Archive for the Bodacious Space Pirates Category


Space Pirates of the Minusuka Manga (ミニースカ宇宙海賊)

May 30th, 2013

msspmangaSpace Pirates of the Minusuka Manga (ミニースカ宇宙海賊) is the manga adaptation of the Bodacious Space Pirates anime. As such, it looks, feels and sounds like the work by committee it is.

Adapted from the second novel (or the second arc of the anime), the manga rushes through Marika’s ascendance to captain of a space pirate vessel, instead focusing on the appearance of Princess Gruier Serenity and the search for the  Golden Ghost Ship. Of course a few things are different than the novel and anime.

The story is rushed, and feels cramped as every character is squeezed in, in a way that neither the novel nor the anime had to deal with. Character designs are slightly different – IMHO, slightly blander – than the anime. Misa seems to have taken the brunt of the blow – she’s no longer sexy, slightly camp and up for anything. In the manga, she’s scolding and kind of a downer. Marika has escaped simplification to some extent and maintains her leadership skills, her down-to-earth personality and her ability to make decisions.

When Jenny and Lynn appear, they are draped unnaturally across one another (not really, but they are embracing in an awkward way in public) and Lynn maintains her hold on Jenny throughout. If you didn’t know they were a couple, you’d have to guess that Lynn had some possession issues. ^_^;

Marika throws herself at Chiaki a lot more often than she did in the anime. Which isn’t a bad thing, in and of itself, but it does render Chiaki down from being complex foil for Marika to merely there to being merely tsundere and not much else.

Service is almost non-existent until they get into spacesuits. NOTHING is that skintight. Not even skin. There’s at least one panel that made me shout in imagined agony at the idea of full asscrack-fitting spacesuits. Ow. Ow. Ow.

So, while not as fun as the novel or compelling as the anime, if you desperately want more time with the characters, this is as good a way as any.

Ratings:

Art – 6
Story – 7 (pulled up a point by being an echo of the more fleshed-out story we know)
Characters – 6 Everyone is a shadow of themselves, except Misa, who is completely different
Yuri – On it’s own = 3 Remembered from the anime – 5
Service – Those spacesuits. Ow.

Overall – 6

Sometimes translation isn’t your friend. For the title, they probably should have gone with “Miniskirt Space Pirates” rather than the “Space Pirates of the Minsuka” which they chose. I still prefer “Mouretsu Space Pirates”, or “Fierce Space Pirates”, or they could have stuck with the official English title, “Bodacious Space Pirates.” Gotta give ’em points for creative incomprehensibility, though. ^_^





Bodacious Space Pirates 2 Anime, Disk 2 (English)

April 23rd, 2013

BDSP2BDHere we are, at the final Disk of Bodacious Space Pirates (available on Blu-Ray and DVD) and the only emotion I feel is…total excitement for a fantasic ending with spaceships battling, Marika and her crew kicking ass in a dozen ways – and still being likable the whole time, really predictable plot complications and a hot mess of an ending that made no sense but I didn’t care one bit. ^_^

THIS WAS A FANTASTIC ANIME.

Random things I liked – I love the patchwork look of all the pirate ships. I also loved the creakiness of the Bentenmaru sailing in cosmic storms. It’s a detail that made me happy every time they used it.

I loved the smartness of the plot. The battle plan was clever in a real way, rather than in a “look how clever we are” way.

Above all, what I loved best were the characters. There wasn’t one of the Bentenmaru or Hakuoh crowd I didn’t like and with a cast that big, it’s not that easy to do. Bad guys were bad, but not absurdly bizarre or tiresome.

In the middle of the hot mess of the ending, for no reason at all, except to make us happy, we get a moment of Jenny and Lynn. It was ridiculous, meaningless, had no relationship to the story and I don’t care. And Chiaki gets a Yuri powerup, presumably because fans wanted it.

Ratings:

Art – 7, the CGI looks much better on this disk. Have I gotten used to it? Maybe, I don’t know.
Character – 10
Story – 10
Yuri – 7
Service- 8 Up significantly for the final arc. We had such a nice run there, though

Overall – 10

I’m left wanting to read the rest of the books very badly. And that, above all things, is the sign of a very good anime.





Bodacious Space Pirates 2 Anime, Disk 1 (English)

April 2nd, 2013

BDSP2BDAs the first disk of the second Bodacious Space Pirates collection opens (available on Blu-Ray and DVD), Marika and the girls of the Hakuoh Academy Yacht Club are thrust into a complex and dangerous situation! Oh no!

With the crew of the Bentenmaru quarantined, Marika recruits the Yacht Club members to do some piracy, so the Bentenmaru can maintain its Letter of Marque. Of course the girls are more than up for it and, after a typical piracy gig, they take on an ad hoc project – one that is genuinely dangerous. Jenny Dolittle, former club president, is facing an unwanted marriage as a part of her uncle’s business strategy. Lynn asks Marika if they can ‘kidnap’ her – or, really, prevent her from being kidnapped by her uncle.

This arc rocks in a number of ways and sucks in only one.

Let’s revisit my interpretation of the phrase a “strong female” character. I believe that a “strong” character is a character who takes control of their circumstances, a character that leads, not follows. In this arc Marika, Jenny and Lynn show themselves to be “strong” by my definition. Rather than allowing circumstances to  overwhelm them, they fight back with their brains, their power and their network of allies. A perfect example, IMHO, of female leaders leading.  As a bonus, we are given  a perfect Yuri couple, with *my* kind of service. Jenny makes a lovely princess to Lynn’s prince. ^_^

The only real negative in this arc is the animation. It completely falls to shit just when we might have wanted it to be at its most glorious. To be fair, the CGI is going to go through the roof in upcoming arcs, but darnit, it would have been nice of them to do some touch-up when Jenny and Lynn reunite. :-(

In the following arc, we again see something unusual – a minor character given a chance to shine. Once more we get a female character who is not overwhelmed by her circumstances. Ai shows us that she works hard and is able to retain control through good decision-making skills. A totally worthy conclusion to what is otherwise a silly arc.

There is some fanservice during the Nebula cup arc that may or may not annoy you. To give the creators credit, they”serve” up beefcake as well as more typical moe tropes.

As far as I’m concerned, this disk wins the universe. It has everything I’ve ever wanted in a series all at once. ^_^

Ratings:

Art – 7, but drops to like 3 just when I want it to be a 9. Sigh
Character – 9
Story – 9
Yuri – 9
Service – 6

Overall – 9

Multiple named female characters that speak with each other about lots of things other than a man. Female characters with agency, with society, with smarts and friends and awesome personalities, allowed to shine. Bechdel Test and Friedman Addendum (as proposed here)  passed with flying colors. This series *still* makes my Top List this year.





Light Novel: Miniskirt Space Pirates, Volume 2 Ougon no Yureisen (ミニスカ宇宙海賊 2 黄金の幽霊船)

February 21st, 2013

Miniskirt Space Pirates, Volume 2  Ougon no Yureisen (ミニスカ宇宙海賊 2 黄金の幽霊船) opens with a stowaway on the Bentenmaru and ends with two transfer students into Hakuoh Academy’s Yacht Club. In between is a centuries-old mystery, a gene bank in the form of a golden spaceship, and several space battles, all of which make for a rollicking tale of intrigue and space piracy.

If you are watching the Bodacious Space Pirates anime, this novel is the arc on Disk 2 of Volume 1. Seventh Princess of the Serenity Royal Family, Gruier Serenity, (with an uncanny resemblance to another princess named Serenity,) hides away on the Bentenmaru, in hopes of hiring the pirate ship to assist her in finding the Legendary Gold Spaceship.

Marika befriends the Princess and accepts the commission because who wouldn’t? ^_^

We get to experience Marika’s newfound confidence as Captain of the Bentenmaru and watch her crew rally around her with complete support of her decisions.

Nothing in the novel is significantly different from the anime, right down to the secret underground restaurant at the space relay station where Ririka works. (Or, I should say, if there were differences my Japanese wasn’t up to noticing them.)

The key point of the arc is that Marika has stepped into her father’s shoes and found that they fit rather well. And now we have a Princess or two on our side. ^_^

Ratings:

Overall – 8

Interestingly, this book series is getting links for Kindle versions which don’t yet exist on Amazon JP. I’d love it if they put this series on Kindle, I’d like to see if I could buy the next book that way. I bet there’s region restrictions, though. Oh well, on to Volume 3, however I can get it. ^_^





Bodacious Space Pirates, Anime, Disk 2 (English)

February 17th, 2013

Following on the tail of Disk 1, we reach Disk 2 of Bodacious Space Pirates, on which Marika sets out on her first piracy commission as captain of the Bentenmaru.

The commission starts off lightly, with a request from a Princess of the Serenity household, Gruier, asking the Bentenmaru to track a golden ghost ship, but as the plot progresses, and they confront Serenity battleships, Marika has to face real battles with real consequences for herself and the crew.

The deeper meaning of the Golden Space Ship and the part it plays in Serenity history is presented almost as an afterthought, because this is a space opera and we, like Bentenmaru’s San-Daime, want to see Marika be a cool captain. ^_^

The disk ends on a quiet note, but not really a filler episode, as we’re shown transition in Hakuoh’s Yacht Club and in Ririka’s life, as well as a welcome return to day-to-day life for Marika.

This disk pretty much has it all, adventure, friendship, leadership and other qualities I look for in a story about a “strong female” character.  Bodacious Space Pirates passes what I call the The Friedman Addendum to the Bechdel Test:

Does female character have agency?
Does she have society?
Does she have personality?
Is she merely a female-shaped male hero doing male hero things while being female?

Bodacious Space Pirates passes with flying colors. Marika has agency – she is capable of and given the opportunity to make decisions for herself and others. She has society, the members of the yacht club, and especially her non-space-faring friend, Mami, who wants and needs nothing from her, and who is a very excellent friend.

Marika definitely has personality. We’re shown that and we’re told it. She is quick-witted, hard working, fair, decent, and just evil enough to make a fantastic pirate captain. ^_^

No she does not wear a bodysuit, but the miniskirt would realllllly toe that line except that the anime uses a fair amount of restraint in clothing design and perspective. It’s not that there is no service – the space suits don’t have to be formfitting, for instance, but compared to oh so many other series, the level of service is low.

Available on DVDBlu-Ray or legal online stream for free (region-blocking may apply), Bodacious Space Pirates passes the Bechdel Test, the Friedman Addendum and is a rollicking good yarn. I’m looking forward to the next disks with relish, since I know that, for once, the added “romance” subplot won’t merely be the usual obligatory stuff. ^_^
Ratings:
Art – 7
Character – 9
Story – 9
Yuri – 1…for now
Service – 5Overall – 9

My hypothetical girl child, along with Legend of Korra and kung-fu lessons, gets this series as a present. ^_^