The Forgotten Spring Finales - Mouretsu Pirates and Shining Hearts

Fate/zero and Natsuiro Kiseki may have brought us great finales, but there were other shows that I completely forgot about until now. These are the last episodes of Shining Hearts ~Shiawase no Pan~ and Mouretsu Pirates. Instead of writing two separate posts, I’ll just share my brief thoughts about these episodes and my overall impressions about each one. (Image Source)

Shining Hearts

While the first half was kind of exciting with the fight against the pirates, it felt so shallow. It seemed that Rick didn’t have a hard time beating that humanoid lizard while Hank sacrifices his shop to blow up the pirate ship. Aside from that, Kaguya gets saved with ease and Rick goes back to baking bread. When I saw him return to that, it pretty much sealed my overall feelings for the show.

As a whole, the anime adaption of Shining Hearts was somewhat disappointing as I expected more from a Japanese RPG adaptation. Instead of seeing the girls and Rick fight, they bake bread. There was so much bread in this show that I suspected that somebody intentionally brainwashed people who washed up on shore to bake bread for the rest of their lives. Heck, the only sane characters in this show are Xiao-Mei, who is just amazingly cute along with Melty. Not only that, they left out some characters that were in the game! It’s a shame really since I liked Tony’s character designs, but this adaptation didn’t do any justice at all.

If you know enough Japanese, just play the video game instead. At least you won’t have bread shoved in your face all the time and get to experience each girl’s story. I probably do that when I get a Vita or something and download it off the Japanese PSN.

Overall Rating: 7.0/10, C-, Average

Mouretsu Pirates

Unlike the disappointing finale of Shining Hearts, Mouretsu Pirates gave a pretty exciting ending to the show. It was fun to see all the pirates working together and defeat two Grand Crosses. They even managed to invade Quartz’s ship! Although she ultimately escapes, it definitely showed the strength of Marika’s leadership, which makes her a very enjoyable character aside from Chiaki.

Overall, Mouretsu Pirates has a good premise and enjoyable cast. Even though the technology and the small things regarding the futuristic society were very interesting, the story fell apart in the middle. The schoolgirls taking over the Bentenmaru steered the show off track a bit. While the last arc did a good job fixing the mixed feelings from mid-season, it wasn’t enough to completely repair the damage. Even so, it’s still an enjoyable show and I wonder what the movie will have in store with Marika probably deciding on the future along with finishing her senior year.

Overall Rating: 8.3/10, B, Good

Since these two shows are finally completed, this closes the chapter on the Spring Season. Expect full reviews of these shows in the weeks to come!