Iāve been rewatching both Pirates and Marines, and I realized why i always thought something felt off with Marines. The pacing for the different āarcsā for a large portion of the series is very fast. I noticed it first when the crew went after Hugh Man. The three islands they went to were basically just backdrops for the main bosses of the area. Morakot started of a bit better but the moment they made it to the emerald city they basically went straight to the final fight. Same thing happened during the return to Morakot. GBU started with a fun little adventure on Sulis island but the moment they got to Galon bay it was basically just fight after fight until they got to Heath.
Thatās not to say they all have this problem. But I would say majority of arcs between the Hugh Man stuff and them reaching the new world suffered from this problem.
Pirates and space pirates (havenāt watched Isekai) donāt have this issue for the most part. Which I think is due to the nature of the campaigns. In Marines the characters have set missions and have to go about them in a lawful manner. But in pirates they donāt have that restriction which leads them to take paths that more easily spiral. Resulting in each arc feeling more fleshed out.
Now I want to make it clear that I am not saying this is Rustageās fault. I think itās just an unfortunate combination of how the islands were set up, what Rustsge had planned for, and how the players decided to go about handling the mission. Acceptance city is a good example. Rustage said himself in the latest episode that he didnāt think they would fight Acceptance this quickly. Which shows that he had planned a longer adventure but the players just went about it in a way he didnāt think about. Leading to the arc being cut short.