Ranked #2555

Mouretsu Pirates

For the past few years, the anime industry has been infested by tons of shows which focus on material which promotes sales. May it be adding Moe element, fan-service, over the top drama story and many others. Only few titles are willing to make a risk in order to bring new material to the table. Mouretsu Pirates (Bodacious Pirates) is one of them.

Story 7/10

The story is simple. A normal high school girl living a simple life similar to these slice of life shows that you usually see. After a string of events, she was left to make a trivial decision to become a space pirate as a descendant of her parents as a captain. In the course of the episodes, we get to learn more about how this space piracy works. The anime covers most of the technical terms regarding ships and how they work, may it be Cyber Warfare to overtake the systems of an enemy ship and whatnot. I personally find this interesting (who knew that making a Faster Than Light (FTL) travel at the most crucial time could be exciting).

Another major factor which makes the story so great is because of the characters most specially Marika and her decisions as a captain. Her decisions decides where the story will go and it made me ponder for a bit of what will happen on the next episode, which makes me more and more clung to the story.

There are some points in the story that wasn't that clever but good overall.

Art 9 / 10

The art for this anime is almost perfect. Sometimes i find the characters drawn in a simple way. As an artist myself, i find the character designs very pleasing and unique. Unlike other anime which character designs are stapled to one design and makes a difference only because of the hairstyles. Mouretsu pirates caters character designs which are entirely different to each other. In this anime's ED, you can see the profile cards of each character and from there, you can tell how original each and every character there is. In the course of the anime so far, i am yet to see any flaw regarding the characters and in their movements. I am typically hard when it comes to overseeing perspectives, movements and whatnot and i can guarantee that the art is constant, unchanging and well formed. If there's anything that would make me give this section a perfect 10, that would be adding more fluidity to the animation, but its not like Marika should be moving all the time when talking because the characters are only talking most of the time. This is not a shounen title after all.

The CG and effects for this anime is highly commendable. I am astound by the surmounting quality and design of the spaceships. I personally like the rendering and lighting used in space.

The Background art of this anime is one of the best. Each and every facility, object and even the user interface of the computers in this anime was designed intricately. Jogakuin is such a dreamland to tread with. I find the background for this anime a treat, very pleasing to the eyes and makes you want to live in the anime itself XDD.

Sound - 8
The music for this anime is good overall. All tracks are relaxing, some tracks are intense and fits exactly when the scene and event calls for it. It is hard to handpick a favorite track in the series because there are so many different catchy tracks and it is hard to differ.

The OP for this anime isn't really the best, an average score if i would rate. Some are annoyed because of the heavy guitar riffs and the overly cheerful voices of the singers which didn't really made a good mix. The ED makes up for what the OP lacks and that is its catchyness. The jump to the ED from the episode gave me shivers at times.

These two songs are composed by Hyadain, so if you're a fan of him, and is the type of fan who would go as far as watching an anime because of his works. This review wasn't that useful huh. XO

Character - 8

The character progression of Marika overshadows most of the characters in the show. Even though some characters are bland and are just included to fill-in, this was never a hindrance to enjoy the show and if not, there wasn't even a single character in the show to hate.

Marika, as the main highlight of the show is very likable because of her straight-forwardness and cheerfulness. It is always nice to see how the show progresses because of the decisions she makes. 17 episodes in, i find more potential in the characters of this anime, most specially the development of Marika and her classmates.

Enjoyment - 9

What i love about this show is that everything in this anime is simple, but these simple aspects are delivered in a quirky fashion. I enjoyed the simple adventures that they partake but these adventures always end in a grand and lighthearted way.

Overall - 8.25

I was caught by surprise by this anime. The first few episodes were going at such a slow pace but later the story builds up to a grand scale.

So yea, to cut this review short. The story is lighthearted and simple but can take you by surprise at times as the story goes on. The character designs are okay and the Background and CG takes it to a different level. The OP is not the best but the music is variant. The character Marika is awesome and there is no character to hate.

Mouretsu Pirates is a good show to watch. If you're tired of watching anime titles which goes on a never ending cycle of following the Moe and fanservice principles. This anime is for you.


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...I-is it okay? I mean this should be a total piece of garbage by all means, but there's no panty shots? No bungie cord titties flopping around? There's a shit ton of girls and even a maid cafe and a goofy pirate outfit, but... Why doesn't this show suck? Maybe because it's not trying to be BS, but trying to be a great space adventure with a great lead character.

*This review will be updated as I watch more episodes, it's up to seven so far.*

STORY: Moretsu Pirates or Bodacious Space Pirates, which ever sounds worse to you... Wow, even a terrible title, but this anime still doesn't blow? Yep, from I've seen thus far, there's nothing but incredible potential in this anime, despite the gaggle of girls, the silly pirate costumes, and, from what everyone highly expected it to be, what it would have appear to be some sort of moe space pirates adventures in the promotions, this anime has real potential to be even this year's best, or at the very least, the best sci fi anime in years.

From actual character build up (Actual believable build up no less) to characters with personalities bigger than their cleavages (Despite that I haven't seen a single chest pillow peek out from any shirt, even though there's now seven episodes available), and great set up on the world of this anime, Bodacious Space Pirates is looking up to be quite the space adventure.
The main focus is on the series main girl and eventual space pirate captain, Kato, the daughter of the late Space Pirate Captain Gonzaemon Kato, who have only just learn about her pirate heratage from her mother and crew members of the late captain and is expected to be the next captain, and is even reluctant to believe it (Along with the news of them being legal pirates). Kato is a lovable main lead that has no where to go in her character but up, she's no typical "I know how to pilot a giant machine without any training" lead character, she's the kind who only grows, and this anime actually acknowledges that as she's not thrown right away at the future plot or the captain's seat right away, a seat that will obviously need an experienced leader and not an unrealistic teenager that magically know what to do in any situtation, she has to do some real learning of what's what, from learning what it means to be a pirate to shooting a lazer gun. And when she's finally a space pirate captain, there will be no moans and groans from me, the anime will have shown her development to that point, it will have shown her effort to become that space captain we will hope she'll become.

But, that's only little of what this anime has does right that others do so yawn inducingly lazy, the whole theme and world build up is done exceptionally well, the other characters are interesting (And though the first couple of episodes will obviously focus on our captain-to-be, the rest of her crew will undoubtly be fleshed out, I mean what's a captain without her crew? A school girl?) and even with only a few episodes in, there's a strong feeling that there's going to be grand adventures that would make certain pirates envious.

But remember, before any of the piracy can start, getting your bearing and settings right is first priority, Mouretsu Pirates has shown through it's character's space yacht exercise that the space battle and exporation portion of the series will be done flawlessly, and I'm glad to know it's willing to spend several episodes to do so (Despite the slow pace, which will be graining to some). However, once the outer space cruise is over, the anime almost seems like it's trying to make up for lost time by literally rushing Marika right into the captain's seat to the point where I wanted to say "Slow the hell down people! She's only a high school student!"
After such a strong string of episodes, it's almost head scratchingly odd to see the pace turned up to the max and have the lead character put to work so soon, especially after it seemed to be taking it's time to get there.

But, does it really hurt the quality of the previous episodes? Not so much, there's obviously going to be more build up for our trainee captain, just because she's leading already doesn't mean she's magically leader material, and it's good to know the anime knowledges that and that Marika is still trying to work hard (School, part time job and being the captain of space pirates? She's tired out for good reasons but doesn't let that stop her). If the anime can get itself out of it's pacing rut, the show can continue to shine bright as it has been so far.

ANIMATION: Superb animation that isn't wasted on what we feared would happen, as expected from Satelight (Ikkoku Meiro no Croisee, Hellsing Ultimate), chaarcter designs are very distinctive, even background characters look well thought out. The animation on everything just overall looks great, space, the space ships, everything that is supposed to look sci fi looks it, no complains from me, despite some goofy pirate costumes.

SOUND: Good, but not amazing, though the voice acting is great. While theme music, the opening is a touch annoying (But that's just me...), but the ending theme is among the best I've heard in a good while.

OVERALL:
The Good:
+ Not what was expected, being some ecchi harem BS that it looks like, which is always a great thing.
+ A great hard working central character who doesn't follow the cliches of most sci fi anime, she'll only grow to be a better main lead with time.
+ Great animation, everything looks well thought out.
+ Great world building.

Mixed:
+/- Ending theme song is great / Opening theme is a tad bit annoying.

The Bad:
- Pacing problems, might be too slow for some, then moves too fast.

As over enthusiastic as I seem, I'm still keeping a weary eye this one, it can be as great as anime can be as much as it can be a colissical let down, but for now, these pirates earn a much better word than bodacious with my expectations flying farther than any space ship can soar. read more