The 17th episode of Pirates features much of the same light-hearted threat that has been a staple of the series with easy resolutions, at least until the very end of the episode. The idea to kidnap Jenny hits some resistance first from Chiaki, then from the fact that Jenny heads to the Bentenmaru herself. Politics then creates the next level of conflict, but that is resolved through business negotiation. Finally, wanting to really end this conflict for good, Marika takes even more risks.
First, I’m going to talk a bit more about Marika and Chiaki’s relationship which actually does get quite a lot of development over the matter of taking on Lynn’s request. It’s actually a philosophical difference between the two that has to do with their upbringings that is at the fore here.
Chiaki, always near her father as he engaged in piracy was well aware of how piracy worked. Pirates fulfill contracts with liners and insurance companies and all parties went away happy once the piracy had occured. To break this arrangement would mean becoming uninsurable and having one’s piracy license revoked by the government. In her mind, it meant that there were clear boundaries on what a pirate could or could not do.
For Marika, she never had the experience of growing up around piracy, so she’s firmly set in the ideals that Ririka taught her growing up. The type of ideals that one should do what one wants whenever one has the freedom and responsibility to do so. Ririka showed this to be the case by changing jobs as soon as her daughter was established enough as a captain to allowed her to do so. For Marika, she sees an opportunity worth risking job security for greater profits for the Bentenmaru. By being able to break out of this established line of thinking, she’s already proven herself to be a great captain. For as good of a captain Chiaki could probably be, she would never match Marika’s ambitions as she is now. Fortunately, the two are able to stay friends despite their differences.
Now onto several questions about Jenny Dolittle that were raised by this particular episode. I’m probably not alone in thinking that the manner of her escape was absolutely farcical. She managed to hide a gun under the wedding dress, then she fired on the group of men escorting her first before they shot back? I’m sorry, but why wouldn’t the uncle just have her killed at this point rather than going through the formalities of a wedding, but I digress. Then, there was the state-of-the-art ship which was completely unguarded that she was able to steal to make her escape. It was all rather convenient.
Then, there was also the whole matter of the negotiating process by which the Show agreed to allow the job to go ahead. Compensation conveniently had not been agreed between Jenny and theBentenmaru, so it allowed Show to view Jenny’s simple demand of payment for the job. Also, Jenny’s company that she created just after leaving high school happens to be one of the fastest growing travel companies and is already generating profits. That’s just in the space of a few months since being established, yet the promise of profits for 10 years is promising enough for Show to agree. Anecdotal evidence without due diligence is an appalling basis to make the decision that he does here.
Of course the main talking point regarding Jenny will be the moment when her relationship with Lynn was confirmed to go well beyond friendship. At least someone did ask if Jenny’s request was more than allowing the 2 of them to elope. Also, why was Lynn still dressed in the costume they used on the liner?
As far as other things from this episode I wanted to talk about, Luca continues to talk nonsense every time she’s on screen. The regular crew has finally realized that they are powerless as Marika fulfills this job, though they should have long since accepted that fact. Hugh and Dolittle doesn’t seem like a good company for anyone to work for if getting shot at by the owner’s daughter is one of the job responsibilities. And Space University? They couldn’t come up with a better name than that?
Next week appears to be the final resolution to this arc. Maybe the yacht club’s limitations as the crew of a pirate ship will finally become important. Anyway, it looks like the fact that it’s one ship against an entire fleet will finally catch up and Jenny will once again have to face the man trying to force her into marriage. Perhaps seeing how much she loves Lynn will convince him to change his mind? Probably not.
Lower Mid-Table 
At this point I’m almost certain Luca is supposed to be a parody of the so-called ‘mysterious’ cast member, who always uses oblique language to talking in riddles. I really hope so anyway. At this point her comments are laughably cliché for a show with a clear sense of awareness towards its own absurdity, yet the rest of crew never call her out on it. I just can’t quite figure out why around to begin with.
As for DAT kiss, I’m rather impressed the show decided to deal with the issue directly, even if the sparkly shoujo reactions from the rest of the girls undermined the scene. I guess I’m so sick of all the heavily implied yuri anime churns out, that it’s nice to have a series which doesn’t beat around the bush! Simoun was probably the last decent example I can think of.
That’s what I find so disappointing about her even existing. For a show at least trying to play it somewhat straight, they’ve included someone fit for a sketch comedy. Maybe she has a point later, but I doubt it.
I also very much agree with them going straight to the point. This implied relationship bothers me a lot in most circumstances. I think it generally comes off as the writers fearing they can’t portray it right, or just self-censorship. I think with Simoun it wouldn’t have worked without going all the way.
So when does Marika come out as a loli princess pedophile?
As soon as you troll better than this, probably.
“Ririka showed this to be the case by changing jobs”: That was a great point.
Luca: She hasn’t been talking complete nonsense, just mostly. She usually doesn’t do much more than predict somewhat vague danger, but she only does that just before something bad happens. The one time she was fairly specific (about two episodes back), she was completely accurate — she predicted the engines would fail as soon as the newbies tried to fire them up.
I’m less concerned about Luca as a silly joke, and more that they really haven’t bothered to develop her beyond that one joke. The only moment she seemed human was when she was stressed out trying to navigate through space storms during the hunt for the Golden Ghost Ship.
I don’t think the engine prediction was that amazing a prediction. I wish they would do more with her, but I guess that’s just her thing in every episode and we’re supposed to live with it.
In most other shows, I would probably be like, “Why should we care?” regarding Jenny’s problems. She’s clearly privileged far beyond ANYONE watching the show; assassination attempts are bad, sure, but if you’re in the position to run an absurdly successful business, then I’m not going to have much sympathy for relatively petty problems. But this show is goofy and flighty to the point where it didn’t bother me too much. I could see how ridiculous Jenny’s escape is as it unfolded, but the series has been so blase about its storytelling so far that I just went with it. So I guess there’s something to be said for that.
I’m not sure it’s earned the right to be as blase as it’s been in the last 5 or 6 episodes. The easily resolved cliffhangers do wear thin eventually.