Marika talks her way through problems that would end other shows in ten minutes, then the next episode she's genuinely afraid and you feel it. The show trusts you to care about a girl becoming her father's captain without making it heavy, and that lightness is the whole point, piracy in space should feel like an adventure with your friends, not a burden. By the time you're watching her negotiate with rival crews and dodge actual threats, you realize the school yacht club wasn't filler at all.

In a future where travel between stars is routine, high school student Marika Katou splits her time between her school's space yacht club and a waitressing job. Then she learns that her absent father has died, and that he was Gonzaemon, the famed captain of the pirate ship Bentenmaru. Under the terms of the ship's rare Letter of Marque, which makes its piracy legal, his crew needs Marika to step in as captain. She must decide whether to remain an ordinary student or lead a second life among the stars. Her situation draws the attention of government agencies and of Chiaki Kurihara, a puzzling transfer student. Space rivals, princesses in danger and a pirate crew that also works as high school teachers fill out a lively sci-fi adventure.