Mouretsu Pirates

I love this anime it was very fun to watch. The real pirates were not near cute, they were brutes, vicious... but this is after all set in future and in anime, so everything is possible.

Story arcs are good, very good i would say, however end is little weak, i would be nice if Marika in the end meet with her father. But even if its not, it is still good.
Art, overall i like it very much, it is nicely done, ships are nicely designed, featuring old with new, grand cross on the other hand, zig-zaging which i hardly believe that would be ... possible in real life, but nevertheless.
Sound, i love sound in this anime, it has that pirate flavor mixed with irish music, although i didnt like the opening song much.
Characters, Marika and her gang of pirates were nicely done, and all other side characters, all are good
Enjoyment, i really did enjoy

overall it is good but not good enough to deserve 10, nevertheless 9 is fair score for Mouretsu Pirates, and it is one of animes that definitley deserve second season, and i really hope there will be the season 2,

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.

Lion Tamers, I have a new review, of a great Anime: Mouretsu Pirates.

To begin, I wish to clarify a point other reviewers have made, that speaks to their ignorance of history. That term is 'Letter of Marque'

The following link on Wikipedia will make everyone much more cognizant of this term. Read folks, this is the way it really was:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_of_marque

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Now that I've cleared that up, let's get into a great anime. I fear that rehashing the basic plot will damage the show, so I'm going to try to stay away from plot spoilers, but folks that have read my reviews know that I just can't help ... myself sometimes.

This show is basically a "girl makes good" adventure. The twists are numerous, but I'd like to list the higher pointed ones, just for openers;

1). Father dies, daughter takes over the family business.
2). Mother leaves to return to her own place in the same profession.
3). Daughter, subject of the entire show, is the outcome of both parents being spacers and pirates, after an enormous line of spacers and pirates in both parental family lines. Girl is born with excellent genes.
4). Girl enters into her profession as a candidate/trainee, only for the crew of the ship she inherited, to discover this girl has the 'right stuff', and proves a very able captain and high-grade strategist and tactician.
5). Girl proves over the course of several multi-episode threads (something I personally like) that she can face almost anything and win.

And now for some interesting show creations, that point to the authors really thinking about presenting something totally new;

1). This show is presented in a future time, so far in the future that the average Man never uses the word 'Earth'. Not even as a slang term, to mean dirt. This is extremely unusual, and nails a creative element so outrageous; that a totally unusual form of galactic life is required. And the authors do not disappoint.

What a wonderful world, where the culture on 'Sea of the Morningstar' is ebullient, charming, quirky; and the people, as a whole, have a positive attitude. This works well, for Marika Kato, because she finds her positive drive a real asset, at those times when creative problem solving is exactly what is needed.

2). The authors present a world where "starTrek' style technology is partially there, and partially missing; in a fashion that explains why ship crews are relatively small, and ships are fairly large and powerful. When you don't have replicators, you need to carry a lot of food cargo (explains why the cargo bay on the Bentenmaru, is quite large); and not just for commercial cargos. And also explains why, when there are no transporters, one is forced to use space-shuttles.

3). While many viewers might have a problem with the anime starting off, like so many others, from a high-school (gee how original), the authors gave us a fresh look at this launching pad, and created a tale where our protagonist (Marika Kato) actually ends up not only forced to use some of her high-school friends in one of the story arcs, but then creates an unusual situation where her original crew become strong believers in these teenagers. After all, no serious damage is done, and some become highly trusted on the bridge of the Bentenmaru.

While many viewers might not catch its significance, the adventure that requires Marika's friends, ends up the the most lucrative commercial enterprise in Bentenmaru history. This occurred because Marika and a friend name Jenny Doolittle create a service contract that brought about not only a multi-billion dollar deposit in the form of a 'Silent Whisper' spacecraft, but also 10% of the gross income in a business making 50-trillion credits per year, for the next 10-years. And would probably mean more, as the business expanded, the show pointing out that this business was in a fast growth mode. This event alone will create the richest, most profitable Pirate Captain and vessel in the whole quadrant at least.

4). While I partially agree the story has spots that could have been improved (a reason for replicators and transporters being absent would be nice), in the main, the adventure presented in Mouretsu Pirates is fresh, peopled, charming, funny, thrilling; and generally exactly what we should be getting in real-life drama on TV in the United States, and is totally absent.

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Is the show fanciful, and lacking reality? Surprisingly no. Lots of teenagers inherit companies and are thrown to the wolves. Sometimes they succeed, overcome problems, defeat true threats; and become successes. While we all tend to believe that will never happen to me; in a less astronautical way, the opposite is true, and happens every day in real life.

But like Marika Kato, luck has little to do with it. All the luck, is in realizing that one has this gifted person in our midst, and all we need to do is get out of the way. Some of these gifted people are us. Look in the mirror, people that can see a bright future and don't rest until they get it; are all around us. And some of us are these people.

I tend to like themes and memes that present a World where the best of us rise to the top, and defeat evil; building a better World, and dragging us all kicking and screaming, along for the ride.

Look at the work expended on producing this Anime.

The soundtrack is done by the excellent Elements Garden. The Opening and Closing Music (most of it) are done by Momoiro Clover Z (while these folks do J-Pop, something I generally despise; in this particular case, the stuff is so high quality that the opening theme actually sounds like pirate music). WOW! While the lyrics are very over the top, the fact is both of these main musicalities are exactly what the doctor ordered.

The artwork is stunning, although a little inconsistent. This is because while the peopled artwork is fairly ordinary, the technical and machine artwork is designed by the great technical artists: Suzuki, Masahisa, Washio, Naohiro, Kawamori, Shoji. Their collective artwork has been seen in shows like: Ariel Visual, Canaan, Chrno, Girls Bravo, Mahou Shoujo Lyrical Nanoha A's, Asobi ni Iku yo!, Heroic Age, Mobile Suit Gundam 00; and dozens of others. You may not appreciate the anime listed, as a whole, but no one can doubt the technical artwork quality. While most shows might have one of these artists, this show used all three. And they were needed, because so much of this richly drawn and accurately actioned anime needed some inventive and skilled artists.

While some call the story line weak; I dispute that strenuously. The plot suggested in this anime is nothing less than epic. The epic nature is all developmental, and needs a second season we will probably never see; but epic this show is. All the makings are there. Marika Kato is one of the most pleasant, funny, creative, and optimistic characters in any anime, or any other art form. She is a heroic figure, who never lets upsets get her down, and always tries to find a solution for problems; never surrendering. She is a true positive role model for young people everywhere.

I realize that anime is a form of escape, for most young people today, but the garbage my generation has foisted off on the young people of today; should not be a symbol for your own surrender. You all should see it as a challenge, because there isn't very much farther for us all to descend. We can only go up hill. Because of the optimism and unstoppable sense of enterprise of all of us; that better world we want is epitomized in stories like this, and characterized in people like Marika Kato, and all of her friends.

I am 62 years old, and I never saw that promised "World of Tomorrow". But you have the right to it, and maybe you can win it for yourself; just like Marika Kato. I hope you all succeed.

I give Mouretsu Pirates a very strong 8.

Once upon a time there was this cool anime called Space Pirate Captain Harlock, and was about this serious manly rebel who gets fed up with the way Earth turned into a fruitless life of working and consuming (being overrun by hostile aliens every year had something to do with). So he decides to board this super cool scull-themed spaceship and roam the universe, free to go anywhere he pleases, a place without joyless capitalists, merciless bureaucrats, and military jerks. Occasionally, he returns to save his homeland from all sorts of cosmic threats that want to take over his old joint. He was such a ... cool guy.

Fast-forward three decades and everything is different. Serious manly protagonists no longer sell and apparently the majority of the (actual) buyers prefer spineless boys and dumb cute girls. As a result we get Bodacious Space Pirates, (BSP) a show about your average cute schoolgirl, who one day learns that she inherited by her father a pirate crew. Hm, doesn’t the premise remind you of something? Ah but yes, it is the same as Hitman Reborn but instead of mafia and dumb boys this is about pirates and dumb girls. And they are both equally silly since they both have absolutely nothing to do with actual mafia or piracy; it is just a random shallow excuse to get the show going.

Although the atmosphere and plot of Harlock were slow, grim and depressing, you could still appreciate the social criticism of the modern way of life and Harlock himself was never fooling around. It was naive and was oozing idealism but at least it had an identity and was trying to have a message. In a similar manner, One Piece is also about this funny pirate crew roaming around the world, looking for adventure while occasionally fighting all sorts of tyrants. It also had an identity and a message. BSP on the other hand doesn’t try to do anything more than making a parody of the whole piracy thing; the “bodacious” word in the title is just a troll. To put it bluntly NOTHING HAPPENS IN THIS SHOW. It is storyless space moe and the only reason I mentioned the other anime is only because there is nothing to fill this review with regarding the Moecious Space Lolis.

I have no problems with the production values, they just look nice for the time they were made and the sci-fi touches offer something interesting to pay attention to. They are otherwise not amazing and the lolis wear miniskirts despite trying to come off as pirates. There isn’t any in-your-face fan service but trying to establish characters through fetishes is still fan service and it’s still trashing characterization and character respect.

There were many who got be mesmerized by the show’s attention to sci-fi details. It tried a lot to portrait a futuristic society where technology of that time is put to use and its presentation appears to be far more technical than in a usual space show. Meaning, they show how they steer a ship with more ways than just pressing a few buttons. Other than that though the whole thing is still far from realistic and this whole fascination to sci-fi portrayal is just useless fluff. You can easily find lots of things that make no sense such as the female spacesuits being skin-tight and have boobs hanging out too much (Boobacious Space Pirates, lol) while male suits are bulky and don’t reveal any body features. Plus you see no method to keep them floating in vacuum or security for not drifting away while outside the spaceship. They also seem to prefer spending a whole minute in pressing buttons and making a holographic arrow to appear on an empty seat for you to sit on, instead of just pointing you to where you can sit. And let’s not disregard how they all wear miniskirts in space; that male trainer of theirs must constantly have a boner with so much pantsu flash. Not that the girls seem to care in the least though; the show is also called Miniskirt Pirates after all. Don’t think it’s weird when the heroine appears dressed as a pirate while still wearing a tiny skirt… In fact, don’t think at all.

Our heroine Marika is a heroine with potential that was unfortunately thrown in a most dull setting. He charm is simply impossible to shine because everything goes too rosy for her. She never chose her role or goal in life; it was FORCED on her. And she is not learning anything on her own either; everything is spoon-fed to her through space school lessons. She also works in a maid café, so she ends up being memorable only as a combo of schoolgirl/maid/pirate fetish.

Besides her there is also a bunch of pirates who … are just there. And then some other cute girls used as background decoration and pervert-bait. And that’s all I have to say about the characters. Seriously, that’s it, what did you expect me to write about? People who don’t do anything? There are so many of them, none of which managed to be anything more than eccentrically dressed actors. The pirates don’t even look a bit vicious; when Marika is in her pirate uniform you almost expect her to yell “trick or treat”.

The only ones besides her I can say a few things about are the two lesbians. They are a bit memorable because… um… they are lesbians; the end. And that gives them ten times more characterization than everybody else, so you get the idea of how dull the cast is. Because this is a show about pirates who aren’t really pirates but a freaking theatre troupe. Seriously, they are called pirates only in name since they are not living a free and lawless life (like normal pirates do). They are working for and paid by governments to do all sorts of illegal activities but this does not make them privateers either. They are not ordered by one government to loot and plunder areas on another government because THERE ARE NO OTHER GOVERNMENTS; everything is just one big happy world order. So how can pirates exist if the government pays them to do robberies? Well, it’s not in order to kill, rape, and destroy enemy installations (it would be a fun show if they were) but instead all they do is take up staged missions, ordered by the VICTIMS, who see the whole show as entertainment and who even get a refund for whatever they lose. Thus it is done just to keep the masses happy with cheap thrills and in practice nobody is actually hurt. For that reason, there is practically no conflict in the whole show besides simple dull missions where nothing of importance ever happens. In one word BOOORING!

So wait a second, what is this show about if not about its main attraction (you know, pirates)? Well, basically, it’s about the same thing all moe slice of life schoolgirls are about for decades now. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! There are a few grains of a plot scattered somewhere in there but the pace is so slow and the missions so dull you wouldn’t care even if they weren’t there at all. Supposed it’s about Marika finding the courage to command her own pirate crew and supposed she first learns how to steer a yacht in space and supposed she takes up important missions and supposed she is looking for her father or something. And all this time you are just wondering WHERE THE HELL IS THE PIRATE ACTION? Nowhere; there isn’t enough suspense to fill an ant’s belly. Just imagine that after each mission we get the girls working as maids and eating cake. Instead of, I don’t know, trying to heal their wounds, split the loot or mourn for their casualties; now that would be somewhat interesting.

Towards the end it gets a bit more action-based, as there is this shit that destroys pirate ships for real, and Marika’s long lost dad appears but nobody recognises him because he wears a mask. Yeah, I guess his voice and behaviour don’t matter at all to the people who knew him for decades. But once again the whole thing plays out as dull as possible and doesn’t miss the chance to show the lolis smiling while eating cake five minutes after they were almost killed.

The lack of excitement and actual piracy is bound to alienate most viewers, but there are still those who will stick around for the possible comedy or dark and violent turnaround later on. Well let me spare you the pain; you won’t get any of that. In its initial episodes the show seemed to be building up towards something amazing and had a huge positive image by most in the fandom. Some loved the miniskirt girls, some were amazed with the sci-fi touches, some expected pirate action, and some expected a mysterious and complicating social commentary regarding the future uses of piracy through cyber terrorism. After 7 episodes though, the interest died out almost entirely since the miniskirts can’t keep you interested for more than a couple of hours, the sci-fi touches became more scarce and weren’t that elaborate anymore, there was no pirate action and there was no social commentary after all. It was just a dull show where nothing happens. Of course you can still watch it for the cute girls if you belong to those who don’t care about story or themes and just watch for the lulz, which is the prime reason moe sells so much in Japan, the country where working is the same as hard labor for life at some penal colony.

That aside, it is nothing but a silly light comedy with dumb cute girls in mini skirts pretending to be vicious pirates and doing silly simplistic adventures with zero action or excitement. Which is not funny at all. It is a desolate wasteland of a toned down in fanservice adventure that doesn’t excel at anything. The girls aren’t particularly hot or interesting; they are defined by generic traits and have zero backdrop stories or personalities. The design work brings nothing eye-catchy to the table. Genericness, ho! The ultimate mainstream show, you could say. Easy going for everyone to watch after a hard day, but eventually no more than background noise that gets forgotten as soon as the next moe show pops up.

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.

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.

The characters are diverse and believable. At first the main character might come off as unlikable, but you end up loving her in minutes. Its not the typical situation where the character is thrown into a situation not know what to do then learns (not that that is bad) but She actually knows what she is doing. It's like taking a breath of fresh air.

okay this is my first review so this is a "spicy" review LOL

well already downloaded it until ep 3, when i see the art poster my response is

"Ohhh the art is awesome! well i will download the LQ ver"

so i give 7 for the art

then i watched ep 1, and see the opening... my response is

... "dafuq with the opening! so weird!"

okay sorry i give 3 =_=

character? okay i give 6 because im only love chiaki (well to be honest i love LSBH XD) so i give 6

then i watched until ep 2, then this is my response

"dafuq! what a worst plotline, and so boring! okay dropped this!"
*click moretsu pirates files and throw to recycle bin*

afterall points? 4 =_=

sorry for my spicy review LOL

Bodacious Space Pirates is anything but bodacious or piraty. It's about a girl coming of age as she balances work, school, and getting princesses to fall in love with her.
Two princesses and the daughter of another pirate captain.
This show consists of mini arcs, which means that there are long periods of SOL followed by short bursts of action.
Bodacious Space Pirates is a smart show. There is a lot of talking and thinking in it. The main character does not have any special powers except hard work and careful thinking, so don't expect a lot of brainless action.
Oh, one other thing - This is not an ... ecchi anime. The fan service is virtually nonexistent. There isn't even a swimsuit episode.

Well, as I read the negative comments on this show,
i think i might want to clear up why i gave this show a 9.

first of all this is my first review so excuse me if it is a bit crappy.

the sole reason why i gave this series a 9 was pure my own experience,
this series gave me goosebumps ( literally! ) every time that i hear that pirate tune when they plan something, also the space fights did the same, when the Bentenmaru went trough the atmosphere blasting at full thrusters, that was pure excitement for me.


sure the story was pretty generic and of course ... a young girl being a pirate captain and all is a little bit out of the ordinary, but hey....... for me she pulled it of.

the only thing that i did not get is why all the pirate space ships looked the same, except for a few, it would really have been great if each pirate captain had a signature spaceship.

I just cannot put my finger on the spot, but there is something about this anime that hit my nerve.
just like Cosmowarrior zero and space captain Harlock did.

So there you have it, just a little side note on why i gave this anime a high score
looking forward to the movie and maybe even a season2.

thank you for reading.

A LITTLE SPOILER-Y

Mouretsu Pirates, which is also know as Bodacious Space Pirates (lol), is an anime that ran in 2012 and was created by the studio Satelight. It is an adaptation of a light novel.

If I wasn’t recommended this anime by a friend with a serviceable nudge and an accompanying video excerpt, I would have passed this show off as a hentai that I could look forward to in the future because… Well, uh, because who doesn’t like boobs in zero gravity? I know I do. If you don’t then you’re a commie bastard.

For a show with the daunting word ‘bodacious’ in the title you ... might as well expect it to be a parody of some sort. Maybe a Sex Jokes: The Anime – IN SPACE! Instead of being hilariously bad drivel, this has to be easily one of the best space travel and exploration anime I’ve ever seen. That’s right! There are no giant breasts nor any panty-shots and, you know what, I’m actually glad there aren’t. For me, it ranks right up there with the likes of Outlaw Star and completely blows Cowboy Bebop out of the water in all departments except for the music. ----Cowboy Bebop is highly over-rated. It is decent at best.----

If I were asked by a man who was about to die of severe pain chronic pain in the balls to describe Mouretsu Pirates, I’d tell him that it’s basically a smarter One Piece without the ridiculous powers and all the boom boom pows. It even has its very own super-serious brunette Sanji!

Marika is your not-so-average highschool ace girl who apparently has a knack for piloting and making sound decisions through decisive thinking thanks to her pirating blood. She doesn’t know her dad. It’s all hush-hush. The dad dies one day of food poisoning. And Marika is, therefore, somewhat forced into becoming the next captain of the spaceship, Bentenmaru.

The story is pretty simple. There are no over-arching plots or clever trickery. It’s a straight-forward coming of age story of a girl who going to become the next space pirate king (well, not king – just a great pirate). For the first 6 or 7 episodes, the pacing is really slow. It takes its sweet time to tell us about the wonderful future of mankind in detail. Colony planets; space travel and the technologies involved, explaining the origin of the space pirates and how they are seemingly not hated by the general public because (uh) piracy is legal. All hail the Letters of Marque.

And then, the pacing really picks up. Marika is practically thrown into space piracy right after return home from her yacht club’s (SPACE yachts!) practice trip. After that, the rest of the Bentenmaru crew is introduced and both major and minor arcs kick off which include hunting for ghost spaceships and banding universal pirates together to defeat the pirate purging ‘Satsuki SS’ (my nickname for it) which is a spaceship that looks like the Eyebrow-Master of Kill la Kill.

Overall, the story is quite linear yet fun to follow. Excellent world-building and pretty good directing ensures that you’re never bored – even if you’re looking at two characters explaining the numerous technical terms and stuff presented in the show. Though, the show really suffers in the final arc, that is, the last 5 episodes. Lots of twists occur that are never shone light upon and the conclusion is sort of an open-ending which I guess probably was done for a second season run. But, since it’s the current year (hue), 4 years have passed now so I think there never will be another season. This really deters an otherwise great show.

Oh and the piracy in this anime is some of the most ridiculous I’ve ever seen. Companies actually HIRE pirates to loot their ships to ‘entertain’ their passengers. Even then, it just somehow manages to click well.

All of the characters are fun to watch and are likeable. There’s no one to hate. Literally. The only character that is an actual bad guy appears in the last episodes and even then she appears to be an ally of season-2 sorts. Even though there isn’t much character development for everyone except for the female lead; Marika – whose transition from a somewhat clumsy girl to a strict pirate captain with style and captivating command is a delight to see, and the fact that half the students of the yacht club get no background introduction along with nothing being revealed about the Bentenmaru crew’s pasts, you still largely enjoy the varied and quirky cast.

The animation is clean and neat to look at. The 2D isn’t really unique and most of the character designs are quite plain. The CGI, though, is just a marvel to look. Highly detailed and perfectly blending with the 2D environment, it is a perfect example of how to use CGI in an anime.

The voice acting is great. I never really mention voice acting in my reviews because, well, the voice acting is good in anime like 90% of the time. So, you know what I mean when I say that the voice acting is great.

Even though I’m kind of disappointed that I didn’t get to hear highschool anime girls sing shanties, the soundtrack is pretty good. Hearing the kind of traditional pirate-y music being applied to spaceship scenes is a weird kind of good feeling. The OP is the gayest metal-ish song I’ve ever heard and I love it. The main ED is my kind of club-ish music so into the phone it goes.

Anyways, Mouretsu Pirates is a fun show but due to obvious flaws in the story and with the characters, it falls short. Despite these factors, it is still a highly entertaining show that you should not miss. 8/10 from me.

to me the best part of this anime would be the visuals since the story is strictly based on the novel "Miniskirt Space Pirates" they cant change that much but they more than made up for with a visually striking series

With a title like Bodacious Space Pirates (U.S. title) I really expected way more fanservice. It sounds like it should be a guilty pleasure, not a serious space opera.

BSP jumps from schoolgirl slice of life to space faring political drama, looking bright and fresh in the process. More than a healthy dose of suspension of disbelief. I mean c'mon, a yacht club full of teen girls taking on space cruisers? Unarmed no less. I do wish we got to see more of the supporting characters, particularly the pirates, fleshed out or have episodes of their own instead of just a ... random scene with a few lines.

The soundtrack has been replaying in my head since I hit play, that's always a sign I'll be rewatching it later on. Even before the bulk of the space combat scenes took place I was getting major Angel Links and Outlaw Star vibes. Overall, I found myself getting nostalgic. All thanks to mechanical designer, Shoji Kawamori.

Could have done with some more action sequences, and like I said more depth to some of the cast. But I liked the art style and loved that ending theme, and they gave the setting a good deal of history. Enough for sequels and spinoffs, but so far there's just a movie (coming soon, maybe). Definitely watch it again.

A weird premise of an anime, in the usual style of Satou Tatsuo, who has directed lots of mecha shows, most of which have uncommon yet interesting premises (Martian Successor Nadesico, Gekiganger 3, Shingu, Stellvia). They are also usually too slow and lack excitement but let’s leave it at that; it’s better than being Mazinger clones. The animation is done by Satelight studios, which has made several anime, yet only Noein amongst them is worthwhile for me. So it shows early on that it will be a weird show with slow/unexciting plot and not spectacular production values.

Once upon a time there was this cool anime ... called Space Pirate Captain Harlock, and was about this serious manly rebel who gets fed up with the way Earth turned to a fruitless life of working and consuming (although being overrun by hostile aliens every year had something to do with it too). So he decides to board this super cool scull-themed spaceship and roam the universe, free to go anywhere he pleases, a place without joyless capitalists, merciless bureaucrats, and military jerks. Occasionally, he returns to save his homeland from all sorts of cosmic threats who want to take over his old joint. He was such a cool guy.

Fast-forward three decades and now everything is different. Serious manly protagonists no longer sell and apparently the majority of the (actual) buyers prefer spineless boys and dumb cute girls. As a result we get Bodacious Space Pirates, (BSP) a show about your average cute schoolgirl, who one day learns that she inherited by her father a pirate crew. Hm, doesn’t the premise remind you of something? Ah but yes, it is the same as Hitman Reborn but instead of mafia and dumb boys this is about pirates and dumb girls. And they are both equally silly since they both have absolutely nothing to do with actual mafia or piracy; it is just a random shallow excuse to get the show going.

Although the atmosphere and plot of Harlock were slow, grim and depressing to the most part, you could still appreciate the social criticism of the modern way of life and Harlock himself was never fooling around. It was still in overall a very naive show with oozing idealism but at least it had an identity and was trying to have a message. In a similar manner, One Piece is also about this funny pirate crew roaming around the world, looking for adventure while occasionally fighting all sorts of tyrants. It also had an identity and a message. BSP on the other hand doesn’t try to do anything more than making a parody of the whole piracy thing; the “bodacious” word in the title is just a troll. To put it bluntly NOTHING HAPPENS IN THIS SHOW. It is storyless space moe and the only reason I mentioned the other anime is only because there is nothing to fill this review with regarding the Moecious Space Lolis.

ART

I have no problems with the production values, they just look nice for the time they were made and the sci-fi touches offer something interesting to pay attention to. They are otherwise not amazing and there are too many lolis with miniskirts around for a mature viewer to enjoy it. There isn’t any in-your-face fan service but trying to establish characters through fetishes is still fan service and it’s still trashing characterization and character respect.

There are also many who will be mesmerized by the show’s attention to sci-fi details. It tries a lot to portrait a futuristic society where technology of that time is put to use and its presentation appears to be far more technical than in a usual space show. Meaning, they show how they steer a ship with more ways than just pressing a few buttons. Other than that though the whole thing is still far from realistic and this whole fascination to sci-fi portrayal is just useless fluff. You can easily find lots of things that make no sense such as the female spacesuits being skin-tight and have boobs hanging out too much (Boobacious Space Pirates, lol) while male suits are bulky and don’t reveal any body features. Plus you see no method to keep them floating in vacuum or security for not drifting away while outside the spaceship. They also seem to prefer spending a whole minute in pressing buttons and making a holographic arrow to appear on an empty seat for you to sit on, instead of just pointing you to where you can sit. And let’s not disregard how they all wear miniskirts in space; that male trainer of theirs must constantly have a boner with so much pantsu flash. Not that the girls seem to care in the least though; the show is also called Miniskirt Pirates after all. Don’t think it’s weird when the heroine appears dressed as a pirate while still wearing a tiny skirt… In fact, don’t think at all.

SOUND

The soundtrack is completely forgettable as it is nothing but silly pop by female singers, of the likes of which we get by the thousands every year. Voice acting is nothing much either.

CHARACTERS

Our heroine Marika is a heroine with potential that was unfortunately thrown in a most dull setting. He charm is simply impossible to shine because everything goes too rosy for her. She never chose her role or goal in life; it was FORCED on her. And she is not learning anything on her own either; everything is spoon-fed to her through space school lessons. She also works in a maid café, so she ends up being memorable only as a combo of schoolgirl/maid/pirate fetish.

Besides her there is also a bunch of pirates who … are just there. And then some other cute girls used as background decoration and pervert-bait. And that’s all I have to say about the characters. Seriously, that’s it, what did you expect me to write about people who don’t do anything? There are so many of them, none of which manage to be anything more than eccentrically dressed actors. The pirates don’t even look a bit vicious; when Marika is in her pirate uniform you almost expect her to yell “trick or treat”. The only ones besides her I can say a few things about are the two lesbians. They are a bit memorable because… um… they are lesbians; the end. And that gives them ten times more characterization than everybody else, so you get the idea of how dull the cast is.

STORY

This is a show about pirates who aren’t really pirates but a freaking theatre troupe. Seriously, they are called pirates only in name since they are not living a free and lawless life (like normal pirates do). They are working for and paid by governments to do all sorts of illegal activities but this does not make them privateers either. They are not ordered by one government to loot and plunder areas on another government because THERE ARE NO OTHER GOVERNMENTS; everything is just one big happy world order. So how can pirates exist if the government pays them to do robberies? Well, it’s not in order to kill, rape, and destroy enemy installations (it would be a fun show if they were) but instead all they do is take up fixed missions, ordered by the VICTIMS, who see the whole show as entertainment and even get a refund for whatever they lose. Thus it is done just to keep the masses happy with cheap thrills and in practise nobody is actually hurt. For that reason, there is practically no conflict in the whole show besides simple dull missions where nothing of importance ever happens. In one word BOOORING!

So wait a second, what is this show about if not about its main attraction (you know, pirates)? Well, basically, it’s about the same thing all moe slice of life schoolgirls are about for over a decade now. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING! There are a few grains of a plot scattered somewhere in there but the pace is so slow and the missions so dull you wouldn’t care even if they weren’t there at all. Supposed it’s about Marika finding the courage to command her own pirate crew and supposed she first learns how to steer a yacht in space and supposed she takes up important missions and supposed she is looking for her father or something. And all this time you are just wondering WHERE THE HELL IS THE PIRATE ACTION? Nowhere; there isn’t enough suspense to fill an ant’s belly. Just imagine that after each mission we get the girls working as maids and eating cake. Instead of, I don’t know, trying to heal their wounds or mourn for their casualties; now that would be somewhat interesting.

Towards the end it gets a bit more action-based, as there is this shit that destroys pirate ships for real, and Marika’s long lost dad appears but nobody recognises him because he wears a mask. Yeah, I guess his voice and behaviour don’t matter at all to the people who knew him for decades. But once again the whole thing plays out as dull as possible and doesn’t miss the chance to show the lolis smiling while eating cake five minutes after they were almost killed.

ENJOYMENT

The lack of excitement and actual piracy is bound to alienate most viewers, but there are still those who will stick around for the possible comedy or dark and violent turnaround later on. Well let me spare you the pain; you won’t get any of that. In its initial episodes the show seemed to be building up towards something amazing and had a huge positive image by most in the fandom. Some loved the miniskirt girls, some were amazed with the sci-fi touches, some expected pirate action, and some expected a mysterious and complicating social commentary regarding the future uses of piracy through cyber terrorism. After 7 episodes though, the interest died out almost entirely since the miniskirts can’t keep you interested for more than a couple of hours, the sci-fi touches became more scarce and weren’t that elaborate anymore, there was no pirate action and there was no social commentary after all. It was just a dull show where nothing happens. Of course you can still watch it for the cute girls if you belong to those who don’t care about story or thematics and just watch for the lulz.

Bottom line, it is nothing but a silly light comedy with dumb cute girls in mini skirts pretending to be vicious pirates and doing silly simplistic adventures with zero action or excitement. Which is not funny at all. It is a desolate wasteland of a toned down fanservice adventure that doesn't excel in anything at all. The girls aren't particularly hot or interesting; they are defined by generic traits and have zero backdrop stories or personalities. The design work brings nothing eye-catchy to the table. Genericness, ho! Not sexy, funny, interesting, exciting or any combination of these. The ultimate mainstream show, you could say. The kind that can sell for being easy going for everyone to watch after a hard day, but eventually will become nothing but background noise and will be forgotten as soon as they pick up the next moe show.

VALUE

Before the amazing realism of Planetes or the social criticism of Captain Harlock, this show is just a farce, even if it tries a little bit more to appear smarter than your average school moeblob. I got bored of it very fast, I have no motivation to rewatch it, and I don’t expect it to be remembered in a few years.

And now for some excused scorings.
ART SECTION: 7/10
General Artwork 2/2 (looks nice if you see it as moe or light sc-fi)
Character Figures 1/2 (generic)
Backgrounds 1/2 (basic)
Animation 1/2 (basic)
Visual Effects 2/2 (nice sci-fi touches)

SOUND SECTION: 5/10
Voice Acting 2/3 (silly but fitting with the feeling of the series)
Music Themes 1/4 (j-pop trash)
Sound Effects 2/3 (ok I guess)

STORY SECTION: 2/10
Premise 2/2 (interesting)
Pacing 0/2 (loose, slow, unexciting)
Complexity 0/2 (it tries to be a bit mysterious at times but eventually this is a show you never need to bother thinking about anything)
Plausibility 0/2 (it tries a bit with some sci-fi realism but all that are eventually useless, get neglected later on, and the whole thing is just silly)
Conclusion 0/2 (open and dull)

CHARACTER SECTION: 2/10
Presence 0/2 (generic to the point nobody stands out)
Personality 0/2 (dull to the point nobody matters)
Backdrop 1/2 (generic and simplistic but it’s there)
Development 1/2 (mostly for Marika and even that is loose)
Catharsis 0/2 (open and dull)

VALUE SECTION: 1/10
Historical Value 0/3 (none)
Rewatchability 0/3 (none)
Memorability 1/4 (nice troll with the piracy thing but that’s it)

ENJOYMENT SECTION: 1/10
Art 0/1 (looks unimpressive)
Sound 0/2 (sounds lame)
Story 1/3 (the premise is nice, everything else is crap)
Characters 0/4 (nobody matters)

VERDICT: 3/10
Boring and stupid since the very beginning.

五つの単語批評❕

Boring!?!? With THAT title!?!? HOW!?!?!?!?!

Footnote:

I wasn't necessarily expecting great things when I clicked on a show entitled "Sexy Murder Ladies IN SPACE," but I was expecting that - if it ended up being bad - it would be a sort of spectacular badness with ridiculous dialog, idiotic amounts of fanservice, and wall-to-wall space battles with stupid looking monsters and too much blood......I WAS SO WRONG.

This is a very basic higschool slice-of-life anime with a mild space pirate theme. There's a lot of obvious Star Trek influence.....but a big reason that Star Trek had so much technobabble and so many battles that happened on computer screens ... is that they had a tiny special effects budget............

This is ANIMATED - they can draw anything they want, so WHY would they animate - frame by agonizing frame - people yammering about made up space science and typing on a computer console?? My brain hurts.

And, hey, I only survived the first 5 episodes, so - if this gets awesome - please, PM me and set me straight. But I spent those first 5 episodes wondering how in the butt-bleeding hades a show with a title like "Bodacious Space Pirates" was making me fall asleep!