Colony Federation probably doesn't really like having effectively lost their war for independence by being taken over by a third party.)

The Galactic Empire couldn't take the privateers over because they're private ships, not government forces, and they couldn't forbid them because as privateers they're a legitimate exercise of self rule. I'm guessing that the Galactic Empire can forbid issuing Letters of Marque to new ships and insist on a whole series of rules for keeping the privateer status valid in the hopes that it will winnow down the number of privateer ships over time. Meanwhile the local government is all for the privateer ships; it can't disobey the Galactic Empire or break its rules outright (because that would give the Galactic Empire the excuse it needs to shut down the privateers), but it can give the privateers all sorts of assistance in fulfilling those rules.

The privateering shows that the Bentenmaru puts on function as a way to funnel money to the privateers to keep the ships in operation and crewed and to satisfy the Galactic Empire's requirements for continuing the Letters of Marque. It also helps keep the privateers in something approximating fighting condition for genuine battles. (It may also make privateers seem romantically cool, instead of something that you might lobby the Galactic Empire to put a stop to somehow.)

This also sort of explains the Odette II, which we are told is one of the original seven pirate ships and is still being maintained in something approaching fighting condition. The government can't own the Odette II outright because then the Galactic Empire could take it away, but it can arrange for it to be owned by a school yacht club, maintained properly, and regularly taken out on cruises by a bunch of interesting people who could make up a scratch crew if it became necessary (drawing both from current club members and from past graduates). This is not as good as the Odette II still being in active service as a privateer but it's a lot better than being completely decommissioned.

(I suspect that when the Odette II stopped being a privateer, its ownership carefully never passed through government hands. I would not be surprised if it was owned by the school yacht club instead of the school itself as extra insulation.)

Saying something brief about Black ★ Rock Shooter

Black ★ Rock Shooter (and that's the last time I am adding the ★ character to its title) is technically part of the winter 2012 season; it just started a month or so after everything else.

I thought that the Black Rock Shooter OVA had decently nice action but was otherwise mostly incomprehensible. The first episode of the TV series reduces the action and makes it less comprehensible (and more random) while swapping out everything else for relatively pedestrian drama (admittedly with a crazy person or two). In light of my trimming this season I've so far seen no reason to watch any more of it. If it had kept the quality of action of the OVA I would have watched it for the action alone, but it didn't.

(This is the sort of thing that almost fits in a Tweet, but not quite.)

Trimming the fat, Winter 2012 edition

Due to some things that do not fit into the margins of this blog, watching anime in general has recently stopped being as casual and enjoyable a thing as it used to be. Because of this I'm strongly considering trimming the list of shows I'm watching down to things that I seriously enjoy, as opposed to stuff that's just okay. So I've decided to make a list (or two). Because of what this is, there is a lot of picking on negative aspects of shows that have both good and bad sides.

(I have not yet decided to do this and circumstances may change. But just writing it down makes it more likely.)

Staying:

• Moretsu Pirates: I saw someone do an 'I saw/I expected/I got' picture series for this where the 'I got' was Hunt for Red October. As it happens, I like that approach.

• Nisemonogatari, despite the excessive cleverness it is starting to go places.

• Ano Natsu de Matteru, an enjoyable change of pace and it's avoiding things that make me wince. In fact, the more I see of it the better it gets.

• Rinne no Lagrange, because it's entertainingly silly so far.

• Inu x Boku SS: I'm enjoying this much more than I expected, even after I gave into temptation and read manga scanslations. In some ways, knowing what's going on and what's coming has made it more interesting, not less.

  (Apparently this is the season where I enjoy romance shows.)

This is probably still too many shows.

Kind of teetering on the edge:

• Aquarion EVOL: Redoing the original Aquarion's over the top attacks doesn't make this interesting by itself. On the other hand it is consistently crazy. On the third hand it's 26 episodes.

• Senki Zesshou Symphogear: Too cheap and too generic. The angst fails to be interesting and the doom hangs over the entire thing. On the other hand, every time I watch an episode it's just good enough to make me interested in the next one, and Evirus rates it as his top show this season (you have to follow his syndication feed to see this, the ratings aren't in his actual article except maybe by implication).

  (As I put it on Twitter, I'm not sure if Symphogear is deliberately camp or just cheaply animated.)

On the chopping block with some degree of certainty:

• High School DxD: I was ignoring the unrelenting fanservice (yes, it was hard) and watching this for the straightforward mindless shounen entertainment and to see what sort of crazy thing they'd do next. However the show just finished its first major arc, so now is a good time to stop.

  (I agree with Evirus's summary of it; he and I just disagree about the merits of its generic shounen fighting part. I'm basically uninterested in the fanservice harem comedy bits.)

• Brave 10: Too generic. Would be decent brainless watching if I was more up for anime watching in general.

• Shana III: I'm a terrible completist so I really want to see the finale of the Shana franchise, but I have to admit that I haven't really been enjoying it all that much and I'm several episodes behind already.

• Guilty Crown: fails to be sufficiently entertaining. I watched part of episode 14 and found myself more irritated with the characters and situation than anything else. There are cool bits, but the density of them isn't high enough.

  (It's probably a bad sign that it seems more interesting to read people's episode summaries than to actually watch the episodes. And reactions to recent episodes make it sound like it has gotten worse and worse.)

• Last Exile: Fam: I am just finding this too cliched and sometimes ridiculous, and Fam herself is a goof. I've already been watching it only in bursts.

I don't know if I'd have the willpower to actually drop the shows that I carried over from last season, especially Shana III. Every time I read someone saying that Shana III has done something interesting this episode, my resistance to watching it goes down a bit more.

I started writing this a few weeks ago but sat on it while I mulled things over slowly and actually started following through on some bits. On the other hand, every time I take another pass at this it seems that my opinion's changed a bit. I am sometimes an eternal optimist who finds it very hard to give up entirely on shows, even when I should.

(So it's time to just post this, not endlessly edit and re-edit it. I can always change my mind about shows later.)