Reborn as a Space Mercenary: I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship!

Elma's jealousy over Mimi during the shopping trip is doing it for me. The clingy senpai thing is way funnier than it has any right to be and the shopper arc gave everyone room to breathe before the war setup

Elma grumbling about Hiro blowing up the flagship before they could loot it is pure greedy merchant energy and I respect it. Losing a bonus because your pilot got too efficient is a very funny problem to have

Serena calling him a coward and Hiro instantly folding is exactly the kind of manipulation I want from her. She read him in one sentence. LN readers are mad about it but honestly it made her way more interesting than a forced conscription order

The quiet little shopping trip did more for me than the space battle. Watching Mimi hold her own paycheck for the first time and immediately blow it on a giant chunk of meat for the crew is the kind of thing that makes this show work

Serena's whole recruitment speech came across a touch silly for what should be a terrifying conscription into a defensive war. Should've been a forced order not a dare. The briefing afterward sells the dread far better than the goading does

Something about the meat Mimi hauled aboard feels like a trap. Nobody makes a point of showing the mystery meat unless there's a story behind it and I do not want to know what they grind into those cuts out in this sector

Asteroid field dodging with the shields screaming down to 30% and Mimi gripping her console. The Krishna is genuinely fun to watch fight. That ship earns its screen time every single sortie

Those fake mining ships dropping their disguise gave me chills. One second it's an easy patrol and then the signatures flip to military and you know the whole season just changed shape

The cola bit got me. Dude finds a drink that tastes like home and buys out the whole shelf while the girls stare at him like he's lost it. That's such a real human reaction to being stranded in another world

Hiro splashing out 1.8 million and then splitting it three ways without blinking says everything about him. Mimi tearing up over the share she thinks she doesn't deserve hit harder than the whole space battle

Look like very fun anime

Mimi stating her life goal is to eat everything in the universe with these two. Small line but it landed. She went from nervous passenger to someone with plans of her own and Hiro admitting he feared they were only staying out of obligation got me right in the chest

Those mercenaries whispering about him being the Empire's golden boy in the guild hall was a nice touch. Everyone assumes he sold out and he is standing right there refusing to. Small scene but it made the whole noble thing feel like it actually has friction

So Selena just gets handed her own independent unit at the end and immediately starts smiling at the stars like a cat with a plan. That woman is not done with Hiro and I am seated for whatever she pulls next

The knight rumors gag wore thin fast for me. Every shopkeeper calling him Knight Hiro was funny once and then it just kept going. Battle carried the episode though

I get why people call the ship overpowered but honestly watching Hiro thread the Krishna between those giant cruisers is the whole appeal. The man flies like he has done this a thousand times in a video game and that is literally the point

Ten million Enels and then Mimi finds out the torpedoes cost half a million each. Her face doing the math was the funniest thing in the episode and nobody talks about it enough

I couldn't stop grinning when the crystal things started slicing cruisers apart. Hiro basically summoned a boss and let it farm the whole fleet for him. That is the kind of smug nonsense I watch this show for

Turning down a knighthood ten times is either the most stubborn or the most sensible thing a protagonist has done in this genre. Hiro just wants his soda and his freedom. The man has priorities

Mimi asking Elma what kind of person Hiro really is while they watch the hyperdrive lights was such a small quiet scene and somehow it got me more than the explosions. These two genuinely like each other and not just through him