Title: Bodacious Space Pirates – Part 1
Alternative Titles: モーレツ宇宙海賊 | Mouretsu Pirates | Mouretsu Uchuu Kaizoku
Encompasses: Episodes 1-13
Published by: Hanabee (Australia) | Sentai Filmworks (North America)
Genre: Adventure, Science Fiction
Audio: English / Japanese
Subtitles: Japanese
Classification: This title has been classified as PG for Mild Animated Violence et al.
Special Thanks: Hanabee Entertainment for providing me with a review copy of this title. Both DVD and Blu-ray editions were provided, this review is of both editions.
When her estranged father passed away, Marika Kato has found herself unsuspectingly inheriting a pirate ship called the Bentenmaru, and it’s crew. By law, the ship’s captaincy must be inherited by direct blood relatives and as the only living relative; Marika must take charge if the crew of the ship wishes to continue on their adventures. But what’s a girl supposed to do when you’re just in high school and the only experience you’ve had in space are your rides in the space yacht club? For Marika, the answer is simple, but juggling life between being a student, her part time job and being the captain of a pirate ship is easier said than done.
To be completely honest, I had mixed feelings when I began watching this series. While I do love a good futuristic storyline, I was concerned that it would just be a series about spacecraft battles with whatever in between being supplemented by “bodacious” beauties and fanservice. Fortunately it was neither, and as you may have been able to tell through the series relatively mild PG rating, is more about the non-violent actions of space flight merged with some aspects of pirating, school life and cyberwarfare.
Bodacious Space Pirates follows Marika Kato, your normal High School student who inherits a pirate ship called the Bentenmaru – and due to pirating laws she is left to inherit it after her astranged father passes away due to food poisoning. The “Sea of the Morning Star” is the planet where Marika resides on, and many decades prior to the events of this series it fell afoul to the “War of Independence” where they sought to free themselves of their rule – the Stellar Alliance. In order to supplement their meager fleet, they started issuing the “Letter of Marque” to pirates in order to boost their numbers – in return effectively making them officially recognized pirates. However, the only way pirate ships can be manned by a new Captain is through a direct-decedent…. and this falls upon Marika to take up the helm as Captain of the Bentenmaru.
The first half of this series is broken up into three separate segments, and work more towards building the world and the adaptation of pirating from sea to space. The first segment takes place soon after Marika gets the news of her inheritance and remains hesitant about taking up the role, especially considering up until then she wasn’t aware pirates existed. Urged by two members of the Bentenmaru who became staff as Hakuho Academy (One of whom takes up the lead as supervisor for the schools yacht club), they decide to take a practice trip into the stars. This trip does not go according to plan, and serves as an introduction to the concepts behind space flight and more importantly protecting oneself from malicious vessels. Instead of combat, it is more about strategy and cyberware. While it may not be as big a visual spectacle, storyline wise it makes for a welcome change of pace from the norm – and provided a very interesting experience.
The second component on the series focuses on piracy itself, and the adaptations the creators have made to the original concept of a ‘pirate’ to bring it into a futuristic world with spaceships. I will leave you to fully appreciate the adaptation of pirating they provide, however it was very well thought out and used the world and setting they had built well. The second half of the series delves into a more structured storyline surrounding a hunt for a golden ghost ship. The episodes are all fairly enjoyable and fortunately were very storyline heavy, but did tend to drag along a bit. I look forward to seeing where the rest of the series takes us considering how long they spent world building.
Bodacious Space Pirates has a very sizable character cast, only a couple of whom receive any form of character development. Marika is an upbeat and intelligent protagonist who provides a consistent stream of energetic dialogue and is for the most part an enjoyable main character whom receives ample development on her personality and character as the episodes progress. In addition, Kane McDougal and Misa Grandwood who serve as the Bentenmaru’s helmsman and medic respectively are also characters whom receive a lot of screen time, both in the first few “introduction” episodes and later on – and serve their roles very well.
The other supposed main character of the series – Chiaki Kurihara is a transfer student who moves into the school the same day as Kane McDougal becomes a teacher. While serving as a polar opposite to Marika – being more calm and serious, as well as playing an integral role in the first few episodes…. she takes a step out of the spotlight and only makes brief appearances throughout the rest of the episodes as if they wanted to remind us they hadn’t forgotten her. The same can be said of Marika’s mother and I hope they make better use of her character in the remaining episodes as they offer a lot of potential.
The animation studio Satelight (Croisee in a Foreign Labyrinth, Tokitowa) provides some excellent visuals to complement their futuristic pirate-themed series. Given the sizable character cast, they worked well to ensure the characters all had distinct appearances with both Marika and Chiaki being the stand-outs in their over the top pirate outfits. The environment designs and animation are also of a solid standard (Especially the whole modern but futuristic vibe they had going with the cityscape of Sea of the Morning Star), and ship battles (Using both 2D and 3D visuals) externally and internally look impressive and suited the setting.
Despite the title “Bodacious Space Pirates”, which might incline some form of fanservice element to this series….. unless you consider a pirate outfit with a miniskirt fanservice there is little if any to be had in this series.
Bodacious Space Pirates comes with a single opening sequence Mugen no Ai by Momoiro Clover Z, an intense and enjoyable track which is coupled with equally fast-paced animation with a few shining moments included in the mix which shows they were out to make an impression. The primary ending sequence for the show is Lost Child by Momoiro Clover Z as well and equally attempts to provide and incentive to watch with an enjoyable track and simple animation which highlights just how many characters they have in this series. The rest of Bodacious Space Pirates is subsidized with a nice set of tracks which suited the theme of the series.
ADR Director Christopher Ayres (ef: A Tale of Memories – Keep out for a review of this soon!) had his work cut out for him given the number of particularly female roles he had to fill. Luci Christian as Marika was a wise choice, and going from her previous voice acting experience she was the perfect person for the voice role. Chris Patton and Carli Mosier as Kane and Misa were also well suited to their roles. Caitlynn French who voiced Chiaki provided a great voice to her role however the delivery was a little bit shaky – but I hope to see more from her in the future.
A highlight easily had to be Shelley Calene-Black as Ririka Kato, which was also a role well suited to her given previous voice acting history. The remainder of the English voice work was of a solid standard, although varied more as the characters become less storyline and role critical. Perhaps not one of Sentai Filmworks’ best English dubs, but that being said it is a series that deserved one.
Between the DVD and Blu-ray editions, asides from a rather notable menu change and a few different trailers, there is very little that sets the editions apart in terms of extra content. Both editions include clean versions of the STANDARD opening and ending sequences, no commentary or anything like that (Which is a real pity) and trailers. Trailers for the Blu-ray edition which is based off the Sentai Filmworks release are for Dream Eater Merry, ef ~ a tale of memories, Inu x Boku SS and Mysterious Girlfriend X (Fortunately Hanabee hold rights to 3 / 4 for these titles). The DVD release comes with a trailer for Arakawa Under the Bridge which was released by Hanabee in December.
To end this review, Bodacious Space Pirates initially gave the impression it was something completely different and the direction it took instead I think worked in its favor. While the character development is lacking in some parts and the plot so far is slow – it set out to do something different and in this respect it succeeded while retaining an enjoyable watching experience. Provided you don’t go into this series expecting all out space battles, I could recommend considering this title for your next shop for anime.
Final Score
Storyline / Character Development: B
Design: A-
Music/Voice Acting: B+
Extras: C
Personal Preference: A-
Overall Score: B+
