Ranked #1913

Mouretsu Pirates

Story:

Mouretsu Pirates is effectively a slice of life show jammed into a space opera. Because of this, it feels in many places that the series is not entire sure in which direction it wants to go. This is amplified by the fact that the series takes the plots from several of the light novels without trying to tie them together. The result is a series of unrelated story arcs that begin out of nowhere.

Mind you, the story arcs themselves range from incomprehensible to interesting. In some cases, the conflict is resolved without fully explaining how the conclusion actually ties up the loose ends. In other cases, though, everything is brought to a close while still making sense. The good stories keep my score in this category up, but the disjointedness of the series as a whole winds up removing quite a few points.

Art:

What can I say about the art? There are plenty of very pretty visuals, from the shots of Marika's Elaborate University High to all the little things like the omnipresent computer displays that float in the air wherever they might be summoned. I am not a fan of conspicuous CGI in anime, with the contrast between traditional cell shading and 3D action always feeling jarring to me. I recognize that it is sometimes necessary in this day and age, but I don't have to like it, forcing me to take a point off.

Sound:

Not being an audiophile, I can't give an informed opinion about this aspect. However I do want to point out one thing that bugged me throughout the show: Why does the captain's quarters creak like an old-timey wooden ship?

Characters:

The bridge crew of the Bentenmaru are all unique, each with their own quirks and all with very nice character designs that set them apart from each other. The mystery of whether Luca really has mystical precognitive powers or if she's just making things up as she goes along was fun the whole way through. And the reveal of why Kane's character often seems bipolar was quite delicious. But, for the most part, you hardly get to know anything about them. Why is Schnitzer a cyborg? How and why did they originally join the crew? And who the heck are all the guys you see sitting in the halls every now and then who supposedly run the ship?

As for the Yacht Club, the best one can say about them is that... well... they exist. There are a couple that come to the forefront eventually, such as Jenny, Lynn, and Ai. But, for the most part, they're just a gaggle of high school girls in the background who are there to go "Squeeeee!" when something interesting happens. They all supposedly have backstories and a number of useful skills (or so we're told by Misa) but we rarely get to see that in action.

Also, as a nitpick (and hopefully avoiding spoilers), I'd like to mention the end of Ai's character arc. Basically, at the end of it, she finally loses her protective puppydog hat, signifying major growth, on her part. However, in the next scene, she has her hat again, making it feel like all of the development was completely undone since then. It's almost like they preferred to ignore who she became, all for the sake of maintaining the original character design.

Enjoyment:

Mouretsu Pirates is an okay show. You do get pumped up when the opening starts playing and it's possible to ride that high for a little while. But, eventually, you either enjoy the events that are unfolding or you don't. The important thing is that you want to stick around long enough to find out whether you'll like it or not. Sometimes, you get bored out of your skull. Other times, you're hooked from beginning to end. That inconsistency can easily threaten your enjoyment of the show.

Overall:

As mentioned above, it's an okay show. It is most definitely not some piece of generic schlock that you usually see littering the anime world. It instead has a great space opera setting with a fun story concept. Unfortunately, Mouretsu Pirates is lacking in execution. Marika, the central character, is not quite enough to link the whole series together. There needs to be a lot more to make it feel like a single story. And much of the world is either thrown in at the last moment or kind of glossed over with the hope that nobody will notice.

Having never read the original light novels, I can't say whether the problems with the individual plots were due to the adaptation or whether they existed from the very beginning. There are so many things that either didn't make sense or weren't given a sufficient explanation. The bits that worked did so very well, being interesting or at the least amusing. But the bits that didn't work... really didn't work.

So, in conclusion, Mouretsu Pirates is a nice little series that is great to watch once. Though I would not recommend going out and actually buying it. read more

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.


read more

...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

Bodacious Space Pirates is among the rare shows which take genre conventions and spins them into something fresh. It takes elements of space adventure sci-fi anime and combines them with elements of moe school life anime. The result is an incredibly fun and surprisingly smart show with a fantastic female lead.

That female lead is Marika Kato, a high school girl turned space pirate captain. She became the captain of the legendary pirate ship Bentenmaru, after a few of her mom's old friends (members of the Bentenmaru's crew) come to her house with the news that her father, the Bentenmaru's captain, has died and that she has inherited the ship. Although at first reluctant, Marika decides to take up the position of pirate captain after avoiding some unwanted attention with the help of transfer student and fellow pirate daughter, Chiaki Kunhara, but still wants to continue her high school education at the same time. The show follows her adventures as a new pirate captain, as she learns about the her role in a world entirely new to her.

There are a lot of things that make Bodacious Space Pirates work so well, not the least of which is the universe it is set in. There is a remarkable amount of thought that is put into the setting, especially considering how silly the show can be. For example, as ridiculous as it sounds that Marika is learning to be a space pirate and attending school at the same time (especially considering that her being a pirate is a well known fact), there is actually a reasonable explanation as to why she can do such. At some point in history, pirates had been recruited by the Sea of Morning Star (Marika's home planet) in their war for independence, and so these pirates became legally sanctioned privateers rather than criminals if they possessed a Letter of Marque, which the Bentenmaru does. So despite being a pirate, Marika is not a criminal, and thus can attempt to balance her life as a pirate with her life as a high school student, as she does. Then there is the surprisingly intricate sci-fi elements, the campy but believable pirate society, and dozens of other details that come together to construct a very well fleshed out universe.

Just as important to the show's success is its likeable cast of characters. The cast is a gigantic cast of colorful personalities. From the eclectic members of the Bentenmaru to the gaggle of strangely talented high school girls in Marika's yacht club, all the characters are very likeable. Admittedly, the show does go for large quantities of characters rather than extensively developed ones, but given the show's loose and silly nature, this is hardly a problem. The cast is developed well as an ensemble, the group dynamic is fantastic at any given time; it is honestly very easy to see both the crew of the Bentenmaru and the yacht club as a surrogate families. It is just plain fun to watch them play off each other. In fact, the fun chemistry between the characters helps some of the sci-fi exposition go down easier, which is great because it prevents the show from feeling overwhelmingly talky. One standout character is Marika's mother Ririka, a strong female character on her own right; watching her gives you an idea of how Marika turned turned out to be the hard working optimist she is. Chiaki is also really cute as the hard-nosed tsundere.

As fun as the rest of the cast is, Marika really is the star of the show. Cheerful, level-headed, and optimistic yet a bit naive; she is an easy character to cheer for. Despite not knowing much of what being a pirate captain entails, she full-heartedly commits to the role once she decides to take it up. She puts a lot of effort into learning about her position as a pirate captain, her ship, and her crew; this coupled with her resourcefulness and positive attitude make her capabilities as a new captain very believable. She isn't perfect and makes some very silly mistakes, yet works to resolve them quickly. These qualities are what make it so gratifying to watch her take on challenge after challenge. Unlike so many other protagonists, Marika succeeds through her own capabilities (namely being a good leader), and the abilities of her crew, rather than succeeding because she is the main character.

It is a good thing that Marika takes things in stride too, because as I've said before Bodacious Space Pirates is a silly show at heart. Sure the show has well developed sci-fi elements and solid story arcs throughout, but the show's defining trait is its light-hearted sense of fun. Much of the fun comes from playing with common genre conventions and tropes in anime. The show is chock-full moe moments, cosplaying, and even some yuri. Characters overact when eating good food, girls fawn over how cute other girls are, and a one point the pirating job is done with the entire crew of the Benenmaru (at the time Marika's Yacht Club) in cosplay. Don't mistake this as mindless pandering, because it isn't. The show is very self aware of what it is doing without openly saying it, and as a result the show seems to be playfully poking fun at the tropes it revels in. It is neither idiotic pandering or biting satire, but rather a teasing homage.

On the technical side of things, Bodacious Space Pirates is spectacular. The character designs are lively and colorful; they're just filled with life. Of special note is Marika in her fabulous captain outfit. Even more impressive are fantastic spaceships, charming European like cities, and grand stretches of space. The settings of the show are absolutely breathtaking. The spaceships in particular are extremely well done CGI, and in the colorful star-filled depths of space, they are a sight to behold. It is also amazing to see them do battle with each other. Just as impressive is the soundtrack by Elements Garden. It is a unique blend of electronic beats with orchestral and wind instruments that perfectly embodies the space sci-fi odyssey and pirate theme of the show, and fit the slice-of-life moments just as well. It easily ranks among the best soundtracks of 2012.

Bodacious Space Pirates is a refreshing take on commonly used anime tropes.The way the show juggles high excitement sci-fi action with laid-back slice-of-life, while it playfully pays homage to both is absolutely inspired. On top of that it has a fantastic female lead in Marika. Yes, it does meander in the middle and isn't the deepest of shows, but such flaws are dwarfed by the amount of fun the show packs. It is weird to think that tech-heavy science fiction juxtaposition with high school girl shenanigans and more tropes than you can count would make for a satisfying show, but Bodacious Space Pirates manages to do it; remarkably well, too. read more

This show suffers from two major problems. First, it's ridiculous. While it manages to be pretty watchable anyway, a better show would been more believable. Prime example: the way the letters of marque work is completely nonsensical. That alone could kill the whole thing for some people. Second, as everyone knows, space opera is far more exciting if it ignores most of the boring realities of (possible) space travel. Most people are not that thrilled about ships using solar sails to favor energy efficiency over speed. It's the difference between Star Wars and 2001: A Space Odyssey. While both are very good films, these days people are not willing to sit through something like 2001. (I've seen 2001 more times than I care to count though, so don't think I quit this show because I decided it was just slow and boring.)

As RevanFanatic said, in this show "the government allows piracy for some stupid reason". Well Revan, the reason you can't remember why is because they never explained it. Or so I'd like to say, but actually they did with some throw away line about the galactic empire respecting individual systems' autonomy. You probably missed it because it was short and, frankly, just plain stupid. That whole part was so ludicrous I actually laughed out loud. To my knowledge, there has never been a government that issued letters of marque for anything other than the express purpose of damaging its enemies. Even if you had such a letter, attacking vessels that were friendly to the government issuing the letter made you a pirate. Your own people would kill you. If the empire was any sort of sensible government, it would shut down the pirates immediately.

Or so I'd like to say. The piracy in this show is also ridiculous. They basically just take things. That sounds very piratic, but there is no threat at all. The whole show is just happy and amiable, and so are the characters. From what I can see, there is no effort to develop things further than that. You never get to learn why the characters are out there doing this job, and it probably doesn't matter anyway. It all seems about as threatening as a declawed kitten. When pirates board a ship I'd expect a conversation something like: "Give us all your stuff and we'll kill you!" "um, don't you mean or?" "Yes, yes. That. Give us your stuff!" instead of "Oh boy! You're in for a real treat!" "What's going on?" "We're going to get raided by pirates!" followed by "Okay, we're gonna take all your stuff now, but don't worry. The insurance company will compensate you."

I've been bored to tears with most of the anime space opera in recent years, so I had high hopes for this one based on the title alone. I'm okay with all the slow-moving space travel and ship-to-ship combat stuff, but let's face it: you can't have much of a pirate show without lots of Errol Flynn swashbuckling adventure. I thought there might be some real fights coming when her mom was showing her all those guns. I was wrong. When they board a vessel, the whole thing goes pretty much as I described in the previous paragraph.

There really is no part of this show that is very exciting. In fact, I can sum the whole thing up as "happy and amiable". Therein lies its strength. I could probably enjoy it they way I enjoy slice of life anime if I wasn't having trouble with the more ridiculous bits. I am having trouble with them though. If I wanted to watch a slow-moving sci-fi anime right now, I would probably rewatch Geneshaft. It actually requires that you have a brain to watch it. Someday, if I'm in the right mood for this kind of fluff, I may come back to Mouretsu Pirates, but probably not. read more

Even though Mouretsu Pirates doesn't deliver on the potential of its first few episodes, it still ends up being an enjoyable and light hearted show, even if it suffers from incredibly slow pacing and the loss of its seriousness and realism.

Despite the silly premise of a high school girl becoming a space pirate, the show was originally very grounded, the technology was not too farfetched and along with the bureaucracy of getting the Letter of Marque and the electronic warfare, it impressed me with just how realistic it was. Everything seemed to have procedure which compared to most futuristic sci-fi shows was impressive and a welcome change. However, we come here to our first problem; part of the director's job is to edit out the unimportant sections from the original light novel to make the series concise, but in Mouretsu Pirates nothing was removed. Therefore there is a large amount of dialogue consisting of unnecessary technical talk which soaks up a massive amount of time, leading to episodes where very little is achieved. If you are impatient, watching this will be painful at times, particularly towards the end you start hoping that they'll speed everything up.

This pace also means that there is very little characterization and no character development, which is a pity because you'll want to find out more about the crew of the Bentenmaru who are instantly likable and are often a joy to watch. You'll wonder about the backgrounds of some of the side characters, but will never find out anything about them, at the end you may even wonder what they even contributed to the show. Of the two main protagonists, Marika was a pleasant surprise as I was expecting some moe character trope, and instead got a level headed protagonist that thinks things through, is responsible and has a flare worthy of a pirate, although things go her way far too much. Chiaki is a lovable tsundere who's love of parfaits will usually get a smile on your face, usually acting as the straight girl in the various frivolous situations at school and at the cafe.

As you get further into the series, the series becomes much harder to take seriously, not so much with the plot or the enemies, but conveniences like a major corporation not having good security on their data and recorded phone conversations, or a machine gun being fired at a bunch of high school girls but conveniently missing everyone, or even the fact that Marika has better pirating skills than those with many more years of experience. Nothing that the plot throws at the Bentenmaru feels threatening because you know Marika will come up with some plan and the situation will all resolve itself without much difficulty. This is problematic for the last arc where there's supposed to be danger and tension and you can't feel it at all, let alone take it seriously. This makes it all incredibly underwhelming, and without the music it would have been even worse.

In regards to the music, it really grabbed my attention in the first few episodes, having some really notable tracks in a selection that really suited the setting of both space and the school well. I doubt I'll forget the lead track used in the preview and recap for some time. The animation is very good, with one of the best uses of CGI I've seen to date, as for the consistency occasionally the faces are slightly off model but other than that it's very stable, with no episodes that aren't pleasing to the eye. The art is very good, particularly that of Marika's home town, making me wish that more scenes had taken place there, as I feel it's a pity that it was mostly limited to the Bentenmaru's interior. The OP is energetic to say the least and you'll either love it or hate it, I liked the ED "LOST CHILD" by Momoiro Clover Z, being glad that it stayed for both cours.

Whilst it suffers from very slow episodes, on the whole the series is very enjoyable, and there is plenty to keep you amused, from high school girls pirating whilst cosplaying to surprise yuri, and dynamic battles to flashy outfits. There's plenty of funny moments, and many times where you can't wait to see how the arc will end, so overall, whilst Mouretsu Pirates is a very flawed anime, it's a lively and boisterous show that you'll appreciate so long as you have the patience to get through the slower episodes. read more

TL;DR version: A compelling and highly innovative series in terms of strategy and characterisation but struggles to make its genre identity known. Unexpected genre changes from space combat, to comedy/slice-of-life is seen which is rather unpalatable in the first half. This is rectified in the second half where everything starts falling into place, and a good, clear balance is found. The series is more for those who like deeper thinking and strategy, instead of the average shounen battles.

The story is deep and intriguing, with a wide variety of piracy missions requiring different skills and tactics. What is emphasised greatly is that preparation is key before engaging in any kind of mission or battle. The show, for the most part keeps the viewer informed how and why a ship's crew has taken a certain course of action.

Unfortunately, the preparation aspect is over-emphasised in the first 4 episodes which really broke the pacing and turned off a lot of potential viewers. The show does redeem itself in the 5th episode when all the preparations go into action. The highly tactical nature is gripping, and is upheld throughout the rest of the series during engagement with enemies.

The end of the first episode was also awkward, as we are abruptly introduced to the political nature and hazards of being involved with piracy, without any follow-up. The best way to describe it is a shoddy attempt to include action and suspense which was counter-productive in the bigger picture. The later episodes do give us a quick rundown, and the viewer is also able to naturally gain a good idea of the setting as events unfold, which makes the awkward first episode sequence necessary.

The structuring of the arcs also took some time to get used to, as the "Mission"-centric episodes bore the hallmarks of a Space Opera while the "In-between" episodes between the Missions were closer to slice-of-life and comedy. The change of pace is totally unexpected and rather confusing at first. The "in-between" episodes show improvement as the series progresses, and successfully provide a good relief from the serious parts.

What the series excels at is how it handles the characters. We have a large cast, but only the important ones get the focus. The viewer develops understanding of the characters through the way they act, rather than empathy that is seen in most other series. This feels rather impersonal as the viewer is unable to directly connect to anyone, and is left as the third person observer. The total opposite happens in Code Geass where we are always with the main lead, going through his thoughts and the fairly minor characters also have their day in the spotlight. Not so in pirates, as we appreciate the excellent supporting cast through observing what they do, and how they do it. The story gradually reveals the characters, rather than the characters revealing themselves.

Remarkably, this is handled in an excellent fashion as we see a very natural progression and development from our main heroine, Marika. Her piracy skills and confidence show a natural growth from experience and the subtle changes over time is just pleasing to see. At the same time, she is no superhuman and has her insecurities. A reluctant leader who becomes a beast of a leader when the switch goes in. The writer of this review has the same experience, being in a zombie-like state outside work, but task-orientated and focused while at it.

The BGM is very good, and supports the different moods, from mission planning sequences to high-stakes battle action. There is a noticeable lack of variety at times, and repetition through the episodes can get a little tiresome. It is a case of quality over quantity, although a little more of the latter would be welcome! The insert songs and a special ending theme sets a good feel-good and concluding mood, while the regular ED sets a tone of anticipation with the lyrics giving an excellent portrayal of Marika. The OP is a matter of taste, which in itself is an excellent example of Bodaciousness and pirates by their nature are just that.

General sounds are also great, and really reinforce aspects of the story. The various pirate ships are a century old, and have undergone custom modifications throughout the years. While the external designs have similar roots, the differences in customisation is apparent. Such is the attention to detail in that each ship has its own unique warning siren.

The general character art and animation is very average for a televised series. Character detailing is usually good, but there is some inconsistency across different episodes. The animation is decent to good most of the time, but there are the rare exceptions where framelag is highly noticeable. The CGI on the other hand is outstanding. The detailed designs of the pirate ships, and the large amounts of different shading that is used is exceptional. The movement is extremely fluid, with extremely accurate thruster deployment as a ship changes direction. Zero-G environments and physics are excellently represented in both "ordinary" and "CGI" sequences (technically, it's ALL CGI but you get the gist) with floating characters having to kick objects to change direction, as well as going "upside down"

At the end of the day, Mouretsu Pirates is a highly compelling show that dared to do things differently. Tactics instead of pure action. Third-person character development instead of through first-person empathy. It even throws in comic relief in this highly complex execution. Even the producers seemed to struggle, as seen in the first few episodes but they learnt from their mistakes and each successive arc improves upon the previous ones. While the end results were far from perfect, they gradually become close enough. This is certainly a show which a patient viewer with an interest in space would enjoy. read more

Hey guys, this is my first review and the only reason I'm writing one is because everyone else who gave this show a shitty rating like myself put little to no effort into it so I thought "It's 12:30am, I'm half asleep and I still think I can pull it off better than these guys!" So following that thought I pulled my ass out of bed, picked up my laptop and here I am now, about to deal out a review of a shitty show I had high hopes for. Oh and before I start I think you should know THERE WILL BE SPOILERS TO THE BIG SPACE ADVENTURE OF 2012!!

Bodacious Space Pirates takes place in the future in a galaxy where the government allows piracy for some stupid reason. If I was able to actually focus through an entire episode I might actually be able to recall why but unfortunately for us all I can't. After our main character's dad kicks the bucket as Captain of the pirate ship Bentenmaru, Marika (I think that was her name if I'm wrong I don't want to be saying it through the entire review so I'm going to call her Main Character [MC]) gets contacted by the crew who decide that since she is rather smart and the former captains kid she should be a perfect candidate for Captain 2.0 even though she didn't know the fucker was still kicking until he actually did die.

So after a few episodes of her getting to know the two main crew members she finds herself in space on a ship with her friends from the yacht club and it's around here I started regretting pressing the play button every Saturday before I went to work. She spends a stupidly large amount of time with these broads so the one dude can get a sense of how good miss MC actually is at a job she didn't even know existed until a few days earlier.

After that yawnfest of shitty characters floating around in 0-G, pissing off other pirates and eventually getting their ass saved by the military we find ourselves with the next part of the show which I thought "hey, I bet now that she finally put on the fucking uniform shit is not going to be boring". I was really glad I was going to be able to put all that shittiness behind me... but unfortunately I fucking couldn't as she still dicks around all the time; being boring as usual only this time with princess Leia who in this case is just as boring. She says she wants to find a ghost ship and oh look my dog is rolling around on her back isn't that cu- WAIT REVAN your watching a show right now not your dog pay atten-
...
...
...
...oh sorry I fell asleep. Oh look the credits are rolling happiest moment of my Saturday so far. Maybe I should go back a bit and see what happ- OH LOOK Bakuman 2 is subbed already and not taking a week gotta take advantage of that!

So that's what happens in a nutshell of these episodes. Now I think its about time I addressed WHY I find it so unbelievably dull. You see the characters lack any emotion in their rolls as anime characters. If your character works at a maid cafe give her some typical tendencies of those types of characters. Better yet, give any damn tendencies because all she does is be nice to people in her flat toned manner. The only really nice thing about this show is the art and the music but that's definitely not enough to get a show going. I like to call it the Fable effect as Peter Moleneux (don't think I spelled it right either) thinks pretty backgrounds make games and the actual plot and gameplay mechanics are just extras. This show is beautiful to look at but hey you wouldn't go to the zoo every saturday to watch a tiger sleep on a rock for half an hour now would you?

This show could have been so much better and if it wasn't for Beelzebub's shitacular ending I would call it the biggest disappointment in anime of 2012 so far. Maybe it's for the best I drop it now as my brain has already melted from watching this. Here's a good example of why the story itself is boring. You remember how funny Azumanga Daioh was? That's because they did stupid things high school girls wouldn't do on a regular basis as well as the fact that the only male character with a name was a pedophile but that's another discussion entirely. Anyways, in this pile of shit they act almost EXACTLY like any random group of girls would act (personality-wise, not hobbies). If I wanted to see actual high school girls I would do so by looking through the hole in the wall to the change room as at least it would be fun to watch for 24 minutes.

What I got from this was a gaze at how shitty it must be being a high school girl as even if you put yourself in the position of Captain of a crew of bodacious space pirates you still would want to be a total hag to everyone you see.

All in all I think the art is great, music is pretty good, everything else is a floating pile of shit in a crapper which is why I honestly believe no one should watch this as there is no reason why Commander Shepard should need to die in order to blow up the mass relays, screw over the galaxy and destroy all the Reapers (I told you there would be spoilers to the great space adventure of 2012).

U MAD BRO? read more

*As the show is still going, this review is based on the first five episodes.

Are you tired of shows with excessive fan service and just need an anime with great story and characters with some depth on them? Do you love old style space opera akin to Space Battleship Yamato? Then hop on aboard to the ship known as Mouretsu Space Pirates!

Mouretsu Space Pirates (or MSP for review purposes) is a throwback to old style space opera scenario: A guy (or a girl in this one) with little knowledge of his/her own destiny and ability, is thrown into a grand scheme that pits him/her against strong opponents and meet lots of new and interesting friends along the way. Sounds much like star wars? Well, in actuality, it's the premise of tons of other anime and stories as well.

Then what, do you ask, that makes MSP deserves a 9 points overall? The answer is simple: It keeps you glued to the screen and yearns for more.

MSP is one of those gem of an anime that manages to keep an interesting story while maintaining a good enough pace that keeps you from boring yourself out. The characters themselves are pretty interesting even if it's a little overwhelming at this point. While it is rather hard to see with just five episodes, there are some noticeable character development. Especially with the main character, Marika.

Therefore, here's my review for it:
What's in it : Spaceships, Techy Stuff, and Pirates!
What's to like : Good story and pacing
What's not to like : As per episode 5, none yet
Mood needed to watch : Need for something with a story and no fan service
Overall Score : 9 (Great)

In short, Mouretsu Space Pirates is an unexpectedly well made space opera for those who love to watch an anime with a great story, characters, and a steady pace. However, if you're looking for an anime with tons of fan service as the name might imply, you're better off looking elsewhere. read more

Space and pirates, there aren't many words so romantically loaded. In the world of fiction, they come with the promise of stories about amazing journeys through dangerous realms in search of adventure, riches and glory. Since this anime seems to have both of those combined, of course it must have at least thrice the awesomeness and thrills. Wait a second, the original novel is called "_Miniskirt_ Space Pirates"? I wonder what I'm getting myself into this time.

Despite such ominous title, this anime isn't about peeking up the miniskirts of ladies floating around in zero-gravity environments. The main character who finds herself with the sudden option to try out the position of a space pirate captain, Marika Kato, is a high school girl much like the object of many an ecchi based series, but she is portrayed as talented, endearing and fun, the opposite of the degrading manner the original title could suggest. This anime adaption, interestingly enough, deviates from the original light novel series in its title as if taking our tendency to such preconceptions into consideration. Instead of Miniskirt Space Pirates, we get Mouretsu Space Pirates, or Bodacious Space Pirates.

But even with the biggest fan service related fears proven groundless, it doesn't mean everything is now settled and said bodacious pirates are actually bold and audacious. We are talking about a risky territory where a high school girl is in the position of a pirate captain, after all. As for the question whether we get the kind of pirates we are used to seeing, things weren't looking very promising. The nature of pirates in Mouretsu Pirates has been the source of some confused and heated debate for a good reason; when we first see them in action, it seems obvious these pirates are neither the glorious, free-spirited adventurers nor the coldblooded bandits that plague the seas (space). Instead, they are some kind of weird performers pretending to be that. Rather than combat and exploration, these guys' greatest adventures seem to putting up ridiculous shows. These pseudo-pirates, who appear to suffer from a strong case of identity crisis with all their talk about the glory of being free warriors of the seas of stars, aren't even descendants of actual pirates, but privateers. Who wants to see something awesome reduced to a joke full of painful irony?

Therefore it was a pleasant surprise how the quality writing turned out to be smarter than it first appeared in this regard. My initial reaction to these pirates was one of confused pity, but then everything started clicking together; the show-business side is only the tip of the iceberg. Under the surface, these pirates take advantage of certain elements of Galactic Empire's international policies, the historic and cultural importance of the pirate institution and loopholes of the interstellar law in order to do as much as they can in the interest of their clients and their unwritten mission to expand their home colony's sphere of influence without provoking Interstellar Military in their slick, knife-shaped spaceships to intervene. Everything works out surprisingly well, while the setting is not the most ambitious and detailed attempt at worldbuilding ever, the power balance and history are believable enough to make it natural to accept most things that happen. The life of a pirate is only rarely related to events that could shake entire galaxies, but even less significant incidents offer their share of grand adventures from a high school girl's point of view.

And that matter just needs to be brought up again. Marika, the main character and the new captain of the legendary pirate ship, is a high school girl. Through a series of very sudden developments, she ends up with the option to take up this demanding position with all of the heavy responsibilities and dangers involved. While standard, this an effective method to set up a story about growing up, and the setting is so interesting this tried and true formula brims with energy. Although Marika doesn't have any grand goals related to a career in space piracy like becoming the Pirate Queen, after careful consideration she makes her decision. Maybe she will learn more about her father whose suspiciously ridiculous untimely demise left the position open to her, and also about her ex-pirate mother with whom her relationship is friendly, even loving, but still somehow reserved, partly because of the mom's mysterious past.

But most of all she is interested in getting to expand her horizons and finding adventures. More than a pursuit of answers, this is a character building yet fun experience to her. That doesn't mean she doesn't takes the whole thing seriously, and that is particularly obvious at the beginning and during a couple of scenes later on, but many times Marika's attitude makes it seem like she is doing this out of curiosity rather than anything else. With that occasional half-heartedness in mind, it's good for her that the outer space in Mouretsu Pirates is most of the time such a silly and forgiving place you can get by just specializing in eating parfaits and theatrically screaming "EHHH!?" whenever something unexpected happens. Anyways, Marika plunders plenty development from dealing with her new responsibilities and having enriching encounters with different kinds of people on her travels and her growth is palpable, though sometimes the increases in her level of competence feel a bit too sudden. She is very animated, open-minded, witty and fun-loving which make her _extremely_ likeable and funny. On the other hand, her carefree and even naive way of approaching some matters to the point of being almost irresponsible hardly invites the strongest feelings of inspiration or deep respect.

She can afford to take it pretty easy since she has her dependable crew by her side, but no matter how competent in skill, this crew is quite lacking in something Marika has; characterization. Aside from Misa and Kane, the first two crew members Marika meets, the other crew members don't really do anything interesting. Sure they have distinct deigns and obvious quirks, and show signs of excitement or worry when appropriate, but if they didn't do at least that it would be so weird I don't even know. They are shown to do their thing, so to say, but are these guys really not interested in anything else? Being reduced to a collection of straightforward functions, they lack the air of mystery they need to be an interesting and charismatic group of characters that pirates usually are, and no amount of creativity they show in their execution of tasks itself changes that. This wouldn't be even an issueif this was more storyline focused, but their blandness makes them quite lacking in their influence on Marika's character development. That's why it was so great when some of the most severe victims of this problem finally started showing additional dimensions, like declining to do something or doing a larger variety of things just for fun, but this happens way too late. All in all this group of characters gets introduced in bulk, as one unit of a pirate crew, and it takes a long time to get rid of that treatment.

Of course Marika's not the only schoolgirl in space, her whole yacht club is always ready to lend her a helping hand and a very competent one at that. While bringing a crowd of high school girls to operate a space is quite incredible and inevitably leads to making many things more difficult to shallow, it works out better than expected thanks to a number of careful considerations. A lot of emphasis is placed on how high school amateurs are always inferior to true, seasoned professionals, and it's made clear that the competence of this group is mostly to the credit of a couple of exceptional key members instead of it being a natural thing anyone can do. But just like the crew, the girls mostly come as a package deal and I didn't really learn to identify most of them as anything but a mass of giggling. And like Marika, the horde of girls is too classy for fan service, and first trip to outer space is a thing of innocent and almost magical wonder that basically declares this isn't just something to just leer at.

Marika even has her own rival schoolgirl pirate in Chiaki who is really cute with her hime-cut, tsun-tsun and sugar tooth. But in the end she turned out to be pretty pointless as a rival, remaining just some kind of alternative to compare with Marika. Their interactions are always very entertaining, but more on the lesbiotic side than anything else. There are other identifiable characters as well and some of them are pretty appealing to boot, but many such as Marika's friend Mami and insurance company's afroman (who failed so hard he somehow ended up in a paragraph about schoolgirls) do more damage than good by standing out in the wrong ways that overestimate the audience's tolerance to poorly implemented jokes.

Most of the characters were a bit questionable, but the quality of writing is strong when it comes to storytelling itself, at least to an extent. Episodes of Mouretsu Pirates could easily be divided into two highly different types, the adventuring mode and the taking it easy mode. Mouretsu is at its finest during the adventuring arcs, some of them handle interesting themes and show worlds and scenarios that display high levels of creative power. Most of these arcs are paced and developed really well, gaining momentum and naturally evolving into something more and more interesting. But all of a sudden, the arc just ends. They tend to get concluded in far too silly, rushed and implausible ways that make the conclusion feel like the adventure was in the end just a formality that was rushed out of the way so that we can get more cute and fun things just for the sake of it. There are two particularly good arcs that don't suffer from this problem at all though, so you can rest easy and expect some very fulfilling story arcs as well. For example, my personal favorite was in a place I definitely didn't expect it to be.

On the other side of the coin we have the taking it easy mode. These types of episodes don't really form arcs, they are like small breaks every now and then. They also have varying quality, sometimes they are carefree in the right way by building up future arcs and demonstrating Marika's growth while emphasizing a specific theme, but often the carefree mode becomes just pointless filler mode and irritating breaks from more interesting things. And even worse, sometimes the latter mode invades the former, with terrifying results such as schoolgirl cosplay pirate raids. Brrr...

But in spite of its sometimes questionable ability to wrap up its stories properly, Mouretsu Pirates really shines in one area of writing, and that is a very significant area; it is really damn well scripted, directed and paced with immersion in mind. The anime tends to set-up its technological concepts in down-to-earth layman's terms in order to make sure it doesn't get left on the level of valueless technobabble. Not only that, familiarizing us with the terminology gets followed up with its consistent use in various contexts for the rest of the series, which is really immersive even if the concepts can be childishly simple. These words become cues that tell you it's time for action and before you realize, you are now entering the captains shoes. You know the options, you know the situation, you are Marika. And this phenomenon is possible because the pacing is just right, there's sufficient yet not too much time to understand everything that's going on and, even more importantly, absorb the atmosphere. On the other hand all this is just one side of pacing, the frequency of big or even moderately significant developments is amazingly low at times, and in combination with the ridiculously overdramatic narrator this is like a coldblooded stab to the back of everyone expecting the awesomeness that comes with the promise of pirates in space.

Enough about the story and characters, this isn't the oddly titled original novel itself so there are other important things to consider such as the art. The events in this anime largely take place in outer space, and it's a good looking outer space. Not just the vast cosmos itself, but pretty much everything within it. Spaceship designs, even the most futuristic and creative ones, look impressive and natural and most of them are physically viable while still looking damn cool. There are also some classic models that look like they are made of recycled tin cans, but even they have their place. What we see of their interiors is generally not as futuristic as the outside, but their easily understandable structure works out really well. The few scenes of spacewalks are successful with their portraying the feeling of being surrounded by an endlessly extending emptiness in every direction. Also, the human footprints found in outer space can get so deep and majestic looking they start telling tales on their own by just standing there. Another important thing to note is how the tactical nature of battles is handled on the visual side of things. While everyone basically stands still on their monitor, the rotation of camera between each character and images of statistics and radar is done just right to make them both exciting and intuitive to follow.

There's some cool stuff more closely embraced by gravity as well, the surroundings are atmospheric combinations of familiar imagery from our world with futuristic, convenient technologies added in, though those started getting less attention later to my disappointment. As a side note, there's notably many deliciously detailed shots of delicious meals, which I felt actually played its role in enriching the experience by indirectly showing the expectant state of mind of Marika and the tone of the story that prefers being about more pleasant sides of the world. But stuff outside space was not given equal attention, they tend to end up being just what they are and in a rather low quality and level of detail as well.

True to its harmless content, the color scheme of Mouretsu Pirates is rather vibrant and character designs fun. Everyone has a smile on their face more often than not, the choice of clothing is flamboyant or cute, hair colors and styles are rich in variety and the vast, blue sky brightens the atmosphere. But while the characters have clearly defined facial structure that is often apparent, they are quite prone to temporary mutations with things like the position of eyes wander around.

Then the sound, the sound environment was really to my liking. The elegant, playful and relaxing types of background tracks are mostly spot-on with their implementation and really great to listen to even on their own. Also tracks for times suspenseful build-up, at least by this anime's standards, hit the mark, both the strongly rhythmic and mysteriously calm ones. Even tracks aiming at the more badass types experience with more intense tempo and tone were effective in that they reinforced the level of concentration and created the mood, but considering how calm things are in general these sometimes come across as unintentionally comical. By a certain point, everyone understands a battle to the last man standing is obviously not going to happen no matter what sort of epic battle ballad played by authentic Huns and Vikings is on the background. The sound environment of the outer space is really well done during spacewalks, but in more routinely scenes the sound direction is less attentive, and the amount of sound in the void of space is best ignored for the sake of your enjoyment

Mouretsu Pirates never really ended up trying out the world of seriously dramatic space opera, but it executed its own carefree brand of space adventures really well and Mouretsu Pirates a really immersive and fun anime if you get into it. But unfortunately, its uncontrollable outbursts silliness, particularly the way pirates are portrayed, make it a very understandable action to just decide to reject the series altogether or approach it with lethal doses of cynicism, in which case the experience is obviously not going to be very enjoyable. If space adventures with low sense of danger and emphasis on harmless character development sound like your cup of tea, I recommend starting this one with an open mind and hoping for the best. In the best case you might find that although Marika's adventures are almost all roses, sometimes uneventful and happen on the most harmless sides of space piracy imaginable, in the end that doesn't make them any less invaluable.

+ really well paced and immersive episodes
+ the outer space looks great
+/- very naive and peaceful considering it's about pirates
- extremely stingy with twists and big developments
- tends to get too ridiculous at times
- too modest in characterization of side cast
read more

Mouretsu Pirates is far from being the perfect title, but it did make for quite the addicting watch for me. The series is pretty much divided into a number of arcs focused around the various adventures that Marika and the members of the Bentenmaru crew get entangled in, especially as the former juggles her life as a high school student with her duties as captain of Bentenmaru. Marika's classmates in her school's yacht club also occasionally get involved in the action to humorous effect. Mouretsu Pirates is mostly a light-hearted and fun romp featuring Marika juggling her duties as pirate captain and high school student, featuring a likeable cast of characters who are along on the ride and engaging adventures that serve to either feature more fleshing out on prominent elements of the world of the series such as the pirate world and influential figures or having fun at exploring the unusual circumstances of Marika's unique situation. The visuals to the series are great on the eyes featuring bright color tones and plenty of detail with scenery and character designs. It also sports nice-looking CG renderings of the various pirate ships seen throughout the series. Battle scenes are well-animated featuring a great amount of fluid movement and rendering from characters and spaceships as they engage one another.

While the premise to Mouretsu Pirates is a fun one and sports great visuals to boot, I do have to admit that the series isn't the best in terms of delivering depth. The series only delivers enough detail on its characters and major elements that are necessary in creating its plot, but not enough to get one to know more about the various characters and pirate crews encountered throughout the series. Not to mention that Mouretsu Pirates clearly has some loose ends with its plot and characters for its finale, particularly with a major villain that Marika and the Bentenmaru come at odds with in the title's final arc which was noticeably more serious compared to the earlier arcs in the series.

Despite its depth issues though, Mouretsu Pirates was a fun and addicting title offering a light-hearted and quite funny focus on Marika's juggling of being a space pirate captain and high school student. read more

Story:
I have to say this Anime has everything a good sci-fi show needs, so it seems. A political unstable situation, kingdoms, empires, pirates, a talented new captain, companies and battles. But.............................. . . . . . . . . .
The story evolves around a teenage girl who one day is all of a sudden faced with the decision whether she wants to take on her deceased father's job as a captain of a pirate cruiser or if she wants to remain an honor student at an elite high school. She takes on her father's job and becomes a so called legal pirate. The story is very slow paced and there isn't much development and no serious storyline. The next 18 episodes you will wait and wait and wait for a serious turn of events or a deeper story but this will never happen, instead you will see "the pirates" taking on one ridiculous job after another.
If you have seen Irresponsible Captain Tylor or Legends of the Galactic Heros and you expect something like that, you will be disappointed.
This story is about a crew of people who label themselves pirates and take on some missions in the name of an insurance company and thats about it.

Art:
The art was okay, nothing special. It fits the story.

Sound:
The sound was refreshing and gives the show an easy touch, so you somehow can enjoy the flat storyline.

Character:
There are some enjoyable characters in this show but all in all u have your stereotypical Japanese anime characters. The main protagonist lacks deeper emotions and ambitions. She is talented and "a born captain".
But the show has no seriousness in it, it fails in showing deeper facets of the characters, there isn't any serious character development, because there arn't any characters only superficial stereotypes. The interaction between the characters is as if you were watching a big happy family.You have your typical anime stereotypical relationships.

Enjoyment:
If you are looking for nothing serious and nothing funny, than that's your show, you will have some interesting episodes and some u will probably skip.

Overall:
If you are bored and Anime addicted its a show you will probably enjoy, or if you haven't seen many shows yet, this show might be somewhat special...
Anyway I wont recommend this show to anybody, if you have something else you want to do, do it...

read more

Story:

Space pirates! Since the first episode, we are introduced to them. Sadly, it is over before the main character gets to experience it.

She is introduced in a rather unique way, having all sort of unique friends, which was okay.

Sadly, the story quickly becomes boring, choppy and hard to follow, also, nothing like piracy ever happens in the show. The best description would be actors playing pirate in a space opera... with a highschool girl as captain.

Art:

Good drawings and effects. Not a fan of CGI or other stuff, but, fairly good.

Sound:

I always give any anime I see one chance with the intro and ending. If I like it , then I will listen to them every time, if not, fast forward to where the anime begins. For this anime, not to my liking. Also, why does a space ship creak like an old wooden ship? Maybe some pirate fans may like... but, I don't.

Character:

Apart from the main characters, zero character development. Adding a ton of unique characters with unique personalities and doing nothing to explore them, means boring 2 to 3 characters growing.

Enjoyment:

... None. I was bored from beginning to end in almost all the story arcs. It also feels really forced the way Marika is thrown into "piracy". I refuse to call it actual piracy because they are hired actors to go show off, steal insured stuff and go away. No fights, no close calls (as far as episode 17 which was the most I could bear to... "watch"). therefore, ruined enjoyment completely.

Overall:

Only recommended to those whose patience is godly. I couldn't bear to watch some high school girls ... "cosplaying" pirates with no actual clothes of a pirate trying to show off and scare people... The setting at first promised a lot, and for the first 5 episodes I scored it at 7. Then, the story went and forced itself on everything. Not worth watching. Maybe I do not have the right to say this without completing this anime, but, it's not worth even doing that.
read more

Mouretsu Pirates or Bodacious Pirates, is a really well written, well made story based on pirates.

By taking piratedom to space, and glorifying the quests the pirates undertake, instead of tending to the action, violence depertment more than necessary to make it that extra bit exciting.

It's to me more like the tendencies of the Mass Effect games, and the Star Trek franchise in my eyes, in the way that you use most of your time getting to know the characters inside out. It's an emphasis on building story around the characters, and you get emotionally attached to them.

After seeing One Piece take part of the more superhuman part of the pirate folder, Mouretsu Pirates give the more "accurate" feeling of how it would be to pirate in space.

Recommended. read more

At the time of writing this show is at 12 of 26 Episodes

Firstly I feel I should put out a warning, if your here because Mouretsu pirates has PIRATES in the title, you may want to look elsewhere, in fact a more suitable title would have been "Mouretsu Privateers", however even this conjures more images of dastardly rogues then this show provides

Story 6/10
Mouretsu pirates is very slow, normally in a show like this there might be a forgivable trade off in terms of great action sequences, perhaps a long build up to a unforgettable action sequence, however this would imply that Mouretsu pirates has action. Short of the pirate outfit, this pirate show has suprisingly few elements that one would actually associate with piracy, in fact what the crew has done so far has often been above board and problems are often solved in a diplomatic peaceful way. Therefore i can say with certainty if you're looking here for action you're looking in the wrong place.

Secondly Mouretsu pirates has no romance or Fanservice, perhaps a surprise coming from a show where the premise is essentially schoolgirls crossed with pirates. Whether this actually works in the shows favor is debatable given it's slow pacing but again I can easily say if you are part of the crowd that enjoys these elements you're not going to find them here.

So who does this show cater to? The best i can come up with is fans of the space Opera genre, perhaps this shows strongest point is it's world building, something the slow pace allows considerable time to do. Even here though there is often unexplained factors, such as the way the characters move through space(which is often quite unnatural for a 0G environment when the characters have no obvious means of propulsion), whether this is some unexplained tehnology or merely a stylistic choice is unclear, but it seems to detract from perhaps the shows strongest point in it's favor.

Sound 8/10
I have pretty much no problems with the sound for the most part, the voice acting, background music and ending theme is fine, the only potential problem i see for many is the OP which for many may be quite irritating.

Character 5/10
Mouretsu pirates is primarily about Captain Marika and the show makes great strides in developing her character, we see her rise from a simple high school to be the captain of her own ship. There is simply no doubt, that as a character Marika is developed well, why then does Mouretsu Pirates deserve only a 5?
The answer lies in the other characters, a captain can only be a captain with a crew and thus the character development of the crew is important where theres going to be a large amount of interaction between the main character and these characters. So then, Why is that cyborg a cyborg? He wasn't born that way(or was he?) so why? Why does that navigator act like a fortune teller? What about the hacker/security specialist, whats her story?
These are all examples of where mourtsu pirates ultimately fails to deliver, while Marika is a very well developed character, many of the supporting characters are little more than scenery, we may get a sentence or 2 that provides an interesting tidbit about their past but beyond that little is explained about them, given the shows slow pace, this might be remedied in the second half of the season but having reached ep12 and still not knowing how these people ended up even being pirates isn't encouraging.

Overall 6/10
What you may like:
World Building, flashy space shots, Marikas character development
What you might not like:
Supporting cast with little to no character development, A complete lack of action for a show about pirates, slow pacing, no fan service, no romance elements read more

I find this one of the most difficult animes to get through out of the list of animes on my currently watching list. Screw the helpful/not helpful rating on the reviews, that shit doesn't do anything to bring justice to what which animes are really worth it. Regardless of whatever future rating this review may have, please just read this before you just disappoint yourself watching this anime.

There is no story. There isn't anything. No character development, you won't know what's happening most of the time, you don't see what you think would make this anime progress towards the better ,you will fail to see the purpose of why anything is happening and how this is entertaining you like a good anime should.

It's like the people making this forgot that anime was supposed to be fun.

They don't give us anything to laugh at, no heroes, no villains. The dialogue is a bunch of cheesy crap, space prate largo which feels really pointless and stupid at times.

You will not care for any of the characters, what their pasts are, what their motivation is. They're FLAT, and I mean, FLAT, they are the closest thing to non-existence as far as purpose goes. Why are they there? Because they need heads to make a crew for this retarded space voyage. People just come out of nowhere and expect to be some important part in the story, and in the end...

You just don't give a shit.

If they haven't deprived us of enough of our time, the biggest crime in this anime is that they have girls floating around in zero gravity, wearing skirts, but NO panty shots, or a smidgen of service to relieve our dry eyes.

The opening song is retarded, I'm on episode 11, yet I still don't give a crap and have not listened to the ED. I doubt I would bring trouble upon myself to put any of the music or score in this anime to put in my Mp3 Player.

The voice acting is disappointing given the roles we have here. We have Kana Hanazawa, yet her character hardly appears in the series and when she does it's an even further disappointment given that she plays almost no part in whatever the fuck is happening in this anime.

It still blows my mind to know that crap like this is allowed a full season (26 episodes) to melt the brains of the people who watch.

Since I pride myself in making through an anime no matter how much of a clusterfuck it may be, I can't drop this whether it's killing my braincells or not.

But you can still save yourself. Don't waste your time with this piece of crap, there are SO MANY MORE ANIMES THAT ARE WORTH WATCHING. WHY DOES THIS HAVE TO BE THE ONE TO KILL YOURSELF OVER? read more

“Mouretsu Uchuu Kaizoku”, which literally translates to “Miniskirt Space Pirates” is one big trap.

Just look at the title. What does it imply to you?

“Miniskirt-wearing rich high school girls in a futuristic setting where space navigation is the basic mean of transportation and there are evil pirates threatening the peace of the universe so these high school girls will be the heroes saving the galaxy and bringing peace forever. This show is too lame! I’m not watching this nonsense!”

There, sir/madam is the trap.

You see, names can be quite deceiving and might lead you to speculate something entirely different to what reality is.

If I could sum up the entirety of Mouretsu in one word, the only word I can think of is: Awesome.

So here’s what really happens:

“Kato Marika, a high school student, discovers that her father (that she didn’t quite know) had passed away. The surprise is, her father was a “space pirate” whose ship is now docked somewhere in space waiting for the heir to be its captain. Baffled Marika now has to juggle her duties as a space pirate, a high school freshman, and a café maid. As the story progresses, Marika learns to be a better space pirate and to bravely take on the challenges a pirate life brings”.

Another trap worth pointing out is the dialog in Mouretsu. In the first few episodes, the dialog is chunked with technical and naval terms, which I considered a downside of Mouretsu (I had to replay the scene a couple of times to understand these terms in context). Another way to look at it, is that all of this vocabulary will be used in the later episodes, so there’s really no problem in not understanding them at first.

Mouretsu was able to combine the irrelevant genres of Mecha and Slice of Life then spice it up with some Action and Comedy and finally threw in a substantial amount of Adventure then *POOF!* you got a 27 episode Anime with a fantastic plot and characters.

The art in Mouretsu reminds me of the vintage Anime series. It’s not like the current Anime art but rather a unique one. That’s what’s beautiful about Mouretsu, vintage looking art with a modern concept. Of course, that doesn’t apply to the spaceship designs which are rather futuristic ones.

The soundtrack was very well arranged. I especially love the pirate-like music in the beginning of each episode and the episode review parts at the end. I probably overused the word “futuristic” in this review but honestly that’s the right word to describe the ending theme. The opening song doesn’t change throughout the series and you can pretty much get into that chaotic world of piracy just by playing it once!

Overall, Mouretsu isn’t the golden egg in the basket but it certainly is an entertaining Anime with a promising end. Will there ever be a sequel to Mouretsu? I can only hope for that to happen! read more

The show is beautiful...and that's about where the good parts end.

The entire show is a shallow teen girl fantasy. The long and short of it is a bunch of teen girls play around in space with ships that people just give to them for no explainable reason with a few shoujo guys. The characters are all bland, there's no character development - a bunch of teen school girls are just automatically great pirates from the start -, there's no plot, there's no danger or excitement, there's nothing. The entire show is as if the author just took a teen girl's daydream "well, when I was 13, I wanted to have a pink pirate ship (yes, a squad of teen schoolgirls have a pink pirate ship) I could play on with my friends" and then made that into an anime. read more

SAAAAAA, ORE NO MOURETSU PIRATE REVIEW JIKAN DA!!!!!!!!


Now that this 26 episode has ended, time to make my review, so what we have here is an anime with a adventure, comedy, sci-fi, space opera, school and shoujo genre, but it is some like of a "Pirates of the Caribbean" thing where the space opera is the main theme, however this is one wholesome anime with a pirate thing that kinda stand out. One thing about it is that it does have some historical factual element in it like the " Letter of Marque" and yes such thing does exist during the hey days of piracy during the 1700's. So for the "Story", I'm gonna give it a "Fair" 6 since combining sci-fi with a wholesome pirate thing is kinda cheesy but still amusing.

Art: Mediocre 5.

All look the same to be, since I'm not much of an art guy.

Sound: Fair 6.

Let's just say that I like the ending theme.

Character: Fair 6.

I'd probably say the even thought I admire the main cast Marika Kato and I kinda find her cute, I really don't like the idea that she's a Captain of the space pirate ship "Bentenmaru," as for the rest of the cast, I think that the ones who should be having the role of the ship's crew should have been the Marika's fellow club member, let's not forget that this anime's title is "Mouretsu Pirates" which means Bodacious Pirates and it is a plural, however in this case it is a singular since it only Marika who is the bodacious one here, Chaki on the other hand should have been wearing the standard Hakuoh Academy uniform which I would never understand as to why the illustrator kept her from being in one. Though the cast did made quiet a performance, still the author Yuichi Sasamoto should have made the ship's crew to be compose of bodacious females than a mix bunch.


Enjoyment and overall: Good 7.

Ok, I would have gave it an 8 but unfortunately for this anime to be 26 episode long is simply too much, since there are episode that were merely fillers which were unnecessary to begin with, also the title itself is misleading in fact "Marika's Pirate Adventure " would have been enough, but then again the wholesome environment it provided prove to be worthwhile. Definitely this isn't for somebody who are expecting this to have some fanservice in it.


read more

I think that your little sister will be delighted by this series (if she is 13 years or so). Everything is very nice, beautiful, and represented in pink. However, this series will make older viewers frankly bored.
This is a very girly and beautifully drawn anime with great soundtrack and cute characters. Kind of a "Outlaw Star" for younger ones. You can safely recommend this series to your friend's young relatives.

And do not look for fan-service here, Mouretsu Space Pirates is just a naive touching anime.