Where do I start? Lets start at the beginning. Right from the get go you notice something, this anime takes perversion in Shonnen to new heights. I already know what you may be thinking, "But Kakori, you're complaining about Ecchi in a Ecchi anime?", but here's the thing: I don't mind Ecchi.
When I say I don't mind ecchi, I really mean it, for me it doesn't make a anime any worse or any better, it's just there. I don't really factor ecchi when choosing what anime to watch, instead I watch whatever feels interesting story-wise. But Plunderer is a exception. This is one of the very few occasions where the amount of ecchi and, most importantly, sheer perversion actually annoyed me. Sexual harassment turned into comedy and cheesy ecchi scenes mixed with serious plot moments made me roll my eyes not once, not twice, but many times throughout the anime.
Now, maybe you don't mind ecchi, maybe you even like it, I don't have anything against it. So let me go to my next point: pacing. My god, the pacing. I swear that the plot only starts 7 or 8 episodes in. Plunderer, specially in the first half, is littered with "filler", having entire episodes that could easily be cut barely affecting the plot and it really made me want to drop this anime.
Thankfully I didn't drop it, as the story is actually intriguing, but maybe not because of the reasons you imagine. Starting with episode 8, new plot points are introduced and they are very intriguing, but the initial concepts that made you start to watch the anime in the first place are not very well explored. The counter, which are the selling point of the anime, almost become like energy levels in Dragon Ball Z: they represent power, they keep going up with each new villain and really start to lose importance after a while. A real shame for anyone wanting a "In Time" vibe from Plunderer.
But in the end it was all worth it, right? Well, kinda. The story overall is not bad and I'm actually looking forward to a possible second season, but don't expect anything too exceptional. The problems I mentioned persist throughout the anime, even if to lesser degrees, and the story as a whole could be better. The character relationships are somewhat forced, no pun intended, but I don't usually mind it that much, I've come to accept weirder for the sake of entertainment.
Don't get me wrong, Plunderer sure has its qualities. Intriguing concepts, some deep philosophical questions and even some really funny moments, including some ecchi moments that made me laugh my ass off. Overall, it started bad to worse, but ended up pretty decent, so it was a fair anime. If the story was shortened from 24 episodes to 13 or maybe a few more, with much of the filler cut out, it could have been a 7 or even 8. But the way it is, I'll stick with a not-quite-as-good 6.
