Calibrating our viewing expectations for "manic," and playing "spot the undercutting," makes this go down a lot easier. Though I still hate the romantic stuff, parody or no.
(And for all those reasons, the scene in the icon made me laugh for quite a long time. There's just something indescribably funny about robots who aid meditation by bopping people over the head with sticks while intoning, "Worldly passions bad. Worldly passions bad.")
Quick spoiler comments behind the cut. I suppose it's time to reiterate my spoiler policy: if it's from any episode after what I've seen, I don't want to know about it; and just as importantly, if it's a reference to something in a later episode, I don't want to know about it. This includes statements that something will be important later, or a big secret about something will be revealed, and the like. Some might think this is excessive, but I don't. Hints like that do damage my watching, and besides, if I draw a hard line here, of no references to any later episodes, then people won't keep flippin' testing me over it.
Spoilers:
I like the episode titles, particularly "Sort of Like a Fateful Decision" and "The Luke Warm 'Cold Equation.'"
Undercutting bits: the declaration of the cook, in grand heroic terms, that she vowed to be able to . . . properly prepare a last meal; someone actually dying to save others, who's not otherwise very admirable; and the bit about captains as figureheads.
Something about the pacing, or the treatment, made the death of all the survivors seem kind of underplayed to me; I'm not sure why. And I can chalk up all their deaths to the stupid romance thing, since the captain set down, thereby limiting the ship's options fatally, in pursuit of Akito.
Emotionless scientist who knew Akito's parents! Mysterious found tech! Sinister government people on board! Strange teleportations within the ship! Ooooh . . .
