I mentioned it elsewhere but let’s drill down on the maid cafe aspect of Mouretsu Pirates. Yes, the maid cafe. I think it’s important to realize why it exists, why it plays a role in Marika’s life, and what it really means so far. For sure, it is beyond merely fanservice.
I think it’s important to go to episode 1 and understand why the two spying Bentenmaru members went on a discussion on anachronism. To be sure, the maid cafe is a fad-sort of thing. It is costume play. The best maid cafe in Japan actually provides that sort of European-y high class atmosphere for your dining pleasure. But 99.9% of maid cafes are just normal cafe with a cosplay theme, and the stuff we do at a maid cafe different is pretty much unique to them. It’s closer to a host club than a cafe sometimes.
To say that something like a maid cafe survives in to the distant future, hundreds of years later, and then in a civilization light years away from Earth? It’s close to text book anachronism.
The same can be said of piracy; or perhaps better put, privateering. If you subscribe to a Star Trek-ish view of the future, well-managed societies, even space-faring, probably would not need to take up arms to plunder luxury space cruiser-liners. Spaceships are still expensive, it makes little logical sense to jostle billion-dollar wares and putting your life on the line to rob what may be carried on persons, unless everyone is hauling millions of dollars worth of gear on them. I mean, of course, space travel may be something very inexpensive in Marika’s world. I don’t know. But it seems unlikely given how big of a deal it is to travel to the stars. That is a setting’s leeway.
Certainly it makes even less sense for privateers, who pirate out of some hired-gun contract. Aren’t they technically employed? I would imagine they pirate out of some personal desire to make careers out of it.
Here is the first thing to consider. Maids working at a maid cafe provides the illusion that they are maids hosting their masters and madams or whatever they call their patrons. They aren’t actually maids in the “live in” or “indentured servant” or “slave” sense of the term as it is classically used. Right, they’re just paid to roleplay. In the same manner, Bentenmaru’s brand of piracy is the same kind of put-on show where everyone go through some kind of preconception about space piracy (And…who has these kinds of preconceptions? And more importantly, what are they?). Instead of a maid uniform, Marika wears some ludicrous Harlock-lite thing.
In other words, maid cafe maids aren’t really maids, they just pretend to fit your maid-fitting fantasies and take your money. Likewise Marika’s space piracy is  not really about piracy (they’re privateers to begin with), they just pretend to fit your pirate-themed fantasies and take your money.
To segue to the next point, the Maid Cafe crosses with Piracy, in that both are also jobs. That make money. You know there is some value in having kids take up a part-time job when they are in  high school or college, the whole training in the work place sort of thing. Gone is the concept of a pirate being some kind of romantic Kentucky-born actor. In, is the idea that, at least on the Strip in Vegas, they don’t literally rob those who stand and watch the free show at the Treasure Island hotel. It still beats being a plain robber on the high seas, I suppose, because real pirates don’t last very long. I thought the Maid Cafe thing actually comes around and becomes not only an useful metaphor but also a fitting job for Marika in terms of the career trajectory she’s on.
Anyways, this fake-pirate thing is a nice headtrick. But at the same time it makes you wonder what is going to happen to the actual piracy aspect of it. I suppose by today’s standards, gone are the stories about a maid (eg., Mahoromatic) and in are the stories about people pretending to be maids (eg., … Mahoromatic and every other anime with a pretty girl in it). The same could apply exactly to pirates, if there were enough pirate anime around to make a statement about piracy (if not, just blame One Piece). I mean fictional accounts of pirates are wonderful and all but it would be a whole new adventure when our play-to-pay pirates run into some dangerous situations and still go through the same piracy hijinks. It’s like if your live-in maid was a hamster of epic (erotic) proportions, or if your live-in maid had a thing for breast enlargement and ran on batteries.
I guess, the real question left to ask is, just what about piracy can we expect of Mouretsu Pirates? Because both maid cafes and space privateering, arguably, are anachronisms. What is the spin? Would it involve getting into a dangerous situation and being able to get out of it using Marika’s talents at decision making, while at the end, to never forget ring up a customer? These are important qualities to cultivate at a young age, folks.
Two girls one cup indeed.
PS. What about the Marika in a school uniform? That one is the fun one to talk about.
February 13th, 2012 at 6:12 pm
I do agree – we have not so much “pirates” in Mouretsu Space Pirates, but rather the appearance of pirates.
“just what about piracy can we expect of Mouretsu Pirates?”
I think you already summed it up best in what you’ve already stated – anachronisms – or rather, the appearance of anachronisms.
Just like the maids are not really maids, and the pirates are not really pirates, the space sailing ships are not sailing ships. The show is already chock full of “Space is an OCEEAAAAN” sort of metaphors, but at the same time seems very slyly aware that it’s all rather tongue in cheek – the actual practical activity that happens is all rather pragmatic.
Consider the Odette II: despite the overblown metaphors of the “starry sea of space”, the design and technical aspects that we’ve seen so far in the Odette are all actually very practical. A tactical bridge that’s fully enclosed without any windows? Actual, practical ship layouts that don’t rely on gravity-bound corridors? A vertical, rather than horizontal, layout to ship construction? The Odette II wouldn’t be too far out of place in a hard sci-fi anime like Planetes.
February 14th, 2012 at 1:14 pm
Hadn’t made that link yet between the work as maids and pirates, both are more or less jobs where they pretend to be maids or pirates.
Was rather surprised (then again not that surprised) to see the most recent episode portray the pirate life of the Bentenmaru crew to little more than putting on a show in front of an awed audience of people of whom one of their spare cruise highlights is a possible encounter with pirates.
The preview of the next episodes does seem to hint at a serious crisis, but I do wonder if the piracy aspect will suddenly become really cut-throat if that won’t make it all seem far too forced.
February 14th, 2012 at 2:22 pm
I think it’s unimportant to draw this distinction, but I feel the need to do it anyway: Compare Porco Rosso, the type of piracy that happens there is not unlike what has happened in the latest episode of Mouretsu Pirates. But what is different is the natural of the showsmanship. The guns and wares the pirates in both shows hoisted is meant to imtimidate, and the passenger-victims take solace/enjoyment at the act the pirates put on. In both cases the pirates are harmless as it was not their intention.
In Mouretsu Pirate’s case, they are space pirates. I don’t know how Space Pirates are suppose to work. Do they just do the same thing sea pirates or air pirates do? I’m guessing YES. In Porco’s case, there’s a cat and mouse game and what the public/passengers are interested in is that cat and mouse game, where the bounty hunter goes after the pirates and be all hero-like in the news. They want to see dog fights and what have you.
Mouretsu Pirates give it to them, too. But that is entirely fabricated. Which is similar to Porco Rosso in that the overall significance is not something really serious (Porco is not fighting a war, so he says), but in Porco the piracy illusion is natural. In Mouretsu they have to create it and feed it to the audience.
It’s kind of like taking a non-weeaboo foreigner to an authentic Akiba maid cafe. They would have no idea what to expect.
February 16th, 2012 at 3:37 pm
Just going by Patrick O’Brien’s Aubrey/Maturin novels, one could expect space privateers to seize ships as prizes (billion dollar investments make awfully fine prizes) and possibly ransom hostages.
February 16th, 2012 at 6:16 pm
That’s just like…sea pirates.
The note about expensive equipment is a matter of realistic cost-risk analysis. I think this is another reason why Porco is a great movie… they even go into this.