Bodacious Space Pirates: Collection 2 Blu-ray Review
Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman, March 5, 2013
A lot of anime exploit fan service even when the shows themselves don't actually require it, so one would naturally
assume that a series called
Bodacious Space Pirates would be awash in jiggling bosoms, panty shots and other
tricks of this particular trade. In fact this series has resolutely little fan service, and so those who are drawn to its
intimating title might be at least a little disappointed in this relatively chaste fare. Others who couldn't care less
whether or not there is any fan service might still be a bit disappointed by this series, for while it boasts a solid enough
premise (one rather frightfully close to a distaff version of Disney's
Treasure Planet, as was discussed in the
Bodacious Space Pirates: Collection 1
Blu-ray review), the series has a tendency to cram a
lot of information and characters into each and every
episode, which in the early going at least creates some seriously lethargic elements. The first half of the series which
was presented in the first Blu-ray collection got noticeably more streamlined and therefore more effective about halfway
through its set of episodes, and the good news is for the most part this second half of the series continues that
momentum. There's something to be said for getting introductions out of the way and proceeding straight to the
action, and that's largely what's in store in this second arc of episodes. Of course, anyone coming into this second half
without having already gone through the requisite introductions is probably going to be at least a little confused, but
this set of episodes has decidedly fewer of the slow feeling episodes that were a bit of a hindrance to this show—well,
taking flight.
The first half of the series had some fairly interesting developments when our heroine, Marika Kato, had finally taken
command of her deceased father's pirate ship, the Bentenmaru. In fact the final arc of episodes in this first half had a
nicely done story involving a "ghost ship" of sorts that also had a (perhaps unintentional) little swipe at inherited royal
titles. The second half of the series starts off a bit after this adventure, but unfortunately the series goes off on a slight
tangent right out of the gate when a shipment of live animals ends up infecting Marika's crew, leading her to have to
recruit new members. What,
more characters? No—the show ends up porting over Marika's Yacht Club cronies
to
fill the positions.
This in turn leads to a domino effect of sorts over the next episodes as the new yacht club members aren't exactly up to
speed on helping to pilot a spaceship. This includes out and out mistakes which of course lead to various
consequences,
but all of these shenanigans help to highlight one of
Bodacious Space Pirates's none too subtle yet still salient
lessons, namely that friendship can overcome virtually any obstacle. The show repeatedly returns to this motif, with
Marika learning over (and over) that standing by one's friends is at least as important as eking out a supposed
"victory".
There are a number of small arcs that intervene in the middle grouping of episodes. Some of these have decent
enough ideas behind them, as in one that kind of promotes some nascent feminism when a friend of Marika's finds out
she's being married off to deprive her of any intrinsic power (and an inheritance), but others are kind of "one offs" that
are enjoyable enough on their own merits but do little to advance the overall plot or indeed even help to develop
character, as in a rather sitcom-esque episode where the crew gets locked out of the bridge when Marika makes yet
another unintended error.
Things improve dramatically in the final grouping of episodes when a real villain finally enters the picture. The
interesting thing is the villain
appears to have been vanquished, at least initially, but then reappears in an even
deadlier form as the series winds towards it denouement. Also very well handled in this arc is a return to the very
"ghost ship" storyline that started out this set of episodes. There's also a kind of ironic subtext throughout this arc
where Marika and her crew are fighting to sustain the pirate life against formidable outside forces. The irony of course
is that in
Bodacious Space Pirates's formulation, the pirates are the good guys (or gals, as the case may be)
and the outside forces are the villains.
The series continues to offer some very nice animation (though I have to say I was a bit underwhelmed by this second
half's quality in comparison to the first half). The character designs are quite distinctive and the series does a really
nice job of combining an "old fashioned" pirate
ethos with a futuristic approach that is aided and abetted by
some well done melding of 2D and 3D elements. This second half does have its requisite battles which provide a little
visual (and aural) bombast, but
Bodacious Space Pirates is perhaps surprisingly a smaller scale series that
focuses on one girl finding herself in a new role and surrounding herself with loyal allies to help them all thrive in
unexpected circumstances. It's not a new idea or even one which is handled with any great sense of innovation in this
series, but it's still one which bears some occasionally tasty fruit as this series goes where no
woman has ever
gone before.
Bodacious Space Pirates: Collection 2 Blu-ray, Overall Score and Recommendation
Bodacious Space Pirates: Collection 2 has both good and bad points, with the good probably outweighing the bad.
The series has already gotten the most troublesome elements out of the way by the time this second half kicks off, and so
this second half benefits from having relatively well established characters and a plot that's already in full swing. However,
there's also an awful lot of tangential filler that tends to surface in any given episode, a recurrent issue with this series that
at times hobbles it and keeps the story from moving forward with much momentum. The last three or four episodes really
pull everything together pretty well, however, with some nice "call backs" to earlier episodes and a rousing battle finale.
There's nothing really very innovative about any of this, but
Bodacious Space Pirates is an above average series
that manages to deliver a fair amount of entertainment value along with some very nice visuals. This Blu-ray is pretty slight
in the supplements department, but the video and audio are excellent.
Recommended.
